Beware Of Unhealthy Weight Loss Tips

Looking for information on how to lose weight should not be a problem. There's an abundance of articles, books, websites, etc. giving various tips and advice on how to shed the excess pounds. On the other hand, that just may be the trouble - some of those weight loss tips may not only be worthless, but worse, could even be unhealthy and dangerous. Do some research and make sure that the weight-loss techniques you're hearing or reading about are sound and will not turn out to be counterproductive.

For example, there are some self-proclaimed experts who advocate practically starving oneself. This is taking a too simplistic view on weight loss: if eating a lot makes people fat, starving themselves should be the obvious solution to losing weight. Cutting down food intake drastically may work for a few days, and you lose fat with practically no effort. Unfortunately this is a dangerous proposition. Eating well below your body's minimum caloric requirement will put your body in the starvation mode: it lowers your metabolic rate so that it can conserve energy. When you start eating more, your metabolic rate will be very sluggish, and much of what you eat won't be utilized for energy but will get stored as fat. You're likely to end up with more weight than ever.

The safe and effective alternative is to eat frequently - five to six small meals spread throughout the day. This has been proven to be very effective in many studies. It goes without saying that you should choose the right kinds of food too: fruits and vegetables, starchy foods (complex carbs), high-fiber foods, lean meat, just a little fat. The total amount of food should be the same as if you had only your usual two or three meals. How does this make you lose weight? Since you'll be eating at about four-hour intervals, the frequency will give your body a consistent supply of nutrients and you will hardly experience any food cravings. This will keep your metabolism going steadily the whole day. Also, with the smaller portions, metabolism will be faster and more efficient.

Speeding up your metabolic rate is the key to effective weight reduction. This is one of the reasons why we exercise: the intense activity revs up our metabolic rate causing it to burn more fat. There you have it: eat the right kinds of food in five or six meals in the course of a day. If you add an exercise regimen, you should see astonishing results quickly.

Having to prepare five to six meals may entail some difficulty, but then the in-between meals are simply snacks, not full meals - otherwise you will be defeating the purpose of having more meals. You need to discipline yourself in terms of limiting the amount of food you eat. You may have an apple with a little low-fat cheese, or whole wheat crackers, or a salad of fresh greens and tomatoes. You'll probably end up eating a lot of salad, but that's all right. Just skip the greasy dressing and croutons.