Frequently Asked Questions About Weight Loss and Diets

If you’re on a diet, or considering going on one, you’re in luck. We’ve put together ten of the most frequently asked questions about diets and weight loss and compiled them here. Enjoy!

1. How much should I weigh?
Your doctor can answer that question most accurately. More important than how much you weigh is your body/mass index, which measures your height against your weight.

2. What's the best diet for losing weight?
Any diet that provides all the nutrition that you need for health, and in addition, provides fewer calories than your body burns regularly.

3. How can I keep off the weight that I lose?
If you lose weight gradually and re-educate both yourself and your body about food, you'll have a good start. The secret to keeping weight off is to balance your energy needs with your food intake. Eat enough calories to supply your body's energy needs, but not so many that your body stores the excess as fat.

4. What's the story with obesity and diabetes?
Obesity increases the risks of a number of chronic health conditions, and diabetes is one of them. People who are more than ten percent overweight increase their risk of developing type 2 diabetes substantially.

5. How do I decrease my intake of sugar?
Obviously, you can decrease your intake of sugar by cutting out sweets and refined snacks, but you should also watch out for 'hidden' sugars. Check ingredients. High fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both simple sugars that add lots of calories and little nutrition.

6. How often should I weigh myself?
Most diet experts recommend that you weigh yourself no more than once a week. Some go so far as to tell you to throw out the scale entirely! A more accurate measure of your loss is your clothing size. If your clothing is feeling looser, you're doing great.

7. Do I really have to exercise?
You don't HAVE to, but it will be a lot harder to lose weight if you don't. A half hour of moderate exercise daily is the minimum activity level for healthy weight loss. You can get it walking, running, cleaning your house - anything active burns calories.

8. What's a calorie?
A calorie is a measure of energy. Foods are rated with calories based on the amount of energy they provide to the body when consumed.

9. Can I lose weight without changing my diet?
Weight loss results when you burn more calories than you consume. If you only need to lose a small amount of weight and your diet is generally healthy, you can lose weight by increasing your activity level to burn more calories. If your diet is poor, or if you're more than a few pounds overweight, you really need to learn a new, more healthy way or eating, or you'll put the weight back on when you go back to 'normal' eating.

10. Should I eat fish on my diet?
Unless it's expressly forbidden by your diet, absolutely. Fish is high protein, low saturated fat, and high in omega 3 fatty acids. Some doctors recommend eating as much as 10 servings of fish per week.