If your goal is to lose weight and exercise more, forget the deprivation diet and marathon workouts. Research shows that taking baby steps—not giant leaps—is the best way to get lasting results.
A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that participants who made one small, potentially permanent change in their food choices and/or physical activity each week (such as drinking one fewer can of soda or walking 5 more minutes each day) lost more than twice as much belly fat, 2½ more inches off their waistlines, and about 4 times more weight during a 4-month program, compared with those who followed traditional calorie-restriction and physical-activity guidelines.
I've uncovered 4 simple steps (with proven results) that will show you exactly how to lose weight by helping you move more, eat less, and look and feel better than ever. Add just one or two a week to your regular routine and you can lose nearly 3 inches off your waistline and be about 10 pounds lighter in a few months. Even better: Once these healthy habits become second nature, they'll benefit you for a lifetime.
1. Skip through commercials
Get moving during your favorite TV shows. Skip, dance, go up and down some stairs, run in place—anything that gets your heart rate up so you feel somewhat breathless, says Geralyn Coopersmith, senior national manager at Equinox Fitness. Do it for each 2-minute break (forget the TiVo) during a typical 2-hour TV night and you'll burn an extra 270 calories a day—which can translate to a 28-pound weight loss in a year. (Try this total-body toning routine you can do while watching TV.)
2. Limit high-fat foods
Tag the high-fat/high-calorie foods that are typically your favorites (our top five: cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips, and fries) and gradually downshift. If you're eating six of these foods a week, try to go down to five. Each week, drop another until you're at no more than one or two; at the same time, add in a good-for-you choices like baby carrots, sautéed broccoli, oranges, and other fresh fruits and veggies.
3. Walk 5 minutes more
In my pilot study, increasing daily activity levels by just a few minutes at a time helped participants lose weight faster. Eventually, your goal should be to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day (burning off about 120 extra calories daily, or 12½ pounds a year), but it doesn't have to be all at once.
4. Add mini strength training
Basic body-weight exercises like squats and push-ups are a simple way to build more metabolism-revving muscle in minutes (helping you lose weight faster), and research shows they're just as effective as hitting the gym. Your muscles don't know the difference between working against your body's own resistance and on a fancy piece of equipment. The one rule to follow is that each exercise should fatigue your muscles within 60 to 90 seconds.For extra burn, you can add an exercise band or resistance tubes to basic moves.
Try this mini-workout: Do 10 reps each of knee push-ups, squats, crunches, lunges, and chair dips. Then gradually increase the number of reps it takes for your muscles to feel fully fatigued.
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