subject: Ways To Lose Weight - Learn About Them Now [print this page] There are so many ways to lose weight thats at your disposal that it can sometimes be quite overwhelming for you. I mean, every other article, publication, radio broadcast, tv commercial is littered with ways for you to lose weight that its quite mind boggling. Sometimes I even get caught up in all the hoopla that is spread throughout the mass media and the internet. But to be honest, when it comes to weight loss, minor tweaks here and there will lead to big changes for you and your body in the long run. Its that simple. Its usually not one big thing that will make a huge change, but a few little tweaks that lead to tremendous success in the long run. And thats what you ideally want. You dont want o completely turn your life upside down and change everything about your eating and exercise habits at once. This will cause a total shut down and almost guarantee that you wouldnt stay the course and reach your final destination. So what I wanted to do was give you 42 different ways to lose weight fast.
Tip #1: Park far away from the super market or mall. Lets face it the more you have to walk, the more calories you will burn. At first it might not be a lot but overtime this can lead to hundreds and thousands of extra calories burned just because you parked far away from the supermarket or mall.
Tip #2: Avoid all elevators and escalators. At first this might be really hard for you to do all the time. But as you get in better shape and lose belly fat, this will become much easier. In fact, youll actually look forward to following this tip and feel special while everyone else is being lazy and taking the elevator or escalator.
Tip #3: Go for long walks. Walking is a great way to burn a lot of extra calories and lose weight fast. It does not require any special equipment or a big fancy gym. A perfect time to go for your walk is on your lunch break with a buddy or a friend. You can easily burn an extra 100 calories a day from just doing this. This equals 500 calories a week and 3500 calories equals a pound of fat. So you do the math.
Tip #4: Shut the TV. off. The more television you watch, the less calories your burn. Instead of watching a few hours of TV. each day or night, go out for a walk, do some pushups, or a small workout in your basement or living room. Your body will thank you for it.
Tip #5: Eat more nutrient rich foods. By eating more nutrient rich foods, you can cut down on your cravings and hunger by a lot. And the best part is a lot of these foods really fill you up with a ton of fiber and contain almost zero calories. A win win for you and your waist line.
Tip #6: Have a cheat meal once a week. Over time as your lower your calories, your metabolism will inevitably slow down. Thats just natural and part of life. If you ever feel yourself hitting a weight loss plateau, then use this weight loss plateau breaker. Consume some form of cheat meal thats high in calories and carbs. This will help increase your metabolism back to normal levels quite quickly within 24 hours.
Tip #7: Fast once every 7 days or do some form of intermittent fasting. By fasting once every 7 days you can kick start or should I say hustle along your fat burning potential. Obviously if you dont consume any calories for one day, you can lose up to a pound of fat in 24 hours. It will also increase insulin sensitivity and give your digestive system a break from all the food that you have been eating. Youll also feel really energized and clear minded from your fast.
Tip #8: Keep a food diary. By keeping a food diary of everything that you eat, you can easily keep track of how many grams of carbs, fats, protein and total calories you consume on daily basis. This will help ensure dietary compliance and force you to stick to your diet. Youll also see any glaring weaknesses that you have in your nutrition plan and when you might tend to go off on the deep end and want to cheat on your diet. A food diary is a great tool to have in your arsenal.
Tip #9: Buy a fitbit. This little nifty device can help you keep track of how many steps you take a day. A good rule to shoot for is 5,000 to 10,000 steps a day. This is an easy way to burn a ton of extra calories per day and over the long haul.
Tip #10: Eat 5-6 small meals a day. Now this is dependent on the person. If you like eating, then have 5-6 small meals a day. This will keep your metabolism nice and high and keep your cravings at bay.
Tip #11: Eat 3 big meals each day. I know this goes against tip #10 but it all has to do with your personal characteristics. If you like eating big meals, then this is the way to go. Just make sure not to ever over do it. Use that food diary and keep track of how many calories you eat. I personally like to eat this way because I like staying full and eating large meals. I also feel for more personally it helps keep my blood sugar nice and stable as opposed to eating 5-6 small meals a day.
Tip #12: Go the gym with a buddy. Have a gym buddy is a great way to help you stay the course and keep you on track with your workouts. They are perfect for days that you do not want to work out, but you go anyway because you dont want to let your buddy down. Its also great because you two will start to compete against each other with how much weight you can lose. Its a great way to push each other to your potential.
Tip #13: Dont go food shopping hungry. A lot of people do not even realize it but when they go to the super market on an empty stomach, they end up buying junk food because that is what they are craving but the reality of the situation is that they are just hungry. So a good tip is to have something to eat before you go food shopping so you dont make any bad choices.
Tip #14: Cut your portions in half. There was a recent study that found our portion sizes have more than doubled in the past 50 years. What we are eating now, we think is normal, when in reality it is way too much food. A lot more food and calories than we really need to able to function throughout the day and maintain our weight.
Tip #15: Use smaller bowls and plates. By using smaller bowls and plates, you will load up less food on your plate or in your bowl. By using larger ones, your brain subconsciously wants to fill up all of the white space. Therefore youre piling on food that you do not need without even thinking about it.
Tip #16: Eat your vegetables first. Before anything that is on your plate, finish your vegetables first. This will increase the likelihood of you becoming full much faster as opposed to eating your veggies last. Vegetables are great because they have a lot of fiber and help you stay full for long periods of time.
Tip #17: No carbs at night time. Lets face it carbs are the devil when it comes to losing weight. They can be your friend or your foe, but in this case they are your mortal enemy. Carbohydrates are tricky. They are great for when you need the energy to complete workouts, do lawn work, or any other type of physical activity. But when you are sedentary, your carb intake should be much lower, especially at night right before you go to bed. So a good rule to live by is cut out all starchy carbs after 5 p.m.
Tip #18: Load up on the protein. Protein is very hard for your body to breakdown. That is why its 30% more thermogenic than carbs or fats. Your body has to actually use up more calories to break down protein into simpler forms as compared to carbs or fats. Protein is also great because it helps rebuild muscle tissue and also keeps you staying full for much longer periods of time.
Tip #19: Avoid any white carbohydrates. These types of carbs are starches and or processed carbohydrates such as white bread or anything that is made with white, bleached flour. They usually pack a powerful punch when it comes to jacking up your insulin levels. This is a big no no if youre trying to lose weight. Ideally you want stable blood sugar levels. By having your insulin and blood sugar resemble that of a roller coaster, your hunger levels will be going up and down.
Tip #19: Switch out cream in your coffee for coconut milk. Coconut is a great under the radar health food. It contains mostly fat in the form of saturated fat, but the type of saturated fat is Lauric Acid, which has been found in scientific studies to be really beneficial to your immune system. So a good thing to do is instead of using those flavored creamers which contain fake ingredients and trans fats, use some coconut milk. A much healthier alternative.
Tip #20: Have a huge breakfast. Some people are breakfast eaters while others are not. Thats okay, we are all different, but if you are a breakfast eater and youre trying to lose weight, then have a huge breakfast. In fact I would say this should be your biggest meal of the day then. This is going to set you up for the rest of the day. By having a big breakfast, cravings will be lessened in the last half of the day, youll stay full, and feel energized. Aim for a breakfast high in protein, fiber and healthy fats.
Tip #21: Eat 2 eggs a day. Eating eggs and their cholesterol levels have been totally blown out of proportion in recent memory. Eggs are very healthy for you. They contain a ton of vitamins and minerals and all of the good stuff is found in the egg yolk. Also, studies show that the cholesterol in eggs has no effect on your blood serum cholesterol levels one bit. The only people that do need to watch are the ones with regularly high cholesterol levels that are based on their genetics.
Tip #22: Avoid regular peanut butter. If youre a peanut butter lover like I am, then stick to natural or organic. If you look at the back of most labels in the super market, you will see that one of the ingredients listed on most labels has the word hydrogenated in it. This just meals trans fats. Trans fats are the worst type of fat for you to consume. It is completely man made and does severe damage to your arteries, cells, and brain.
Tip #23: Avoid all fried foods. Dont get me wrong, fried food tastes really good. Especially French fries, but the stuff is laden with extra fat and greasy oil. And because the oil is used over and over again, it becomes rancid and turns into trans fats, which again is really bad for you.
Tip #24: Have at least 8 glasses of water per day. By drinking a lot of water you make sure all of your bodies toxins are being flushed out through your kidneys. Also it does not take much for your body to become dehydrated. In fact, most often we dont even realize it. But what this does is it could signal your brain to tell you that youre hungry when in reality you are just thirsty. So make sure you drink plenty of water a day to prevent this from happening.
Tip #25: Chew your food. The actual feedback loop from your brain to your stomach can take up to 15 minutes sometimes. Its a slow signal. For example have you ever starting chowing down on food, got seconds maybe thirds and then realized all of a sudden you were completely stuffed out of nowhere? Thats your body basically catching up to all of the food you ate. If you eat your food slowly, youll be able to recognize when you are full.
Tip #26: Join a weight loss forum. If you cant go to the gym with a buddy or a friend from work, then join a weight loss forum. There are a lot of them all over the internet that provide you with a lot of information, support, and guidance. This will also ensure compliance on your part, especially if you are blasting your story out to the world and people are following your weight loss story through those forums.
Tip #27: Dont drink your calories. Having shakes is a great way to make sure you get your nutrition and protein in for the day, but it can potentially backfire on you. When you have some type of shake, it is much easier for your body to break it down, thus it is expelled from the stomach at a faster rate, leaving you hungry again. Try to do your best and have mostly solid foods throughout the day.
Tip #28: Avoid fruit juices at all costs. Im just going to have to put this bluntly. Most fruit juices flat out stink! They are either made from concentrate or with high fructose corn syrup, which can wreak havoc on your belly fat and waist line. Let alone your poor pancreas which has to keep releasing insulin into your blood stream to deal with all the fake sugar. Also there is a ton of calories in just one serving of fruit juice. If you are going to have any type of fruit juice, do yourself a favor and buy organic from Whole Foods or any other type of organic super market in your immediate area.
Tip #29: Cut out all the gluten in your diet. Gluten has been found to have a serious impact on many peoples health without them even knowing it. Gluten is the protein found in most grains. We as a society tend to eat a lot of grains in the form of wheat, breads, pastas, and snacks. But what a lot of us do not realize is we have intolerance to gluten. It can cause a host of digestive problems and inflammation throughout the body. If you cut out gluten, you also might notice that any feeling of bloating or gassiness goes away.
Tip #30: Lay off the healthy snacks. What I mean by this is usually nuts or dried fruits. These are both very healthy for you but people tend to get carried away with eating them plus they are very calorie dense. Just an ounce of almonds, which will not fill you up at all comes out to over 100 calories. And a lot of the dried fruit that you can get in the super market contains excess sugar. Just a 1/3 cup of craisins equals 130 calories. When you actually measure it out, youll see that its not that much.
Tip #31: If youre a woman, eat by yourself as much as possible. Studies have found that women who tended to eat with a group of other women ate more than usual. When they ate by themselves, their caloric intake was cut down drastically. Im not sure why this happens, but maybe it has to do with the social setting or the fear no one will judge them. They also found that when a woman ate in front of a guy, she also ate a lot less than within her groups of friends. Interesting stuff I have to say.
Tip #32: Cook all your meals on Sunday and Wednesday. By having your diet menu planned out and all of your meals already cooked, this greatly enhances you sticking to your diet because you have a plan. Without a plan you will usually fail because youll get stuck somewhere and try to fill in the gaps.
Tip #33: Hire a trainer. Hiring a trainer is a great way to ensure success when you are trying to lose weight. For most people, the cost alone forces them to adhere to the program and change. But having someone on your back and pushing your through your workouts is a huge benefit to your success. Having a trainer is a great investment in not only your health, but also your future.
Tip #34: Brush your teeth immediately after dinner. By brushing your teeth immediately after dinner, you trick yourself into saying that you are done eating for the day. This is an easy way to avoid those late night snacking binges after dinner that so many go through. This trick alone can help you ward off those extra calories that can lead u to hundreds and possibly thousands over a period of a few short weeks.
Tip #35: Have a few cups of green tea a day. Green tea is very high in antioxidants which help round up free radicals in your body. It also has potent fat burning effects due to the compound ECGC found in green tea. It also contains some caffeine, which again can give you a boost in mental energy and alertness whenever you need some.
Tip #36: Take a nude or semi nude picture of yourself. Like they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well its much easier to see the real truth of what you look like then viewing yourself in the mirror every day. This can serve as a big wake up to call to get your butt in gear and force you to change and stay on your program. An even better way is to email the picture to family and friends. It might be embarrassing at first, but it will force you to change.
Tip #37: Instead of walking or jogging, throw some intervals into the mix. Interval training in my opinion is king when it comes to a fat loss cardio program. They burn a ton of calories in a short period of time and are the basis for my Love Handle Cure Program. This is because interval training really throws your body out of homeostasis by raising your excess post oxygen consumption levels. This in turn, causes an increase in your metabolic activity. The higher your metabolic activity, the more calories you will burn at rest.
Tip #38: Use big multi joint compound exercises over single joint exercises. This all goes back to burning up as many calories as possible within your workouts. The big compound lifts such as squats, lunges, pull-ups, rows, bench presses, overhead presses and pushups utilize a lot of muscles all at once. Its much harder on your body and youre able to use heavier weights as opposed to single joint exercises. Examples of these are bicep curls, tricep pressdowns, chest flys, leg extensions, and leg curls.
Tip #39: Perform your cardio workouts in a fasted state. By doing your cardio in a fasted state at around 65% or lower of your max heart rate, you almost guarantee that you are exclusively burning pure body fat for fuel as opposed to carbohydrates. Granted, when it comes to weight loss, you want to go by the rule calories in vs. calories out, but its not a bad idea to get the most bang for your buck with your cardio workouts. So if you want to do some form of slow, regular cardio such as walking on an incline or jogging, then do it in a fasted state first thing in the morning to make sure youre burning mostly body fat.
Tip #40: Instead of doing crunches and sit-ups, focus on building up the deepest layers of your abdominal muscles such as the transverse abdominus and internal obliques. These muscles work as the real girdle for your belly and lower back, tightening everything and pulling in your stomach. When these muscles are weak, you pose more injury risk to your lower back and your stomach has a sort of pushed out look. It wont be firm, hard, or toned either. A good exercise to start training these muscles is the basic plank. I go over a lot of them in my Desert Island Abs Program as well.
Tip #41: Train your legs first. Collectively your lower body musculature is the biggest muscle group on your body. Because of this, they take up a lot of oxygen when you work them out. That is why a lot of people dont like working legs because it really takes a lot of effort and a high level of fitness to get through a real lower body workout. But on the other hand, if you do train your lower body hard, you will burn a tremendous amount of calories and really be able to raise those EPOC levels through the roof and for hours on end.
