Obesity has risen significantly over the last few decades. Being obese and carrying around excessive weight can increase your vulnerability to various health conditions like diabetes, heart issues, and high blood pressure, among others. Hence, losing weight is critical to maintaining optimal overall health.
Best Ways of Losing Weight
Here are the best strategies to help you lose weight:
Reduce your food consumption
The most straightforward strategy to help you manage your weight is to reduce your overall food consumption. You need to ensure you are burning more calories and fat than what you are consuming. Nevertheless, eating less does not necessarily mean that you should randomly cut your consumption in half. Instead, the best approach here is to eliminate foods contributing to weight gain and add some workouts.
Start aerobics exercises
Aerobic workouts are one of the best weight loss exercises that you can do since they also benefit your heart health. As mentioned above, one core factor of achieving weight loss is efficiently burning calories while reducing your food consumption. Aerobics is an excellent way of helping to burn calories, and they are also very simple to do for most people. Combining moderately low-calorie nutrition with regular aerobics can increase your potential of losing that unwanted weight.
Consider weight training
Weight training was initially thought to be limited to bodybuilders only. Still, scientists have established weight training as an excellent exercise for those who want an effective weight loss workout. Adding at least 30-minute sessions of weight lifting every week can burn high amounts of calories and fat. The key with weight training is to ensure you are doing compound lifts like deadlifts and squats instead of focusing on isolation lifts like bicep curls. Consistency is also essential with weight lifting.
Try the Ketogenic diet
Dieting is also a highly effective way of proper weight management, and the ketogenic diet is one of the popular dieting options available today. This diet is based on the simple concept of eliminating at least 50 grams of carbohydrates daily. When you reduce your carbohydrate consumption, the body enters a ketosis state where it switches from burning carbs to burning fat for fuel. The only limitation of this diet is that you must maintain that strict carbohydrate limit to last longer in ketosis, which is quite challenging since carb-heavy foods are pretty popular.
Enhance your metabolism
Most of the weight loss methods shown so far share one theme of enhancing your metabolism, which is essentially how fast your body converts food into energy. That is why people with a quicker metabolism will be leaner than those with a slow metabolism. There are various ways you can enhance your metabolism, including running, aerobic exercises, and weight lifting, among others. The point here is to ensure your body can efficiently burn off all the fat and unwanted weight.
Write a food journal or diary
One way to positively identify your eating habits is to keep a journal and write down everything you eat. The journal will help you see where you are going wrong so that you can make the necessary changes. Fortunately, there are better journaling options available today, like fitness apps, which means you won’t be limited to paper and pen. Most apps will also calculate your daily calorie intake, which will give you more information about your current well-being.
Avoid sugar
Excess sugar in your body is usually stored as fat. So, you should begin your weight loss by avoiding or stopping sugar consumption. Remember that excess sugar consumption not only leads to weight loss but can also contribute to diabetes and insulin resistance. You can start your sugar-free journey by eliminating sugary drinks from your diet.
Exercise regularly
Working out is an excellent strategy that will enable you to enhance your metabolism, burn off that extra fat, and ultimately, lose weight. Nevertheless, exercising sporadically will not produce those desired results. You must work out on a consistent schedule at least three times every week. Furthermore, ensure you are working out using the proper form to maximize muscle activation and growth while minimizing injury risk.
Get a bicycle
Invest in a good bicycle and use it as often as possible. While a car may be more convenient, a bike will give you more health benefits. Those benefits include increased strength, better heart health, reduced risk of diabetes, better sleep quality, and better mood, among others. If you live near your workplace, consider riding your bike to the office.
Control your food portions
It is often not what foods you are eating that are causing your weight gain, but the quantities or servings of those meals. For example, most people tend to be vague about the amount of food they eat when consuming it from a box or bag, like a pizza. The best eating approach with weight loss in mind is being strict about your food portions by using plates. Your plate should be composed of half of the vegetables and a quarter of lean meat and starch. Always stay disciplined and avoid going for seconds, as that would negate the benefits of eating small food portions.
Start running
Running offers both short-term and long-term benefits, including a massive potential for weight loss. Running typically activates multiple muscles in the body, making it an effective way to burn calories compared to walking or other exercises. Running also has the additional benefit of suppressing ghrelin hormone in the body, which regulates appetite. Hence, running can allow you to control your food cravings and increase your likelihood of success with weight loss.
Add protein to your diet
Adding protein to your regular nutrition will allow you to optimize your muscle-building results, particularly if you are engaging in weight training. Protein is not only essential for weight lifting, but it can also help you maintain your muscles while you gradually lose weight. Furthermore, protein also fends off hypertension and simultaneously boosts your energy production levels. Most importantly, protein will control your appetite.
Reduce your beer consumption
The mixture of beer and the typical, calorie-rich modern diet contributes to adding hundreds of calories daily to your body. That is why beer bellies are common among beer enthusiasts. Furthermore, you are likely to make poor dietary choices when you are drunk, worsening your weight gain situation. If you want to maintain solid results with your weight loss, you may have to cut down or stop your alcohol intake altogether.
Drink plenty of water
Water is essential for maintaining a healthy body. Consider drinking water before your meals and also whenever you first feel hungry. That feeling of fullness you get after drinking water will minimize your risk of overeating. Some health experts believe drinking water before meals are beneficial for weight management.
Avoid junk foods
Junk foods are pretty damaging to your health. In most cases, those carbs and fat in junk foods will end up in your waist and can be pretty hard to burn away. The main reason junk foods are stored as fat in your body is that they are processed differently from other foods like meat and vegetables.
Stop eating low-fat foodstuffs
Low-fat foodstuffs may seem healthier based on their name, but they are very unhealthy. These foods are often full of sugar, which is applied to enhance the taste. Systematic studies on nan-fat and low-fat foodstuffs have shown that these foods had higher sugar content than regular foods. As mentioned above, sugar is not beneficial when you want to achieve any weight loss. Instead of buying heavily processed, low-fat products, you should switch to lean meats and vegetables since they naturally contain low amounts of both sugar and fat.
Check your sleep quality
You should be getting sufficient sleep each night to ensure you can attain your weight-loss objectives. Exhausted people are often starving and willing to eat anything. Scientists found that they are increasingly likely to have unhealthy cravings when people have bad sleeping habits. Moreover, besides the unhealthy cravings for calorie-rich and carbohydrate-heavy foods, these people also have a hard time restraining themselves, which increases the potential for overeating.
Hence, you should ensure you are always getting a minimum of eight hours of quality sleep each night. The other notable benefit of getting sufficient sleep is that it helps to control your appetite. Research has shown that there is a link between low leptin and sleep deprivation. That is critical because leptin is responsible for appetite regulation.
Track your body weight regularly
You must keep track of your weight by stepping on the scale regularly. This action will help you determine whether you are making any progress and making the necessary tweaks and changes to get things in order. If you don’t weigh yourself regularly, you could put on lots of extra weight before realizing it, which can be emotionally draining.
Try and keep everything as consistent as possible when taking your weight readings to get reliable results. For instance, if you typically weigh yourself before a meal or after a meal, you should do the same action every time. You can then use that weight data to establish whether the exercises and diet changes positively affect your weight.
Read the food labels
You must know what you are eating if you are to manage your weight effectively. This is a massive problem for those who eat plenty of processed or packaged goods. Remember that even products that claim to be natural may have lots of hidden carbohydrates, often sugar. That is why it is essential to read all the food labels to ensure everything you are eating is within your weight loss objectives.
Processed and packaged foods also contain lots of sodium, which can increase your risk of stroke and hypertension. Sodium intake also promotes overconsumption of food, which results in weight gain. The best way to handle this is to stick to fresh foods. However, if you have to eat packaged products, do your diligence by carefully reading the label.
Avoid changing diets
Weight loss often seems like a rugged mountain to climb. The constant frustrations of not attaining your weight targets drive people to switch between different diets, looking for the best weight loss benefits. The only outcome of such diet inconsistencies is an utter disappointment, and it could even be damaging to your overall health.
Rather than quickly embracing new ideas of the latest diets, try and stick to a single nutrition plan for an extended amount of time. Regardless of the diet you decide to use, make sure that you burn many more calories than consumed. That simple concept can help you create a sustainable, effective, and straightforward nutrition plan that includes all the necessary healthy foods. These positive eating habits, along with regular exercises, can ensure you can maintain that ideal weight once you achieve your target.
Get rid of stress
Stress can considerably affect your capacity to maintain a healthy weight and prevent you from successfully losing weight. Unhealthy behaviors induced by stress can also contribute to weight gain. Multiple factors cause stress in daily life, ranging from personal relationships and work to health scares and political events. While stress is invisible to the eye, it can have massive effects on your physical and mental health, including colossal weight gain.
Stressed people will often seek to relieve their worries about food. Generally, they will choose unhealthy foods like junk foods to fight away stress. The best strategy here is to get rid of your stress so that you can avoid similar problems. Identify your stress trigger points and try your best to minimize stress in your life.
Add fiber to your diet
Fiber is critical to your weight loss success since it plays several beneficial roles that support your ability to lose weight. One way that fiber works is that it fills up your stomach, which signals satiety to your brain. The result is that your brain curbs your appetite, which allows you to eat less food and still be satisfied.
Fiber also helps to control your levels of blood sugar, which is beneficial in controlling food cravings. This fantastic ingredient even clears and cleans your digestive system. That way, you get much more from the little food you’re eating, which reduces the bad cholesterol in your body.
Plan for cheat days
Weight loss often feels as if one is depriving themselves of all the good things in life. You can suppress that feeling by introducing cheat days at least once a month. Cheat meals can give you that essential mental break you need after constantly resisting your cravings for an extended time. Cheat days can also help in resetting the various hormones that deal with insulin regulation and metabolism.
To get maximum results with your cheat days, ensure you don’t binge excessively. Have your favorite foods but don’t indulge yourself as it could affect your overall progress. Ideal nutrition should always be about making the best healthy choices. Research shows that you can have at least one cheat meal per week without any issues if you are sticking to your diet.
Use the stairs
One practical way of adding extra workouts to your day and boosting your fitness levels is by taking the stairs. When possible, walk up the stairs rather than taking an escalator or elevator. Stair climbing can help you add more steps and activities during your typical workday and give you multiple benefits.
Stair climbing works your leg, arm, core, and back muscles. Since it requires significant movement across various joints like the knees or hips, it can increase your flexibility. This weight-bearing action can even enhance your bone density while improving your heart health. Research shows that stair climbing can burn more calories compared to jogging. Furthermore, stairs are conveniently located in most buildings, and this simple workout can also help eliminate your stress and leave you feeling more alert and energized.
Practice dental hygiene
Proper dental hygiene is also beneficial when losing weight, particularly brushing your teeth. Most people say that they can’t eat food soon after they have brushed their teeth. Once you have brushed your teeth, you will likely be more cautious about snacking since you want to maintain your clean teeth.
Health scientists in Japan found that people who regularly brushed their teeth were much leaner than others, and they also maintained their slim profiles while their counterparts put on significant amounts of weight. It is believed that the minty flavors in toothpaste can also discourage people from snacking during the day.
Avoid buying snacks with your credit card
Most people who buy snacks, chips, beer, sugary drinks, and junk food use credit cards as the mode of payment. However, this is one of the bad habits that you should eliminate if you want to lose weight effectively. If you find that you do not have enough cash for your snacks or junk food, leave the store. Don’t indulge when you don’t even have sufficient funds in your pocket.
One of the typical snacks that you should avoid paying for using your card is potato chips. While they can be pretty delicious, potato chips are salty, greasy, and one of the main offenders that can cause you to gain weight. Hence, if you’re keen on losing weight, potato chips should be among the first snacks you stop eating, regardless of how you plan to pay for them.
Avoid eating dessert
For many people, avoiding dessert altogether, particularly in the early phases of a weight loss plan, makes sense. Dessert should not be a priority as it adds significantly more calories to your meal plan. Furthermore, desserts can often trigger more cravings, which can cause you to indulge and affect your weight loss objectives. Only when you meet an initial objective or goal can you start considering adding desserts.
That small-sized cheesecake contains more than 500 calories or more if you add whipped cream and sauce on time. Hence, it makes sense to eliminate desserts initially to get rid of many extra calories each week. Remember, those extra calories tend to accumulate around your waist quickly.
Get rid of salad dressings
A couple of tablespoons of French dressing contain roughly 200 calories. That means that if you had a well-balanced meal, but you used plenty of that French dressing, then you would have consumed more calories than you think. That is why it makes sense to stop adding salad dressings like white sauce, Italian dressing, and French dressing to your food while trying to shed some weight.
However, there are several healthy dressings that you can use instead of those high-fat varieties. Some of them include olive oil and lemon juice dressing, balsamic vinegar, and Greek yogurt dressing. Making these simple changes can have a significant effect on your weight loss.
Take more time chewing your food
Eating slowly is one way to reduce your food consumption, and an effective strategy you can use here is to take more time and thoroughly chew your food. This will help you cut down on your calorie consumption and allow you to move closer to your weight loss targets. Several studies have shown that overweight people tend to eat quickly than those with an average, healthy weight.
It is hard for anyone to chew their food thoroughly and slowly while they are starving. So, ensure you prevent extreme hunger by snacking on healthy snacks like fruits during the day. Moreover, you must eat foods that require more chewing. For instance, fibrous foods like nuts, fruits, and vegetables require more chewing and enhance weight loss.
Prepare your own home-cooked food
Restaurants survive by cooking the best foods possible to entice their clients. That is why they use heavy amounts of sauces, sugar, salt, thickeners, and other items to endear themselves to their clients. The result is that most of the foods you eat at restaurants will be pretty unhealthy and calorie-filling compared to if you had prepared a similar dish at home.
People who cook at home regularly also eat more vegetables and fruits every day than those who eat at restaurants. It is also likely that if you eat home-cooked meals, you will use better food preparation methods, consume a wide variety of foods, and consume less fast foods, often full of sugar and calories. Furthermore, research has shown that if you prepare home-cooked foods regularly, then you have a higher chance of participating in various other healthier, beneficial habits such as working out regularly.
Replace ice cream with yogurt
As earlier mentioned, skipping dessert can be an excellent way to reduce your overall calorie intake. Nevertheless, some people live for desserts and enjoy eating tasty treats. So, such people should get a healthy dessert substitute, like having frozen yogurt instead of that unhealthy yet delicious ice cream.
There are roughly over 300 calories in one serving of ice cream. That number could even be higher depending on how many scoops you end up consuming. In contrast, frozen yogurt has far less fat and calories than ice cream. Remember also to eat smaller portions of frozen yogurt to maintain the low fat and calorie benefits.
Use a smaller plate
The average portion size of foods has increased significantly over the last few decades. The main influencing factor for this high portion size is the availability of bigger dishware. Research shows that small increases in your plate size can result in a considerable rise in calories available for consumption. This means you must consider your plant size when you are creating strategies to avoid over-consumption.
Using a smaller plate fools your brain into thinking that you are eating enough food. If you only have bigger plates, then consider eating less calorie-dense foods as it will help you limit your general food consumption. Ultimately, if you plan to reduce your calorie consumption, you should use smaller plates and switch to lower calorie-dense foods such as vegetables.
Stay away from buffets
Buffets are an excellent option for eating plenty of food without breaking your bank account. However, while buffets can be quite enjoyable, they are also responsible for causing significant weight gain. There is plenty of research that shows that when you give people the space to eat larger portion sizes in a buffet, they will likely eat more food.
Buffets are very tempting, and they go against the main rule of dieting, which is the fact that you have to minimize your food consumption. If you find that you can’t miss out on buffets, then there are a few tips that can help you stay on track with your weight management goals. For instance, you can eat a small serving of a healthy meal before going to the buffet to control your appetite.
Invest in probiotic supplements
The gut contains bacteria that help extract nutrients by breaking down food. The years of bad eating habits and unhealthy foods can damage and disrupt the balance of the beneficial bacteria in your gut. The result is lower digestive efficiency that leads to weight gain. Effective weight loss will only occur when your stomach is healthy and probiotic supplements are the key to achieving that.
Probiotic supplements help increase the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut. Doctors often recommend probiotics to assist patients in dealing with digestive issues. Probiotics restore that optimal gut balance of beneficial bacteria that you need to maintain an efficient digestive system. Furthermore, probiotic supplements are typically safe, low cost, and easy to use.
Gastric banding surgery
The last resort for obese and overweight people is to get surgery. This option should only be considered when all the above options have failed, and the individual’s weight continues rising to dangerous levels. In this case, gastric banding surgery may be a possible solution.
Gastric banding refers to a quick, adjustable, and minimally invasive surgical procedure for treating obesity. It is a type of bariatric surgery where the stomach is constricted with a band, so the person will feel full after consuming less food. Banding can improve diabetes and also help with weight loss.
Other surgical treatments for overweight people
Bariatric surgery is quite beneficial, and evidence shows that any overweight person should consider it to resolve most obesity-related complications and reduce overall mortality. There are multiple options available besides gastric banding surgery. They include gastric bypass, gastric sleeve, and intragastric balloon.
Intragastric balloon surgery involves placing a silicone balloon inside your stomach to help with weight loss by making you satiated faster. In gastric bypass surgery, part of your stomach is separated and attached directly to the intestine, which creates a bypass. The gastric sleeve surgery involves removing part of your stomach to create a smaller stomach. It is worth noting that gastric bypass, gastric bands, and intragastric balloons are all reversible procedures, but the gastric sleeve is a permanent one.
Best Ways of Losing Weight Conclusion
The tips shown above should guide you to lose weight finally. Your focus should always be on reducing your calorie consumption and adding more activities to your daily routine to burn more calories. Remember to set reasonable goals for your weight loss and always be consistent with your dieting and exercising habits to prevent regaining all that lost weight.
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