Losing Weight Safely

Losing weight may be a good idea if your Doctor has told you to, but many of the fad diets that abound on the Internet, for example, may well do you more harm than good!  If you read that eating carrot soup daily for 15 days will remove X amount of pounds, that may well be true, however, you will have cut out everything else other than carrots that keep you healthy.

Your body needs all the complex carbohydrates it can get as well as proteins, since complex carbohydrates are what you body burns to have energy. Proteins build up the tissues in our body by maintaining them as well as replacing them as needed. For instance proteins help your body to maintain body organs, blood, bones and even muscles.

If you do without complex carbohydrates and proteins, you body quickly begins to suffer. It is said that you need 1 single gram of protein for every two pounds you currently weigh in order to stay healthy. Protein rich foods include peanut butter, low fat milk, most cheeses, chicken and eggs.

In order to lose weight safely you will also have to make sure that you eat a balanced diet. Following the food pyramid is an excellent way to be sure you eat a balanced diet. The pyramid is broken up into six important parts, and it uses colors to represent the many food groups within the pyramid. For instance, purple includes nuts, fish, beans and meat, blue includes dairy products including milk, yellow stands for oils and fats, red is for fruits, green for vegetables, and finally orange is for grains. The pyramid also shows different sized bands on it, so that for instance you are directed to eat less meat than the other groups.

Because the pyramid will be making sure that you eat healthy foods, your body will slowly adapt to the new diet, and in so doing you will gradually begin to notice that you are losing weight, as long as you exercise. Thus, this is how to safely lose weight, since depriving your body of one of the necessities to keep your body working will be harmful.

At first focus on changing your food habits, and do not bother with grams. Because your body needs less calories in relation to how much exercise you expend, eventually you will have to consider reducing the portions you eat, but again, do this slowly, allowing your body to adapt.

Be sure to stay hydrated. Scientists have said that basically our bodies are composed of 65% water! We need water and liquids to maintain every system in our bodies. The 8 glasses comprising of 8 ounces of liquid a day is easy to remember, and probably will maintain your body properly.  When seeking to lose weight safely, water figures heavily into the equation.

The reason why water is recommended for weight loss is that water makes your kidneys function properly. If they do not function properly the liver assists. But the liver is what the body uses to metabolize fat, thus anything that takes away from the liver’s efficacy is detrimental to losing weight safely.