How to Combine Diet and Exercise to Lose Weight

If you are trying to lose weight, you can cut back on your caloric intake. You can also add regular exercise into your daily routine. Both will help you to shed unwanted pounds. However, combing the two together will help you to lose weight even faster. First you need to eat a healthy diet. Then combine this with certain types of exercises that are more beneficial then others for weight loss.

Instructions

1

Understand that this is a lifetime commitment. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isn't about short-term dietary changes. It's about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating, regular physical activity, and balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses." Aim to eat a diet with a wide variety of foods from all of the food groups while staying within your daily calorie allowance. Visit the websites below for the USDA/My Pyramid where you can calculate online your daily caloric needs and how many servings of each food group you need to eat each day. This plan is if you are trying to maintain your current weight.

2

Take in less calories than your burn off. It does not matter whether you are eating carbohydrates, proteins or fats. All excess calories you consume will eventually be stored as fat by the body. One pound of weight is equal to 3,500 calories. So to lose one pound per week, you need to create a daily deficit of 500 calories. If you want to lose two pounds of weight per week, you need a daily deficit of 1000 calories. The National Institute of Health states that a successful weight loss program should involve eating a variety of foods and participating in regular physical activity. Find a plan that you can stick with every day and for the rest of your life to help keep the weight off.

3

Participate in aerobic or cardiovascular exercise such as walking, running, dancing, biking and swimming. According to the American College of Sports Medicine you need to be getting 150 to 200 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week to achieve modest weight loss. You need to do more than 250 minutes per week for clinically significant weight loss. Make your goal to exercise at a moderate intensity level. Talk to a personal trainer or your physician about the right mode and intensity level for your current level of fitness and any health concerns you may have.

4

Exercise hard enough to burn calories. To lose two pounds per week, you should not only cut 500 calories a day from your diet but also exercise enough to burn off 500 calories as well. Using the guidelines from the section above, you should aim for the equivalent of 20 to 35 minutes per day. Breaking up your caloric restriction and exercise into daily needs can make it easier to manage.