Metabolism is the process by which your body converts food into energy. Many people hold the belief that fat people have low metabolism rates and skinny people have high metabolism rates. However, the process is not that simple.

Your metabolism depends on three separate factors, and how it works affects how much you weigh. Metabolism is determined by the amount of calories you consume, factors such as age and sex, and how physically active you are.

If you consume excessive calories, you will eventually gain weight. Each human body is designed to run on a certain calorie amount. This can vary from person to person, but is between 1500 and 2500 calories for most adults. If you are trying to lose weight, it will be less.

Men generally need more calories per day than women, unless the woman is pregnant or breastfeeding. The rate at which your body burns these calories is your metabolism; if you burn them more slowly, youll gain weight. If you burn through extra calories quickly, youll maintain your weight.

Factors such as age, body composition, and sex also determine metabolism. If your body contains more muscle, your metabolism will be faster. If it contains more fat, your body will be slower.

For this reason, women’s metabolism often slows down after pregnancy. Excess fat is accumulated and stored on the hips and breasts. After pregnancy, it can be harder to lose this weight. Age also affects your metabolism; as you age, your metabolism slows down. This can lead to “middle age spread” if you don’t take action to burn those extra calories and kick your metabolism into high gear.

Your rate of physical activity greatly affects your metabolism. This is good news; it means you have some control over the situation! If your metabolism is slowing down due to age, gender, or other factors, you can boost it by exercising. The key to weight loss is burning more calories than you take in.

When you choose to exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet, weight loss is possible. Your metabolism will increase as you add muscle to your body remember; muscle burns more calories than fat!

To jump-start your metabolism, you may need to lower the amount of calories you’re consuming daily and up the amount of exercise you are doing. Choose aerobic and weight lifting exercises for maximum impact. Aerobic exercise burns fat, and weight training will add muscle. Both can greatly increase your metabolism, leading to healthy fat loss.

This article isn’t medical advice nor should it be interpreted or substituted as medical advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Prior to making changes to your physical exercise routine and your diet, you should always consult your personal physician. It is much better to be safe than sorry.

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Almost 108 million Americans were overweight or obese in 1999. Until now, obesity continues to be a serious problem and is predicted to reach epidemic levels by the year 2020.

One way to prevent this scenario is to make people aware of the risks of being overweight or obese.

Here are some diseases that you are putting yourself in risk of if you are carrying a lot of extra pounds:

1. heart disease
2. stroke
3. diabetes
4. cancer
5. arthritis
6. hypertension

Losing weight helps to prevent and control these diseases.

The quick weight loss methods which have spread like fire these days do not provide lasting results. More often than not, dieting methods which involve dietary drinks, foods and supplement or pills do not work. If they do, the results are just temporary.

It is better to rely on a healthy weight loss option which will provide lifetime results. You have to set realistic goals and not expect to lose a lot of pounds in a short span of time.

Here are some tips on how you can lose those unwanted pounds the healthy way:

1. Do not starve your self.

The key to a healthier way of losing weight is: Do not diet.

You may seem happy and feel that you are losing those unwanted flabs on your belly and thighs by skipping meals. But remember that this would not last long. Your body cannot tolerate having insufficient food to fuel the energy that you use up everyday.

If you get used to skipping one or two meals a day, your stored calories will be used up instead of the energy that should have been provided by your meals. So if you just eat one huge sandwich in one day, it will end up straight to your problem area (i.e. highs, buttocks, hips).

2. Start your day right.

Mothers always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Have a healthy meal in the morning to jump-start your metabolism.

Your food intake after you wake up will be used to burn fat all day long.

3. Eat small, healthy meals frequently.

Five small-serving snacks per day is better than three hearty meals. Eating more frequently, and in small servings, can prevent over-eating. This will also increase your metabolism and make calories burn faster.

4. Decide on how much weight you want to lose.

Keep your goals realistic. In the long run, it is virtually impossible for you to lose 40 pounds in 2 weeks. Have a mindset that you want to eat healthy to stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Once you have decided on a weight loss plan or program, stick to it and make sure that you follow your own set of dieting rules.

5. Drink lots of water.

Your body needs sufficient water to burn fat and keep your cells hydrated and healthy.

6. Avoid too much sugar.

Plan your meals around lots of fruits and vegetables, some bread, rice or pasta for that carbo fix that you need, plus lean meat and protein rich-foods. Sweets, sodas and pastries should be once-in-a-while indulgences only.

7. Watch your fat intake.

Fat is not the culprit to being overweight. You need this to keep your weight at the proper level.

There is such a thing as healthy fats. Olive, peanuts and canola oil have them. Tuna, salmon and mackerel have omega-3 fats which is good for the heart.

8. Exercise.

Leave your car if you are only going a few blocks from home, take the stairs instead of the elevator, jog, cycle or skate. Use these activites and other home chores if you are too lazy to go to the gym and take exercise classes. Make sure that you do this regularly and you will not even notice that you are already shedding pounds with these mundane activities.

It does not matter how much weight you plan or need to lose. What is important is that you set realistic goals for yourself.

Go slow. If you have already lost 5 or 6 pounds, give yourself a break then try to lose the next 5 pounds.

Eat healthy, drink lots of water, have enough sleep and exercise. This will give you a higher chance of losing weight and improving your health, which would result to a new, healthier you.

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Looking for a sure fire way to lose weight on hips? Well, if so you’ve come to the right place. There are many components to weight loss; what you eat, what you do and the specific exercises you use to target certain areas of your body. I will go over all of them in this article to help you sort it all out.

Before I get started though I do want to point out that you should make an appointment and see your doctor. She (or he) can give you the best advice specifically for you and any conditions you may have. Make sure you get your doctors approval before you start working out.

OK, now on to the information on how to lose weight on hips:

1. The first component to weight loss is your diet. I know that many people don’t want to have to think of it, but it is the truth. And when I say “diet” I don’t mean “a” diet where you eat only celery and drink water.

I’m referring to your diet, the types of foods you eat. This is very important and if you aren’t eating right you should plan on a permanent change in your dietary habits.

Now, no one is telling you that you have to be perfect. No one eats right all the time and you don’t have to either. But, if you want your weight loss to last forever you do need to make some lifestyle changes.

Start by eating at least 5 small meals every day. These meals should consist of healthy lean protein, some fresh vegetables and maybe some fruit. The point is you need to provide your body with what it needs to function at it’s best and keep your metabolism burning hot all day long.

2. It’s also important to keep your body moving. If you like going to the gym and lifting weights or spending time on the treadmill than go for it. But if you don’t like that open your mind, there are millions of things you can do to get more cardiovascular and resistance exercises into your daily life.

Cardiovascular exercises are those that get your heart rate up. Anything from jogging to dancing to kickboxing to swimming will work fine.

Resistance training is when you life weights. This activity can help you build lean muscle mass which will boost your metabolism 24/7 and will “cinch” you in which makes you look slimmer no matter what your weight.

3. Targeting specific exercises for the areas you aren’t happy with is the last component. You should exercise every part of your body but giving a little extra attention to those trouble spots is ok and a good idea.

For your hips you should so leg lifts. Just lay on your side and lift the other leg up, hold briefly then bring back down. You should feel this right in your upper thigh and hip area. Repeat for both sides.

If you want to lose weight on hips just include each one of the components I mentioned. Also, make sure your doctor says it is ok for you to workout. They may even have some good suggestions to help you along.

Tags: Appointment, Atkins, Cardiovascular Exercises, Celery, Dietary Habits, Doctors, Drink Water, Eating Habits, Fruits And Vegetables, Healthy Diet, Heart Rate, Hips, Lean Protein, Lifestyle Changes, Lifting Weights, Losing Weight, Metabolism, Open Your Mind, Permanent Change, Resistance Exercises, Resistance Training, Spending Time, Treadmill, Vegetables, Weight Loss —

Everyone has their trouble spots when it comes to weight loss. We all have areas on our body that we love and areas on our body that we hate. If you have trouble with your belly you may wonder what can be done to lose the stomach fat.

You know that it is just not possible to spot reduce. What that means is that you can’t just lose weight in certain areas of your body, you have to lose weight everywhere. For that reason you will have to focus on overall body weight reduction to get the body you have always dreamed of.

Even though you can’t spot reduce, you will still lose more weight in some areas than in others for the simple reason that you have more fat in some areas than others. Your body will burn fat first, then muscle, so as long as you still have excess fat deposits and you cut your daily calorie intake you will lose weight.

So if you want to lose the stomach fat but you don’t need to lose weight in your hips or butt, all you need to do is eat fewer calories and the excess weight will come off.

Another thing that can help the appearance of your belly is exercise. A lot of women wrongly think that if they do too many exercises it will just make areas of their body half look bigger because they will ‘bulk up’. In reality women just aren’t made that way. In order to get really big you’d have to workout on a full time basis, eat only 100% nutritious foods (no cheating) and probably get some pharmaceutical help. It takes quite a lot for a woman to bulk up.

If you target all your major muscle groups what will happen is that you will look toned. When your muscles are toned you will look smaller since your body will be tighter. Think of your muscles kind of like a girdle. Building your muscles will allow you to naturally hold everything in more easily and that will give you an all over appearance of being smaller which will make it look like you have lost more weight than you really have.

To get the best results you should watch what you eat, make sure you drink plenty of water everyday to stay hydrated and to keep your body clear of toxins, and do some muscle building exercises.

One great and easy to do exercise for your belly is to do crunches. You don’t need any special equipment and it is easy to learn how to do them. All you have to do is lay on your back on the floor, bend the knees to protect your lower back then put your hands lightly behind your head and looking straight at the ceiling slowly move up and down. Breathe out as you come up.

It’s easy to lose the stomach fat, just eat right and exercise. And, oh yeah, you’ll also lose weight everywhere else too!

Tags: Appearance, Body Fat, Calories, Daily Calorie Intake, Excess Weight, Exercises, Fewer Calories, Full Time, Girdle, Hips, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Major Muscle Groups, Muscles, Nutritious Foods, Reason, Stomach Fat, Time Basis, Trouble Spots, Weight Loss, Weight Reduction, Workout —