Gearing up for a wedding or considering moving towards a healthier lifestyle and needing to shed the extra pounds? This guide prepares you for just that with its weight loss tips guaranteed to let you lose the excess baggage in a safe and healthy way.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it is safe to lose about 1-2 pounds per week.
Anything beyond that runs the risk of experiencing fatigue, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and irritability.
Over the course of 4 weeks, you can achieve a weight loss of 6-8 pounds as well as a much fitter and healthier you.
1) Cut the Junk food intake
The first step on this list is perhaps the most commonly heard tip for weight loss and yet the hardest to follow – cut all junk food from your diet. Junk food such as fried items and sugary snacks are the leading cause of obesity across the world.
For those that have a large amount of junk food as part of their current diet, it is hard to near impossible to simply get rid of it all in one shot. Make little changes to your diet and slowly replace junk food with healthier items to prevent falling off the wagon. This not only allows you to shift to a healthier lifestyle but also ensures you stay on that path for the long run.
Read the labels on the food you eat and attempt to stay within a margin of calories ingested in a day.
According to an article, the recommended amount of calories required by a woman is 1500 and for a man, 2000 to lose about a pound per week.
2) Exercise
While a healthy diet makes up the majority of the requirements needed to lose weight, exercise is an important determining factor as well. Try intensive cardio sessions – a training method that combines periods of intense exercise with short gaps of rest.
An hour of running, cycling or other cardio exercises allow you to lose about 500 calories a day.
This will bring down your weight in the beginning. To continue down the path of weight loss, consider strength training – this allows you to build muscle and keep your metabolism in check. Over the four weeks, you will notice a significant improvement in your strength, stamina, and flexibility.
Join a gym to focus on strength conditioning, at least until you learn the ropes. If it is your first time, prepare yourself by eating two-three hours before the workout, carrying enough water, and wearing comfortable clothes such as powerlifting apparel, While you may at first notice weight loss through this regime, it is possible for your weight to increase due to muscle growth – an upside to the exercises.
3) Protein over carbs
When cutting junk food from your diet, do not forget to replace it with much healthier alternatives. People tend to choose a crash diet or near starvation to lose weight quickly, a method disapproved by all doctors due to its guaranteed ability to cause harm to the body. Pick protein-rich substances such as fish or eggs over pork and beef.
For vegetarians, a diet consisting of fruits and vegetables can be easily set up. Green leafy vegetables are a great source of the right vitamins and minerals needed to keep you going through the day.
Try avoiding carbs such as bread, pasta, etc as this change will make a marked decrease in your weight.
4) Hydrate
Make sure to drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated and fresh. It flushes the toxins out of your body helping tremendously in your weight loss journey. When in doubt, always pick water over sodas and alcoholic drinks. If you do need to add flavor to your drinks, try fruit juices with less to no sugar content.
5) Change your lifestyle
A common reason for weight gain is simply following a sedentary lifestyle. Make immediate but tiny changes to your lifestyle to aid your weight loss effort. Take a walk when you are heading somewhere nearby instead of driving to it. Choose to climb the stairs up and down from your office instead of using the elevator. Exercise for maybe 5-15 minutes a day if an intense session is not your cup of tea. Increased stress levels lead to binge eating of comfort food.
According to a 2007 Obesity Survey, stress levels are associated with higher body weights and obesity.
Maintain stress levels by trying meditation or pursuing a hobby. Your metabolism rate, that is your ability to burn fat, is reduced by a lack of sleep. Ensure you get the right amount of sleep each day to keep you well rested and active during the day.
The journey towards weight loss is not an easy one. Prepare for ups and downs along the way but make sure to never give up. As a way of motivating yourself, dress the part. Consider a new and improved look to build confidence and keep you going down the right path. Find a friend or group that can support you by joining you through these changes. The effect of these changes varies from body to body but ultimately leads to a healthier you.
Begin your journey today!
Author’s Bio: “Jessica Smith has been writing for a few years now. She is a writer by day and reader by night. She loves reading, be it a newspaper, a book, or anything. She also loves cooking, traveling, and dancing. She wants to be a successful writer as writing is her passion. She wants to travel the whole world as traveling helps her calm her body as well as mind and explore fashion and style games around the world”.
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Sanya
- May 18, 2019
