Part 2 - How To Lose 50 Pounds And Keep It Off

Yes, you can help yourself lose 50 pounds, by simply increasing your daily movement. In other words there are things that you do every single day, which will help you keep from adding extra pounds or taking off the extra pounds; you have already gained. The following daily activities will guide you in the right direction to being more healthy, by losing weight safely and easily.

Remember, you don’t have to just reduce the amount of food you eat to have 500 fewer calories in your system. You can also burn the calories. In a later article, we’ll deal with developing an exercise program. But first, in this section, we’ll look at ways to burn calories while going about your daily life.

For instance, many busy people hire others to handle their house work and landscaping. But, cleaning and keeping up with your yard are actually great ways to burn calories. Instead of spending money on a gym membership, you will actually be saving money by not paying a cleaning service.

On average, an hour of housework burns 160 calories. To burn 350 calories, a 150 pound woman could do the following bucket of activities in about two hours a day:

* 15 minutes cleaning bathroom (65 calories)
* 15 minutes vacuuming (60 calories)
* 10 minutes taking trash out (28 calories)
* 10 minutes sweep kitchen floors (37 calories)
* 20 minutes cleaning kitchen and washing dishes) (52 calories)
* 15 minutes of laundry (37 calories)
* 25 minutes of cooking (71 calories)

Consider that these are all things that need to be done anyway and you see that the value of doing them yourself may exceed the value of your paying someone else to do them while you head to a pricey gym.

If you have kids, consider spending time with them. Not only will you pry them away from their video games, but you will get exercise in the process. Shooting baskets with your child burns 77 calories in just 15 minutes. Even relatively sedate activities like putting together a puzzle with a child on the floor burns 43 calories in 15 minutes.

Finally, there are figurative steps you can take to build more literal steps in your day. If you are trying to lose weight, get a pedometer and aim to walk 10,000 steps a day. You can do this by:

* Parking farther away from the front door at work.
* Getting off the bus a stop or two earlier than you otherwise would.
* Taking the stairs whenever possible. If you work in a tall building, get off the elevator a
couple of floors early and walk the rest of the way.
* Instead of phoning or emailing a colleague in your office, actually get up and walk over
to her desk.
* Get a dog and walk him twice a day.
* Take a walk with your spouse after dinner

As you can easily see that to lose 50 pounds and keep it off dosen't require a huge outlay of cash or going on a self punishing weight loss diet. With a little dedication and discipline, not only will you begin losing 50 pounds, but you will improve your overall physical health.