Health Tips - 10 Easy Ways to Lose Weight

Losing weight is known to be difficult to do, but it can actually be quite simple if you break the process down into smaller segments. This type of gradual push in the right direction will become lifestyle changes you can live with instead of a diet you give up after a few weeks.
Health and Beauty Tips - 10 Easy Ways to Lose Weight
1. Preparation
The Mayo Clinic advises people to make sure they are ready for weight loss before they take the big step into the actual process. Make sure you really want to change and that you have rid yourself of distractions, such as goodies in the cupboard and friends that goad you into eating fattening foods. This preparation will make your weight loss easier.
2. Choose a Start Date
Make a date for fitness, and choose the day when you will start your weight loss. Mark the date down on your calendar. Tell friends. Dedicate the day as the first day of the rest of your healthy life. This will make your commitment real and more likely to succeed.
3. Set Goals
Goals help motivate you and boost your self-esteem when you reach them, making you want to keep going. Write down a small, manageable goal that you can achieve quickly to start. For example, "I will lose 3 lbs. this month." It may not sound like much, but think of your small goals as stepping stones.
4. Chart Your Progress
Keeping track of your progress is another way to motivate yourself. Try hanging a piece of paper on the wall and for every pound you lose, add an "X" to the paper. As the paper fills with Xs, you'll feel more empowered to go on.
5. Eat Breakfast
You may think you are saving calories by not eating breakfast, but skipping breakfast may be the most fattening thing you do all day. According to Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., of the Mayo Clinic, eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day and gives you enough energy to be active throughout the day.
6. Count Calories
This tip is an old one, but it is still worthwhile. Make sure to keep track of how many calories you consume during the day. Being accountable for what you eat can make you eat less.
7. Cut Back
One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. If you cut about 500 calories from your daily intake, you will lose 1 lb. a week, a healthy goal. Trim your calories by cutting out dessert, a high-calorie snack or by not going back for seconds.
8. Burn It Off
To boost your weight loss, aim to burn an extra 500 calories a day, or that magic 3,500 calories a week, through exercise. Riding a bicycle helps a lot.
9. Eat More Fiber
Fiber-filled foods are lower in calories and fills you up so that you do not eat as many calories. It also keeps you fuller, longer.
10. Drink More Water
Water can fill you up when you want to munch on something you shouldn't. Water is also essential for burning calories. Try to aim for eight 8-oz. glasses of water a day.

Calls to ban trans-fats from all foods in the UK

Trans-fats - solid fats found in margarines, cakes and fast food - are banned in some countries.

But the Food Standards Agency said the UK's low average consumption made a complete ban unnecessary.

In January this year, the UK Faculty of Public Health called for the consumption of trans-fats (also know as trans fatty acids) to be virtually eliminated.

It says that although trans-fats make up 1% of the average UK adult food energy intake - below the 2% advised as a dangerous level - there are sections of the population where intake is far higher and these lemy's groups.

In the BMJ article, doctors from Harvard Medical School backed this view and said bans in Denmark and New York City had effectively eliminated trans-fats, without reducing food availability, taste, or affordability.

Heart health

Many studies have shown harmful effects of trans-fats on heart health.

They are used to extend shelf-life but have no nutritional value and, like saturated fats, they raise blood cholesterol levels which increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

The BMJ article also points out there is no evidence that such legislation leads to harm from increased use of saturated fats.

The doctors wrote that based on current disease rates, a strategy to reduce consumption of trans-fats by even 1% of total energy intake would be expected to prevent 11,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths annually in England alone.

TRANS-FATS
They are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, turning oily foods into semi-solid foods
Used to extend shelf life of products
Can raise levels of "bad" cholesterol
Even a small reduction in consumption can cut heart disease
They have no nutritional benefit

Commenting on the article, Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "There are great differences in the amount of trans-fats consumed by different people and we are particularly concerned about young people and those with little disposable income who eat a lot of this type of food.

"This is a major health inequalities issue."

In 2007, the Food Standards Agency carried out a review of trans-fats and concluded UK consumption was lower than countries such as the US and that voluntary action from food manufacturers had been highly successful.

They said current UK average consumption "was not a concern".

Victoria Taylor, senior heart health dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said UK voluntary measures by the food industry had achieved significant reductions in the amount of trans-fats in food.

Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation, said: "We agree that it is important to maintain a healthily balanced diet in which trans-fats are consumed within the safe levels recommended by the FSA and that is why artificial trans-fats have been virtually eliminated from processed foods in the UK."

"This is good progress but we still need to do more to make sure that the industrially produced trans-fats don't creep back into our nation's diets."