How to Lose Weight Successfully and Keep It Off for the Long Term
There are many ways to lose weight successfully, but not everyone can find the best way to fit themselves and stick with it for a long time. Especially those unscientific methods of weight loss are very harmful to the body. For many people, losing weight is a task that is almost impossible to accomplish. Although some people lose weight temporarily, it doesn’t take long to bounce back, even fatter than before the weight loss!
And plenty of examples prove that a balanced and healthy diet is the best way to help lose weight and also improve your overall health. As long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet, and restrain your cravings, you will surely be able to gradually achieve your weight loss goals.
Eight Simple Steps to Successful Weight Loss
1. Don’t Go On a Diet
Dieting is a rather silly and dangerous way to lose weight. Very many people would have liked to reduce weight through dieting, but it is difficult to stick to it, and the weight rebounded very badly, even heavier than before the weight loss.
Long-term dieting also lowers the basal metabolic rate, which means that the body’s ability to burn calories decreases, so most of the calories you eat will become fat in the body. As a result, weight loss, but starve yourself into a “fat body”, which is not worth the loss.
2. Eat Fewer Carbohydrates
If you want to lose weight effectively, you can reduce the intake of carbohydrates, mainly from whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables to get carbohydrates. Avoid refined carbohydrates, such as wheat flour, refined rice, desserts, etc.
Refined carbohydrates have little to no nutrition because the skin, fiber, and other nutrients are removed during processing. They are easily digested and have a high glycemic index, which can cause blood sugar spikes. They also cause mood and energy swings and fat accumulation, especially in the waist and abdomen.
3. After Dinner Don’t Eat Snacks
After dinner eating some snacks is the habit of many people. But too late to eat, not only the stomach and intestines not get enough rest, and less activity at night, more likely to accumulate fat. Try the following methods to see if they can help you curb the desire to snack after dinner:
- Don’t keep any snacks at home
- Brush your teeth immediately after eating dinner
- Go out for a walk
- Go to bed early
- If you feel hungry, eat a small amount of fruit, nuts, or oats
4. Eat More Vegetables and Fruits
Fruits and vegetables are not high in calories and are rich in dietary fiber, which can increase the feeling of satiety. Fiber is also an essential nutrient for the body and plays a very important role in fat loss.
Some people like to drink fruit juice, but in reality, even freshly squeezed juice is usually not as healthy as whole fruit. That’s why experts recommend eating whole fruits instead of just drinking juice!
5. Choose Those Healthy Snacks
What if you want to lose weight but like to eat snacks? You can choose those snacks that contain a lot of protein and are rich in nutrients. They can not only satisfy your appetite but also do not have to worry about growing meat and may even help you lose weight. For example:
- Seaweed
- Dark chocolate
- Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries or nuts
- Low carb nuts
- Refried beans
- Chia seed shake
- Whey Protein Shake
- Cheese
6. Drink More Water Every Day
Water does more for your body than just quench your thirst, it can even help you lose weight. If your goal is long-term and moderate weight loss, then making sure your body is well-hydrated is a good place to start. Many studies have shown that drinking more water can help with weight loss in several ways:
- Suppressing appetite
- Increasing metabolism
- Helping to reduce calorie intake
- Helping the body remove waste
- Helps reduce stress
Therefore, it is important to drink at least two liters of water a day and to hydrate several times a day. Never wait until you are thirsty to drink water. Because at this point, your body is already extremely dehydrated. Drinking water several times at different times can prevent this from happening.
7. Appropriate Aerobic Exercise
A healthy diet helps to reduce weight, but exercise can make the body line look better. Aerobic exercise is a physical exercise performed by the body with a sufficient supply of oxygen. Examples include swimming, jogging, brisk walking, cycling, or hiking.
Find your favorite aerobic exercise and enjoy it, make it a habit, and maintain a regular exercise routine. If possible, stick to 30 minutes or more each time to achieve a fat-burning heart rate to burn body fat. This method will not only help you lose weight but also strengthen your physique.
8. Add Strength Training
If you want to accelerate weight loss, you cannot ignore strength training. Strength training (also known as resistance training) is a form of exercise that uses your body weight or uses tools (such as dumbbells or resistance bands) to enhance muscle mass, strength, and endurance.
The purpose of strength training is to build muscle, and people who are losing weight can use strength training to improve their metabolic capacity and increase calorie burn in their bodies. Especially when you enter the plateau, proper strength training can help you break through the weight loss bottleneck as soon as possible, making the weight loss process smoother and your body shape will look better.
Tips to Help You Lose Weight and Maintain a Healthy Weight
1. Develop a Diet Plan
Developing a proper diet plan can help you use your time and resources more wisely to achieve the best weight loss results. Three meals a day, protein, healthy carbohydrates, and vegetables are indispensable. You should also include healthy fats and oils to get enough nutrients during the diet.
2. Chew Slowly
Observe the thin people around you, their eating habits often have one thing in common, that is, chew slowly when eating. This is a very good eating habit, not only to help the stomach and intestines to better digest food but also conducive to weight loss. Chewing slowly when eating not only allows your brain to receive the signal of a full stomach faster but is also conducive to the health of the stomach and intestines to avoid gastrointestinal diseases caused by eating too much.
3. Adjust the Order of Eating
Many people eat at random, what they want to eat. Although this is very comfortable to eat, it is not conducive to weight loss. If you want to lose weight successfully, you must pay attention to the order of eating.
Have a bowl of soup first, then eat vegetables, then protein, and finally carbohydrates. This will reduce the calorie intake and will prevent fat from accumulating in the body.
4. Focus on Body Fat, Not Weight
When it comes to weight loss, is the number on the scale the first thing that comes to your mind? The real reflection of whether you lose weight is body fat. If you stare at the changing numbers on the scale all day long, you will instead tend to get caught up in tension and frustration, increasing psychological stress. This is even more detrimental to weight loss.
What causes you to gain weight is that the bloated fat molecules have become larger. Therefore, the only way to be truly successful in slimming down is to reduce your body fat percentage. The purpose of weight loss should be to lose fat, not just to lose weight.
5. Ensure Sleep
Staying up late can easily make you hungry and make it hard to resist the temptation to snack. If you eat too much fatty food before going to bed, fat will accumulate in your body during sleep and you will become fatter and fatter.
In addition, lack of sleep can lead to an imbalance in the metabolism of cortisol in the body. Cortisol is a steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal glands that play a key role in the body’s stress response. It is often referred to as the “stress hormone,” but it is also involved in the regulation of the following physiological functions:
- Blood pressure
- Glucose metabolism
- Immune function
- Inflammatory response
- Insulin release
Studies have shown that frequent high levels of endogenous cortisol are associated with weight gain. And people who sleep less than 8 hours a night have chronically high levels of cortisol, which affects the function of cortisol in regulating sugar, protein, and fat metabolism. The negative effects of cortisol can lead to increased blood sugar, increased appetite, and weight gain.
The National Sleep Foundation Recommends:
- Healthy adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.
- Infants and adolescents need more sleep for proper growth and development.
- People over the age of 65 should also get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.
Conclusion
A well-balanced and healthy diet and regular exercise will not only help you successfully lose weight and keep it off but will also improve your overall health. Good lifestyle and eating habits can help strengthen bones, muscles, and heart, and reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases.