When you decide to lose weight, you want results now. Those results keep you motivated and on track. But fast weight loss has diminishing returns. What you gain in satisfaction in the short run is usually paid back with weight regain and an ultimate surrender of your goals when you go off an unsustainable diet.
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Athletes and body builders seek single-digit body fat percentages to improve sports performance and their aesthetic appearance on stage. Getting this lean is possible for men, whose essential fat level is about 5 percent, but not advisable for women, who need about 15 percent to support hormones and menstruation.
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The scale is not the best determinant of a healthy body weight. You may long to see the number go down, but it doesn't tell you if your body composition -- or ratio of lean mass to fat mass -- is healthy.
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Where you store fat determines whether or not you're at a higher risk for metabolic and heart diseases. Too much belly fat -- the kind that spills over your waistband -- is the type to avoid. Love handles and hip-bone fat aren't only an aesthetic problem -- they're a health problem.
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Many diet plans ban you from eating past some specific time, such as 7 p.m, but no magical diet "witching hour" exists. These diets are trying to prevent you from binging on unhealthy, high-calorie snack foods after dinner.
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A teen may achieve six-pack abs by losing fat and gaining lean muscle. Not all teens are developmentally ready to take on such fitness goals, however.
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High protein diets satiate you, help build lean muscle and take more energy for your body to digest--thus slightly raising your metabolism. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, in a 2005 editorial, notes that these aspects of high protein diets make them an attractive option for weight loss.
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Whether your fingers are short and pudgy or long and lean is a matter of genetics, and you can't change your genes. But, if you're finding your fingers a bit fatter than usual and they feel tight and puffy so that it's hard to remove your rings, you can take some action to slim them down.
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Losing 4 pounds in a week isn't unheard of -- especially if you've got significant weight to lose. The closer you are to your goal weight, though, the slower weight loss comes. To lose 4 pounds in seven days, you might have to resort to extreme measures that could affect your ability to lose weight after one week.
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Being underweight can make you vulnerable to illness, contribute to feelings of fatigue and weakness, and upset your normal menstrual cycle. Gaining weight in a healthy way takes time, though. In a month, you can expect to add 2 to 4 pounds to your frame.
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The definition of "normal" when it comes to body fat is relative. "Normal" for an athlete is quite different than for the average man. The range for healthy body fat for most men is between 10 and 25 percent. Where you fall in that range depends on your age, genetics and activity level.
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Water weight can artificially inflate how much the scale says you weigh. After all, a scale measures all parts of your body -- the muscle, bones, connective tissue, organs and fluids. In addition to increasing your weight, water retention can make you look puffy and feel uncomfortably bloated.
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Flabby upper arms may make you feel self-conscious when you bare your arms in summer clothes. Although where you store fat is largely a matter of genetics, some people's bodies, especially women's, use the arms as a stubborn fat depot.
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Carrying too much body fat increases your risk of disease, particularly heart disease and type-2 diabetes. Body fat scales, caliper tests and medical scans tell you the percentage of fat you have on your body.
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The scale can fluctuate at least 3 to 5 pounds on any given day. To gain a full pound of fat, you must consume 3,500 calories more than you burn. You'd be challenged to eat this much, or more, above and beyond what you normally need to maintain your weight in two days.
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A slim face can make you look thinner than you'd like, especially if you also have an overly slender body frame. If your doctor has told you that weight gain would improve your health, adopt a healthy approach to adding pounds.
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If being too thin makes you feel self-conscious or interferes with participation in high-school sports like football or hockey, sound strategies can help you gain pounds and achieve a weight that makes you feel better emotionally and physically, especially if your doctor has mentioned that it would benefit your health.
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Scales measure much more than just your fat weight. They also measure water retention, muscle, bone, feces, urine, food and beverages, and swelling from inflammation or hormones.
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A spare tire around your middle that forms a muffin top above your waistband may make you self-conscious when you’re in and out of clothes. You desperately want to slim this area down, but the way your body gains and loses weight is a set pattern -- you can’t target certain places for loss.
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Regularly consume more calories than you burn, and you'll gain weight. Although food labels use a 2,000-calorie diet as the benchmark for average calorie consumption, that amount of calories could prompt weight gain in some sedentary people of small stature.
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