Crash diets and bursts of exercise are not the solutions if you want to lose weight quickly. Weight management is about progress in the long run. People who follow crash diets or other drastic steps, typically get back all of the kilos they have lost because they did not give themselves a chance to change their habits. In terms of diet and exercise, the body likes gradual changes.
Someone who hasnât exercised for years, for instance, shouldnât rush to run miles per day on a treadmill. Not only will it leave you feeling defeated and demotivated, but you are also much more likely to harm yourself and put your fitness standards further back. The same goes for people who start depriving themselves unexpectedly.
Diets that significantly limit calories or certain foods can cause you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins required by your body. Data also suggests that most people are expected to finally give up on their newfound âcrash dietâ or â6 days a week intense workout regimeâ. And when they get to their old ways, they often regain more weight.
How to Lose Weight, In a Right Way?
For energy, your body uses food. Any surplus energy is retained as fat. This means youâll gain weight if you eat more calories than your body requires for everyday activities and maintenance. You have to get the body to use up these reserves of fat to lose weight. Reducing the amount of calories you consume and increasing your activity levels is an effective method to achieve this. This is why most experts talk about diet and exercise when they talk about weight loss.
Here are some weight loss tips, that will let you lose weight in a healthy way.
1. Keep Healthy Foods in Your Kitchen and Fridge
Stock up your kitchen in advance with nutritious snacks and ingredients. The fast-food line can be avoided if you know you have the makings of a fast, nutritious meal at home. Whole-grain pasta and bread, frozen vegetables, low-fat cheese, canned beans and tomatoes, salad greens, and pre-cooked breasts of chicken provide some healthy staples to have on hand.
2. Make Gradual Changes
A major difference can be achieved by making minor adjustments. Over a month and then a year, one extra biscuit per day adds up to a large number of calories. Likewise, you get craving for more after one biscuit, because one is never enough. Youâre also more likely to adhere to gradual changes, say, exchanging full-fat milk for semi-skimmed or making time for a balanced protein and fiber-dense breakfast each morning. Any adjustments that you make in your search for weight loss should be sustainable. To maintain these improvements over months and years, the winning idea is to embed them into your lifestyle and not just in your diet.
3. Reducing Your Intake of Calories
Eating plenty of unhealthy calories, cookies, and candy is not going to help you to minimize body fat. This does not mean that you will never have any sweets. However, you need to learn that itâs best to avoid certain food items, and only consume them on special occasions. In terms of weight loss, by eating less and making better decisions, you can get your body to use up existing stores of fat. Eating 300 to 500 fewer calories a day could result in a weekly weight loss of half to I kg. This is something that one can practically achieve. It might seem sluggish, but it would add up to several kilos of weight loss in a year. Here are ways to decrease calorie consumption without having to drastically change your diet.
- Consume water instead of those fizzy beverages and fruit cordials.
- Swap whole milk for skimmed milk, or semi-skimmed milk.
- Consume less than average food for lunch.
- Create your own sandwich and restrict the use of full-fat mayonnaise or margarine or butter in them. Most of the store-bought sandwiches contain both.
- Pick healthy whole-grain bread or make a salad with a good source of protein, such as chicken, fish, or egg.
- Limit the amount of sugar in your tea and coffee.
- Make smaller portions of the food you like.
- Have dinner as early as possible and consume less food at dinner. If you want to lose weight, then dinner should be the smallest meal of the day.
- Cut out unhealthy snacks between meals (such as cookies, sugar biscuits, and crisps).
- Cut down on alcohol.
4. Do Not Follow Crash Diets
Diets, where you lose weight very quickly, can be enticing, particularly if you have an end goal or an event to attend in mind. Usually, a crash diet is a very low-calorie diet where you eat for a brief period of time very restrictively. Crash diets are incredibly enticing as they provide a fast-fix solution to a long-term dilemma, often offering quick weight loss with little effort. Such stringent diet and calorie consumption however are not permanent, so it is not long before individuals resort to the old eating habits that helped them put weight on in the first place. Usually, this ends up with you either becoming weaker or giving it up altogether.
5. Include Exercise in Your Daily Regime
A person who starts working out, and keeps the same diet and calorie intake, is certainly going to lose weight. Working out, for about 30 to 45 minutes for most days in the week, would be helpful. You burn calories and fat every single time you exercise. There are several ways to indulge in physical activities and exercises.
Team sports, racket sports, aerobics, biking, walking, swimming, and cycling are all going to improve the levels of fitness. In terms of the physical activity that you want to engage in, find something you love that is simple for you to do. This way you will be able to continue doing it regularly, despite inevitably missing the occasional session through holidays, family obligations, etc.
Walk as often as you can. Leave your vehicle and walk to the nearby shops. Each extra stride that you take actually helps. Often use the stairs instead of the elevator, or get off the bus one stop before the regular one, and walk those extra steps. Most people are not able to exercise regularly because they are on the lookout for that perfect gym and a perfect sports club.
Also, it is not always possible to get enough time to get dressed up and travel to a gym to work out. In this case, you can set up a home gym by ordering fitness equipment on rent. In this way, you can make sure that even if you have less time, you can always get on that treadmill for a brisk walk. To get up and do exercise, use commercial breaks between TV shows, or try using an exercise bike in the living room while watching your favorite show.
6. Eat Slowly and Stop When Youâre Full
Pay attention while you are eating and when you are comfortably full, stop consuming any more. It helps when you eat slowly because it takes your brain about 20 minutes to get the message that you are full. Often it will save you from eating another serving if you take a break before going for a second one. If you feel frustrated or bored, try not to eat and find something else to do instead.
For example, a walk around the block or a trip to the nearest park, are good alternatives. Many people find that keeping a diary about âwhat they eat and whenâ, and âwhat they feelâ is helpful. When you need to write it down, you might think twice before consuming any unhealthy snack. Reviewing this diary, later on, can also help you identify the emotions you get when you overeat.
7. Consume Quality Calories
A calorie is a calorieâ is a food slogan that is frequently repeated. However, instead of concentrating on calories alone, emerging studies indicate that consistency is also important in deciding what we should consume and what we should avoid to reach and maintain a healthy weight. Instead of selecting foods based only on caloric value, consider choosing high-quality, balanced foods and eliminating foods of low quality instead. Replacing unhealthy food with healthy options is crucial. Of all food types, fat contains the most calories, so a good way to maintain a balanced calorie deficit is to eliminate fatty foods and consume more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
8. Include Fiber in Your Diet
Most of us donât consume enough fiber in our food. Women are advised to get about 25 grams a day while men can eat about 38 grams. Fiber has a host of health advantages. It helps with digestion, reduces levels of cholesterol, and prevents constipation. By helping you feel fuller, fiber can also assist those on a weight-loss plan. Beans, whole grains, and oatmeal, as well as vegetables and fruits, are rich dietary fiber sources.
9. Avoid Skipping Meals
To lose weight, do not be tempted to miss breakfast or any meal. Although missing a meal will minimize your intake of calories for that hour, but you will feel hungrier than ever after some time. You are not only likely to overeat to compensate, but you will also make poor decisions to fill the gap. For instance, you might pick up a cereal bar to munch on, which is not as good as a bowl of healthy fortified cereal. Missing breakfast may also lead you to need something extra for lunch. Wholegrain toast can score better points with some avocado than over-processed sugar cereal in the morning. Irregular eating habits often interrupt the metabolism of the body, making it more difficult to lose weight in the first place.
10. Maintain a Food Diary
Try keeping a daily diary of what you eat and drink if youâre not sure whatâs wrong with your diet. You can choose to have a notebook or an online diary. Check your submissions for problematic areas at the end of the week. Look for foods that have been refined, fast food, roasts, creamy sauces, fried foods and alcohol. Look at portion sizes if your diet appears largely balanced. Write them down after you have agreed on what improvements youâre going to make. List your objectives related to alcohol, exercise, and your meal schedule for each week. Each day should be listed and you should write down things you have had. It is also important to make a note of your mood and any comments for each day that you would like to get off your chest.
11. Play Long Term
Before you see any improvements, it could take a week or two, but they will appear slowly. Youâll be able to see the effects after the first month and would be able to notice them in terms of looser fitted garments. One of the most difficult aspects of dieting is keeping up the motivation. There will be some days when you might not be able to eat healthily and there will be days and weeks when you will not lose any weight or put a little back on.
For anyone, dieters or not, this is natural, so do not let it undo your plans to slim down. Thereâs nothing youâre doing wrong, but you may need to look at your strategy. Do you need to improve your levels of activity? Make any more modifications to your diet? Do you need to put more willpower into sticking to your established plan? You need to ask yourself these questions and work on finding a solution for them.
12. Celebrate Your Victories
One important aspect of your weight loss journey is to make sure your goals are celebrated. While there is enough excitement to step on the scales and see them dip lower, make sure the long-term success is marked with a reward, such as fresh clothes or time off from domestic chores. Itâs up to you if you want the support of your family and friends in the form of subtle reminders not to eat those things. Celebrating is also a way to include your nearest and dearest. But other peopleâs help will get you through the bumpy patches.
Conclusion
So now we know that making a few tweaks here and there, is more important to a healthy weight-reduction plan rather than following a strict and unrealistic schedule. By being conscious of the calories that we consume and exercising regularly, we can keep obesity at bay. If itâs not possible for you to go out to the gym, then you can order gym equipment like an indoor exercise bike or treadmill on rent. Setting up a fitness corner in your own home means that it will be easier for you to exercise regularly and more often.
