Losing weight is in vogue right now. What with celebrities and teen stars all losing pounds, it is not surprising that the vast majority of teeners in America are also obsessed with weight loss programs. Everyone wants to stay slim as the models that they see strutting in the catwalks.

Everyone wants to be able to dress like their idols Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff.
Weight loss programs, however, can be really expensive. And no amount of saving your monthly allowance will be able to make you afford one. Unless of course you have a trust fund like that of the Hilton sisters!

Losing weight however need not be expensive. In fact, you can lose those additional weight and pounds without even having to shell out a lot of money. This is especially true if you do not really need to lose much. You can actually do it for free. You dont believe me? Read on below and find some tips on how to achieve weight loss for free.

Determine how much to lose

The process of losing weight is different for different people. This is because people need to lose different amounts of weight. A weight loss program that has worked for someone who needs to lose a little over 20 pounds may not work for someone who needs to lose more than 50 pounds. The same goes with people who have the time to work out in a gym and those who opt for home exercise.

Before you determine the right program for losing weight, you have to first know just how much pounds you have to lose. To do this, consult the body mass index to know the ideal weight for your age and your height. After doing this, you will be able to plan your own weight program.

Combine diet and exercise

One of the most costly mistakes both financially and health-wise that teenagers make is to concentrate on just one aspect of dieting. This may not be good for the dieter as concentrating on just one will not balance out the weight loss.

If you diet too much, your body may suffer from the loss of nutrients and exercising too much may lead to muscle pains and body aches. It is important that you combine both of these things to achieve maximum weight loss. What is more, when both of these are combined, weight loss is more permanent and more lasting.

Slowly but surely

Crash diets often do not work in the long run. Oh, it can make you lose weight fast but because of what your body has gone through, you will gain the lost pounds just as fast. In addition, crash diets will only put your body and health in jeopardy. It is important that you give yourself enough time to lose those unwanted pounds slowly but surely. This way, you can be sure that your weigh loss will be for keeps.

Check your commitment meter

One important ingredient in a weight loss program is the hunger for weight loss. You can enroll in the most expensive weight loss program but without the determination to lose weight, your money will just go down the drain. If you have full commitment in the program, even if it is something that you have only planned yourself, you can succeed.

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Basically obesity is when a person has an excessive amount of body fat. Not only does the problem of obesity lie in how a person looks, but it also causes some great health concerns. Obesity can lead to many serious medical conditions including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Levels of body fat in a person are calculated using a formula called BMI or Body Mass Index. If an adult has a BMI of over 30 then they are considered to be obese. If an adult has a BMI of over 40 then they are extremely obese or also known as morbidly obese. The more obese that a person is then the more susceptible they are to serious health conditions.

It is an unfortunate statistic, but one in three Americans is considered to be obese. The number of overweight people is rising all the time due to the huge amount of junk foods available these days and also the lack of exercise. A person can slowly become overweight and then obese before they even realize that they have a problem. When they do realize that they are putting their health at risk with their weight then they may begin to look at weight loss programs to try and lose that excess weight.

As well as heart disease and diabetes, obesity may also cause sleep apnea, snoring, difficulty sleeping, pain in the back and joints, rashes and infections in the creases of the skin, excessive sweating, and get out of breathe easily, fatigue and depression. Any one of these problems can become a real issue for a person and this is when you should seek help to gain control of your weight and ease any of these symptoms. It will not be easy to change your lifestyle and lose weight and you will need to be prepared to make dietary changes and to introduce some physical activity into your life.

Obesity is caused by consuming too many calories in comparison with how many calories burned. The more overweight a person becomes the less physical activity they tend to do and so they are not burning off many of those calories that they are consuming. Lack of exercise and bad diet choices are the leading causes of obesity. Genetic and hormonal influences may also contribute to obesity in some people. When a person is inactive they do not burn off the fat consumed and that fat is then stored in the body.

It is essential to change your eating habits if you are to lose that excess body fat and get back to a healthy weight range. Some tips for changing your eating habits are:

* Stop or limit the amount of fast food you eat.
* Don’t skip breakfast but instead have a nutritional breakfast.
* Don’t eat too much right before bed time.
* Put an end to drinking soft drinks.
* Reduce the portions of the food you eat.
* Drink lots of water.

It is also important to make sure that you get the required amount of sleep every night. When you are not getting enough sleep your hormones can change and increase your appetite leading you to consume more calories during the day.

Introducing exercise into your daily routine can be really difficult to do at first if you are extremely obese. You can start out slowly doing something as simple as going for a 20 minute walk each day and gradually increase that time. As you slowly become fit you can walk faster until you are doing at least 30 minutes of brisk walking each day.

When you feel that you can take on more exercise you may consider joining a gym or taking up a sport that involves cardio exercises to help burn off more fat.

When you have made bad diet and lifestyle choices for a long time it can be difficult to make the change for the better and get your life and your health back on track. Eating unhealthy foods and being inactive is really not worth the health conditions that it can cause so make a decision to change your life and be healthy.

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Obesity is on the rise and the number of people with too much body fat is higher than ever. A human body consists of fat, water, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. When the amount of fat is too high then you are at higher risk of serious medical problems like heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

When you have excess fat in your body it raises your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It can also raise your blood pressure and increase your risk of diabetes. The risk of heart disease is significantly higher when you are obese. In fact a person that is obese may have double the risk of having a major heart attack or a stroke.

When a person consumes more calories than they burn then those calories turn into stored fat. This causes a person to become overweight and may lead to obesity. When there is too many calories consumed that contain a lot of cholesterol and saturated fats the cholesterol levels in the blood increase. This increase of cholesterol will increase the risk of heart disease.

How do you know if you are obese?

Body fat is measure by both body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. If your waistline is more than 35 inches for women and more than 40 inches for men then you are at a high risk of becoming obese.

The BMI is the body weight in comparison to the persons height. This is calculated by taking the body weight (in pounds) and dividing it by the height (in inches) squared then multiply this by 703.

Here are the levels of body mass index calculations:

18.5 or less is considered as being underweight

18.5 to 24.9 is considered a healthy weight range

25.0 to 29.9 is considered as being overweight

30.0 or higher is considered as being obese

40.0 or higher is considered as extreme obesity.

How to reduce or prevent obesity:

1. Add some exercise into your daily routine, even if you start out with something simple such as walking for 30 minutes a day. If you can’t exercise every day then try to exercise at least three to four times a week.

2. Reduce the amount of time you spend doing activities sitting down, such as watching TV or time on the computer.

3. Make fitter choices, such as taking the stairs instead of the lift.

4. Eat a healthy, nutritious diet that is low in fat. Include lots of fruit and vegetables in your diet.

5. Reduce the amount of food consumed each day by making your proportions smaller.

It is easiest to prevent obesity but if you are already obese it isn’t too late to get back to a healthy weight range. To live longer and have a healthier and more active life, try the above tips to get yourself to a healthy weight and stay at a healthy weight. Having a healthy weight range is the best choice for avoiding those serious conditions, such as heart disease and stroke, which you are at higher risk at by being overweight.

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For many morbidly obese people who are facing serious health issues related to their obesity, gastric bypass may be the answer to losing weight and getting healthy. It’s not a quick fix or a ‘lazy persons’ way out, it’s a procedure that can help someone lose a lot of weight more quickly than they could with traditional diet and exercise alone. This quick weight loss is the key since the sooner the weight comes off the more quickly a persons health can improve. While everyone is different and results will be different from one person to the next, here are some gastric bypass statistics that you can consider.

The basic concept behind the surgery is pretty simple: close off a portion of the stomach so a person can’t eat as much food all at once. Eating less food, and taking in fewer calories, will make it possible for someone to lose weight at a significant pace. Since this method emphasizes proper nutrition and lifestyle changes the rapid weight loss doesn’t have the unhealthy aspects that many other rapid forms of weight loss have.

The most important thing to think about is how would you define whether or not the procedure was a success? Would you define it based on a certain amount of weight you lost or would you define it based on whether or not you kept that weight off? Some will define the success or failure of the procedure based solely on achieving, and maintaining, a normal Body Mass Index for over five years after the procedure. Knowing what your expectation are and making sure they are realistic is a very important step for you to take prior to making a final decision on whether or not you are going to undergo the procedure.

For those people who are classified as morbidly obese, having a Body Mass Index of between 30% and 49%, the success rate has been shown to be as high at 93%.

A new category, Super Obese, has been coined and that indicates anyone with a Body Mass Index of above 50%, for those people the success rate actually goes down somewhat to about 57%. ( though it should be noted that for many this simply means that they didn’t get or maintain a normal Body Mass Index for five years or more. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t make dramatic improvements to their overall health).

Many studies have shown that patients who undergo the procedure, and make the required lifestyle changes, will reduce their other obesity related health issues such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

With the very real, and life threatening, health issues associated with being obese, it’s imperative that anyone who is overweight take significant steps to lose weight and improve their mobility. Eating less and moving more can have a huge impact on your health, your appearance, and your overall sense of well being. For some people, surgery will provide them with the best chance of a positive result. While the actual results can vary dramatically from one person to another, the actual gastric bypass statistics tend to show that for many people who are seriously overweight, this surgery can help them achieve the normal Body Mass Index that is at the heart of having a healthy body.

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