5 Weight-Loss Rules

[Texasmujer]

If you want your weight loss resolutions to come true this year, follow the methods for success offered by a German study. People who lost weight and kept it off for at least a year followed these five rules:
1. Sit down to eat.
2. Stick to shopping lists.
3. Limit chocolate to two candy bars a week.
4. Find a way to ease stress.
5. Exercise regularly.

[Babz]

Another good one is to never go shopping when hungry as the tempation to buy
the wrong foods is high !!

Whats a shopping list...lolololol

[ANDY-J3]

The most important of those points is number five. If you burn up calories through regular vigorous exercise you won't put weight on so your main resolution should be to keep active.

[HollyElise]

I think my rules would be a little different:

1) Exercise every day, including challenging your heart and endurance (aerobic), challenging your muscles (such as in weight training) and challenging your limberness (streching, yoga, etc.).

2) Drink lots of water. I try to drink 3 liters a day.

3) Eat healthy food first. By this i mean, i can eat whatever i like (no foods are banned) but i MUST eat healthy food first.... vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean meat in moderation, nuts, etc.

4) Eat a little healthy food every four hours.

Easing stress and sticking to shopping lists are great suggestions, too. The way i've found my rules 2, 3, & 4 to work together is they help maintain even blood sugar, fill me up, and greatly reduce cravings for sweets and fatty junk foods. It also avoids my feeling like i have to deny myself what i want... forced discipline always seems to backfire into quitting. If on the other hand you fill up with healthy food every four hours, you'll be amazed how your desire for junk foods will diminish. Sometimes you will want cake, but after healthy food, you won't eat cake often or as much! Your body gets the food it needs to build muscle and resist disease, and it enjoys the healthy food better and better.

[A_B_laben]

Certainly, burning more calories than you take in is the 'way' to lose weight. However, equally important is the rate at which you lose weight. People should aim to lose (or gain for that matter) no more than 1 pound per week. Crash dieting causes the body to use up glycogen (source of instant energy) which is bound in lean material (muscle and liver) by water. Therefore, if you crash diet, you use up glycogen which releases water which you excrete giving you the false impression that you have lost many pounds of weight, when all it is is water. When you then eat normally again, the water piles back on and so does the weight.

[Polwarth]

The last post (before yours!) was over a year ago. I don't think you will stimulate much debate after all this time

[Texasmujer]

That comment is ridiculous!! ONE of the 'nice things' regarding the internet is the relative "timelessness" of it all!! So...IF a responder wants to have an exchange regarding a thread from awhile back...then, so be it.

Apparently, this thread beckons at this time---

By the way---it's nice to "be back"---I've been running from hurricanes for awhile now; the survivors of the disaster (the tsunami) in Indonesia have my respect and sympathy for all they've been through.