You might say that you already knew that. Others may also say that this method is not only obsolete but it is too simple. But sometimes the things that work are the simplest things to do.

Losing weight does not have to be something that is either complicated or extraordinary. The weight loss truth is: all you need to do is practice healthy eating.

So why do we always promote healthy eating? What makes it essential to everybody’s life? There are plenty of reasons why healthy eating is a good practice to start today. Lets review the different food groups available out there, and why we need them.

Go Foods

Go Foods: This group comprises the carbohydrate-rich food. Examples are breads, cereals, rice, and pasta.

As the word “go” implies, this group of food helps keep you going. When you need to be on the go then eat carbohydrate-rich food. Carbohydrates are responsible for giving you the energy that you need. When you eat carbohydrate-rich food the body either utilizes or stores them for future use.

There really is no need to worry about eating this type of food. You cannot avoid eating carbohydrates even when you are on a weight loss diet. Did you know that carbohydrates also serve as a fuel for your metabolism?

Go Foods are especially important for athletes and people who spend a large amount of time exercising. Carbohydrates are the body’s expendable fuel for activity. So now you know why marathon runners have a pasta-rich meal the night before a big race!

Grow Foods

Grow Foods: This food group comprises the protein-rich foods. There’s lean red meat, chicken, fish, and cottage cheese to name a few.

These foods are responsible in building tissues which makes up your muscles. They also aid in the “growing years” of a child. Thus the word – grow.

Protein is not only good for building but also good for the repair and maintenance of your muscles (these include wound healing and body development). Protein allows for muscle recovery – For example, when you lift weights, your muscles literally rip apart (on a microscopic level). The body needs protein to rebuild them, and when it does, they come back just a bit stronger than before.

Glow Foods

Glow Foods: You should not forget to include this food group in your healthy eating diet. This food group comprises the vitamins and minerals. They help you keep glowing. You can find many, if not all, of your required vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables.

We all know that there is a long list of vitamins and minerals. Each vitamin and mineral has its own function to carry. From vitamin A which we all know is good for the eyesight to vitamin C which is essential for fighting infection.

Keeping a Balance

Remember how people would say that money is not bad in itself but the wrong use of money is what makes it bad? The same analogy can be applied in the food you eat. If you think about it, the problem is not the food itself but the quantity consumed.

We all know that too much of everything is bad for you. So just remember to keep these three food groups in balance and be disciplined enough. Never eat only protien (like the Atkins Diet [read about the dangers of too much protien]) or only carbohydrates (the You Gain a LOT of Weight Diet) Balance is what healthy eating is all about.

However, lack of time has always been an excuse as to why people do not exercise. It may be because of work, school or other commitments. What you may not realize is the value that exercise can bring.

Why We Need Even the Smallest Amount of Exercise

Why do you need to exercise? Really, it is not just to burn those 100 calories (which you can do whenever you walk a mile!), it does so much more. When you exercise or stay active, your metabolic rate increases, hence, making you burn calories faster. This is true even after a few hours after exercising. Over the course of a few weeks, your metabolism will really speed up if you stick to an exercise program.

Don’t be Afraid of Gaining Muscle from Exercise

Walking to lose weight helps prevent the body from moving towards the starvation or hibernation response. This is where the body saves up the calories consumed for future use. By moving about, you are resisting the body’s attempt to move into this condition.

Some people may think that when they exercise, they gain more pounds because of the muscles that they get. The truth is they do gain a few pounds of lean tissue as they lose body fat. But in the end you have to be less focused on how much you weigh, but more concerned with how you look.

Still, the good thing about this is that lean tissue is required especially when you want to metabolize your body’s fat content. On the other hand, those who diet but do not get exercise lose out on lean tissue supply. Hence, they have decreased muscle tissue that could have helped metabolize fat.

How-to Walk to Lose Weight

So how do you obtain those muscles? For beginners, you should focus on the distance and time that you spend on walking. You increase the building of leg muscles (calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings) as you spend more time on walking. For those who have been walking for months or years, you will need to alter your walking style to build more muscles just from walking.

Learning to race-walk, you would be building new muscle and burning more calories per mile. For those who are not interested in race walking to build muscle, you should add some strength training to your weekly exercise schedule in addition to walking in order to build muscle.

Warm Up Before Intensive Walking

Every time you walk, you have to start with a warm-up type of exercise. It does not need to be strenuous right away. This is just to send signals from your brain to your body muscles and let them “know” that you plan to undergo something “heavy to the body” or be active for a while. A suggested warm up type of exercise is casual walking for a few minutes. Three minutes tops can do your body good. It will help prepare your body adjust to your exercise routine for the day.

If you immediately start on a high speed, your cells won’t get the signal that what you intend to do is a long term activity. As time goes by, increase the speed of your walk to be able to burn more calories. Do a cooling down walk at the end as well.

When you’re walking to lose weight for at least six hours a week, you also achieve better fitness and decrease your chance of getting heart disease, breast cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Keep in mind that having an active lifestyle truly brings a lot of benefits to you. So take your dog for a walk, the baby on a stroller, whatever it takes to get you out there!