Weight loss is a sensitive topic that has been trending for quite a long time now. Ask Google about it, and you’ll be surprised to find a myriad of answers that claim to successfully help in weight loss—and according to most, permanently.
Some self-claiming experts will prescribe cutting curbs while others will recommend you exercise regularly and maintain a low-fat diet. Now, with so many prescriptions available, what or rather who should you believe?
In the topic of weight loss, one thing is certain—there’s no one size fits all when it comes to healthy weight loss. While one method may work for one person, it’s not guaranteed that it will work for another. That’s because our bodies react differently to certain foods due to genetic and health-related factors.
So, if you’re lost and feeling quite confused, then you’re in the right place as this post will discuss seven effective methods that will help you lose weight fast and effectively.
Track Your Diet and Exercise
One of the most effective ways of losing weight is by recording everything that you eat or drink on a daily basis. You see, consistency is key when you’re on a journey to weight loss and can be achieved by being aware of what you feed on. These days people can keep a constant track of their fitness with the help of some best health apps like mustmotivate.com that helps you to keep a close eye on the body vitals along with the progress you’ve made towards the optimized health.
You can either do this by recording your daily workout and feeding behaviors in a journal or you can do it digitally using online food trackers such as health apps. Although some people might be reluctant about this, various studies have revealed that consistent monitoring of your feeding, and physical activity can be an effective way to manage weight.
Take Proteins For Breakfast
If you’re serious about losing weight, your morning breakfast should include a protein source, a fat source and a vegetable. By doing so, your body will benefit in two ways. One, your carb intake will automatically be regulated to about 20—50 grams per day.
Two, protein suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and boosts satiety hormones such as peptide, YY, and GLP-1. This means that your obsessive cravings and desire to snack will reduce automatically making you feel full in most parts of the day.
Cut Down On Sugar and Processed Carbs
If you’re truly serious about cutting weight, then you have to be mindful of what you eat. Diets such as the Western diet contain unhealthy amounts of added sugars and refined carbs that provoke certain hormones known to exacerbate obesity.
Some of the foods we’re talking about include pizza dough, pasta, sweetened cereals, pastry, and white rice among others.
Now, refined carbohydrates as well as foods with excess sugar are quick to digest and can convert to glucose rapidly. When excess glucose gets to your blood system, it activates the hormone insulin that regulates fat storage in the adipose tissue leading to weight gain.
Eat Lots of Fruits, Veggies, and Fiber
One common mistake most people do to cut weight is skipping meals. Although it sounds functional, this approach is pretty dangerous as makes your body miss essential nutrients that make you feel hungry. The results: You’ll end up snacking more throughout the day.
Lesson learned: You don’t have to skip meals just to cut weight. Instead, you should incorporate high-fiber foods such as fruits, veggies, and grains as they take longer to digest making you feel full for long hours.
Some of the high-fiber meals you should consider eating include; whole-grain cereals, fruits, veggies, beans, whole-wheat pasta, nuts, peas, and seeds. You can also find more @ mymixify if you’re looking for more weight loss inspiration.
Get Enough Sleep
Numerous studies have revealed that lack of enough sleep, below 4—5 hours, can increase cases of obesity. This happens in two main processes. The first is slowing down the rate of metabolism, which involves converting calories to energy. When slowed, these calories are stored in the body in form of fats leading to weight gain.
The second thing sleep does is that it activates the production of insulin and cortisol which also encourages the storage of fats in the body.
Finally, lack of enough sleep controls the appetite-regulating hormone, ghrelin, which sends signals to the brain informing it that you’re hungry.
Exercise Regularly
Visiting the gym at least 4 to 5 times weekly to lift weights can really help in your journey to weight loss. By lifting weights, your body’s metabolic rate will increase substantially leading to the burning of more calories.
If you’re not interested in lifting weights, which by the way allows you to gain muscles, then you can consider doing cardio workouts such as running, jogging, walking, swimming, and cycling.
Reduce Stress Levels
Finally, you need to manage stress if you’re ever looking to cut down weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. When you’re stressed, hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are activated, though they’re initially meant to lower appetite.
However, if you’re under constant stress and depression, the cortisol hormone remains longer in the bloodstream causing an increase in appetite.
What happens next is that cortisol sends signals that the body’s nutritional stores require replenishment from carbohydrates. Insulin then transports sugar from carbs to the muscles and brain to answer this call.
Since the body was never in need of any sugar or rather energy, it’s instead stored as fat leading to weight gain and obesity in the long last.
Conclusion
As you can see, the journey to weight loss is not just a walk in the park. It calls for consistency and personal sacrifice if you’re ever looking to cut down weight successfully. It’s a combination of several practices, which if accomplished thoughtfully, can really help to cut weight faster.
Things like working out, reducing stress, minding your diet, cutting down on alcohol and drinking plenty of water are some of the key ways, which through consistency, can really help to reduce weight.