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Ride a Bike, Eat Right and Loose Some Extra Pounds

Weight loss is the biggest obstacle between most people and current standards of beauty. Part of the problem is that our current standards are based on the less-than-one-percent of the population who manages to stay 15-20 pounds underweight, but the weight loss situation in the U.S. in particular has worsened drastically because we eat like pigs. Food is cheaper in the U.S. than anywhere in the world, junk food makes up a large part of the national diet, and most of us are addicted to sugar. Add this to the fact that most Americans now get about as much daily exercise as the average bookend, and the big mystery behind the explosion of heart disease and intestinal problems experienced by so many Americans is explained with utter clarity.

The common understanding is that combining diet and exercise is the best weight-loss solution. If I had to pick one, I'd choose increased exercise. Exercise raises your metabolism for hours after you're done working out, increasing your fat-burning capacity. It also makes you feel good, keeps your bones strong and reduces stress. A half-hour of aerobic exercise three or four times a week is the general prescription for good muscle tone and healthy aerobic capacity.

Certain Dieting Patterns Make You Gain Weight Over Time

Dieting works, to an extent. The drawback to dieting is that, once the diet is over, the weight tends to return. For people who undertake strict diets that limit their caloric intake without considering their daily nutritional needs, the weight comes back and then some, so that someone who loses twenty pounds on a crash diet may very well gain back thirty. Furthermore, strict diets tell the body that there's a famine on, and the body is a very smart machine. When you start eating again, your body remembers the recent famine, lowering its metabolism to conserve fuel. Your body hangs onto the new calories like grim death, storing away fats, converting carbohydrates to yet more fats, trying to save you from starvation. And there you are, hungry still, but fatter than ever.

The other problem with dieting, especially for kids and teens, is that dieting greatly increases the chance of acquiring an eating disorder. Teaching kids correct eating habits is one way to prevent childhood obesity, but between school lunches and a culture entirely focused on snacking, that had better not be your only strategy. Raising kids who think it's fun to go canoeing, who'd rather go swimming than play a computer game is a better way to keep them at a healthy weight.