Over Weight

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OVER WEIGHT

If you're even 20 percent overweight (say, you should weigh 120 pounds, but tip the scale at 144 pounds), health risks soar for high blood pressure and cholestrol, diabetes and other diseases.

Leave excess pounds in the dust

Watch less TV, get more exercise

The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to exercise, even if it's something as simple as turning off the TV and going for a walk around the block.

Walk a little now and a little later

If exercise seems overwhelming at first, start small and work up to it. Walk for 15 minutes at lunch and another 15 minutes when you get home from work, or walk for 10 minutes, with a goal of gradually increasing your exercise time.

Trim 600 calories a day from your present diet

The simplest way to do is to eat less. You can easily do this by switching from whole milk to skim, ordering foods like fish and potatoes-baked instead of fried-switching to fat-free mayo and salad dressing and taking, similar small calorie-saving steps.

Eat half as much

Do you usually fill your plate or, if you're at a restaurant eat everything that you're served. Try eating half as much.

Chew the fat less

You don't have to leave out fat entirely, but you should keep it to 20 percent of your diet: That includes butter, fat in meat or nuts and, yes, the occational sweet treat.

Break your nightly fast

Breakfast is the day's most important meal, because it's your body's signal that it's time to fight fat. While you sleep, your body stores food as fat so that you won't starveto death. Eating lets your fat-burning enzymes know that it's time to get up and go to work. If you don't eat, your body will continue to store food as fat.

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