I’m still amazed at how ‘salesy’ many of the weight loss articles and sales pages are these days. They promise phenomenal results with minimal effort in a matter of weeks or even days. You didn’t put the weight on overnight, it ain’t gonna come off overnight either.
Any rapid loss in weight will be mostly be down to a drop in water retention and will be short lived. Once you up the calories back to normal there is usually a ‘rebound’ effect as the body prepares itself for a repeat starvation period by storing as much fat as possible.
Your body is interested only in survival, not in looking how the current attitude in society demands.
If you want to lose weight and you want to keep it off long term (and stay healthy), crash diets and pills won’t help you – you need a change in lifestyle.Please accept that you will have to make changes. Your current lifestyle is resulting in you being overweight, to change your weight you need to change what you’re doing. You’ll be surprised to learn the effect of making modest changes in several aspects of your life.
Over the years, I’ve collected numerous tips and golden nuggets for losing weight that are effective, simple and usually something you can easily stick to.
Now don’t try to stick to each and every tip, pick the ones you feel you can do and won’t disrupt your current lifestyle too much.
There’s a lot to get through so I’ve broken the list down into 4 separate articles, parts 2, 3 & 4 are now published.
1. Eat frequently – It may not seem like it makes sense, but the fact is, the more frequently you eat, the more weight you can actually lose. You see, every time you eat, your metabolism kicks into gear. If your metabolism is working, you are burning calories! So eat smaller meals, more often throughout the day to lose more weight.
2. Eat within 1 hour of waking up – If weight loss is your goal, it is important to get your metabolism kicked into gear each day as soon as possible. Get up in the morning and try to eat something within an hour of waking to kick start your metabolism and get your body burning calories as quickly as possible.
3. Eat more slowly – Even if you’re famished, try to take your time eating your meal. Chew each bite thoroughly and take your time. The fact is, the slower you eat, the sooner you will feel full, thereby eating much fewer calories than if you ate quickly. This is a great little tip to help you lose weight more quickly.
A glass of water before you eat will help you feel fuller
4. Drink a glass of water before your meal - Chugging a glass of water before you eat will help you feel fuller and therefore make you eat less food. In addition, drinking a glass of water throughout the day whenever you are hungry will make sure you snack less as well. Drinking plenty of water is a great way to help support your weight loss goals.
5. Prepare your meals the night before – Scheduling and organization is the key to weight loss success. Get some Tupperware containers and prepare healthy meals the night before to eat throughout the day. You won’t have to worry about snacking or trips through the fast food lines if your daily meals are prepared in advance.
6. Substitute water for your regular drinks – Sure, we all like a nice cold soda or glass of iced tea with our meal, but if weight loss is your goal, then slap down a glass of water in front of you whenever you are eating. The liquid will help you feel fuller more quickly and the fact that water contains 0 calories, you won’t be adding to your waistline with each sip.
7. Drink 2-3 glass of green tea per day – Many of us have our daily coffee, iced tea, or soda rituals, but more times than not, we are putting tons of added sugar into our system with no benefit at all. Try replacing your regular drinks every day with green tea…no sugar, add some lemon, chill it if you like, but Green Tea has been showing to be very effective at helping folks lose weight when consumed on a regular basis.
8. Forget 3 square meals, go for 5-6 instead – Most of us were taught to eat 3 square meals a day, but, we also found out that we got ROUND because of it. The less you eat, the more your body wants to store fat, the more often you eat, the more likely it is that your body will continuously burn calories. Try eating 5-6 small meals per day and keep your metabolism working ALL the time for extra weight loss success.
9. Don’t skip breakfast – When trying to lose weight, we often feel that skipping a meal or two will help us reach our goals…fewer calories means weight loss, right? WRONG! Skipping a meal will just make your body try to store extra calories when you do in fact eat again. Breakfast is a key one as well because it is the meal that kickstarts your metabolism in gear for the day. Eat something early to get your body burning calories right away!
10. Add more fiber to your diet – For weight loss, fiber is your friend! It helps with digestion and helps you feel full more quickly.
11. Get plenty of sleep – In order for your body to work at optimal efficiency, it needs to be well rested. This goes for losing weight as well. Make sure to get 9-10 hours of quality rest each night so your body can recharge and keep all systems in check.
12. Muscle burns fat, so get more of it! – It is a fact that muscle tissue can burn as much as 3 times the calories that fat tissue can, so start building those biceps! By increasing your muscle mass, you will increase your metabolism as well and the work you do to build that muscle will burn a huge amount of calories as well.
13. Take a jumprope wherever you go – Jumping rope is an excellent exercise to promote weight loss and it is one of the most portable exercise devices ever invented. Throw a jump rope into your bag or even your pocket and when you have a few spare minutes, whip it out and start jumping! You can easily burn an extra 500 calories per day just by taking a few 10 minute jump rope breaks throughout the day.
14. Why ride when you can walk? – With all of the choices available to us today for transportation, it is easy to take good ole walking for granted. If your destination is only a mile or two away, walk! If you see an escalator or elevator in front of you, take the stairs! Adding a few extra steps to your day will get you closer and closer to your weight loss goals.
15. Plan your day to include a workout – We are all much more likely to do the things we plan to do and this is never more true than with a consistent exercise routine. Make sure to write down your workout plans on a daily basis (preferably the night before) and stick to your daily routine. Each and every day you follow this workout routine you will be one day closer to your weight loss goal.
16. Ditch the soda, NOW! – Soda is sugar water. Stop drinking it NOW! Many people can lose 10-15 pounds quickly just by switching from soda to water. Soda offers our bodies nothing but excess calories…
17. HIIT will get you fit QUICK – HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This method is one that features short bursts of all-out effort followed by longer durations of less effort. For instance, a 30 second spring followed by a 2 minute jog would be 1 interval. Combine 6-8 of these intervals and you have burned some SERIOUS calories in just 30 minutes or less. Want to get ripped and lose serious weight? Then High Intensity Interval Training will get you there.
18. Pick up a kettlebell and go for a swing – Russians have been swinging kettlebells for HUNDREDS of years. They make you strong, build muscle, and burn fat. The main exercise, the Swing, will work just about every muscle in your body and after about 20 minutes of just swinging this cannonball with a handle shaped apparatus, you will have burned more calories than almost any other exercise you can think of.
19. Focus on comprehensive full body exercises – The more muscles you recruit for an exercise, the more fat you will burn. Focus on full body exercises that make you work your entire body and you will lose some serious weight. The king of all of these exercises is the squat. Don’t be scared of those pictures of hulking men hoisting huge weight overhead…you can lose weight just by doing body-weight squats as well.
20. Try plyometrics to shed some fat quickly – Jump for joy, jump for fun, jump for weight loss! Plyometrics is a term that basically means jumping to induce explosive muscular contractions. Just performing jump squats regularly will burn serious calories, build muscle and help you lose weight. Make sure to start slowly as performing 20 or so jump squats can bring on some serious soreness!
21. Stick to the basics – Sure, it’s easy to become swayed by all the beautiful and exciting equipment we see on TV, but the fact is, the basis are still the best. Exercises such as squats, push-ups and pull-ups recruit MANY muscles and will help you lose weight and build muscle better than just about anything you purchase in a box. Stick to the basics and build the body you have always wanted the old fashioned way. (It’ll help you save more money as well!)
22. Keep the water at your side – If you’re trying to lose weight, water can be your best friend. Just by drinking 6-8 glasses per day, you can encourage your body to lose weight. It helps to flush out toxins and ensures your body is working efficiently on the cellular level. In addition, it can help you feel more full so you will eat less as well. Keep a bottle of fresh water on hand at all times and sip away that extra weight!
23. Replace your seat with an exercise ball – Those big exercise balls are not just for doing crunches anymore, nope, they make fantastic seats as well! By sitting on an exercise ball at your desk, you recruit the muscles in your core and legs to help stabilize you…in effect, you will be doing a core workout all day! You will burn more calories as a result, so grab a ball and have a seat!
24. Meditate to reduce stress – Extra stress increases the release of a chemical called CORTISOL into our blood stream that can help our bodies retain fat. The more stress you feel, the bigger that belly can get. If you start meditating once a day to relieve stress, you can inhibit cortisol production and keep stress and extra fat at bay. Meditation can also help reduce blood pressure and even cholesterol as well as an effect of a lower stress level.
25. Write down everything you eat, BEFORE you eat it – It is always a good idea to keep a log of what you eat on a daily basis, but the key is to write it down BEFORE you put it in your mouth. Just seeing what you are about to eat on paper will help you eat less. I mean, if you write down 10 cookies and a quart of milk…how will that make you feel? You are likely to adjust it to 2 cookies and a cup of milk…it works…try it and see.
There you go, first 25 tips for you. Keep posted for the next installment, wont be long, promise 
.
Update: Part 2 of this 4 part series is now published.
January 30, 2012
Fat Loss