Birth control is a method used to prevent pregnancy. Methods for women include hormonal birth control (pills, shots, the patch), a vaginal ring, the implant and intrauterine devices, or IUDs. Not only can birth control protect you from getting pregnant, but many women use birth control to minimize the pain and discomfort associated with menstruation, fibroid tumors and ovarian cysts. Although many birth control methods are effective, some women complain about the weight gain they experience from using certain methods. Luckily, a few things can help control this weight gain.
Instructions
1.Speak with your gynecologist about any concerns you may have about weight gain. Your doctor can evaluate your current health status and inform you of the best ways to control weight gain while using birth control. As part of the evaluation process, your doctor may take a sample of your blood and urine and send it to the lab for testing.
2.Choose birth control with a lower estrogen level such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen, Triphasil, Yasmin, Levlite, LoEstrin and Alesse. Research shows that high doses of estrogen can result in fluid retention and weight gain.
3.Follow a well-balanced diet. Be sure to eat three healthy meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and reduce your sodium intake. Avoid eating foods that are high in sugar and carbohydrates–such as candy, french fries, soda, v–and choose foods that are less fattening.
4.Exercise four to five times a week. You need some form of physical activity to stay healthy and fit. Some effective exercising methods include walking, jogging, swimming, aerobics, biking, tennis and kickboxing.
5.Drink plenty of water every day. You should drink at least six to eight glasses of water a day. Water helps to flush out your system and it also reduces weight gain.
6.Take fluid pills to reduce water retention in your body. Your doctor can prescribe fluid pills or she may recommend over-the-counter pills.
The importance of drinking water and weight loss is often underestimated.
More often than not, we focus so much on the diet or the quantity of food intake, making sure that we don’t eat the wrong food or over-eat at each meal.
However, we might overlook drinking plenty of water.
We recommend that you drink 8 glasses of water per day, but that may take you some time to work up to. Your body needs a whole lot of water. Water doesn’t just flush all the toxins out of your body, but it makes you feel better and healthier.
When you drink a lot of water you just begin to feel fit and this is the motivation you need to lose weight.
You can drink as much water as you want because it has no calories at all. When you’re drinking a lot of water, you tend to eat less also because you won’t feel that you’re starving.
Whenever you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water and you’ll realize you were probably just dehydrated and not hungry at all.
Eight glasses a day rule is really something you should strive for.
One way to make sure your water intake is enough is to buy a jug that is designed to hold exactly 8 glasses of water.
However you measure your water consumption in a day, what really matters is that you’re taking in the water your body needs if you’re on a weight loss program.
Ask any woman what the number one part of her body that she wishes was thinner is and more than half of the responses you will get will be the abdominal region. Who can blame them though? A toned, sexy midsection is a good indication that you are doing something right in the diet and fitness department of your life and definitely does increase your attractiveness level.
Unfortunately though, for most women, one of the hardest places to lose body fat is the abdominal region due to the hormone levels we have. Our bodies simply like to store excess fat here (the other area that is common for women is the thighs and hip area) and are stubborn to release it.
For some individuals, it would take many months of hard dieting coupled with intense exercises sessions in order to get down to body fat levels where you could see really defined abs. This may actually not be healthy either as you do require a certain level of body fat to keep your body functioning properly, particularly where your reproductive abilities are concerned.
Some lucky women are able to simply get down to reasonable levels of body fat to see a clear picture of their abs while others who aren’t so fortunate need to get so lean that the rest of them starts looking a little too thin.
So what is the solution? The trick is to make small adjustments to your diet, workout, the way you carry yourself, all which will aid in making that stomach of yours look more defined and slimmer.
Try one of these next time you are feeling a little more than conscious about this area of your body.
Dietary Changes
Watch Your Sodium Intake
The biggest dietary change you should make to help trim up your midsection in the short term is watching your sodium intake. High amounts of salty foods are really going to create a bloated look, which will distend the stomach and make you carry excess water weight.
Be aware that there are some foods that have ‘hidden’ salt that you would never think to be a culprit. For example, prepared chocolate pudding has a much higher sodium level than people would guess. Similarly, many packaged snack foods such as granola bars, string cheese and crackers are quite high in salt.
The obvious ones to be aware of are any tomato-based products, canned soups and stews, sandwich meat and frozen dinner entrees. If you are going to consume some of these foods, try and consume them in moderate doses along with plenty of water to help flush that excess salt out of your system.
Increase Your Vegetable Intake – But Within Limits
Often dieters, upon starting a new diet will eat boatloads of vegetables because not only are they virtually fat free, they are not very calorie dense, hence making them the perfect diet food. This is great as they are also filled with many vitamins and minerals, all of which your body needs to maintain proper health.
The downside to this however, in the short term, is that vegetables are another very bloat-causing type of food, potentially even more so than sodium. If you’ve ever eaten a very large stir-fry, you may have noticed you looked a little pregnant afterwards. Sure it’s a funny way to put it, but it’s very close to the truth. All this fiber hits your digestive system and the lower portion of the abdomen starts sticking out as if you were 3-6 months along already. Not a fun thing when you are trying to squeeze into a tiny dress or pair of pants.
So keep your vegetable intake up, as it is important health-wise, but don’t overdo it if you have a special event or date coming up where you want to look slimmer. Long term, a high intake of vegetables will definitely help you lose weight which is what will really make you look thinner permanently but for the same or next day, a reduced vegetable intake may be beneficial.
Beware of Soda And Gum
Are you a heavy diet soda drinker? Or maybe you are popping gum continuously throughout the day in an effort to keep yourself from snacking. Again, while both of these habits aren’t really that detrimental in the long term as far as weight loss is concerned (assuming you are drinking diet soda of course – albeit water would be better), in the short term when you consume these things you also take in high amounts of extra air with it. In the soda this comes in the form of carbonation and with gum it’s all that chewing you are doing. Both of these issues will then increase the air in your system and you guessed it,could potentially cause bloating. To help yourself look thinner you will want to try and avoid mass consumption of these things.
Workout Changes
Along with the small dietary changes you can make to get your midsection looking thinner, these quick workout changes can also help speed the process along.
Go Hard On The Weights
You’re first inclination might be to hit the treadmill for a couple of hours to try and blast away a maximum amount of calories. Unfortunately while you will burn calories, it isn’t really going to make you look that much thinner – unless of course you sweat out buckets of water, which will in effect cause a weight loss. A better approach however would be to do a couple of really great strength training sessions. This will help bring oxygen to the muscles and give you a nice toned look. If you’ve ever watched a bodybuilding or fitness competition, many times right before going on stage competitors will perform a few exercises to help ‘pump’ their muscles up. So the same idea applies here. It doesn’t have to be strictly ab exercises you do either as your abs will be working in almost every exercise you do as an synergistic (helper) muscle. If looking thinner is your goal, spend half your time on the cardio equipment (as this is important too) and then dive into some weight training. You will be much better off.
Take A Yoga Class
While yoga, unless you are doing an intense power yoga form, isn’t exactly the greatest calorie burner, what it will do is really help to lengthen your muscles giving you a long and lean appearance. Taking a yoga class once or twice a week will not only help reduce muscle tension and relieve stress, but it will also help to teach you the proper posture that you should be maintaining thus giving you the elongated look that you are going for.
Work Your Abs On An Exercise Ball
If you normally spend your workout sessions crunching away on the matt, give an exercise ball a try. The nice thing about this piece of equipment is that it allows you to work your muscles through a larger range of motion thus targeting more muscle fibers. For you this will mean a firm, tighter midsection, rather than small bulging muscles closer to the center of your stomach (since when you crunch you focus in on these more directly). Keep in mind the importance of breathing while performing your ab exercises, as this is a common mistake people make.
So if you are after a thinner waistline, rather than torturing yourself through months of dieting, try one of these simple techniques. While obviously a healthy diet is most important for long-term fat loss, these are great ideas to help you get leaner in a matter of days.
Using Pilates floor work, a series of exercise movements designed to make the trunk strong and flexible, is a great way to develop beach-ready definition quickly, according to Colleen Glenn, a 25-year Pilates veteran who teaches in Denver. “These exercises are the best choice for a 20-minute circuit done at least four times week in adjunct with a good cardio program.”
Twisting supine: Lie on back with knees bent and lift above the hips, and arms in a T-position with palms facing up.
Slowly bring both knees to the right as far as you can. Tighten the abdominal muscles and bring your knees to the center. Slowly bring both knees to the right as far as you can. Go back and forth slowly for eight repetitions.
After finishing the repetitions, hold the legs on each side for five to eight breaths.
Pilates 100: Lie on back (try to keep your lower back firmly on the floor through the exercise). Lift legs up about a foot from the floor. Lift your neck and upper back off the floor and lift your arms. Begin to pump your arms up and down while breathing in for a count of five, then breathing out for a count of five. Repeat for 10 repetitions.
Bring your knees to your chest and wrap them in your arms to rest.
Prone leg-lifts: Lie on stomach with forehead on palms. Lift legs long and low. Beat legs together 20 times,
sqeezing buttocks. Repeat three or four sets.
Swan neck rolls: Lie on mat face down. Legs can be together or shoulder-width apart. Place hands under shoulders.
Engage your abdominals and lengthen through your spine while lifting your chest through your hands and keeping your arms next to your ribs. Allow your neck to slowly drop to the right side, then the left side. Slowly bring your chin to center and then down to your chest. Continue the neck roll a few times each side. Then switch directions. Lower your upper body and rest your forehead on the mat.
Side-lying leg series (optional: one pound leg weights): Lie on side and support head with hand. Lift top leg to the sky 10 times. Repeat for three repetitions. Repeat on alternate side. On original side, use top leg to kick out to front and then to back five times each. Repeat for three repetitions. Repeat on alternate side.
Plank: Press up to pushup position and hold for up to two minutes.
Pilates pushups with hamstring stretch: Hold elbows into rib case. Keep legs extended or come down to knees for three pushups. Walk hands back to feet to stretch the back and handstrings. Walk back out again for three pushups.
Repeat one more time.
Wall sits: With back against a wall, bring thighs parallel to the floor with knees directly over feet. Hold for up to two minutes for three sets. Optional: use weights in arms and hold them in front of you as you sits:hold the sit.
