Trimming the Trouble – 6 Simple Lifestyle Changes To Get You on Track to Losing Weight

Losing weight is a common goal in 2018, especially now that everyone is setting off on their New Year’s resolutions. The actual method of losing weight can differ from person to person, and that means that there is a tonne of information out there on losing weight, most of which is described as false in another piece of information on that same topic.

 

The result of all of this hullabaloo is that many people don’t know what they should and shouldn’t do to effectively lose weight in a safe, healthy manner. In order to ferry you safely into a slimmer, healthier you, we have put together a list of six simple lifestyle changes that may help you lose weight.

 

Exercise

Naturally, we have to put the longest-standing and most-proven solution first – exercise. Everyone knows they can get fit, and so few do so because exercise is hard work, and that’s the point. Working your body hard makes it adapt to its new regime; it grows muscle where it has very little because that lack of muscle is making you sore the day after. Combined with healthy eating and other weight loss ideas, exercise streaks ahead in effectiveness.

 

Meal Portions

The size of the meals that you eat is the first thing people tend to reduce when they go on diets. Many people are used to having a small breakfast, medium sized lunch, and a large dinner to finish off the day. This is because the large dinner makes us feel sleepy and lazy, and is a perfect pre-bed meal, however the best way for your body to function is the opposite of this. Big breakfast, medium lunch, small dinner.

 

Meal Frequency

The frequency of your meals might seem unrelated; however, it is an important factor in your overall weight loss journey. Having many more smaller meals throughout the day convinces your body that you have more than enough food. Therefore, it starts storing less of it in the form of fat around your body and stimulates your metabolism.

 

Have breakfast, then a morning tea snack, then lunch, then an afternoon protein shake, then dinner, and if you’re feeling up to it have some oats before bed, too. Swap out one of your meals with meal replacement shakes to reduce your calorie intake. This keeps your digestive system running while you sleep, and helps your body to sleep deeper.

 

Meal Contents

The contents of your meals is the next thing to discuss. Carbs are good for filling spaces, but bad if they make up more than a certain amount of your meal. There are good carbs and bad carbs, and even if you haven’t spent long dieting, you probably already know what the bad carbs are. Bread, hamburger buns, chips, fries, and other fried or deep-fried things are bad carbohydrates, and should be avoided. Brown rice, oats, quinoa, and lentils are all good carbs, and help fill space but in a healthier way.

 

Water Consumption

Your water consumption is paramount to your success in weight loss. Water should be consumed based on your body weight, with a national average of about 2.3 litres of water a day. It sounds like a lot, and if you jump from not drinking water at all to drinking that full amount every day, it will feel like a lot too, so build up to it.

 

Start at 1 litre a day until that seems normal, then bump it up to 1.5, and then finally 2. By the time you get to 2.3 litres a day, it won’t even feel like too much, and you will feel thirsty when you don’t drink the full amount.

 

Metabolism Shift

The one thing that good carbs, water consumption, smaller meals and meals with protein all have in common is that they all affect your metabolism, that is, the mechanism by which your body processes and stores energy. Your metabolism responds to environmental factors, so the more protein you eat and the more regularly you eat throughout the day, the less food it stores as fat, and the more you keep your digestive tract running the less it thinks you need to store fat.

 

This results in you being more hungry more often, and putting on less fat. The combination of this and exercise means drastic weight loss can occur over a period of months instead of years.

 

With these tips, you should have a better understanding of how weight loss occurs and what you can do to speed it along. Do a combination of these things and you’ll find yourself slimming down in no time.

 

Article from E Hudes