EXERCISE AND HEALTHY EATING

To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, you need to balance healthy eating and exercising. Eating puts calories into your body, and exercising burns calories. If you're out of balance, then you will gain or lose weight.

If you're trying to lose weight, you should burn more calories than you consume. This process starts with a healthy diet that contains the right number of calories for you. Ideal caloric intake depends on several factors, such as age, body size and level of activity. Generally, women ages 23 to 50 need an average of 2,000 calories per day, while men in the same age group require about 2,400 calories per day.

As you add exercise into your daily activities, start slowly. If you haven't been active until now, you don’t want to overdo it and hurt yourself. If you're using exercise to help lose weight, aim for a pace that is just below the point of breathing quickly. This pace helps mobilize fat burning and helps you develop endurance.

In addition to reaching or maintaining your goal weight, balancing a healthy diet with exercise can help you reduce your risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases.