Losing weight is challenging enough without having to worry about fad diets and cravings. Luckily, there are some easy ways to shed those extra pounds and reduce your risk of chronic conditions.
The trick is to maintain a balanced lifestyle with nutritious foods and regular exercise. Together, these are the key factors for living a healthful lifestyle and controlling your weight.
Below are 10 tips that will help you boost your weight loss efforts.
Free Download: Why You Can't Shift Your Belly FatHow To Boost Your Weight Loss Efforts
1: Eat a Variety of Nutritionally Dense Foods
One of the best ways to boost your weight loss efforts is to make sure every meal consists of no less than 50% fresh fruits and vegetables. Then, to complete the benefits, incorporate 25% proteins, and 25% whole grains.
Don’t forget to include anywhere between 25 and 30 grams of fiber daily. In addition, the USDA recommends that almost 20% to 35% of your daily caloric intake comes from healthy fats. This means that if you eat 2500 calories a day, you can consume up to 97 grams of fat.
2: Engage in Regular Physical Exercise
Exercise should be a regular part of your life.
Start with a minimum of 150 minutes each week. Then, increase the intensity bit by bit until you can do an hour of moderate-intensity workouts each day. Physical activity doesn’t just help you lose weight. It also boosts your mental health as well by reducing stress and anxiety. Exercise is also a great way to improve cognitive functions while boosting your self-esteem.
3: Eliminate Liquid Calories
We consume hundreds of calories each day from drinks alone. However, things like soda, juice, tea, coffee, and other beverages are what the experts refer to as ‘empty calories.’
The problem isn’t with the drinks themselves – it’s with their high sugar content. These drinks provide high energy content without having any nutritional benefits. The only time drinks are okay is when you consume a smoothie or protein shake in place of an actual meal. Otherwise, just stick to water, coffee, or unsweetened tea.
4: Keep a Food Diary
The point of having a food diary is to monitor your daily food intake.
Studies show that people who stick to their routine and maintain their overall healthy lifestyle are more likely to lose weight and keep it off for good. So, how you enter your data isn’t the decisive factor. It’s more of following through and keeping it up day after day. Thanks to technology, there are even apps and websites designed to record every food item you eat every day.
5: Control Your Portions
Controlling your portions takes some time to get used to.
But once you do, you’ll find that it makes your relationship with food much more manageable. For example, you can stop counting calories. It can get overwhelming. Plus, it takes all the fun out of eating.
Also, avoid guessing and estimating. It almost always leads to consuming portions much larger than you initially set out for. The alternative is to use serving size guides. Below few helpful ones below. While they’re not precise in measurement, they can help you moderate your portion sizes.
Here are just a few examples:
- 3 ounces of meat = a deck of cards
- 1 tablespoon = the tip of your thumb
- 1 ounce of nuts = a loose handful
- 3/4 cup = a golf ball
- 1/2 cup = a tennis ball
- 1 cup = a baseball
6: Plan Ahead
Get some old-fashioned pen and paper and make a list of everything you need to create a balanced, well-structured meal plan a month in advance.
Make sure you incorporate all the food items mentioned in point #1. When you plan ahead, you’ll have no reason to have junk food or processed, sugary snacks in your kitchen. Thus, you can avoid the ‘I’m-in-a-hurry-and-I’ll-eat-anything-I-see‘ eating we all know too well.
7: Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is like mindfulness meditation. However, instead of focusing on things around you, you put all your focus and energy into the food.
It also teaches you to take your time chewing and savoring every bite. If you can make your meal last for 20 minutes, then you’re doing everything right! Researchers tell us that our brains take at least 20 minutes to register satiety. So, even if you’re in a rush, as most of us are, try to use this time as a way to find some inner peace and calm.
So, you lose weight and reduce stress levels!
8: Create a Support System
Your support can come from a loved one, a friend, or a weight loss group you recently joined.
Whatever it is, having someone there to motivate you does wonders to enrich your weight loss. Some people even document their weight loss journey on social media. As a result, they gain a virtual circle of friends who share similar interests and have similar goals.
Yet, the best part is that sharing your progress helps improve your confidence and self-esteem. You realize it’s not about being perfect. It’s about putting in the effort every single day.
9: Use Smaller Plates
You can trick your mind into feeling full just by the size of your plate.
But unfortunately, large plates beget large portions, which means you end up consuming unnecessary calories that get stored as fat.
That’s the exact opposite of what we want. So, why not try using small plates? They’ll help you eat less, thus consuming fewer calories. And the best part is you won’t even feel like you’re depriving yourself of anything because your small plate will be full of all the nutritious foods you love.
10: Maintain a Positive Outlook
If you step on the scale every day, you’re bound to get disappointed. Practically no one is ever happy with the rate at which they’re losing weight.
So, you have to look at the big picture and set realistic short-term and long-term goals. Your short-term, aka daily, goals should be about eating right, staying hydrated, and getting in some physical activity.
On the other hand, long-term goals can be achieved in a month, or even six months if you prefer. They can be increasing the intensity of your workouts, cutting out sugar completely, or fitting into those skinny jeans you just bought.
Whatever it is, recognize that some days will be easy, whereas others will be more challenging. The important thing is to have a positive outlook no matter what happens. Put in the effort, and, above all, be proud of your hard work.
Free Download: Why You Can’t Shift Your Belly Fat
When trying to lose weight, many people say that it’s belly fat they want to lose the most. But the belly is normally the last place most people lose fat. Maybe you’re eating healthy foods and going to the gym, but the change in diet and exercise isn’t making your midsection smaller. To help you boost your weight loss efforts, download my free report, Why You Can’t Shift Your Belly Fat.
