This is a big key to nourishing yourself. Don't forget this. It's important. Everything about dieting goes against this. Dieting tells you, "don't listen to your hunger...follow our plan." Then it is more likely that you won't listen to your "I'm satisfied" or "I'm comfortable" cues and you might start overeating.
Know your food triggers
Many of us have developed certain triggers (environmental or emotional) that contribute to habits of overeating. Figuring out what your triggers are is a first, really important step towards squelching overeating. When your next food craving strikes, (especially if you aren't physically hungry at the time) try to figure out what brought it on.
Maximize your calorie burning
Should you eat fewer calories? Yes, but that isn't very much fun. Your body needs more of a variety of nutrients as you age. If you eat less, you aren't likely to be getting more of these nutrients (calcium, vitamin D, antioxidants, vitamin B-12, zinc, and so on). There are many benefits to the suggestions below. You are truly better off burning more calories. Here's how:
1. Exercising. Exercising, in general, helps increase the number of calories you burn in a day. Of course we know we burn the extra calories while we exercise, but some new evidence suggests we even burn extra calories after we exercise (possibly for four to 12 hours after exercise). When you begin to exercise regularly, you use mostly glucose (carbohydrate) as your main fuel during aerobic exercise. Once you get into a regular exercise program and your body becomes fit, it will start to burn fat for the extra energy you need while you are exercising. Generally after exercising 20 minutes, the experienced exerciser is primarily burning fat for fuel. Go for at least 20 minutes of valuable fat-burning time, then you want to strive for those aerobic workouts that go for at least 40 minutes.
2. Build muscle to burn more calories. Muscle cells burn more calories at rest than fat cells do. How many calories are we talking about? About 70 percent of the calories you burn in a day are due to the metabolic activity of your lean body mass (muscle). If you want to build muscle tissue instead of fat tissue, exercise has to be part of your plan. For best results use a combination of aerobic conditioning and strength training, especially during and after menopause.
3. Eat breakfast. Your metabolism (the rate at which the body burns calories) may slow down to conserve fuel. One of the biggest gaps in eating is when we sleep. If you are one of those people who isn't hungry right when you wake up, drink a small glass of juice or milk and then pack some food to bring with you wherever you go. When your hunger kicks in an hour or two later, you will be prepared.
4. Eat small, frequent meals through the day and eat light at night. Each time you eat, you set your body's digestive process in motion. Each time you start it up, you burn calories. The more frequently you eat, the more calories you burn just by digesting your food.
5. Burn more calories digesting high-carbohydrate foods. Your body uses more energy (burns more calories) to metabolize carbohydrates than it does to break down dietary fat. For example, if you eat 100 high-fat calories from potato chips over your calorie needs, about 97 of the 100 calories will probably end up as fat storage. But if you eat 100 higher carbohydrate calories from a baked potato, for example, 77 calories will probably be deposited as fat (because your body burned 23 calories to digest, convert, and store carbohydrate calories).
How to maintain your muscle mass
Muscle mass and muscle strength also decline as you age, because you start losing more and more muscle fibers and nerves that stimulate them. But you enhance your muscle mass through strength training and regular exercise. In terms of diet, you should make sure you are getting enough protein but not too much. The only true way to build muscle is to use muscle.
Start strength training today!
Anyone can start boosting muscle mass by doing appropriate strength training exercises two or three times a week. You may have heard of these other terms for strength training: resistance training, weight training, and isotonics. Strength-training exercises usually involve activities that you repeat eight to 12 times in a row while standing or sitting in one place.
The exercises pull a muscle (or set of muscles) to exhaustion. This encourages the muscle to grow and improve its tone. Strength training can be done two to three times a week for 30 to 40 minutes each session. Here are four great reasons to start strength training ASAP:
1. Strength training builds muscle mass. Because muscle mass requires more calories to sustain itself than body fat, strength training helps raise your metabolic rate.
2. Strength training increases bone density so it also helps reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
3. Strength training can ease the pain of osteoarthritis and may even ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis.
4. The more muscle you have, the less insulin is required to get sugar from the blood to body tissues. Strength training helps reduce your risk of developing diabetes in your later years.
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1. Maximise Your Fat Loss
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