Weight Loss Tips

Overweight and obesity are major concerns facing us today with a growing number of today's population facing these problems. Weight Loss Tips will help you loose the excess weight and therefore forms an important part of the body care regime. Though not a problem by itself, obesity can lead to severe health conditions like:

• Hypertension
• Type2 diabetes
• Arthritis
• Gall Bladder Problems
• Stroke

The American Obesity Association (AOA) classifies obesity into three categories, which are:

• Overweight - defined as having Body Mass Index (BMI) as 25 which, can be interpreted as one fourth of excess weight than normal
• Obesity – 30 percent of excess weight
• Severe obesity – 40 percent of excess weight

AOA also states that with the beginning of the 21st century, 127 million adults in the US will suffer from overweight, 60 million from obesity, while 9 million are severely obese. According to a report by the World Health Organisation, there are at least a billion overweight adults in the world today of which 300 million at least fall in the obese category.

Some of the essential tips for losing weight are:

Eat only when hungry, taking small portions at a time Stick to homemade food. Avoid fast food as much as possible Take meals at short intervals of 2-3 hours (instead of the conventional breakfast, lunch, and dinner). This enhances the rate of metabolism in the body Eat a lot of fresh fruits and leafy vegetables. They are filling and are full of fibers, antioxidants, and vitamins and low on calories.

Avoid starchy food like rice. Reduce your intake of coffee as this also increases deposition of fat Do a free-hand exercise daily. This helps to burn calories and keeps you fit.

Last, but not the least, an adequate sleep of a minimum of 7-9 hours a day, is extremely vital as that helps to keep the levels of hormones (such as Cortisol, growth hormone and insulin) under check, which can otherwise encourage storage of fat. Sleep is also a great stress buster. Stress and lack of sleep also enhance the levels of Ghrelin hormone that raises hunger and reduces Leptin, whose main function is to signal the brain to stop eating.