Here are some great, weight loss tips to help you reach your fitness and body composition goals. Why eight weight loss tips and not ten...or even fifty weight loss tips? I want to keep it simple so that there is an increased chance they might be followed. All the weight loss tips in the world won't do a bit of good if nobody can remember to follow them. You don't even have to follow all of these tips. For starters just pick one and when that becomes a habit, try the next weight loss tip that strikes your fancy.
The most important weight loss idea has to do with the Law of Thermodynamics. This law means that in order to lose weight, you need to spend more energy than you take in. In order to gain weight you need to take more energy in than you put out. So, losing weight is simple; eat less food while moving more often! The weight loss tips below are just ways to take advantage and make more efficient use of this unavoidable law of nature.
Weight loss tip #1: Don't go On a Diet! Yep, I said it, don't go on a diet. Most people can't stick to a diet for a long period of time. They get discouraged and quit. You need to make healthy changes to last a lifetime, not look for the next fad quick-fix. Does this mean diets and diet books are bad? Certainly not, you may be in the minority who find one that works for you. If not, you still can learn something about nutrition that you can apply to your eating habits. Make small changes to your nutritional habits and over time you will reach your goals and be able to maintain them.
Weight loss tip #2: Make 1 small healthy change that you can live with today! For me, that was cutting out sugary sodas and other sugary drinks. A typical regular can of soda has about 140-170 calories. Two of those per day equals 280-340 calories a day, or about ¾ lb weight loss per week if you were maintaining your weight before that change (see weight loss tip #6). What do you drink instead? Cold water!!! Not only is water healthy, one once of cold water will burn one calorie when your body heats is up. So, drinking the recommended 64-96 oz. of water per day could equal up to 96 extra calories burned (depending on how much cold water you drank before).
It doesn't have to be sugary drinks. It could be cutting out desserts, or limiting them to once or twice a week from every day. Try replacing one un-healthy snack per day with a healthier one. You pick one that you can stick to (but start drinking more water anyway).
Weight loss tip #3: Eat breakfast! There's a reason for the cliché about breakfast being the most important meal of the day. That's because after fasting all night, your metabolism is at its lowest point in the morning. You need to stoke the metabolic fires with a good breakfast that contains both carbohydrates and protein. If you don't, your body will think it is being starved and will want to store any excess calories from the first thing you do eat (say at lunch) as fat to hedge against long periods with no energy intake. Breakfast first thing keeps this from happening and gives you energy to start the day.
Weight loss tip #4: Eat 4-6 smaller meals per day instead of 2-3 big ones. The easy way to do this is by having breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and then dinner. There, that's 5, good enough. A piece of fruit makes a great snack. By spreading your energy intake out in smaller, more frequent increments, it will increase your metabolism (you will burn more calories) because your body never thinks it is starving.
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