Facts about Healthy Weight

• Weight gain during adulthood may contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and other serious health problems.
• The extra weight gained between Thanksgiving and New Year’s usually isn’t lost during the rest of the year and contributes to weight-related health problems later in life.
• People who are overweight at the start of the holidays are more likely to gain around five pounds during these six weeks than people who are not overweight.
• The only way to lose weight is to eat less. Exercise and all the rest are helpful, but weight is about how many calories you eat. And when you lower how many calories you eat you're bound to feel hunger cramps.
• Weight loss happens when you eat less calories than you burn.
• Eat and chew slowly. Learn to stop eating before you feel full. (It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to tell the brain that it is full!)
• To lose weight safely and keep it off requires long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits. Many experts recommend a goal of losing about a pound a week. A modest reduction of 500 calories per day will achieve this goal.
• The vast majority of people who try to lose weight fail, and the vast majority of those who do lose weight regain it.
• One reason for the low success rate is that many people look for quick and easy solutions to their weight problems. They find it hard to believe in this age of scientific innovations and medical miracles that an effortless weight-loss method doesn't exist.
• Hunger is relatively slow to subside, and it can cause you to eat more than you intended.
• Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Instead of three meals per day, try eating five or six smaller meals. By eating more frequently, there will be less time between your meals, and less chance of you experiencing intense hunger.