Weight loss can be a difficult challenge for you if you don’t know where to start, but for those with experience, losing weight can prove to be attainable and painless. No fad diets, no magic pills, just directly addressing the issue and fixing it from there.
Uncontrollably gaining weight could be caused by underlying medical conditions, so it is always recommended that you see your primary physician before trying to begin any weight loss program. With that being said, unless there is an underlying medical reason as to why you’re overweight, the likely reason as to why you put on a few pounds too many is simply the compounding effect of not-so-great behaviors that you developed without even noticing.
If weight loss is a goal of yours, consider these tips that can help you maintain your weight.
1. Reduce Unnecessary Calorie Intake
The key word here is unnecessary. An issue that many people face when they go on a diet is that they end up just eating way less than they normally do. Yes, that lowers your calorie intake, but guess what? You’re most likely depriving your body of nutrients that it needs to keep you healthy and functioning. If you don’t watch the way that you lose weight, you may just lose your health with it.
So what am I talking about when I say reduce unnecessary calorie intake? Aside from the main meals that you have every day, most snacks that you’re having are probably not the most nutritionally-dense food choices that you have. That refers to just about anything you can find in the snack aisle at your grocery store.
It’s not the actual food or snack that inherently bad for you, but when you make a habit out of regularly eating these things a couple times a week, or maybe even once a day, those calories add up. Trust me, I know better than anyone how easy it is to eat an entire bag chips…family sized too.
There are two paths of how to fix this. You can either stop and just toss everything out or you can replace your snacking with nutrient dense, but not calorie-dense, options. If you do decide to stop eating junk food, the best idea is to just take it all and toss it. It’s much easier to avoid a temptation that isn’t just sitting right in front of you. There are plenty of recipes available online for healthy snack options, so give google a shot and I guarantee you’ll find something.
2. Watch What You Drink
This point essentially branches off the previous one, but I feel like it is even more of a problem for those who aren’t aware of what they are consuming. With food, you can feel pretty full after a reasonable portion of anything, but with drinks, you can pick one up and drink it throughout the day without even realizing how many excessive calories you’re ingesting.
If you weren’t aware of it before:
20 oz bottle of soda ~ 250 Calories
Grande Starbucks Drink ~ 300 Calories
12 oz can of beer ~ 145 Calories
Assuming that you have about one of these drinks a day, you’re going to have put on around 25 lbs of fat in one year just from drinks alone. The worst part is, we all know that it doesn’t always stop at one.
If you’re someone who has the habit of must having something to drink, try carrying around a water bottle or making your own coffee or tea at home. This way, you’ll be less dependent on picking up something where you have little control over how many calories go into it. Plus, you’ll save a LOT of money, in case the former wasn’t enough incentive already.
3. Get Out and Get Moving
A sedentary lifestyle is probably one of the most detrimental factors affecting overall human health today. Whether it be school or work, we often just jump into a seat and stay there for hours on end. From a weight loss perspective, if you’re currently sitting in a chair for most of your day, even a little activity can greatly improve your calories burned per day.
I never considered myself to be at all over weight, but when I started weight lifting in college, I lost 10 lbs in one month without even noticing much change in my lifestyle-other than I started going to the gym. What happened was that I went from sitting in a chair all day, to actually having a period of movement and activity which burned a couple hundred calories a day. That deficit added up, and just like how that bag of chips a day will lead to weight gain, a bag of exercise will contribute almost equally as well to weight loss.
For anyone who doesn’t have time to jump in the gym every day, I challenge you just get up and do a set up of push ups, jumping jacks, or squats 5 times a day. It may not seem like much, but a little is still better than none. Weight loss is built off of compounding habits and behaviors, so just like how you gradually got to one state, you can just well reverse the effects.
Keep in mind, these aren’t the only ways available to help you lose weight, but from what I see, these are pretty big factors in what affects an individual’s weight, from my experience. It doesn’t hurt to give it shot does it? If you’re more serious about getting into the best shape you’ve ever been in, check out our programs, we know what works.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Help me out by giving my page a like down below, or a share with the side bar on your left! Let’s get out and get fit!
Leave a Reply