Dieting Strategies – Flatten Your Tummy Forever
Popular opinion holds that it’s rare to lose your potbelly forever. Depending on the statistics you read, 85 to 95 percent of dieters regain all the weight they lost and then some. Well, researchers have surprising news, more dieters are successful than you’ve been led to believe. It turns out that the 85 to 95 percent failure rate comes mostly from studies of people in organized weight-loss programs. Some of the most successful dieters, however, lose weight on their own. This only shows that people can and do get rid of unwanted fat in many cases permanently.
The hard work and persistence are well worth the effort. Central or abdominal fat has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes, and increased risks of some cancers. But how can you tell whether your own potbelly is signaling a health hazard?
Let’s Do the Math!
Simply calculate your waist-to-hip ratio. Divide the number of inches around your waist (at its narrowest) by the number of inches around your hips (at their widest). At any result higher than.80 if you’re a woman or.95 if you’re a man means you need to lose weight. If you fall into this category, here are the best ways to proceed:
Design Your Own Diet
Successful weight-loss programs are almost always custom-made. While weight-loss winners often used a formal diet plan as a starting point, they tailored the program to meet their needs. Winners usually start with three basic tenets of weight loss: eat less fat, cut calories, and exercise.
Dieters who regain weight usually think flattening their tummies means giving up all their favorite fattening foods. In fact, most diet winners still eat doughnuts and pizza – but in moderation. But beyond that, they make their own rules, using trial and error until they find the diet-and-exercise combination that works best for them. Of course, it’s wise to check any self-styled diet with your doctor or a nutrition expert.
Aim for Small Wins
Most of us make grand resolutions when we decide to flatten our tummies (“I won’t eat any fat; I’ll exercise every day for an hour”). One good way to begin is to eliminate one or two fatty foods. Another small but crucial change is to watch less TV. When you sit inactively before the tube, your metabolism can drop to its minimum resting rate. What’s more, TV constantly tempts you with ads for fatty foods. By taking small, sustainable steps, you don’t create hurdles you can’t clear.
Don’t react emotionally or with self-criticism when you gained five pounds, instead see those extra pounds as merely a problem to be solved. By taking power over your weight, you can rest assured the tummy-flattening campaign you start today will truly be your last.
