Monitor Daily Food Intake for Accountability

---

Recent studies suggest that monitoring your daily food intake and physical activities can help develop a sense of accountability, which is considered to be a cornerstone of behavioral weight loss therapies.

Focusing on the creation of long-term lifestyle habits that you can stick with over time will go a long way in improving your health and lasting weight loss.

Since the effects of following a low-carb or low-fat diet are not yet known, consider a menu plan that replaces highly processed foods with less-calorie dense whole foods and be more physically active every day.

How to Avoid Misinformation Online

With more than half of Americans expressing a desire to lose weight, there is an ocean of misinformation available online. Ditch unproven approaches and focus your efforts on science-based tips like the ones listed below:

1) Eat More Whole Foods – People who focus on following a menu plan filled with whole foods tend to lose weight and live a healthier life than individuals who consume lots of processed foods with added salt and sugar.

2) Add More Steps – If you are willing to make small adjustments in how and what you eat, the science behind weight loss suggests you can walk your way to weight loss with ten to fifteen thousand steps per day.

3) Avoid Liquid Calories – How calories are digested is largely determined by the macronutrient content. Liquid calories often contain excessive amounts of simple carbohydrates due to added sugars that do not contain satiating fiber.

4) Enforce Kitchen Policies – If your kitchen is always open, you may be unaware of the food decisions you make every day. Keep healthy foods on the counter and close your kitchen between meals.

It is vital to adopt good exercise habits along with eating better. Steadily decreasing your energy intake, cutting out processed foods, and increasing protein and fiber intake are keys to losing fat while preserving fat-burning muscle mass.

Focus on Healthy Living for the Long Haul

Health experts suggest taking the focus off losing weight can benefit your plan for living healthier over the long haul. After all, there is so much that medical researchers don’t understand about how the body reacts when you change how you eat. The body can naturally increase or decrease the production and release of hunger or satiety hormones and keep you from feeling full to protect against fat loss by signaling the need for weight regain.

Overall body weight, percentage of body fat, rate of energy metabolism, and fat oxidation is regulated by a complex system of hormones and other chemical messengers based on communication between your brain and your body. Daily physical activity has proven to be key to successful weight maintenance once your target weight is reached. Studies suggest that a blend of moderate (walking) and vigorous activity (aerobics) are needed for routine maintenance and support.