Everyone who is overweight should seek to reduce their body fat. It is possible for the majority of overweight people to reverse the process of obesity. Once they do so, to maintain body fat at an acceptable level. With a reduction in excess body fat, diabetes and hypertension often disappear, blood lipid levels decrease, and there is less burden on the circulatory and respiratory systems. Moreover, the lower the body fat, the greater the body’s ability to utilize oxygen.
When obese people lose weight, their life expectancy rises to what it would have been had they never been obese. Most people give the same reasons for failure to lose weight. When dieting-lack of self-discipline and the desire to eat more than should be eaten. There is another very prominent reason many fails. They have a punitive attitude toward their weight. Self-blame, self-punishment, and guilt for their weight contribute to a negative self-image, which inhibits weight loss.
If you wish to succeed in a weight reduction program, you must maintain a positive self-image. Your self-image may very well improve as you lose weight. You must not be overwhelmed by a negative body-and self-image. Don’t emphasize your weight as a major factor in your interaction with others; concentrate on your worthwhile traits and abilities. Successful interactions with others depend on many qualities other than your weight.
Developing Your Weight Management Program
The first step in developing your weight management program is to determine your goal for acceptable body fat or weight. If you are unable to have your body fat estimated, objectively appraise your body frame and state your target weight in relation to your body frame.
Remember, it is possible to be heavy and even overweight according to height-weight charts. But not have too much body fat. It is possible to weigh no more than what is expected for your height and frame and yet be overfat. You must be realistic about the appearance of your body fat. The body frame does not change, and If you are inactive, weigh more than you did at 22 years of age, and wear larger size of clothing, you are probably overfat.
The second step is to estimate your daily caloric requirements. This is determined by two factors: your minimal resting energy requirements (BMR), and your energy expenditure (daily physical activities). The amount of energy you need to perform functions other than basal metabolism varies in relation to your activities.
An inactive individual may need only a few hundred additional calories, whereas a large, active man may need as many as 2000 or more. If you are not maintaining an exercise program and do not hold a physically demanding job, your body probably requires only 20% or 30% more calories beyond your basal needs. Of course, for an extremely inactive person this percentage will be even lower.
Remember, when a diet is nutritionally sound, for weight management it isn’t important what is eaten, but how many calories are consumed. Weight reduction will occur when intake of calories is less than the number expended during each day.
