Tips on How to Lose Weight

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I've been asked to give you some tips on weight loss. There are a lot of different things that you can do to lose weight. The main thing that you want to keep in mind is that you want to think of it as a life process, you want to make sure that it's a lifestyle for you that includes physical activity and healthy eating. Healthy eating doesn't mean that you can't ever have a treat, it means that you have items such as desserts exactly like that as a treat, not something that you have on a daily basis, you save those things for special occasions. So on an everyday basis a healthy diet would be one that includes a variety of fruits, a variety of vegetables, different types of whole grains such as brown rice, beans, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, lean sources of protein whether that comes from nuts or seeds, beans, lean meat such as sirloin or poultry without the skin on it or seafood. The other that you want to make sure you include is a lot of fresh water, a lot of plain water. Avoid beverages that have added calories, whether that comes from added sugar or some other type of high calorie sweetener like high fructose corn syrup. So you want to avoid any of those excess calories from beverages. As far as your physical activity, you want a variety of things, things that will increase your heart health such as aerobic type activities, whether they be walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, any of those items are considered cardiovascular. You also want to include strength training because if you have more muscle, that actually decreases your body fat, so strength training can involve weights in a gym or it can involve your own body weight doing things like push ups, walking lunges or squats, again just with your own body weight. You also don't want to neglect stretching, your flexibility is very important so you want to include a stretching routine that will actually prevent any injuries from doing the other types of exercise. So general tips for weight loss, again, basically eating a healthy diet and including some type of physical activity most days of the week."