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Improve Any Weight Loss Journey Using These Ten Tips
There’s no one solution to healthy weight loss. What works for one person may not work for you. Depending on body type and health, we all respond differently to different foods. To find the method of weight loss that’s right for you takes time. It may require patience, commitment, and experimentation with different foods, diets, and supplements.
You body and brain may respond best to counting calories or other restrictive methods. Or you might need more freedom in meal planning and exercise.
Here are 10 methods for you to try to nail down what works best for you.
1) Cut Calories
If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. Right? Sometimes this well-worn "fact" isn't as simple as it sounds. There are other factors involved, such as stress level and a variety of hormones. When you diet and lose fat, you’re also losing water and lean muscle mass. Your body responds in various ways, such as slowing your metabolism and deploying signals meant to maintain itself.
The calories you ARE eating need to be certain types to meet your both your nutritional and bodily satisfaction needs. A hundred calories of high fructose corn syrup in a candy bar burns off faster and leaves you hungrier than the hundred calories in various vegetables. But finding out which vegetables you both fill you up AND satisfy your hunger, is crucial or you'll be left wanting something more.
Sometimes we aren’t really hungry but crave food anyway. Try to pay attention to when you eat and why. If you are eating for comfort to relieve stress, you might need to talk to a mental health therapist who can support you through your weight loss journey.
2) Cut Carbs
Carbohydrates enter our bloodstream as glucose. To keep blood-sugar levels even, our body uses insulin to burn off this glucose for energy BEFORE using fat for energy. The insulin actually prevents your fat cells from releasing fat in order to accomplish this AND makes more fat cells to store the extra fat you've consumed instead of burning it. So you both gain weight AND require more fuel for energy, making you crave carbs. And now you’re looped into a vicious cycle of eating more carbs and gaining more weight.
So it makes sense to cut carbs, right? But a lot of the influencers offering this advice advocate replacing carbs with protein and fat (think Keto diet). That, in turn, can have negative effects on the body in the long run.
Reduce carb intake sensibly by eating lean meats, fish, and plant protein like beans and naturally lower-fat dairy products. Add lots of leafy greens and non-starchy vegetables, which provide the carbs your body needs without all the filler calories or insulin response of bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes.
3) Cut Fat
Fat is essential to brain function, but not all fat is created equal. The unsaturated fats in food such as nuts, seeds, soy milk, tofu, and fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, trout, mussels) or olive oil are good for your brain, good cholesterol levels, and energy.
Trans fatty acids are not good for your body. They raise the levels of bad cholesterol. Think processed foods that use fat that’s solid at room temperature. Lard. Shortening. Most brands of margarine. And any product that uses hydrogenated vegetable oil. Commercial fried food, store-bought cakes, pies, muffins (or home baked versions using shortening and margarine), most microwave popcorn, non-dairy creamer, and refrigerated dough, like rolls and biscuits, all make the list.
Saturated fat raises both good and bad levels of cholesterol. It’s naturally present in red meat, poultry, and dairy products, including cheeses and yogurt. The best approach to these foods are eating them in modest amounts. Avoid the low-fat versions that often substitute sugar (which brings on the fat-release blocking hormone insulin) to add flavor.
4) Best way to Combine Tips 1, 2, and 3
So how can you combine these strategies so that you aren’t on a restricted diet you can’t stick with but still lose weight?
Apply everything in moderation. A good “diet” that does this is the Mediterranean diet. There are no special meals or ingredients to buy or calories to count. Just a few simple guidelines:
1) Commit to regular physical activity such as walking for half an hour several times a week.
2) Eat with family or friends often.
3) Discover the vegetables, fruit, nuts, and fish you enjoy most and eat them as the largest part of your weekly meals, using olive or coconut oils to prepare them
4) Enjoy modest amounts of other meats and cheeses a couple of times a week or in small amounts as appetizers.
5) Stress Relief
Find outlets such as yoga or meditation or sports you enjoy to release stress.
6) Set Goals
Set accountability goals with a friend, not for pounds lost or calories eaten, but instead for days you walk, or healthy meals or choices you make.
7) Hydrate
Drink more water. Hunger pangs are often thirst in disguise.
8) Get More Sleep
Numerous studies have suggested that lack of sleep may lead to metabolic disorders, weight gain, and other chronic health conditions. While the exact nature of this relationship between higher body weight and sleep is still uncertain, the existing research points to a positive link between good sleep and healthy body weight.
9) Get a Consult
Consult a functional medicine doctor or nurse practitioner to check your hormone and vitamin levels. Research has proven various low hormone levels can affect your ability to lose weight. In this case, diet and exercise won't help until your hormones are properly balanced.
10) Research Supplements
Try natural remedy supplements (herbs/plants/vitamins) and find one that enhances your weight loss goals. Look for purity standards and money-back guarantees to ensure your health and help you save money if a product turns out not to be for you.
Strange Plant Helps Get the Scale Moving Downward. Watch video to see how this Japanese plant has helped thousands on their weight loss journeys:
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