There is a plethora of weight loss tips out there – and all these weight loss tips get quite confusing. Maybe this will help clarify things. The concept behind weight loss is simple. Your body needs fuel each day. Your body has a certain metabolic rate – and you need so many calories of “fuel” to maintain itself based on a specific metabolic rate. It can get that fuel from food, or from fat – or both. If you cut back on food, your body will burn fat. If you increase your metabolic rate through exercise, and you eat the same amount of food, your body will burn fat. If you combine exercise with lower calories, you burn even more fat. But, there’s a lot of myths out there when it comes to the best way to accomplish this. Here’s some weight loss tips that are based on actual evidence – not myths.
Drink Plenty of Water
Did you know that drinking water can boost your metabolism by up to 24-30% over a period of 1.5 hours, helping you burn off a few more calories? Plus, drinking 16 oz. of water prior to a meal helps fill you up, suppressing your hunger a bit, which may cause you to eat less.
Get Some Sleep!
We live in a society that seems to pride itself on operating on as little sleep as possible. Here’s the problem with that – less sleep puts stress on your body. Combine that with the stress you live with during the day – an your body starts producing copious amounts of cortisol. This stress hormone keeps you feeling hungry, which causes you to overeat. Lack of sleep also affects your your body insulin sensitivity – up to 30%! When you become more insulin resistant, fats (lipids) circulate in your blood and pump out more insulin. Eventually this excess insulin ends up storing fat in all the wrong places, such as tissues like your liver. And this is exactly how you become fat and suffer from diseases like diabetes.
Coffee Is Good Too!
There a quite a few benefits of drinking coffee. Caffeine in coffee can boost your metabolism up to 10%, which helps your body burn fat. And, good, quality coffee also contains antioxidants that your body can use to fight free radicals (Antioxidants are molecules that fight damage by free radicals, unstable molecules that can harm cellular structures. Antioxidants do this by giving electrons to the free radicals and neutralizing them.). But, drink your coffee black – adding sugar and creamer adds unneeded calories.
Replace Cooking Fats with Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil is high in special fats called medium chain triglycerides. Medium chain triglycerides are metabolized differently than other fats, and can boost your metabolism by up to 120 calories each day. Plus, they can help reduce your appetite by up to 250 calories per day. So, replace those other cooking fats you may use with coconut oil – it’ll help both your metabolism and your appetite!
More Protein – Less Carbs
We are surrounded by a huge amount of refined carbs – both at the grocery store as well as when we go out to eat. Refined carbs are carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, pasta – foods made with grains that have been stripped of their nutritious parts. They may taste great, but your body quickly (and easily) converts them into sugar – and if you have more in your system than your body needs – it gets turned to fat. Replacing carbs with good protein sources is the single most important thing you can do food-wise when it comes to losing weight. Not only does eating a high protein diet boost your metabolism by up to 100 calories per day, you’ll feel less hungry – and on average, consume nearly 400 calories per day less than a high-carb diet.
Stop Dieting – Start Eating Healthy
Going on a “diet” is temporary. Eventually, you get tired of it, and slip back into your old eating habits – which ruins all the gains you’ve made. Instead, choose to eat healthy! Your focus should be on nourishing your body. Eat foods that are clean, non-processed, high in protein, lower in carbs and fat. Eating whole, single-ingredient foods that are full of natural nutrients not only fill you up better, so you’re less hungry – they fuel your body with the proper balance of nutrients, helping you to live a healthier life!
Don’t Forget To Exercise
Weight loss tips aren’t just about diet – you need to exercise as well. When you diet, you take in less calories. And, your body slows your metabolism down to provide “balance” and compensate for having less calories. Your body is designed to store fat, so unless you exercise, you may loose a couple of pounds then plateau as your body balances out your metabolism vs. caloric intake. Strength training helps add muscle (and tones your muscles as well) which increases your metabolism. And cardio workouts help burn fat as well as helps to reduce belly fat.
Here’s the best way to think about these weight loss tips. Regular exercise and healthy eating is the best way to live a healthy life. Crash diets combined with an occasional workout may make you feel like you’re doing something – but breaking your diet and exercise habits, and replacing them with sustainable, healthy habits, not only will help you to loose weight in the short term, but you’ll also better equipped to keep it off long term – as well as reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle!
