Is a weight loss diet necessary or do we simply need to starve ourselves?

You need to understand how a weight loss program will work for you. Count fat, not calories is a modern slogan in weight loss programs. The concept seems more realistic given the fact that we need to reduce harmful fat from our diets and eat green and healthy.

Dietary fat consists of more calories and is converted to body fat easily than either protein or carbohydrates. So when we talk about fat, we are essentially talking about extra calories. Carbohydrates and proteins each have just four calories per gram, compared with nine calories per gram of fat.

Eating habits to maintain higher metabolism

Eat small and regular meals and avoid eating in between the meals. Just eat enough to satisfy your cravings, not until you are full. According to Ronna Kabatznick, Ph.D., psychological consultant to Weight Watchers International and a specialist in weight control, "In order to lose weight successfully, you have to have a certain level of inner satisfaction, which you get by eating things that make you feel good.

If you don't eat those things, you'll walk around feeling deprived on a psychological level and deprived on a physical level, and eventually you'll binge or start eating more of the things you don't particularly want."

Change your thinking pattern

Don't let your weight determine your behavior. Let a healthy lifestyle determine your weight. Six to eight hours of sleep is necessary. Focus on what is healthy for your body rather than how much your body should weigh. Women need to be careful about their weight loss. Women have more fat cells on the hips and thighs than do men, and estrogen helps to take fat there and keep it there.

In fact, the average female body needs to have 120,000 calories stored up as fat so it can deliver the next generation, even in a famine.

Weight loss program, A Threefold process

Any weight loss program comprises of a threefold process. First, cut down on what's building it up. Research shows that the gut grabs fat when you drink alcohol, smoke or are under stress. Second, remove the fat that is already there with aerobic exercise.

You need at least 20 to 30 minutes of continuous aerobic exercise 3-4 times a week to burn extra fat. Remember that you not only have to exercise enough to release fat into the bloodstream but also have to keep going long enough to burn it.

Third, tone your body. Core training, abdominal crunches and weight training will tone the muscles so that your body looks tighter and firmer when the fat is gone. The key to an effective weight loss program is a proper diet and consistent physical activity.