If you're trying to lose weight, you're not alone. It's been estimated that up to one-third of American adults are obese, and the percentage is rising every year. It you're serious about shedding some pounds, a good place to start is with some regular exercise.
It's not hard to lose a few pounds in weight in about 10 days with a little bit of exercise each day. The key here is to get your muscles working, but make sure you do not overdo this. To begin with do about 30 minutes of fast paced exercise each day. You can do activities such as using an exercise bike, jogging, sprinting, jumping jacks or squat thrusts. All you have to do is keep active for 30 minutes a day and make sure that your food intake is high enough to fuel this calorie burn.
The kind of exercise you do really depends on you. What do you like doing? What do you really hate doing? Do you have to fork out membership fees? Do you need someone to exercise with? Do you need to spend money on equipment? These are all things you need to think about and will set you on the right path.
Popular sports such as golf or tennis are a brilliant type of exercise. You can find various social events in many areas and you will probably meet new people whilst you are at it. Tennis is good for getting fit and it's a brilliant game to play with friends but it's not for someone who is just starting out. If you haven't exercised in a long time then you'll probably need to find a sport which is less demanding.
The other critical factor when trying to lose weight is of course your diet. Many people have a horrible addiction to sugar, or worse, artificial sugar (aka high fructose corn syrup). This usually comes from an addiction to something like caffeine. Substitute healthy fresh fruits for high sugar foods. As for beverages, you can substitute colas for water with lemon or lime. You'll still love the flavour, without taking on the negative effects associated with too much sugar.
Another item to look at is your breakfast. It seems counter productive when you get up and eat breakfast and find that you are even hungrier later that morning than usual. But eating more in the morning actually helps cut down hunger for the rest of the day, and evening time is when people are much more likely to eat too much. Eating a substantial healthy breakfast will put you on the right track for the rest of your day.
Making smarter food choices is also key to losing weight. It's a fact that the more vegetables you can eat the more full up you'll feel. Vegetables and fruit contain a lot of elements such as water and fiber, so they will keep you from feeling hungry for some time (although fruit can add a lot of calories when eaten in large amounts--especially dried fruits). Eating foods like pretzels, cookies, candy or soda will give you only immediate satisfaction and you will be craving for more in just about two hours.
In summary, if you make just a few improvements to your diet, cut your total daily intake of calories, and get regular exercise, you'll find yourself losing weight in no time.
