Why Eating Healthier Doesn’t Always Lead to Weight Loss
So you are eating healthier to lose weight and you know that dieting is definitely necessary to get the job done. Great! But did you know that eating right is just half the equation to successful weight loss? If you eat healthy, that is certainly a great start for both your overall health and your waistline, but you need to go a step further. Check out the information below to learn more about why eating healthier does not always lead to weight loss.
Why Eating Healthier is Only Part of the Weight Loss Requirements
Eating healthier is a great start to a healthier you, but the following factors are also a critical part of the equation.
Calories Contained in Healthy Foods Can Still Be Over-consumed
Simply making better food choices will not help you slim down if you don't also consider the portions of these healthy foods and the calories contained within them. For example, olive oil is healthy, but if you pour it over a plate of veggies without measuring, you could be adding hundreds of calories and fat to your food. Take the time to understand proper serving sizes and portions of the foods you love. Measure out those portions for a while, until you are able to eyeball proper serving sizes. Record everything you eat in a food diary and weight loss will happen. You'll be shocked at how many calories you can prevent going to your hips this way!
The Dangers of a Sedentary Lifestyle
Eating right has nothing to do with how much movement and activity you get in a day. And a sedentary lifestyle could not only cause you to retain fat, it could also increase your risk of a variety of diseases. So if you find yourself sitting for hours at work and then you come home and sit for hours at the dinner table and in front of the TV at night, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. Sure, the reduction in fat and calories, the portion control, and the eating healthier meals will help you shed some extra weight, but you will only go so far because you simply are not moving enough to burn additional calories and fat. You may hit that weight loss plateau rather quickly and wonder what you are doing wrong even though you are eating a diet that is filled with whole food ingredients that are packed with nutrients while being low in fat and calories.
Exercise Gets Your Metabolism Up
When you make it a point to be more active, you will not only burn additional fat and calories, but you will also help to ensure that your metabolism will really rev. And when you have a higher metabolic rate, your body will then continue burning even more fat and calories even while you are at rest. Sure, you might find that your appetite increases as your metabolism increases, but as long as you are following a healthy diet, you will be able to nourish your body and build muscle while losing the fat that you had trouble losing before. And with more muscle throughout your body will come even more fat burning while you are at rest in order to maintain that muscle.
Now that you know what it really takes to lose weight successfully, you could take your efforts to the next level and start seeing the results that you have always wanted.
