Many people decide that one of their New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. Unfortunately, it seems to take a lot longer for the weight to come off than it did to put on the extra pounds we are concerned about after the Holidays. The following 4 weight loss tips that work will help you to make positive changes you can stick with throughout the year.

1. Start by Making Small Changes

Resist the urge to slash your caloric intake in half and to never let anything that you consider “bad” past your lips for the rest of your life. No matter how motivated you are at the beginning, you are setting yourself up for failure. A better choice is to start by making small changes, like substituting a salad for fries with a meal or choosing lean meats and whole grains whenever possible.

2. Drink Plenty of Water

Many people are not well hydrated as they go through their daily activities. It’s easy to interpret feeling thirsty as hunger signals. Carry a reusable water bottle with you and refill it several times throughout the day. It will help your body to flush out impurities and burn calories more efficiently. When you don’t drink enough, the body thinks that you are living in drought conditions and tends to hold onto the water that it has. Drinking plenty of fluids causes the excess stores to be flushed out, leading to weight loss.

3. Combine Exercise with a Sensible Diet Plan

If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you are taking in. By increasing your level of physical activity, you can become more physically fit while burning calories. Ideally, you want to have five, 30-minute sessions per week where you are exercising. The good news is that exercising for 10 minutes at a time can provide some benefit.

4. Add Weight Training to Your Exercise Routine

Working out with weights helps you to build up lean muscle in your body. Muscle burns calories at a higher rate than an equivalent amount of fat does, which will help you to lose weight. This is the reason weightlifters need to consume large numbers of calories each day. By adding weight training to your exercise routine, you are less likely to get bored and give up on your goal to be more physically active.

Losing weight is something that can lower your risk of heart disease. Here are some simple tips to help you get on the right nutritional track:

1. Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet.

Fruits and vegetables are tasty and low in calories. They provide much-needed fiber and fill you up so that you are less likely to eat between meals. Start by adding a piece of fruit at breakfast and lunch and a salad at dinner a few times a week.

2. Keep an eye on portion sizes.

Restaurant portions tend to be much larger than what the average person needs. Don’t feel obligated to finish everything on your plate when you go out to eat. Take some of your food home to enjoy later on.

3. Resist the temptation to skip meals.

Eating regularly keeps your blood sugar stable and helps to prevent overeating at meal time.

Being overweight increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. If you are trying to lose weight and improve your health, diet alone won’t help you to reach this goal. To achieve permanent weight loss, you need to include exercise and strength training in the mix.

Exercising regularly helps improve your health in several ways. It increases your heart rate, which strengthens the heart and burns calories. Regular physical activity also releases endorphins, which help to relieve stress and anxiety. Exercise can also help to relieve the symptoms of depression.

Adding strength training into the mix helps with weight loss because muscle tissue is active, which means that it burns fat to feed itself. When you build up your muscle mass, your body is able to burn fat more effectively. Aerobic activity and strength training combined will help you to achieve permanent weight loss.

Most of us associate losing weight with going on a diet. We think that if we cut back on calories or limit ourselves to only a few “magic” foods we will shed unwanted pounds quickly and reach our ideal weight. The truth is that diets don’t work. If you want to achieve a healthy weight, you need to be prepared to make long-term changes to what and how much you eat…and stick to them.

You didn’t put on the weight overnight, and it’s not realistic to think that it is going to come off that quickly. Start by making some small changes, like substituting a baked potato for French fries at lunch or dinner. Plan to eat a salad with your lunch or dinner every day. Permanent changes that you can stick with are key to achieving a healthy weight.

Experts have linked obesity and the risk of heart disease for some time. The results of a new study have been released, and the results are surprising. Being a bit chubby can help you live longer.

If you happen to be slightly overweight at the age of 40, you will live an average of six-seven years longer than a person who is very thin. Japanese researchers from Tohoku University followed 50,000 people between the ages of 40 and 79 for 12 years.

The idea that thin people have shorter a shorter lifespan due to illness or smoking was debunked by the study. Skinny people have shorter don’t live as long because they are more likely to get diseases like pneumonia and the research showed they have more fragile blood vessels.

If you have had a heart attack, you may be thinking that what your heart needs is rest. This may be true for the first few days, and your doctor will let you know when it’s safe for you to start being physically active again. Over time, you will want to start including more activities in your routine so that you can strengthen your heart.

Once the doctor tells you that you can start exercising after heart attack, you will want to start slowly. The first step may be to start with some stretching exercises and walking for a short period of time. Before more vigorous exercise is allowed, you will likely be asked to undergo a stress test. During the test, you will be asked to walk on a treadmill while your heart rate is being monitored. The test results will help your doctor develop an exercise plan for you.

Follow Your Doctor’s Instructions

Your doctor will let you know how much exercise you should be doing and how soon after a heart attack it is safe for you to do so. If something isn’t clear, be sure to ask questions. Being physically active will help you to control your weight and may help to reduce your blood pressure as well.

Ask About Resuming Sexual Activity

When you talk to your doctor about exercise, you should also ask how long you will need to abstain from sex. You may be told that you need to wait a few weeks before making love. When the doctor gives you the go-ahead, start off slowly. If you have questions or concerns, ask your doctor about them at your next appointment.

Warning Signs While Exercising

If you experience any of the following signs, you need to contact your doctor immediately:

• Shortness of breath for several minutes
• Chest pains
• Pain in your arm, neck, or jaw
• Feeling dizzy
• Nausea or vomiting
• Pain or swelling in the legs
• Cold sweats
• Pallor

If your body is shaped more like an apple than a pear, you may be at increased risk of developing heart disease. A recent study conducted on children in Australia has revealed that they are more likely to carry body fat in their stomach area than in their limbs.

Researchers examined children using calipers to determine how much body fat was present in the upper arm under the shoulder blade. The results of the study, which was conducted over a 50-year period, indicate that the amount of body fat in children is increasing by almost a full percentage point every decade. This is disturbing news, since people who are obese tend to have more health issues than those who are at a normal weight. Obesity in children sets them up for health problems at a younger age than those who put on weight in adulthood.

If you want to lower your risk of developing heart disease, keeping your triglyceride levels down is important. When you have high triglyceride levels in your bloodstream, the risk of coronary blockage increases.

Definition of Triglycerides

The term “triglycerides” refers to fatty deposits that are stored in the body. When you eat carbohydrates, the body turns them into glucose, which is food for your body’s cells. The cells use the glucose for energy, and any excess amount of glucose is returned back to the liver, where it is turned into glycogen. The glycogen is stored in your body’s muscles.

When your body has reached its upper limit of glycogen, any excess amount goes back your liver. At this point, the glycogen becomes triglycerides, and it is stored in the body as fat. Some of the triglycerides remain in the bloodstream, and this can be problematic.

High Triglyceride Levels

When the triglyceride levels in the bloodstream are too high, the blood becomes thicker than normal. This thickened blood is more likely to clot or block the coronary arteries, which may cause either a heart attack or a stroke. Keeping your triglyceride levels down is one of the keys to preventing heart disease.

While it is important to keep your cholesterol levels at an acceptable level, triglyceride levels are also crucial. If you are unfortunate enough to have high cholesterol and high triglycerides, then your chances of developing heart disease greatly increase.

The diet you choose to follow directly affects your triglyceride levels. Your goal should be to keep a close eye on anything that your body will convert to glucose when you eat it. Many popular diets that people are following these days are low carbohydrate ones, and following one of them will lower your body’s triglyceride levels.

In addition to limiting your carbohydrate intake, you should also avoid eating a lot of sugar. Sugar is another substance that your body will convert into glucose (and eventually triglycerides) when you eat it.

Making a point of consuming Omega 3 fatty acids if you want to lower your triglyceride levels. Vitamin C will also help to keep the levels down.

If you combine these two supplements with a low-carbohydrate diet, you will be well on your way to keeping your triglyceride levels down.

Take great care that you don’t try to eliminate all fat in your diet. You need to consume a certain amount of fat in order to stay healthy. Plan to include natural animal fat (found in eggs and butter) in your diet. The kind of fat in fast food, margarine, and processed foods is the type you want to avoid.

Your triglyceride levels can be checked when you see your doctor for a checkup. A blood test will give you and your doctor an idea of whether your triglyceride levels are too high. If your triglyceride levels are under 199mg/dL, that is considered normal. Keep in mind that these levels should be kept as low as possible for optimal health.

Your diet is a factor in your risk for developing heart disease. You can lower this risk by making a few simple changes. Don’t worry; eating healthy foods doesn’t mean that the food you eat will be boring or that you need to completely sacrifice taste for your health.

If you want to lower your risk of heart disease by changing your diet, start slowly. Incorporate one heart-healthy diet change at a time and get used to it before changing something else. Most people don’t like change at the best of times, and you want to start eating better permanently, not just for a few weeks, to improve your health.

Here are 5 simple diet tips that will cut your risk for heart disease:

1. Choose fish or poultry more often.

Yes, you can still have red meat. You need to get into the habit of trimming off visible fat and buying meat that has less marbling.

2. Take the skin off chicken before cooking it.

Chicken skin has a high fat content, and you can either buy it without skin or remove it yourself.

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables.

Add fruit to your breakfast cereal or yogurt. Cut up carrots and celery sticks and have them in the refrigerator ready to eat. Put a bowl of fruit out in your kitchen so it is readily available when you are looking for a snack. Grate carrots and add them to soups and stews while cooking.

4. Read labels when grocery shopping and buy the lower-salt product.

We do need some salt in our diet to stay healthy, but most people consume way too much of it. Processed food can contain a lot of salt, so you will want to get in the habit of  buying the product with the lower amount of sodium in it.

5. Cut back on desserts and other sweets.

Dessert doesn’t necessarily need to be cakes and cookies. It can be a fresh fruit salad or some low-fat frozen yogurt. If you want to have something sweet occasionally, have a small portion and enjoy it. Then go back to making healthier choices most of the time.

Being overweight or obese does increase the likelihood that you will be diagnosed with heart disease during your lifetime. The risk does diminish if  you can get to a heart healthy weight, though. Following a balanced diet that includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products and whole grains is a good place to start. There are no “good” or "bad" foods, and you can still have a treat on special occasions, so long as you eat healthy foods most of the time. Try eating well at least 80 percent of the time, and you can enjoy special foods at other times, too.