Everyone wants to lose weight but not many people know how to do it correctly.
Here are five tips to make sure that your weight loss journey is a healthy one.
1. Eat More Protein
Protein is extremely satiating compared to fats and carbohydrates while only contain 4 calories per gram.
Fats contain 9 calories and carbohydrates contain 4 as well. Imagine trying eating 600 calories from skinless chicken breasts which are five breasts in total or 500 grams.
Now imagine getting that from a fat such as a peanut butter, that only takes 100 grams or a carbohydrate such as 200g of white rice.
You’re going to be much more satiated after the chicken than either of the others.
However, carbohydrates and fats do play an important role in the body so it’s important to get adequate amounts of each.
This is how You could structure your meals:
- Two fist full sized protein sources at each meal
- Two fist fulls of vegetables with each meal
- One thumb of fat with each meal
- One palm-sized portion of carbs with each meal
- One fist full sized protein source at each meal
- One fist full of vegetables at each meal
- One thumb of fat with each meal
- Half a palm of carbs with each meal
This is based on four meals per day. Adjust the amounts in regards to your goals and always take progress pictures to see how these changes affect your body.
Protein will also reduce the chance of muscle wastage which can be very prevalent when dieting.
2. Eat More Fruit & Vegetables
The same with protein, fiber is also very good at filling you up as well as providing you with lots of essential vitamins and minerals.
Reducing the amount of higher calorie items such as a jacket potato with butter and cheese and replacing that with cooked veggie’s means that you’ll feel a lot more full after your meal and therefore be less likely to overeat on your calories.
There are plenty of ways to make vegetables more exciting and taste nice by cooking them a different way (roasting, boiling, steaming, frying) and also using a variety of spices.
A great recipe for jerk seasoning is to mix together 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, coriander, cumin, thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper and ginger with 1 teaspoon of allspice.
Put a tablespoon of olive oil over your veggies, cover them with the seasoning, toss them around a bit and put them in the oven to roast.
Delicious!
3. Drink More Water
Sometimes when it seems like you’re hungry you’re actually thirsty.
Dehydration leads the body to try and get liquid from any source that it can find.
Make sure that you’re drinking one glass of water at each meal and one glass in between to stay fully hydrated. It also helps to replace any caloric drinks with water, too.
Fizzy drinks, squash, alcohol and juice will all help the calories add up so swapping these to water can make a big difference.
If you don’t enjoy drinking water, try sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon or lime.
4. Focus On Fat Loss
Weight loss and fat loss are two separate things. Weight is simply your association to gravity which means that weight could be lost by dehydrating yourself or causing your muscles to catabolism.
This is why it’s important to focus on long term sustainable changes as it avoids these mistakes.
Weight loss can come easily from crash diets and be extremely strict with your calories but this is not healthy physically or mentally and it won’t get you the body you desire.
Instead, realize that fat loss is something that will happen over a long period and requires a lot of patience.
Try to be a list better every day so you will see the results over a longer time frame. Take progress pictures so that you can see where the weight is coming from. This is also very motivating.
5. Become More Active
Becoming more active can mean a variety of things. It can mean taking the dog for a longer walk or joining a new class at the gym.
It can mean parking you car slightly further away from work or including an extra exercise session in your week. Standing up at your desk is a good idea as you’ll naturally fidget and move, it’s also really good for improving your posture if done correctly.
Try to find an activity that you enjoy opposed to forcing yourself to exercise so you’re more likely to stick to it as well as enjoying the time you spend being active.
Researches and references
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_potato
“http://www.webmd.com/diet/best-cook-vegetables
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catabolism
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