Are you struggling to lose weight? When it comes to losing weight why is it that we always want to look for that magic pill or wand that will help us melt away those unwanted pounds? Here are effective weight loss tips for you to lose weight.
There really is no special trick that is going to work for you. In its place, you need to approach weight loss sensibly.
Use these 20 weight loss tips that work to help you lose weight and learn how to eat correctly.
1) Eat Less Processed Food
Processed food contains a lot of hidden fats, sugars, and salt – all diet disasters. You want to aim to eat as many natural foods as possible. These would include fruit, vegetables, nuts, and pulses. Avoid refined carbohydrates and throw out any white foods such as bread, pasta or rice.
If you do want to include these in your diet choose brown rice and pasta and whole wheat bread. By eating more freshly prepared food you will eliminate these hidden calories and thus begin to easily lose weight.
2) Target the Five a Day Rule
Studies have shown that you can reduce your risk of a stroke by over 10% if you reach the five a day mark when it comes to eating fruit and vegetables. If you could actually eat more, your risk of a stroke decreases further.
Fruit and vegetables are dream foods as they contain very little calories so can be used to fill you up if you are hungry. Aim for a minimum of at least 5 servings a day. Limit 2 servings to fruit and the rest of vegetables.
3) Keep on Snacking
As with anything, the minute you go on a diet, your snack cravings will probably kick in. The worst thing you can do is to ignore them as they will only become stronger.
Instead indulge them. Set yourself up with a stock of some healthy snacks such as carrot sticks, cucumber strips, nuts etc. and when the urge to snack happens you have a supply ready.
4) Don’t Put Any Food on the Banned List
This only makes it more attractive and you will end up with cravings. Instead, allow yourself a small treat every day.
This means a square of good quality chocolate or a spoon of cake. But be careful. Don’t be tempted to eat the whole cake or candy bar in one sitting.
5) Get Active
We often snack on food when we have nothing better to do. One excellent weight loss tip is to get active. If you are out playing tennis, it is rather difficult to be eating a packet of chips while hitting the ball. Not sure what activity to choose?
Do something simple such as taking your dog for a walk, or go biking with your kids. Try to get your friends and family involved and go have some fun. Don’t think of it as exercising, enjoy some quality time together instead!
6) Set Small Goals and Reward Yourself for Meeting them
We often set ourselves up for failure by setting impossible weight loss goals. As an alternative, set small goals and give yourself a non-food related reward when you hit these targets.
A series of small successes will spur you on to greater achievements. Small goals could be things like not drinking a soda for 5 days straight, or cutting out one teaspoon of sugar from your morning coffee. Then reward yourself with something such as getting your nails done, buying a new book or enjoying a long soak in a bubble bath.
7) Don’t be Too Hard on Yourself if you Fall off the Diet Wagon
It is a setback, not a disaster. Start back with that diet as soon as you can. Just don’t get into the habit of falling off the wagon too often. If you do, you will need to re-evaluate why it is you want to lose weight and what is setting you up for trouble.
8) Drink Water
You know you need to drink 8 glasses a day so make sure you start today. Don’t use flavored waters as they contain hidden calories and can cause bloating. If you don’t enjoy water try drinking herbal teas instead, just make sure they are caffeine free.
9) Keep a Food Diary
It is impossible to lie about how much food you have consumed if everything you have eaten is written down. This will help keep you on track and you can see where you go wrong. You may find that a certain day of the week or month becomes stressful for you. This will help you plan for these days and figure out ways to manage.
10) Keep Things in Perspective
We know you want to lose weight and these weight loss tips will help. But do keep things in perspective. Don’t make yourself miserable in your quest to become slim. Remember it took time for you to put all that weight on, so it won’t come off that quickly.
11) Make Your Workout Worth It
If you want to get the most out of your workout, you need to remember that around 80% of the results that you get from your workout actually come from just 20% of your workout.
That means that in an hour’s session, only 12 minutes of the workout will contribute to the bulk of your results. You need to make those minutes really count. Use compound movements that work more than one muscle group at a time to really make the most of your time.
12) Remember To Eat Healthy
Anybody shaping goals can only be achieved by eating a healthy diet. If you’re going to the gym so that you can go home and eat a double triple cheeseburger with a 2-person serving of French fries, you won’t do your body any favors.
You should make sure that you eat in moderation, and remember that if you’re burning off more calories, you will need to eat that little bit more so that you have enough energy. Balance your nutrition and avoid faddy diets.
13) Change Your Eating Habits
You need to make sure that you eat properly as well as eating healthily. Eating properly includes eating at the right times of the day. Skipping breakfast is a really bad idea and you shouldn’t eat too late in the evening either. Speak to a personal trainer about what would work for you so that you can achieve your goals.
14) Plan Out Your Routine
To make sure that you know just when you’re going to be working out and when you can look forward to some downtime, you really should come up with a plan. Remember to include rest days and be realistic about how much time you can make free.
Remember to stick to your schedule as much as possible so that you don’t slide into the habit of skipping the gym and make your targets achievable.
15) Make A 100% Commitment
You need to remember that your body transformation needs complete dedication from you. You can’t skip a day or two here and there because you feel as though you deserve it. Plan when your rest day will be and stick to that. Even if you have a vacation planned, check out the local gym, and make sure to take an hour out of each day to continue to work out. Keep up with the healthy eating too.
16) Don’t Let Preconceptions Put You Off
It’s easy to look at a female bodybuilder and suddenly panic if you’re a woman who is trying to lose weight and develop a petite and slender figure.
The reality is that it is virtually impossible for women to bulk like that; it requires a particular plan and effort. If you stick to a plan that your personal trainer has given you, you won’t go wrong.
17) Keep It Simple
You should remember that you are only starting out with fitness. In order to avoid injury and to avoid putting yourself off continuing with your training, you should make sure that you familiarize yourself with the basics first.
Start off with some shorter sessions and then expand your workout as you become more confident and as your fitness, levels start to rise.
18) Prepare For Your New Routine
Make sure that you make yourself available to workout and have a rough plan of how you would like your workout to go. You need to come up with some realistic goals too.
If you want to have 6-pack abs, aim to achieve some muscle definition within 6 months or if you would like to lose 2 stone. Make sure that the timeframe that you set yourself is achievable. If you don’t know what your targets are, no personal trainer will be able to help you.
19) Remember Cardio
So you want to get 6-pack abs, bulging biceps, and strong legs? You can’t get those things by just lifting weights. You must remember that while you’re working out, you should fit in a good amount of cardio.
If you’re already carrying excess weight, you need to make sure that you burn off the fat by doing frequent cardio and eventually the muscle will start to show through.
20) Use A Visual Inspiration
It is very helpful to have a visual inspiration to keep you motivated to lose weight. Try performing a Google image search to find photos of people who have a body shape and size similar to your own ideals.
Print out the image or images and display these where you will see them all the time, for example near your work desk, on your car dashboard or on the fridge. This will ensure that you have a visual goal that will keep you motivated every single day!
Remember these tips to keep you on your targeted weight and don’t forget to stay healthy at the same time.
Check the video version of this weight loss tips post here:
Here are other posts about weight loss tips:
Check Your Drinks to Lose Weight! Here are 17 Tips to Help You
Images: pixabay.com and picjumbo.com