Diet and Exercise – Prepare Yourself Beforehand

Diet and exercise can not be separated when you aim for a long term healthy weight loss. There are weight loss programs that don't including exercise in the process such as Grapefruit Diet or Cabbage Soup Diet, but usually those programs only aim for a fast short term weight loss. If you do have planned to start a long term healthy weight loss program, which obviously will include exercise, there are a few things you should know beforehand:

1. Sweating is not an indicator; there are people who use sweat to measure their exercise; "if you are sweating then you already have a good exercise". You shouldn’t use this indicator, sweating is only your body's way to cooling itself and it doesn’t mean that you have burn enough calories. Stick to your target or schedule when exercising.
2. Do not ignore weight training; there are various ways to burn calories by exercising, including weight training and cardiovascular exercise. While cardiovascular exercise such as jogging or biking are usually thought as the best ways to burn calories, you should not completely ignore weight training. Remember that a person with more muscles burns more calories throughout the day.
3. Weight training does not make women bulky; there are women who afraid of being bulky and thus avoid weight training. This is just another exercise myth; most women do not have enough testosterone to become bulky. If your body really becomes bigger fast, you might want to eat less, reduce the weight you lift, and increase the repetition.
4. Do not exercise too much; when you exercise, you are damaging your muscle a bit. This damaged muscle will repair itself with good nutrient and enough rest, forming a new stronger and healthier muscle. But if you exercise too much without giving your body chance to rest, it can't keep up because you damage the muscle again before it can fix it. 3-4 times a week is recommended for a healthy exercise.
5. Low intensity cardio is better; while there is method such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which suggests mixing high intensity with lower intensity training for faster fat burning, the low intensity exercise is still suggested for overweight people. Even though the low intensity exercise such as walking and light jogging don’t burn much calories, it burn more fat for fuel and doesn’t put too much stress to the body, thus can help regulate the appetite. If you do want to get better result, simply increase the duration of the session.
6. Start your exercise by walking; most people with sedentary lifestyle may be found it hard to begin with all the heavy exercise such as weight training or the HIIT; sometimes even jogging is still too hard for unfit people who didn't used to any physical activity. Walking allowed you to workout at a steady and consistent pace, which is required to burn fat effectively, and it can be done while chatting with friends or shopping. Get used to walk and try to increase the duration before you move to the more advanced exercise.
7. Eat before start your exercise; do not start your exercise with empty stomach, foods are required to provide the energy for your muscles to work efficiently, even if you perform exercise early in the morning. Eat small meal such as toast, oatmeal, or fruits one to three hours before exercise.
8. Set up a target for your exercise; when you already get used to certain type of exercise, sometimes you will forget that you have been doing the same type exercise for so long and your body already get used to it, make it less effective. Make a target, check your progress, measure your heartbeat to make sure you are in the targeted zone; if not you might want to increase the level a bit.

There is no healthy long term weight loss without paired by a good exercise routine. Choose your weight loss program wisely and make sure it's also containing a good portion of exercise.