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How To Prevent Obesity

Posted by Admin on Thursday, September 17, 2009 - 06:51 AM

The most effective way to avoid being obese when you are older, is to prevent it before it even occurs. This is why it is so important to learn how to prevent obesity, especially with over sixty percent of the American population being obese. Obesity is one of the main causes of death in America, one percent lower than smoking, with over three hundred thousand people dying from obesity a year.

Prevention is the key because monitoring your diet effectively and exercising moderately a few times a week is much easier than trying to lose weight already gained. If you have ever watched the television The Biggest Loser, you would understand just how difficult it is to lose weight. So before it is too late, start preventing your obesity today (and your family’s too!).

The first step to preventing obesity is to monitor and change the way you eat. First and foremost, you must always be sure to eat a healthy breakfast. Breakfast starts your metabolism out early in the day, so it can work better for you throughout the day. If you skip breakfast then you metabolism will slow down considerably.

Also, by eating breakfast you will limit snacking. You want to limit your snacking because snacks cause a much higher calorie intake than a well balanced meal. You definitely want to completely eliminate binging and limit your snacking as much as possible. You may include one snack a day into your diet, either between breakfast and lunch or lunch in dinner, whenever you are the most active.

Another time a lot of people snack is before going to bed or they eat a midnight snack. This is extremely unhealthy and has been proven to cause weight gain. Your metabolism slows down almost to nothing at night when you are asleep, so whatever calories you eat right before you go to bed, is just stored as fat. Fat is much harder to get rid of then your metabolism simply burning calories.

A helpful tip to prevent obesity is also to watch your calorie intake. Look up your suggested calorie intake based on your sex, age, height, and weight. Learn how many calories you should intake daily, and try not to go over this amount, or it may cause weight gain. Also keep track of your BMI, you can monitor your healthy body weight this way.

Of course, to prevent obesity and to live a healthy life, you must maintain a good activity level. It is recommended that you receive either thirty minutes of moderate activity five times a week or twenty minutes of vigorous activity three times a week. Moderate activity includes brisk walking, cycling, or shooting baskets. Vigorous activity includes jogging, cycling at least twelve miles an hour, or playing a basketball game. Keep in mind, you can break these activities up to two or three times a day in ten minute intervals if you wish.

These are effective ways to avoid becoming overweight or obese. None of these suggestions are too difficult for you to incorporate in your daily life, especially when you keep in mind how hard it would be to lose weight. Make sure you keep monitoring your weight and BMI, so you can know if you are endangered of becoming obese, you may have to take it up a notch if you are.