Weight loss
is not rocket science! Nevertheless, every time you put on extra kilos,
shedding them looks tough, doesn’t it? Well, actually not; weight management is
easy if you get the basics right.
The long and short of it
You’ve heard
this one before – you are what you eat. What you may not know is the caveat to
this – you are how you use your food as well! To maintain your weight, the
amount of calories that you consume daily must be equal to the energy you
expend; or, in other words, you must use up your food calories through work and
working out. When people gain weight, they are either
(a) eating too many calories, or (b)
burning too few calories.
You flip
that statement and there you have it – the key to weight loss – consume fewer
calories and/or burn more calories. Really, it is as simple as that.
Quick calculator
Here is how
it works: 7000 calories equals 1 kilogram of fat. So if you cut back 500
calories a day, you can lose a kilo of weight in a fortnight. Add some exercise
to your routine, say an hour-long brisk walk daily, and you can lose that much
weight in only a week!
That being said, there are certain short cuts
you can take to hasten this process. For example, it pays to know what types of
exercise will melt off those pounds faster or what foods will boost your
metabolism (i.e., help you burn more calories).
Interval training
You can
hasten weight loss by introducing short bursts of high intensity in your
exercise routine. Dr Boutcher at the University of New South Wales found that
people who engaged in only 8 seconds of sprinting alternated with 12 seconds of
light cycling for a total of 20 minutes reduced three times as much weight as
their counterparts who exercised on the bike for a total of 40 minutes. Dr
Boutcher says that interval training burns more fat by producing chemicals
called catecholamines in your body during the higher intensity bouts of
exercise.
Blasting belly flab
You lose
weight on your tummy, and all of a sudden you look thinner and more compact!
Researchers at the Reina Sofia University Hospital found that when you eat more
monounsaturated fats or MUFAs, you tend to accumulate less belly fat, even
without additional exercise. So it makes sense to use oils rich in MUFAs such
as groundnut, mustard, canola or olive oils in your cooking. Eat a handful of
nuts or seeds such as peanuts, almonds, pistas or roasted pumpkin seeds instead
of biscuits or namkeen as snacks. Other sources of MUFA are olives and
avocados.
Lifestyle changes
So you’ve
exercised for 30 minutes in the morning and now you think you can relax the
rest of the day? Think again. Get more active during the day. Take the stairs
instead of the elevator, walk to work, get up and stretch during a commercial
break while watching TV – all of these small changes will add up in
contributing towards shedding weight.
by onlinekhobor.com
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