Even if you’ve made the commitment to healthy eating habits, there is still more work to be done. Experts at WebMD say that diet alone is often not enough to produce a significant calorie deficit. Your lifestyle habits, including how much you exercise and even how much you sleep, affect how much weight you gain and lose. When you decide to embark on the journey of healthier living and weight loss, you have to change your lifestyle. You have to figure out what food is bad for you and stop eating it. Additionally, you have to start eating healthier foods, start exercising, and figure out which habits you need to change to be healthier in general. Healthy foods and unhealthy habits simply don’t mix.

How Incorporating Exercise Into Your Lifestyle Helps

The CDC recommends that you exercise at a moderate pace for at least 150 minutes a week to prevent heart disease and avoid weight gain. If you want to lose weight, the CDC suggests that you stop eating unhealthy food and that you exercise enough to burn more calories each day than you consume. Donald Hensrud, M.D. from the Mayo Clinic asserts that you can lose weight through diet alone, but lifestyle changes like exercise in addition to making healthy eating choices will help you keep the weight off. If you believe the experts, then it’s clear that exercise should take a central role in your efforts to maintain a healthy weight or lose weight.

Healthy Lifestyle Tips

• Cook at Home More Often – It’s easier to control what goes into your food and to avoid eating foods that are not good for you at home.
• Drink More Water – Water helps curb your appetite and keep your body hydrated and healthy.
• Carve Out Time For Exercise – Set aside 30 minutes or so each day for exercise. After a month or two, exercise will become a habit like brushing your teeth or doing your laundry.
• Studies show that both a lack of sleep and too much sleep can cause weight gain and other mental and physical issues. So, try to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night.

Transitioning to a healthier lifestyle takes work, but the work you put into it will most definitely pay off!

Sources

• “Exercise and Weight Loss,” WebMD
• “The Benefits of Physical Activity,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• “Which is better for weight loss — cutting calories or increasing exercise?” Donald Hensrud, M.D., Mayo Clinic

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