Tips for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off

   1.    Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is important for your overall health and   well-being.

  2.  If you are significantly overweight, you have a greater risk of developing many diseases or conditions, including high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, stroke, and some forms of cancer.

  3.  For obese adults, even losing a few pounds (such as 5-10% of your body weight) or preventing further weight gain has health benefits.

   4. Consuming fewer calories than expended will result in weight loss. This can be achieved over time by eating fewer calories, being more physically active or, best of all, a combination of the two.

Learn Your BMI and Set a Weight Goal:

• You just learned how to determine your BMI and your weight status category.

• A weight goal needs to be reasonable. If you want to lose weight, start with a goal of

   5–10% of your current weight. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, that would mean losing about 7–15 pounds. Make sure to talk to your doctor as well.

Eat Less:

You know you need to eat less to lose weight. Some people give up sugary desserts to help lower calories. Others find measuring their foods and watching portions is the key. Often, making just a few changes can help with weight loss.

• Calorie balance over time is the key to weight management.

• Eat smaller portions. Try using smaller plates for dinner.

• Choose low-calorie snacks. Try foods such as fruits, vegetables, air-popped popcorn, fat-free yogurt, hummus, and almonds.

• Watch your intake of sugary and high-fat desserts—they can add a lot of extra calories and fats.

• Limit foods high in solid fats, such as butter/stick margarine, regular cheese, fatty meats, and French fries fried in oil.

• Drink more water and fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk and less regular soda, sports drinks, energy drinks, and fruit drinks.

Keep Track of What You Are Eating:

Studies show that tracking all your meals, snacks, and drinks can help weight loss. Keeping track will give you an idea of your eating patterns. It also can help you see areas where you are doing well and areas where you could improve. For example, are you snacking too much in the evening?

• Keep track of what you eat for 3 or more days to get an idea of how many calories you are eating and drinking each day.

• The amount of calories you need varies depending on how active you are. See the Daily Calorie Needs handout to learn about your body’s estimated calorie requirements.

• Weighing yourself regularly can help you determine whether you are eating the amount of calories that your body needs. If your weight is going up, cutting back on the amount of calories you are eating each day can help you lose weight.

Add Activity Every Day:

• The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that everyone engage in regular physical activity for health benefits.

Staying physically active can help you arrive and stay at a healthy weight. It makes sense—staying active helps you burn up some of the calories from foods. Most of us don’t get enough activity to make up for what we eat.