After all the gloom and doom about the health implications of being overweight, you’re probably ready for some good news. If being overweight is bad for your health (and it is), then learning how to lose weight is the best cure.

According to the experts, a weight loss of as little as 5 to 10 per cent reduces an obese adult’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and arthritis. Overweight people already suffering from these conditions usually improve when they lose weight. Losing weight also reduces the incidence of a whole host of heart and lung disorders. If you’re wondering why you should lose weight, I can’t think of a better answer.

Other Problems Associated With Overweight

Even though health considerations are probably the strongest argument in favor of losing weight, being overweight can make your life difficult in many other ways. If staying healthy and preventing disease do not motivate you, maybe the aesthetic, social, emotional, and financial consequences of being overweight will give you the push you need.

Aesthetic

Especially in our society, an overweight image is not the “look we like”. The most attractive clothing is designed for slimmer folks. Even if you have given up on dressing in the latest fashion, it is hard to look your best when your clothes are either too tight or utterly shapeless to hide your form.

Social

Not looking your best has social consequences as well. First impressions count for a lot, and, like it or not, first impressions are usually visual ones. Whether you’re hoping for a date, a friend, a job offer, or just not to be the last one chosen for the Saturday football game, you’re at a disadvantage if you’re overweight. It may feel unfair, and it probably is, but that’s the way it’s been since primary school and the way it is now.

Plain and simple, there are strong social biases against fatties. Many people regard being overweight as a character flaw, a sign of slovenliness and lack of self-control.

Emotional

Many of the negative responses of others are shared by heavy people themselves.

Self-esteem and a positive self-image are harder to come by when you are overweight. Depression often accompanies weight problems, sometimes as cause and sometimes as a result. People who are depressed tend also to be physically inactive. It’s another one of those vicious circles.

Being more active can help lift depression just as it helps you to lose weight. Many of the body chemicals that influence mood are influenced in turn by physical exertion.

Doing some regular exercise can help boost your confidence when you are trying to lose weight. Exerting your body encourages the release of endorphins, or “happy hormones”, making you feel good about yourself.

Financial

Obesity makes a huge dent in the funds of the health service of more than $25 billion a year, or 6 to 8 per cent of the total health care budget, because of the many problems associated with being seriously overweight.

People who are overweight cost the health service more money for health care than people of normal weight. Overweight people suffer from higher rates of disease and more complications. They are also involved in more accidents that result in injury. They are hospitalized more often and tend to suffer more complications from surgery and other medical procedures. People who are overweight may also experience more difficulty in getting life insurance because of their high-risk status.

Those who are able to get insurance will often pay higher premiums.

If you are overweight you are more likely to have health replications that require treatment in hospital and suffer injuries m accidents. Recovery rates are also likely to be slower.

Learning how to lose weight fast can be hard work and often seem to hard or overpowering to even contemplate. But with these simple and healthy weight loss tips you should be able to start losing weight right away and see some very promising and encouraging results within a matter of days.

Doing the math is pretty easy and simple. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? You will need to intake 3500 calories less a week than you use. That’s about 500 calories a day. By cutting out 500 calories a day from your normal daily diet, while keeping your activity level the same, you can lose approximately one pound a week.

I know that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you are over 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually – at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.

So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you’re going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here is how you lose 500 calories a day

*You can use milk in your coffee instead of creamer. Savings? 50 calories in each cup.

* You really don’t need butter on the baked potato. Savings? 100 calories

*Drink fruit flavored water rather than soda. Savings? 200 calories

* Have a salad instead of that tempting Big Mac. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. Have a fresh salad along with a light dressing? Under 100! Savings? 360 calories

*You can walk right by that bag of potato chips. An average snack size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories

* Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. Every ear of corn has 85 calories in them. Savings? 80 calories.

*Change to a low fat cram cheese spread on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.

*Love french fries and have a hard time giving them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. The thinner frech fries absorb a whole lot more oil than the thicker ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving

You cna also lose one pound a week if you up your activity level by 500 calories, if you want to look at it from a exercise perspective. How easy can that be? Take a look:

*Go for a half hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that’s a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.

*Go for a bicycle ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories

* Go dancing – and really DANCE. The longer you are out dancing on the dance floor, you wont be at the table drinking those high calorie fruit drinks and the more calories you will burn. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories per hour

* Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl – if you can get up to an hour you’ll be doing great! Burn: 510 calories

* Get out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.

* Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you’ll be amazed at the difference. An hour of vigorous tennis is one of the most effective calorie burners that are around. Burn: 800 calories

It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more then you will definately burn more fat. Would you like an additional bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories – even when you’re not exercising. You got it – your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.

For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. You must keep in mind that if you eat less than 1000 calories a day for more than just a few days that you will convince your body that it is starving and it will slow your metabolism down. Keep calorie ranges reasonable, and consult a doctor if you want a quicker, more drastic weight loss.