I know you must have been looking everywhere for a ‘Quick’ and effective way to drop the ponds and shed some fats; that’s probably the reason you are reading this right now. Although I can show you some few tips that can help you lose weight in no time – faster than you could imagine, however, I may disappoint you by saying, I won’t be showing you ‘quick short-cut’ ways to lose weight because such fast track does not exist.
The best and safest ways to lose weight is to take it slow and steady. If you see any program that guarantees you a ridiculously quick method to lose weight, you better watch out; many of such programs do more damages than good.
With that being said, does it mean you can’t shed some pounds in a period of few months? Of course, you can and that is exactly what I will be showing you now. For you to effectively lose weight, you have to understand some basic facts. That will help you understand why you need to stay away from some foods and the reason certain exercises were recommended for you.
“The best and safest ways to lose weight is to take it slow and steady. Aiming to lose weight too quickly may cause further damage to the body”
Your Body Composition
Our body is composed of both the lean mass tissues and the fat tissues. The addition of these components is what adds up to what you see on the scale as your overall weight. The lean mass tissue includes your muscles, the internal organs, the bones, and the connective tissues while the fat tissue is the fat that surrounds the internal organs and also makes up the storage fat. The storage fats are what causes those sagging tummies and big thighs and that is exactly what you want to shed when you decide to go on a weight loss program.
The body fat percentage differs in every individual as the percentage expected to be in a healthy man may be different from that of a healthy woman.
- A fit, healthy woman should have around 21-24% body fat percentage
- A fit, healthy man should have around 14-17% body fat percentage
- Woman athletes should have around 14-20% body fat percentage
- Men athletes should have around 6-13% body fat percentage
So when trying to lose weight, I always recommend taking it slow and steady because in trying to lose weight too quickly, you may be tempted to reduce your calorie intake so drastically that your body starts losing the lean mass tissues rather than the storage fats. The outcome of that is not usually good.
“Your body is composed of the lean mass tissue and the fat tissues; all of it add up to form your weight”
Your Diet
This is one important aspect you cannot neglect when it comes to losing weight. Regardless of how much you wish to cut down or how many hours you spend in the gym, if your diet is wrong, you can’t achieve any tangible result with your routines. What goes into your mouth determines how your body looks like. Think of it this way, you can’t actually be eating everything that occurs to you and expects to lose weight. Can you?So what are the few things to consider here?
So what are the few things to consider here?
Calorie Deficit
“When your body is short of enough calorie supply, it turns to start using up the storage fat”
How Do You Start Calorie Deficit?
Going on a calorie deficit is very important to losing weight but you will have to know the actual amount of calorie your body burns daily before you can accurately reduce the amount you consume. You will have to calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate); that is the total calorie your body requires to sustain your weight daily. When you know your BMR, then you shave off around 500 calories from it to be on a deficit. i.e if your BMR is 1700 calories, you will have to consume only 1200 calories for effective weight loss.
This is how to calculate your BMR:
If you are a man, this is your BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age(years) + 5
If you are a woman, this is your BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age(years) – 161
For example, if you are a woman of 30 years, weighing 90kg, and 177.8cm (5ft 10 in) tall, your BMR will be around 1,700 calories daily. In that case, you will only need to consume around 1200 calories every day.
Cut Down Your Carb Intake For Vegies
You will also have to cut down your carbs intake. White rice, spaghetti, and sandwich rolls are capable of wreaking havoc on your weight. These foods are digested very quickly and thus stimulate the secretion of insulin, the main fat storage hormone in your body. They leave you ever hungry and thus cause you to always want to eat – over-eat. I’m sure you know what that can cause on your weight. Nevertheless, when an insulin level is cut down, the better chance your body has to make use of the fats in the fat storage for energy supply.
Instead of substituting these carbs with heavier whole grain bread products which could later lead to bloating because of the filling fibers such food contains, you can simply switch your carbs for vegetables. So instead of the regular white rice, try cauliflower ‘rice’ which is made by grating the vegetable.
Eat more Protein
According to various studies, it’s been discovered that the amount and quality of the protein you eat are inversely proportional to the amount of fat in your belly. Including more protein in your meals will help you achieve your weight loss dream more quickly by helping to reduce your cravings for food up to 60% and as well increases your metabolism. The combination of these factors helps the body burn more fat. Foods like Chicken breast, beef, pork, salmon, shrimps, lobster, eggs, are all quality protein sources to consider.
“Eating enough protein when on weight loss program helps keep your body metabolism in a fat burning state for several hours”
The Exercise Part
Even as you change your diet and lifestyle to the type that favors weight loss, you will still need to engage yourself in some fat burning exercises. Although there is no specific time for you to have your workout exercises; you can choose the time of the day that best suit you. However, it is always good you have your workout close the morning session. This will help your body utmostly utilize the fat storage.
Do 30 Minutes Cardio Daily
You need to daily burn as many calories you can and any exercise that gets your heart racing will do the job. But according to various findings, when you choose a cardio routine that simultaneously engages multiple muscles usually help to burn more calories.
You can consider these 3 cardio training and engage them at least 30 minutes on a daily basis; Spinning, Cardio kickboxing, and boot-camp workout. Doing these for 30 minutes each touches up to 200-300 calories and thus helps to tone up your body.
However, you can consider including interval training into your workout. This will help you burn even more calories. Though experts aren’t sure why this works, they know alternating short burst of intense cardio with slower activities helps burn a significant amount of body fat.
Lift Some Weight
If you are privileged to hit the gym and lift some heavy weights, I will recommend you do so. Though at a slower rate than what cardio does, lifting heavy weight could help you burn more body fats even long after you left the gym.
Your Sleep is also Important
Sleep 30 minutes more at night. Whether you sleep for 5 hours or you have you zzz for 8 hours, an extra 30 minutes could really get you refresh enough that you receive enough motivation to choose the right food and hit the gym motivated the next day. Ensure you get a daily sleep time of up to 7 to 8 hours as this will help boost your metabolism and as well capable of helping you build some cool lean muscles. The better sleep time you get, the better muscle tone you get as well.
Final Note
You can only achieve a significant weight loss with the help of a rightful measure of self-motivation. It could be very easy and tempting to want to quit your weight loss diet or workout because it is not as convenient for the body. But sticking to it is far worth more than you can ever imagine.