Many people are on a weight loss journey, but knowing how to achieve your goals can be challenging. With so many diet plans out there, people can end up looking for fast results on the scale at the expense of their health.
When the diet plan ends, many people find themselves putting the weight back on, leading to an unsustainable pattern of yo-yo dieting that can damage their metabolism.
With our top tips, you can lose weight safely and sustainably, with no quick fixes, and instead, a focus on living a healthy lifestyle in the long term.
1. Add Strength Training to Your Routine
Building muscle is a great way to boost your metabolism and achieve a more ‘toned’ look. Strength training is the easiest way to build muscle, and it involves doing exercises where you have to use your strength to complete them.
Examples of strength training exercises that use bodyweight include sit-ups, push-ups, and squats. You can also carry out exercises that use barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells, such as deadlifts or bicep curls.
However you choose to strength train, doing so is a great way to support healthy, sustainable weight loss.
2. Avoid Calorie-dense Foods
The key to losing weight sustainably is to avoid feeling overly hungry, as this risks binge-eating fatty foods to make up for feelings of hunger. There is a way to eat large meals and snacks in between but still lose weight. It involves avoiding calorie-dense foods.
Calorie-dense foods are foods that contain lots of calories in a small serving. Examples include fatty red meat, chocolate, and full-fat cheese.
Instead, opt for foods that have very few calories in a serving, so you can eat them in large quantities. Examples of these foods include beans and pulses, fruits, and vegetables.
3. Incorporate Natural Exercise
Losing weight doesn’t have to involve going to the gym for an hour every day. You can boost the number of calories you burn simply by incorporating more movement into your day, whether that’s by doing household chores or going for daily walks.
One easy way to incorporate more movement into your day is to invest in a standing desk such as this desk from Flexispot. By buying a standing, cycling, or treadmill desk, you can exercise more throughout the day without even realising it!
4. Keep Healthy Snacks in the House
When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s normal to be hungry between meals. If you keep crisps, chocolate, or sweets in the house, the temptation to indulge in some sugary snacks to keep hunger pains at bay can sometimes prove too much.
To make sure you’re satiated while also reaching your goals, opt for healthy snacks in the house insteas, such as crudites, hummus, fruit, and nuts and seeds.
5. Eat More Protein
Not only is protein great at keeping you full, but it’s also the macronutrient that takes the most energy for your body to digest. Your body expends more energy when it has to digest protein than it does when digesting fat or carbohydrates.
If you’re not sure how to increase the amount of protein in your diet, aim for around 30g worth of protein with every meal and increase the amount slowly over time. If you’re struggling to get enough protein in your diet, add a couple of scoops of protein powder to a smoothie, cereal, or porridge oats every morning.
6. Eat in A Small Calorie Deficit
The basics of losing weight involves expending more calories than you consume. An easy way to do that is to eat in what’s known as a calorie deficit. Work out approximately how many calories you consume in a day - those are your maintenance calories.
Then deduct around 300-500 calories from that - that’s your calorie deficit. Aim to eat in a calorie deficit at least 80% of the time for results. Remember, don’t drop your calorie count too low, or you’ll risk wreaking havoc with your metabolism.
7. Reduce Alcohol Intake
All too frequently, people wonder why they’re not losing weight as quickly as they want to, even though they think they’re in a calorie deficit. A key mistake that people make, however, is forgetting to include liquids when counting calories.
Alcohol, especially beer and cider, contains lots of calories. If you regularly drink on the weekends, you could be consuming 500 calories or more without realising it.
One of the simplest ways to lose weight is to reduce your alcohol intake. Not only will it trim your waistline, but it’s also better for you. Alternatively, opt for alcoholic drinks with lower calories. A great example of a low-calorie drink is a spirit such as vodka or gin, paired with a calorie-free mixer. That way, you can have as many drinks as you were before, but with fewer calories.
