Most people understand that eating healthy foods and engaging in regular exercise will help them achieve a healthy weight. For obese people, however, these ideals can be difficult to accomplish. Diets often fail because the dieter reverts to previous eating habits afterward, and experts advise small, steady lifestyle changes whose results will endure long-term.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control encourages keeping a list of daily food habits, including what you eat and how quickly. It also promotes reviewing the cues that trigger excess eating, such as boredom, emotional distress and easily accessible sweets and junk food. Simple changes such as eating more slowly, putting your fork down between bites, drinking more water and planning healthy meals ahead can add up to many calories saved over the course of a day. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a healthy weight?

A healthy weight is a weight that lowers your risk for health problems. For most people, body mass index (BMI) and waist size are good ways to tell if they are at a healthy weight.

But reaching a healthy weight isn’t just about reaching a certain number on the scale or a certain BMI. Having healthy eating and exercise habits is even more important. When you’re active and eating well, your body will settle into a weight that is healthy for you.

If you want to get to a healthy weight and stay there, healthy lifestyle changes will work better than dieting. Reaching a certain number on the scale is not as important as having a healthy lifestyle.

Why pay attention to your weight?

Staying at a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do for your health. It can help prevent serious health problems, including:

• Heart disease.
• Stroke.
• High blood pressure.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• Sleep apnea.

But weight is only one part of your health. Even if you carry some extra weight, eating healthy foods and being more active can help you feel better, have more energy, and lower your risk for disease. Read the rest of this entry »

A good diet is always important for health, but the stakes are especially high for people with heart disease. Food can either help protect the heart or provide fuel for a heart attack.

The diet plan you choose to prevent heart disease will depend on your unique risk factors. People with hypertension, for example, should choose a plan low in sodium and fat.

Those with high cholesterol should consider a diet rich in olive oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and other heart-healthy fats.Those who need to lose weight should consider a calorie-restricted version of their heart-healthy diet. On average, cutting 500 calories a day from your diet leads to a loss of one pound per week. The safest way to lose weight is to aim to drop up to one pound per week; crash diets can be harmful and rarely lead to permanent weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »

The old thought was that vigorous exercise could be dangerous to people at risk for heart disease. Emerging evidence suggests that the more vigorous the workout, the more value to your heart—though short, 15-minute spurts of exercise may be as beneficial as one marathon session.

One cardiovascular death per year may be preventable for every 145 people with diabetes who are persuaded to walk at least two hours a week, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Exercise keeps you ticking
David Cullen’s brother Steve died of a heart attack in 1995 at age 40. In 2002 two more of his brothers died of the same fate, one day apart. Cullen, a state representative from Milwaukee, doesn’t expect to die young. At 5’11″, he weighs only 165 pounds and has low cholesterol. He credits his good health to running six to eight miles each day.

How exercise clears arteries
Exercise helps dilate the body’s blood vessels and enables blood to circulate more freely, said Byung-il William Choi, MD, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

In one study Harvard researchers found up to a 20% reduction of heart-disease risk for those who most frequently got vigorous exercise. This category included running or jogging, swimming laps, playing tennis, or doing aerobics. Read the rest of this entry »