Lose Weight by Using Common Sense

According to the advocacy organization Trust for America's Health, an estimated 64% of American adults are overweight, and 32% are obese (worse than overweight).

The problem doesn't stop there; a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association states that even children are packing on the extra pounds, with 17% of children overweight. The host of diseases associated with obesity is legion. And, big surprise, your health care costs skyrocket as you pack on more fat.

To combat this an almost unbelievable number of diets and weight loss fads have emerged. Some have thankfully gone the way of the dodo (like those crazy vibrating belt things) but sadly many are still with us. Today I'm going to pitch a radical new fitness plan, based entirely on common sense. The common sense fitness plan does NOT include Xenical, Adipex, any substance with the side effect of anal leakage, or wacky diets that demonize carbs. It runs entirely on common sense and low cost ways of getting healthy. Finally, I want to point out that all points mentioned below are things that have worked for me in my quest to lose over 25 pounds and keep it off.

The very first step in the common sense fitness plan is to acknowledge why you are fat. As a former fat guy I'm going to come out and say it first. I was fat because I ate too much food and didn't exercise. As a kid I preferred eating a whole bag of nachos and playing video games to even thinking about going outside and as a consequence I wore husky pants.

Basically, you are overweight because you eat more calories than you burn in a day. Humans evolved in an environment where food was not always plentiful so storing excess calories as fat helped our ancestors survive. But now we live in a world where calories are in abundance so what used to be an evolutionary advantage is now a detriment. Now that you know what's going on you can work to correct things. The common sense fitness plan attacks both problems at once. It works to reduce your daily caloric intake while at the same time increasing your daily caloric expenditure. The net result, weight loss and a firmer trimmer you. To begin with you need to set some realistic goals.

Goals and Expectations
The most important part in crafting any kind of diet and exercise plan is establishing some realistic goals and expectations to help you gauge your progress. You will not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Scarlet Johansen after a week. As much as we all want washboard abs and, if you're a guy bulging biceps, the reality is that we aren't going to get them easily. Does that mean that we will never get them? No, certainly not. Only hard work over a long period of time gets you looking like that. Genetics, personal trainers, dieticians, plastic surgery and steroids help too. Does this mean you should throw in the towel and give up? Hell no. Why?

Because if you follow the common sense fitness plan you WILL look better than you do now. With that in mind lets establish some realistic goals. First of all your goal should be to get your body fat percentage into the normal healthy range. According to FitWatch.com for men the healthy range is 6-17% and for women it's 16-24%.

Once you get into the healthy range the rules start to change a bit and it will become harder for people to lose weight. Second, when you're losing weight the common sense way you'll want to aim for losing 1-2 pounds per week. Anything more just isn't healthy and you'll probably wind up gaining it back in a few weeks. Your body just doesn't like rapid changes. Slow and steady wins the race. After all, it took you a long time to gain the weight; it's going to take you a while to lose it. Third, you want to monitor your progress. Break out the scale, weigh yourself and write down that number.

Once a week, in the morning before you eat, weigh yourself again and write it down. This way you can track your progress. If you can, get a body fat percentage analysis as well. Many gyms will do this for free and certain scales can compute this for you. You should get a body fat percentage every 3-4 months since it changes more slowly than weight. Fourth, set small goals for yourself. Saying "I'm going to lose 60 pounds." is great, but it's also such a large figure as to easily discourage you. Try saying "I'm going to lose 10 pounds" then once you've lost it, go for another 10.

One major idea behind the common sense fitness plan is that you want to do spend more days living healthy than not. With that in mind it's important to realize that you will stumble along your way to a healthier you. It's best to face up to reality now. No one can adhere to any diet and exercise plan perfectly. And that's okay; it's not the end of the world. Sometimes you won't get to the gym or some days you'll overeat but that's fine. What you are going for is to stick to the plan, on average, for most of the time.

Diet
The first part of the common sense fitness plan focuses on having and maintaining a proper diet. It's important to clarify that diet does not mean starvation. Starvation is bad and your body will not respond well to it. Moderation is the key. You should reduce the amount of calories you eat per day but you will not starve yourself. The amount of calories an individual needs varies widely based on their genetics, basal metabolism and normal activity level. Rather than guessing how many calories you think you should be eating, start by logging everything you eat for a week. That way you will have some idea of how many calories you are getting per day. Then try to reduce that number by 250 wait a few weeks and see if you start losing weight. If you don't, try to reduce your caloric intake by another 250 calories. Repeat as necessary.

Once you've reduced your daily caloric intake to the point where you are beginning to lose weight try to implement these other dietary changes. Start doing them slowly adding one every week or two.

Divide calories equally between meals - try to eat the same amount of calories for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Too many people load all of their calories up at dinner and just skip breakfast outright. Many people advocate eating 5-6 small meals per day and to be honest that is a better idea. However, most schedules don't allow that. So if your schedule is built around three meals per day, make those meals equal.

Limit alcohol intake - I love booze as much as the next person, but the fact is alcohol is just empty calories, the less you drink the more weight you can lose.

Drink lots of water - try to drink at least 8 cups of water a day. Keeping yourself properly hydrated will raise your energy level and help you lose weight.

Cut out foods with over 50% of their calories coming from fat - The last thing your need in your diet is more fat. Check the label. If more than 50% of the calories in a food are coming from fat find another option.

Exercise
The second part of the common sense fitness plan focuses on getting you to burn more calories per day. The easiest way to burn more calories is to exercise and when it comes to exercising for weight loss, cardio is king. Try to do 30 minutes of cardio per day four times per week. If you can't do 30 minutes, that's okay, do what you can and work your way up. The 'best' cardio routine is the one you will stick to. Running, biking, cross-country ski machines are all options. Get on them, try them out and find out which one you like the most. Or mix it up and do a different one each day. Along similar lines, the 'best' time of day to workout is whatever time you can.

Weight training helps you build muscle, which does two things for you. First, your basal metabolism increases as your muscle mass increases. This means that your body has to burn even more calories per day for just existing. Second, you muscles get built up and toned, which makes you look good. Proper weight training is another whole topic in and of itself. That doesn't mean you should avoid it. Focus on working out core muscle groups and on keeping the workout short. The objective is to work your muscles to fatigue so that they are stimulated to grow, not to spend record amounts of time in the weight room. If you have a gym membership see if the staff can help you design a program. Otherwise, the Internet has many excellent resources that can help get you started.

Attention ladies, do not neglect weight training. Too many women avoid weight training because they think it's going to make them look manly. That just isn't the case. Those masculine girls you see in bodybuilding competitions got that way through a hardcore regime of diet and exercise combined with good genetics. For the average woman weight training will help them to become fit and toned, not turn them into a freak of nature.

Last and certainly not least is stretching. Flexibility is important regardless of whether you are doing cardio, weights or both. While being able to touch your toes is not going to help you lose weight, it helps you avoid future exercise or work related injuries.

Conclusion
If you follow through with the common sense fitness plan you will lose weight, build muscle, be more energetic, look better and feel better about yourself. All it takes is commitment and the patients to see it through to the end.

Sources

http://www.fitwatch.com/qkcalc/body-fat-percentage-calculator.php
http://healthyamericans.org/newsroom/releases/release082305.pdf
Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM (2006). "Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004". JAMA 295 (13): 1549-55.