The new nutrition labels make it easier than ever to determine total and saturated fat intake. Maintaining a healthy body weight may be the best single move you can make to ensure good health. Lugging around extra fat, especially fat around the abdomen, increases your chances for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. It may also aggravate lower back pain and contribute to low energy levels. A healthful, long term weight control regimen includes tasty foods from all of the food groups, promotes weight loss of no more than a pound a week, and uses exercise to achieve and maintain a desirable weight.
Many people exercise for weight control.
The higher your HDL, the better. More to the point, studies show that active people live longer. Increasingly, experts are recommending a combination of aerobic activity, such as brisk walking and bicycling, and strength training, commonly known as weight lifting. You don't need to jog daily or climb mountains to reap the benefits of physical activity, however. New research suggests that even moderate movement, including gardening, dancing, strolling, and household chores, promotes good health when done regularly, for 30 minutes per day, four to five times a week.