how to lose weight

1. You Might Be Gaining Weight Because of Lack of Sleep
The body functions best when well rested. “When you don’t get enough sleep, your body experiences physiological stress and, biochemically, you store fat more efficiently,” says May.
When you’re tired, you also don’t handle stress as well, so you may reach for food as a coping mechanism. Further, you may be taking in extra calories from late-night snacking. Some people think eating might help them get back to sleep, but all it really does is add more calories to their daily total.
Symptoms that you may not be getting enough rest include fatigue, low energy levels, nodding off easily, and feeling irritable.
Strive to get eight hours of sleep each night.
“Add about 15 minutes to your bedtime and see how you feel,” suggests May. “Continue to experiment with additional 15-minute increments until you find the amount of sleep that is right for you.”
When you develop good sleeping rituals and get regular exercise, you sleep better, she adds.
2. You May Be Gaining Weight Because of Stress
We live in a society that demands we do more, be more, and achieve more. Stress moves us forward and helps cope with life’s demands, but it also affects our mood and emotions.
“Stress response, whether it is ‘fight-or-flight,’ juggling too many responsibilities, or coping with financial pressures, triggers a biochemical process where our bodies go into survival mode,” explains May. “Our bodies store fuel, slow down metabolism, and dump out chemicals [cortisol, leptin, and other hormones] which are more likely to cause obesity in the abdominal region.”
Many people reach for food to help ease the stress. But, of course, this doesn’t work in the long run.
“Food is a temporary fix because it does not deal with the real stressors that must be addressed in order to reduce the trigger for eating and fix the problem,” says May.
Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, says stress eaters tend to prefer high-carbohydrate foods because these foods trigger an increase in the brain chemical serotonin, which has a calming effect. “It is almost like self-medicating,” she says. “Many people binge on starchy foods to make themselves feel better.”
Both May and Bowerman recommend relaxation techniques as well as exercise, which also burns calories and provides other health benefits.
3. You May Be Gaining Weight Because of Medications
Some prescription drugs used to treat depression, mood disorders, seizures, migraines, blood pressure, and diabetes can cause weight gain, from a modest amount to as much as 10 pounds per month. Some steroids, hormone replacement therapy, and even oral contraceptives may also cause gradual weight creep. Your medicine cabinet might be the cause of your weight gain if you’ve gained 5 or more pounds in a month without a change in your lifestyle.
“Every drug works a little differently to cause weight gain, from increasing appetite, altering the way fat is stored, to how insulin levels change,” says May. “And not all drugs have the same side effects on all people.”
In the case of antidepressants, weight gain may not even be related to the action of the drug — feeling better can also result in a heartier appetite. Some drugs can cause fluid retention that shows up on the scale as weight gain, but is not fat, and is usually easily corrected.
There could be very serious consequences if you stop taking your medication without consulting your physician,” says May.
4. You May Be Gaining Weight Because of a Medical Condition
The most common medical condition that causes weight gain is hypothyroidism. A deficiency of thyroid hormone can decrease metabolism, causing appetite loss and weight gain.
If you are feeling fatigued, lethargic, swelling, hoarse voice, intolerance to cold, sleeping too much, or headaches, you should see your doctor for an easy test to determine if you have hypothyroidism,” says May.
Much rarer is a condition known as Cushing’s syndrome — a disorder caused by an excess of the hormone cortisol — that can also result in weight gain.
5. You May Be Gaining Weight Because of Menopause
Women reach menopause at a range of ages, but most are in midlife and are often less physically active than when they were younger. Along with aging comes a natural slowing of metabolism. At the same time, hormonal changes can trigger hunger, depression, and poor sleep.
It is multifactoral. When women go through menopause, they lose estrogen, causing their shapes to change — usually a loss of hip and thigh weight. And they start to gain more in the middle,” says Bowerman. She explains that estrogen favors fat deposition in the lower body, and when you lose this hormone, fat is more likely to be deposited in the midsection (much like men). This spare tire around the middle has been not so affectionately called the “menopot.”
The key to avoiding this extra belly fat is to maintain and increase the amount of lean body mass, which will, in turn, increase your metabolism or calorie burn rate.
Women need to understand how critically important weight lifting and strength training is to their health,” says Bowerman. And don’t worry, doing strength training won’t make women muscle-bound, experts say.
Exercise also helps offset bone loss that can come with menopause. A combination of exercise and a healthy, calorie-controlled diet rich in calcium and vitamin D is the answer to thwarting menopausal weight gain.

Following are the foods which will scrape oil to help loss weight.

Corn: it rich in phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, vitamin, carotene, fibre, etc. Often eating corn can reduce cholesterol and soften blood vessels, it also can adjuvant treatment for cholecystitis, gallstones and diabetes.

Onion garlic: onion almost no fat, it can inhibit high-fat diet-induced cholesterol rising, help to improve atherosclerosis. Garlic can lower total serum cholesterol, secondary metabolites methacrylamide trisulfide of allicin can prevent thrombus.

Sweet potato: It is good low-fat and low calorie food. It can effectively prevent the sugars into fat, conducive to weight loss, body building, prevent sub-health and bowel detoxification. Especially it has a good effect of the elderly constipation.

Hawthorn: It can reduce cholesterol of the blood, promote fat metabolism. It also can strengthen and regulate the heart, increase atrial motion amplitude and coronary blood flow.

1. We Love Chocolate – and It Makes Us Pay The Price

Yeah, we’ll just go ahead and throw this one out here first because it’s the one unfortunate reason why we gain weight we’re not going to care to change, right? There is a never-ending love story between woman and chocolate that is too romantic to ever break up. Face it, ladies, we need chocolate! It’s a fact of life. Ok, don’t indulge to the point of making yourself sick on it, but nibbling here and there is 100% acceptable!

2.  Bad Enough as It Is, Menopause Also Makes Us Gain Weight

Menopouse is another unfortunate reason why women gain weight faster than men do.  We’re all going to go through it at some point in our lives. It’s a fact of life. However, you don’t have to let the weight gain take over. As you near menopause, simply start keeping track of your diet and make the needed changes to eat more healthy meals. Also, a healthy, regular exercise plan, such as daily walking would be a great benefit as well.

3. Slower Metabolism Makes Us Gain Weight Faster Than Men

For some reason, God created woman with a much slower metabolism rate than a man. Maybe it’s because a woman needs more to nourish a growing baby inside her, or maybe it’s just because he intended for women to be more soft and cuddly than man. LOL! I don’t know why, but it’s a fact. One thing that will help speed up your metabolism is to take vitamins and minerals that aid in metabolism. One such vitamin is niacin, which you can find at your local supermarket or health food store. Just take it with every meal!

4. Skipping Breakfast Makes Us Pile Up Those Pounds

From what I’ve personally seen, skipping breakfast is an unfortunate reason why many women start gaining weight fast.  We, women are more apt to skip breakfast, due to our never-ending duties of getting the kids ready for school, getting everything we need to do lined up for the day, doing this for Jr. and this for Susie… next thing you know, it’s lunch time! Studies show that by simply adding a healthy breakfast meal to your day, you can lose some weight!  Why is this? Because the earlier we start out metabolism working, the more calories we’ll burn.

5. “Less Muscle – More Fat” is Another Reason of Putting on Weight

The average woman tends to be much less physically active than the average man (though, yes, there are some exceptions.) Less muscle mass means more fat content. To change the stats, simply build more muscle with a good exercise routine. As you build muscle, you will burn calories, which will in turn, cut your fat. Plus, you’ll get the added benefit of trimming and firming up your figure!  Now, this reason why women gain weight fast seems fixable, but it’ll take a lot of hard work and consistency to get through.

6. Kitchen Work Can Make you Gain Weight Too

If you’re like most women, one of the reasons why you are gaining weight can be the fact that you’re in the kitchen much more frequently than a man. We tend to be the ones responsible for putting lunches together and cooking (and taste-testing) the supper meal. In order to cut down the amount of kitchen time to lower your temptations, try working out something with your spouse to share the kitchen workload. After all, men can be great cooks as well! Why not your husband? Who says he’s any different than your famous (male) chef you enjoy watching on TV? You’ll never know until you put him to work!  So, eliminate this nasty reason that makes you gain weight fast by talking to your other half.

7. Women Gain Weight Fast because of … Cravings

The only time I’ve ever heard a man talk about cravings would be those rare occasions where the man is actually the one craving things when his wife is pregnant. For the most part, it’s a woman who tends to have cravings, and when you think about it, the cravings are never for healthy things. Ice cream, chocolate (which is one great thing to crave!) this sweet, that carb, etc. While I personally believe you should give into your cravings to avoid giving in later and totally ruining your diet, you should take care to eat just enough to satisfy and not over-indulge your body’s struggle with the good foods in life. Being pregnant, one of my recent cravings was salt and vinegar chips, and I ended up eating the entire can of pringles in one 2-hour period! That is definitely not something I want to keep up, that’s for sure!  But what a woman’s got to do?  Cravings are just one of those unfortunate reasons why we women gain weight fast.  And you really need to have a super-woman self-control to eliminate this weight gain reason!

We women have it much more tough than men do, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t beat theseunfortunate reasons why women gain weight fast and keep ourselves trim and fit. Just pay attention to the 7 Reasons Why Women Can Gain Weight Fast and try to avoid these situations as much as possible. If you have any hints or tips to help your fellow women out, please feel free to leave us a comment! We love to hear from our readers – any tricks to stop gaining weight you personally loved!

Realistic ways to lose weight may take willpower and determination, but your efforts will be rewarded in a slimmer figure for the long run.

Reduce Calories

Weight control is about calories in versus calories out. Eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight. There is no magic formula to get around the need to reduce calories to prompt weight loss. Harvard researchers conducted a study comparing four different diets that called for various ratios of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Their findings, published in a February 2009 issue of the “New England Journal of Medicine,” confirmed that any diet helped people lose weight as long the participants restricted their calories. If having a specific diet to follow helps you adhere to your plan, choose one that appeals to you in terms of eating patterns and food choices. Be sure to select a diet that still provides a minimum of 1,200 calories if you are a woman or 1,500 if you are a man — the lowest amount of daily calories recommended by the National Institutes of Health.

Increase Physical Activity

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asserts that achieving a health weight requires physical activity and a healthy eating plan. Physical activity helps contribute to your daily calorie burn, making it easier to create a gap between calories burned and calories consumed. You do not have to belong to a gym to exercise — take a walk or outfit your own mini-home gym with hand weights, a jump rope and an exercise ball. If you do not realistically think you can fit exercise into a busy schedule, try splitting it up into mini-bouts. Go for two 15-minute walks during the day, jump rope in the evening during television commercials or meet your friends for a hike rather than dinner.

Eat Breakfast

Skipping meals can cause you to eat too much at your next meal because of extreme hunger. Simply adding breakfast every day will help you jump-start your metabolism and establish good eating habits for the day. Over 70 percent of the 5,000 members of the National Weight Control Registry — people who have lost and maintained an average of66 lb. — report eating breakfast every day as part of their weight control regimen. You can realistically add breakfast to your day — even if you do not have time to cook. Eat a bowl of whole grain cereal, a banana and low-fat milk. Have a peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread or grab a string cheese, an apple and a handful of almonds. Choosing a breakfast that includes protein and whole grains can help you stay full longer than a breakfast of refined flours and excessive sugar.

Choose Whole Foods

Focus on eating whole foods that are close to nature. Choose lean proteins, low-fat dairy, plant-based fats and produce for most of your meals. Foods that have undergone a lot of processing — such as energy bars, frozen dinners and snack foods like chips or crackers — tend to have excess sodium, refined flours, saturated fat and added sugars. Cooking more at home will help you stick to healthy ingredients and control your calorie intake. If time pressures prevent you from preparing healthy meals every night, try cooking extras when you do have time and saving them for later in the week.

It’s a common misconception that in order to lose weight you need to give up all of your favorite foods and suffer constant feelings of hunger. Trying to lose weight like this will take every last drop of your willpower and as soon as you have a bad day, you will start struggling to carry on. Of course, you may prevail, but most of the times, you’ll just go back to the old habits. Don’t despair, though, it is possible to lose weight without losing the plot, just follow the tips below.

Alter Your Thinking. Telling yourself you are going on a diet is like telling yourself you are about to be deprived. This feeling of deprivation leads to negative thought patterns and the whole diet can feel depressing. Instead, tell yourself nothing is off-limits; you are just going to be eating healthily from now on. It is important to let yourself know that you always have a choice and can always eat whatever you want, but you choose not to in order to become more fit, lose weight or do another thing that you want. The feeling of freedom itself is enough. Once you realize you can still eat out and enjoy treats, it won’t feel like such a hard slog.

Focus On Enjoying Your Food. You should still be able to eat most of the meals you enjoy. Instead of focusing on eating food because you’re hungry or because you’re eager to get back to whatever you were doing before, take the time to actually enjoy the food you’re eating. Eat slowly, and feel every single of the various tastes of the food. This can make the experience more enjoyable while giving your stomach time to process the food and get rid of the acute feeling of hunger.

Experiment with food swaps. You could also try to add low fat yogurt to that dish instead of cream and still get the same consistency. The trick is to revisit the recipe and make it healthier than before. Reduce the volume of high calorie items on your plate and add more vegetables to close the gap. Swap anything with fat – products like cheese or milk – for a lower fat variety. There are a lot of healthier or less fatty ingredients that can be used as alternatives in most foods, without you feeling the difference in taste.

If you’re going on a diet, you really don’t have to torture yourself. It can be done in a soft and easy way if you use the right approach. Use the advice in this article to start losing weight, felling good and enjoying all the foods you want at the same time!

Being overweight or obese can lead to many problems but one and it is always better to be aware of these problems. From high cholesterol to high blood pressure, a lot of things can turn out to be outcomes of excess weight. Once you are aware of these, you might get motivated to reduce your weight as soon as possible. Working out also helps in making your body stronger than before and you feel refreshed all the time.

People close to you also play a very important role when it comes to motivating someone to lose weight. Imagine tomorrow your boyfriend or girlfriend comes up to you and says you’ve lost some weight and look great. Wouldn’t you keep at it? A little bit of appreciation is all it takes at times. Similarly, a partner at the gym is also a great idea. Working out together is fun. You can also go swimming and cycling together. You can motivate each other especially when there are signs of slowing down or deviating from the path chosen.

This is the best tip I can give you if you want to know how to motivate yourself to lose weight. Shopping!!! Yes, this can really motivate you to lose more weight than you already have. Once you go shopping and pick up sizes that never fit you before, you’re going to feel like going a little bit further and losing some more weight, so that in near future, you can wear what you shopped for. Everyone loves to live inside a toned body. Once you get used to losing weight, you’ll want to lose more with time. A great body also gives you great confidence and those compliments sure are addictive.

Read stuff on the Internet and in fitness magazines. There are some amazing inspirational stories there. These stories revolve around people who have lost weight after coming across something that motivated them to do so. You never know which of them will get you started. Reading one of these can be all the motivation you need. There are many portals on the Internet where people share what they did to reduce weight and how it worked for them. These success stories inspire us as well.

Visit a instructor soon. Instructors at the gym and at fitness centers can give you some valuable information. They tell you how to get motivated to lose weight quickly as this is a part of their job. They can offer some amazing techniques including a regime that might help you lose weight real fast. On the other hand, they also encourage you to keep at it and thus, motivate you in the process. If you find it difficult to hit the gym everyday in spite of having the membership, hire a personal trainer.

Trust me, but a timetable can work wonders. Yes, prepare a timetable and it might just be the thing you need. A timetable will keep a check on what you did today and what you missed out on. Also keep your diet in the records. The day you think you have eaten a lot, highlight that day in red. See how many days you can go without getting a red on your timetable. This is just an option. There are many ways in which you can design your own timetable to suit your needs.

These were some tips that might help you to motivate yourself the next time you take losing weight in your hands and try to do something about it. Remember that the motivation to lose weight should come from within for it to be most effective. Of course, what people say does matter but it also adds to stress at times, doesn’t it? So think of a date and start working out from that day

The trend towards being overweight comes from larger portion sizes, more saturated fat and an increasing sedentary lifestyle. Losing weight will bring a host of  health benefits to you.

Blood Pressure

Perhaps the quickest benefit you will receive from any sort of weight loss is the decrease in blood pressure. The National Health Institute states that there is consistent evidence that weight loss due to lifestyle change will lower blood pressure. High blood pressure can put you at risk for myriad diseases, including heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. As you lose weight, the blood in your body will flow easier, which makes every part of your body healthier.

Cholesterol

According to the American Heart Association, obesity raises blood cholesterol and lowers your HDL, good cholesterol. Cholesterol is a substance in your veins that can cause problems with your cardiovascular system leading to heart attack and stroke. By reducing your weight, you lower your risk of these cholesterol-related heart problems.

Cancer

Being overweight can increase of risk for some cancers. According to the National Cancer Society, being overweight or obese can contribute to getting colon, breast, endometrium, kidney or esophageal cancers. In 2002, over 3 percent of all new cancer cases were related to obesity. As your weight increases, so does your risk for these types of cancers.

Diabetes

When you are overweight your body can no longer easily control its blood sugar production which can lead to diabetes. When you have diabetes, your body does not produce the right levels of insulin to keep your blood sugar at an acceptable level. This can lead to stroke, blindness or loss of limbs. If you are overweight and do not have diabetes, losing weight can reduce your diabetes risk. If you are already affected by diabetes, weight loss can help you control the disease.

Sleep Apnea

Obesity can also lead to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition where the a person stops breathing for more than 10 seconds while he are asleep. Not only does this lead to transient awakening up to hundreds of times during the night, it can also lead to heart attack and stroke. Most treatments for sleep apnea require a weight reduction in order to to free up stress on the body.

Here’s how to overcome the challenge of motivating yourself and finding a routine that works for you.

1. Know How Many Calories You Need to Lose Weight

Knowing how much you need to eat is crucial in determining whether a specific weight loss system will work for you. If you are considering a system that has a preset number of calories that everyone in the program will eat, then the program is not healthy. While many factors go into determining your exact caloric intake needs, a basic way is to take your weight and multiply by 14. Now subtract 5-10% and this is your target weight loss caloric intake.

2. Look Online for Weight Loss Support Groups and Website

There are many of these weight loss support sources, and it’s important to look through all of them. Check out some of the cool blogs people have started to document their weight loss. Weight loss support is a big theme in the weight loss blogging world, and you might want to consider starting your own weight loss blog.

3. Once You Chosen Your System, Put It Into Action!

Follow the directions and do not deviate or your risk failing and the resulting disappointment. The scam weight loss systems like to promise lightning fast results, but the reality is that weight loss takes time! But, if you do the proper research and implement your plan correctly, the results will show and, in time, you will have that body you always wanted!

4. Find Support

Partnering with someone who has similar weight loss goals will help you stick to your plan. If you don’t have someone in your physical environment to partner with, find a support network online. Do a search for weight loss support. You may even find that after a while, these people become good friends.

5. Incorporate Your Diet Plan Into Your Daily Life

You need to be able to continue with a healthy eating plan after you have lost weight. This is the most important step in whatever weight loss system you choose. Transition the plan into a healthy eating program that you can follow for the rest of your life. That does not mean you have to be on a diet for the rest of your life. It means making healthy food choices and indulging in unhealthy foods in moderation. That bowl of ice cream or that piece of cake is not off limits – you just can’t have it every day