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Fighting Obesity With Exercise That Targets Body Fat

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Obesity exercise doesn't have to be complicated. Many forms of strenuous exercise can be difficult if you're obese, but you can lose weight and fight obesity with a simple exercise plan that increases your heart rate and helps your body burn fat.

Choose an Exercise Plan That Suits You

When you're fighting obesity with exercise, you need to choose an exercise plan that suits you. Don't expect too much of yourself, and choose a form of exercise that's within your personal boundaries. Walking and jogging are too very good forms of exercise that can help you burn off body fat and lose weight. Swimming is also a good form of cardiovascular exercise that can tone your muscles while reducing impact on your joints.

Make a Commitment

In order for your obesity treatment to succeed, you'll need to commit to the exercise plan. You should perform your exercise at least three to five times a week. Remember that your body doesn't begin to burn calories stored as fat until you've exercised continuously, with an elevated heart rate, for at least twenty minutes. For the first twenty minutes, your body uses energy created from the food you ate that day; after the first twenty minutes, your body begins to use energy stored as fat.

Eat a Healthy Diet

A key component of obesity treatment, in addition to exercise, is a healthy diet. Avoid junk foods and processed foods; your diet should include plenty of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, dairy products and lean meats.

Keep Track of Your Calorie Intake

In order to lose weight, you'll need to burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis. Use Fitday to track your daily food consumption and calorie intake. Remember that proteins and carbohydrates both contain four calories per gram, fats contain nine calories per gram, and alcohol contains seven calories per gram.

Reduce Your Daily Calorie Intake

You don't want to lose too much weight all at once, as this could be detrimental to your health. Ideally, you should lose no more than two pounds a week. To do this, you'd need to cut back by 1,000 calories per day. You don't have to take all these calories out of your diet; you can cut back your daily calorie intake by 500 calories, and get rid of the other 500 by burning them off through exercise.

Don't reduce your daily calorie intake too much. You need at least 1,300 calories per day, especially when you're using energy to workout. Less than that, and you're risking malnutrition, which can cause serious health problems.

Be Patient

Fighting obesity and maintaining a healthy weight require a full scale lifestyle change. Crash diets and fad diets don't work; in the long run, they are unsustainable, and can even cause you to regain more weight than you lost. These diets can also cause a range of health problems, due to the stress they place on your system.

Stick to your healthy diet and exercise plan. However, make room in your diet for the occasional treat, because this will make it easier to lose weight than if you deprived yourself entirely.

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