Top Weight Loss Tips
The desire to lose weight is a feeling that most of us either have or will experience at some point in our lives. After all it can be hard to maintain a perfect diet whilst contending with work, our social lives, partners, children and all the other commitments that we take onboard. To make the problem worse, we are bombarded by perfect celebrity bodies designed to make even the most self secure turn green with envy. Well let me tell you a little secret, you don’t need to have millions in the bank, a personal trainer and nutritionist or infinite spare time to lose weight and obtain your ideal body, you just need the right advice and a weight loss game plan.
Eat less, more often
You might think me mad for suggesting that eating more often will help you lose weight, but it’s true. Rather than eating 3 large meals a day, try eating 6 smaller meals. Your body stores fatty cells in order to use it for energy further down the line. However by eating regularly (every 2-3 hours) you will be providing your body with all the fuel it requires throughout the day and as a result it will stop stockpiling fat.
It’s important to consider portion sizes when eating more regularly. If you continue eating large meals like you usually would then undoubtedly you are going to put weight on rather than lose it. Keep in mind that the recommended daily intake is 2000 calories for women and 2500 calories for men.
Keeping Active
Notice how I haven’t called this tip ‘exercise’. This is because the thought of exercise can put people of before they even get started. Keeping active doesn’t have to involve setting up a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer. It could be as simple as washing the car, walking the dog or going on a bike ride with the family. If you work in an office then try to get out for a walk at lunchtime, not only will this keep you active but it will also give you eyes a break from the computer screen.
On the other hand, many people who do decide to go down the gym route quickly develop a real sense of enjoyment from hitting the treadmill and pumping iron, so this option shouldn’t automatically be ruled out.
Keep Hydrated
This is a clever little diet trick to help you lose weight. If you drink a glass of water before your meal then you will feel less hungry, this is because your stomach will already be partially full. Keeping well hydrated will also improve your performance during exercise, which ultimately means you will be able to go for longer and harder, thus losing more weight.
SMALLER is better!
Forget all the rumours, smaller is definitely better, well at least when it comes to plate sizes that is. Next time you cook a meal try serving it on a smaller plate. This is a psychological method of convincing your body that it has eaten enough. If you serve a smaller portion on a large plate then your body will always feel as if it has been deprived. However if you serve your food on a smaller plate then your subconscious won’t pick up on the reduced portion size and as a result your body won’t feel as if it is missing out.
Keep Busy
I’m sure that most of you will agree that idle hands are the devil’s playground and this usually manifests itself in the form of snacking. Eating out of boredom is one of the main reasons why many people gain weight without realising it. The reason that so many of us do this is simply because our mind is trying to occupy the time, and eating is the easiest way to do this. To avoid falling into this sticky trap, try to keep yourself occupied, maybe do a little bit of housework or that DIY job that you have been putting off. By keeping the mind distracted with little tasks you will prevent it from turning to food.
Setting weight loss goals
Goal setting is a valuable tool in all aspects of your life, as it allows you to gauge how well you are doing. The most important to thing to remember when setting your weight loss goals is to keep them realistic. Setting unobtainable targets will only have the affect of reducing your self esteem and causing you to become demoralized. That said it’s also important to keep pushing yourself, for example if you achieve your target of losing 10 lbs in one month then in the next month target yourself to lose 12 lbs.
Research has shown that the more weight one loses, the easier it becomes to maintain that weight loss. So now that you have some top tips to get you started, get out there, have fun and remember that losing weight doesn’t have to be a chore.