Losing weight can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’ve tried before and failed. However, it is actually much simpler than it seems, given that you stick to principles which have worked for thousands of people before you.
Not only will you experience rapid weight gain, but you will also do it in a safe manner, not having to compromise your health in the process. Too many people make weight loss mistakes that you need to avoid at all costs, which cause loss of motivation.
Excited to learn what some of these effective tips are? Read on below to find out our top 8 recommended ways to lose weight.
Reduce Carbohydrate Intake
While carbohydrates serve important functions in the body, we are more specifically referring to fast digesting carbohydrates and sugars. The body can function exceptionally well even when adapting to a low carbohydrate lifestyle, but your first order of business should be to eliminate nonessential carbohydrates such as those found in soda, and sugary packaged products.
Eat More Protein
Protein can be considered as the essential building block of all life. When you’re attempting to lose weight, quite often a great amount of muscle mass is lost along with fat.
This can be troublesome because muscle tissue is ultimately what dictates your metabolic rate and contributes to further weight loss. Eating more protein will help exert an anti-catabolic effect on muscle tissue, improve your satiety and also contribute to reduced caloric intake daily by virtue of its thermic effect (this refers to the number of calories required for digestion of a particular type of nutrient, of which proteins have the highest value).
Make Vegetables Your Primary Staple
Most people tend to make foods such as rice, bread or other flour products their main staples, but you are in for a hard time losing weight if this is your way of going about things.
Switching things up by having more vegetables works miracles, supplying endless nutrients that can’t otherwise be obtained, and are loaded with fiber and are generally low calorie.
This means that you can have more of them, not upset your calorie intake much for the day and receive loads of fiber which will help to suppress your appetite and also optimize blood sugar levels.
Be Sure To Hydrate
Too many people underestimate the importance of water and how it can impair weight loss. For one, water is the medium in which virtually all of the body’s biological and metabolic processes are performed. When there is limited supply, the process of lipolysis is suppressed, as the body needs to direct water to more essential functions (weight loss is not high on its priority list).
In addition to this, mental and physical performance is significantly reduced even when mildly dehydrated, causing you to not do anything that will support weight loss.
Perform Resistance Exercise Three Times Weekly
Can you achieve weight loss without exercise? Absolutely. However, it’s not the best way to go about things, nor is it in the best interest of your body if you want to maintain your health and mobility for years to come.
The two most critical factors that determine weight loss success are diet and exercise, which both lend themselves to reducing calorie load everyday, so that weight loss is a more likely outcome. Weightlifting exercises in particular helps to build muscle, so that you improve your metabolic rates over the mid to long-term, and experience an extended period of caloric burning.
Don’t Skip Meals
Even if you think that skipping meals is an easy way to reduce the number of calories consumed everyday, you are actually setting yourself up for failure by doing this as hunger and cravings with take control.
In fact, it is a much better idea to eat more than the typical 3 meals per day. Why? Eating smaller meals more frequently helps to better control appetite, and results in small metabolic spikes each session. This is a very easy hack to institute to get rid of a few extra calories everyday.
Sleep Enough At Night
Lack of sleep contributes significantly to excess weight gain, even though most people never realize it. When we do not sleep sufficiently, levels of several hormones and neurotransmitters are disrupted, the most critical of which is cortisol.
Better known as the stress hormone, cortisol promotes the storage of fat especially around the midsection, and shuts down fat burning. Not only this, but cortisol is also known to devour muscle, meaning that you face an uphill battle when trying to lose weight.
Meditate
Meditation is extremely beneficial to overall health, and not just for weight loss. Practiced for centuries throughout parts of India, its importance is finally appreciated by the West.
Most notably, meditation can help you control cortisol levels, sleep better and reduce stress that you typically would feel overwhelmed by. All it takes is 15 minutes of meditation per day to start seeing notable changes.
