Regular exercise in moderation is essential. It burns calories. This promotes weight loss. And it makes a body look good overall, inside and out. The payoff is a leaner, more attractive body, with a lower risk of coronary heart disease. However, physical activity by itself may not be enough to lose weight to look and feel better. For best results, it should be combined with a reduced calorie plan, calculated to match an individual’s new physical activity level.

Rapid weight loss can be very encouraging at first, but long term results are quite disappointing for many. The lost weight is mostly water at first. However, it rapidly returns, besides diets too low in calories quickly lower the body’s metabolic rule. This makes it even harder to lose weight and much easier to get it back. This creates a “yo-yo” diet syndrome. More fat is lost when the rate of weight loss is about two pounds per week. The number of calories needed to achieve this varies for each person and should be determined on an individual and unique basis.

There are immediate benefits to consuming the right number of calories. First of all, it helps to avoid being hungry, feeling fatigue and grouchiness that so often accompany deprivation of food. It supplies the energy needed to physical exercise. Trying to physical exercise on a very low caloric nutritional diet is like starving yourself twice – it leads to further reduction of lean body tissue. It helps ensure that nutritional needs are met. This is especially important over an extended period of time.

Another important thing to consider is to choose the correct foods. Many body weight reduction nutritional diets encourage avoiding carbohydrates (starchy foods), the body’s primary source of fuel. Such nutritional diets promote rapid reduction of body water for a few weeks. But this can lead to a discouraging body weight plateau, followed by body weight gain from water and sodium retention once carbohydrates are eaten again. A healthy mix of foods, high in complex carbohydrates and low in fat, sugar and alcohol gives the individual the most for their calories plus a higher energy level and better nutrition.

Lifelong weight control requires more than a simple diet. A plan is needed that focuses on making changes in behaviors that have contributed to the weight problem, changes that are realistic and fit each person’s unique lifestyle. The best weight loss program for most people includes a personal plan of action with specific solutions for lifelong change, a program with the right balance of calories and exercise to lose weight at an optimal rate, and the personal support they need to succeed. Doing it right helps ensure that the weight loss is not just temporary, but long-term.

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