So, you’ve decided that you need to lose weight and get into shape.
Whether you’ve put on extra pounds during pregnancy that won’t go away or noticed that your clothes fit more snuggly than normal, losing weight can seem overwhelming.
It can be particularly daunting if you’ve never been on a weight-loss journey before.
Your mindset and approach will have a significant impact on your success.
Instead of viewing this journey as a restrictive diet and exercise plan that you ditch as soon as you’ve lost the weight, think of it as a lifestyle plan.
Restrictive diets and exercise programs that you don’t enjoy don’t work in the long term.
Sure, you will lose weight, but as soon as you start eating the foods you cut out of your diet and dropping the workouts, the weight will return, which will be a waste of all the time and effort you invested.
The best thing you can do to lose weight and keep it off is to make tweaks to your lifestyle that you can maintain long-term.
Let’s look at some of the lifestyle changes you can make.
Food Choices
There is no getting around it – the most effective way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. This means you must consume fewer calories per day than you burn daily.
Still, don’t fall for fad diets or restrictive habits, as these are not sustainable and usually unhealthy.
It would be best if you are not too hungry or too full.
When you’re too hungry, you make bad food choices and binge eat, while being too full makes you feel lethargic and can slow digestion.
The key is to strike the right balance. Food should not be seen as the enemy, but necessary as an energy source.
Instead of thinking about all the foods you must give up, think about foods you can eat that have possibly not been a part of your diet before.
Think about your eating habits and the foods you enjoy. It’s never healthy to cut an entire food group out of your diet, as you need all types of food to fuel you and provide nutrients.
If you know you have bad eating habits, like eating a lot of processed fast foods or drinking a lot of soda, work on cutting these down rather than completely eliminating them from your diet.
This will be easier to manage. For example, if you drink soda with every meal, cut this down to drinking it once a day and then once a week.
Supplements
Consider taking supplements. There are men’s and womens supplements to increase fat burning to help you lose weight.
There are many fat-burning supplements, so it is essential to read the labels before making a purchase.
Choose a fat-burning supplement that contains natural ingredients as you are less likely to develop adverse side effects.
A good fat loss supplement should include ingredients like green tea extract, caffeine, and L-Theanine.
Fat loss supplements work by increasing your metabolism so that you burn more calories even when you’re inactive.
They can also suppress your appetite so you can eat less without feeling hungry. This is very helpful when you’re working on being in a calorie deficit.
Keeping Active
Like with your food, there is no point in trying to commit to an exercise regime that you hate. To burn fat and keep the weight off, you need to build exercise and movement into your lifestyle for the long term.
Ideally, you should exercise two to four times a week but incorporate movement into your lifestyle every day.
The more you move, the more calories you burn. Consider the following:
Type of Workout
There are so many ways to exercise. If you enjoy exercising alone, perhaps join a gym or go for a run or cycle.
If you like classes or group exercise, there are many different exercise classes like aerobics, Zumba, pilates, and dance.
Or maybe you enjoy the intensity of joining a boot camp. If you are unsure of what you like, try out different exercises.
It’s beneficial to incorporate a mix of different exercise types into your workout plan, as each type serves a different purpose, and you’re less likely to get bored. For example, your exercise plan could include the following:
- Monday – do a cardio workout like running, cycling, or swimming
- Tuesday – HIIT workout
- Wednesday – Yoga
- Thursday – rest
- Friday – Pilates
Amount of Time
Not everyone can commit to a 60-minute workout every day or even a few times a week. A full hour may be too long if you’re a beginner.
Look at how much time you can dedicate to exercising every week, even if it is just fifteen minutes in the morning before your family wakes up.
It may be more manageable for a beginner to do a 10 to 15 minute workout in the morning and evening rather than a full 30-minute workout in one go.
Commit to Your Workout Plan
If, for example, you are a woman with a full-time job, kids to look after, and chores, it’s easy to push your workout plans to the side. Try to find your tdee (total daily energy expenditure) using the online calculator during the workout plan.
Especially when you’re exhausted in the middle of the week. But being consistent with your exercise is the only way you will see results.
Think of your workout as a non-negotiable meeting and plan it so that it is easy to incorporate into your routine.
For example, if you like working out at the gym, head to the gym straight after work instead of going home first. Usually, when you get home after work with plans to go to the gym later, you can get lazy or distracted with other things.
If you workout at home, try to schedule it into your day so that you don’t miss it, like working out first thing in the morning before the demands of the day reach you.
Keep Active When You’re Not Exercising
Apart from scheduled exercise, it is helpful to incorporate movement into your lifestyle.
Think of activities you enjoy that require you to move.
Instead of meeting friends for coffee, perhaps go for a walk in a park and grab a coffee to go.
If you have a garden, take up gardening. It is therapeutic and allows you to spend time outdoors and breathe fresh air.