With increasing rates of obesity worldwide, many people are searching for how to lose weight healthily and quickly. Like anything worth doing, though, weight loss can be a long journey, but one that will pay off by adding years to your life in the process.
To lose weight naturally, you’ll need a multi-faceted approach that looks at your diet, lifestyle, and exercises to tackle all three areas. By changing your habits in these areas, you’ll have a weight loss plan in place that can be applied to the rest of your life.
The effects of being overweight are severe and damaging, ranging from self-esteem and self-confidence issues to higher risk of disease and illness including diabetes and heart disease.
Being overweight can affect your overall mood, motivation, and energy to get through a regular day. With a solid weight loss plan in place, you’ll notice almost immediate results and benefits to your body and mind.
How Food Affects Weight Loss
Perhaps the most critical factor in any weight loss journey is food. Foods for weight loss include a healthy mix of the five major food groups that provide a balanced and nutritious diet that gives you energy but doesn’t add any unnecessary calories.
Our body uses metabolism to convert food into energy, so the food that we put into our bodies needs to provide sufficient fuel for not just exercise but daily functions too.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the number of calories that each person uses to perform these tasks is referred to as basal metabolic rate, and the number can vary for each.
If you’re wondering how to lose weight naturally, your body needs to create a deficit so that you’re burning more energy than you’re consuming, so this is what makes our diet so important.
The Best Diets For Weight Loss
With so many diets available that all claim to provide a fast and easy weight loss solution, it can be hard to know which ones are legitimate. Some of the most popular recent diet trends include:
However, for the most solid approach to a diet for weight loss, you should focus on consuming a balanced mix of the five healthy food groups and staying within your recommended calorie intake. Any fast weight loss tips you get may lead to some weight loss initially, but this loss won’t be long-lasting.
To truly lose weight and keep it off you need to exercise and make small and gradual changes to your lifestyle that gets rid of bad habits for good.
How Exercise Can Help Weight Loss
Although diet is important, to speed up your metabolism and quicken your weight loss rate, you’ll need to incorporate daily exercise into your life. If you work out for at least 30 minutes a day for each day, you’ll greatly increase your chances of losing weight quickly and will keep it off for longer.
Exercise for weight loss can incorporate a range of activities from cardio to strength training, so it’s best to keep your body guessing. When you find an exercise you enjoy, it can take the boredom or repetitiveness out of exercise which causes so many people to give up.
Start off small with your exercise, such as a 30-minute walk around the neighborhood, and then add to your regime once you’ve built strength and stamina. Some suggestions for a workout combining strength and cardio include:
Diabetes And Weight Loss
Diabetes is one of the most common diseases in modern society and can affect your body’s ability to regular blood glucose levels, resulting in a range of serious side effects. Type 2 diabetes affects people later in life and is sometimes a result of poor diet and lifestyle choices.
Other factors including age and ethnicity can be considered also, as those belonging to African American, Native American, Asian Americans, and Latino backgrounds are more likely to develop the disease according to the American Diabetes Association.
If you suffer from type 2 diabetes, there is research to suggest that a change in lifestyle and a healthy eating plan may even reverse the disease entirely.
In addition to diet and exercise, there are other supplements which are said to reduce the need for insulin including chromium, magnesium, alpha-lipoic acid, and herbal supplements.
For those with type 1 diabetes, a healthy diet and weight loss can help you manage your disease and also reduce your dependability on insulin and other medications.
Not only is weight loss important for managing and eradicating this potentially fatal disease, but it can also lower your chances of developing diabetes significantly.
Benefits You Can Gain From Weight Loss
As soon as you start your weight loss plan, you’ll notice immediate results in your health and wellbeing. According to the Obesity Action Coalition, weight loss of just 5 – 10 % can have positive effects on the following:
Tip For Creating A Healthy Lifestyle
Losing weight should be a gradual journey and one that you can implement for lifelong changes. Here are some simple ideas to help you lose weight and also make subtle changes to your lifestyle that will eventually become permanent factors in your life.
Avoid Fad Diets
Think about how many fad diets you’ve done. If you’re in a predicament now that you’re trying to lose weight, it’s probably safe to say that none of them have worked.
The only true way to lose weight naturally and for good is to look at it as a lifestyle change that you’ll never turn back on.
Starving yourself or feeling that you’re denied something unhealthy is only going to make you struggle as you try to lose weight, so a fad diet isn’t going to offer any long-term resolution.
Treat Yourself In Moderation
Stop looking at high fat and high sugar foods as something to be desired and out of your reach. Everything in life is fine in moderation, so if you decide you want some chocolate make it just a square or two and savor the taste.
Once you become used to healthy eating the desire that these foods had on you will be gone, and you’ll find yourself feeling sluggish the next time you decide to consume some.
Ditch The Sugary Drinks
According to Rethink Sugary Drink, the average American would put on over 10 pounds in a year just by consuming one soft drink each day of 11 ounces.
People are often quick to overlook just how many calories and sugar is their favorite soft drink or juice, and this is one of the areas that can lead to excessive weight gain.
Stay Away From Processed
Do your best to avoid anything processed due to the chance that it has hidden additives and ingredients in it that you aren’t aware of.
By sticking to fresh foods, fruits, and vegetables, you’ll know exactly what you’re putting in your body and be able to benefit from all of the nutrients and vitamins direct from the source.
Get A Decent Sleep
On a typical morning where you wake up and haven’t had enough sleep, you’re more likely to skip any form of physical activity, reach for caffeine or sugar-laden drinks to keep you awake and feel too lazy to cook yourself a decent meal that night for dinner.
By getting the recommended 8 hours a night of sleep, you’ll ensure you’re refreshed and motivated to continue with your new healthy lifestyle.
Change Your Attitude
Your mental state is just as important as your physical, and what we tell ourselves has a huge impact on our weight loss journey.
By feeling as if you’re deprived without junk food, all this is doing is reinforcing how much you need it in your life. Tell yourself you could have that candy bar, but you don’t want to, instead of not being allowed to.
Reward Yourself For Results
There is nothing more motivating than seeing firsthand your results from weight loss and what better way to treat your body than with some new clothes.
If clothes aren’t your thing, you might like a relaxing day at the spa or a weekend away at a beach house to test out your bikini. Never become complacent with how well you’re doing and the amazing advancements you’ve made.
Conclusion
With all the positives that come from weight loss and the plethora of easy weight loss tips available, there’s no reason to suffer from excess weight any longer. Once you kick-start your new and healthy lifestyle, you won’t want to turn back, and you’ll be shocked at just how much energy you have.
Just a small weight loss of 10% can reduce your risk significantly of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and hypertension, so superficial reasons aside there’s no excuse not to do this for your health alone.
Start off small and make gradual changes as you go, making sure you don’t rush through the process. Once you’ve incorporated these changes into your life, you’ll never look to another fad diet again to help you shift weight as you’ll already be at your healthiest.
