Despite all the upheavals that we are experiencing in 2020, it’s a good idea to keep our health and weight management in check. It doesn’t matter if you want to stop eating sugar, gain weight, or lose the quarantine weight.
If your health goal for 2020 is weight loss, it’s important to do research on the best weight loss strategies so that you can improve your weight loss results. Eating healthy is a big part of losing weight, as you know. But here are some other tips that will help you to lose 5 pounds or more, whether or not you start a weight loss diet.
1- Healthy Food Is The Beginning To Losing Weight
Eating healthy is a fun and rewarding process. Not only does it help you to lose weight fast, but you also gain more energy and mental clarity. Your body will be able to fight inflammation more and this will help you to gain muscle better.
The thing is- healthy eating and exercise is closely connected. If you want to gain muscle and become toned, you can’t do it by only working out. The foods you eat will help you to improve your metabolism and get those muscles faster.
If you are not able to work out but you still want to lose weight quickly, a healthy diet is the best way to do this. I don’t want to be the health writer who just says ‘eat healthy’ but leaves you with no concept of what eating healthy actually means, so here’s a quick look at healthy eating.
How To Eat Healthy (Simplified)
- Drink at least 3 cups of water
- Increase your vegetable and fruit intake
- Really limit your sugar and processed foods. Natural foods are richer in nutrients and more beneficial to your health.
That’s really all it takes. More water, less sugar and processed stuff, and more whole and natural foods. You can literally start right now.
(Find Out How I’m Losing Quarantine Weight)
2- A Low Carb Diet Will Help You To Lose Weight Fast
If you’re in a place where you want to lose a lot of weight quickly, and I’m talking losing 10 pounds or more, then you might have to start a diet in order to get there.
I don’t recommend dieting as a long term solution, but sometimes we need to kick start weight loss and a low carb diet is a good way to do that.
Now, there are different types of low carb diets and there’s a lot of articles on this website that will break them down for you. For this article however, here are the 2 that you need to know about:
Regular Low Carb Diet
In this version of a low carb diet for weight loss, your goal is to remove empty carbs from your diet. Again, we go back to sugar and processed foods. These high carb foods have a lot of sugar and calories that just convert to fat and then stick around.
Booo.
No.
We want healthy low carb foods like lettuce, cabbage and the zero carb foods on this list. These healthy foods are great for weight loss because they are filled with fiber and they’ll keep you full (and provide a ton of nutrients) without the excess sugar.
Seriously, you don’t need it.
The Keto Diet
Now this low carb diet has been proven to be one of the most effective diets for losing weight in the past 5 years. Keto is the ultimate low carb diet where you consume less than 50g of carbs everyday. This puts your body into a state of ketosis where you use fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.
When your body does this, it’s way easier for you to burn fat for weight loss. Seriously. You can read more about how to lose over 50 pounds with the keto diet.
3- Inflammation Can Slow Down Weight Loss
There is always some amount of inflammation going on your body. This is because your body is always healing, repairing, and protecting itself from foreign substances.
However, too much inflammation for too long can result in chronic inflammation…which is bad. This impacts your weight if your inflammation interferes with your digestion. You see, chronic inflammation can affect your digestive system, especially if you already have a sensitive stomach.
Not healing inflammation can also result in more damage when you work out. That’s why healthy eating (to reverse inflammation and heal your body) is the first item on this list of proven weight loss strategies.
Click here to read more about inflammation and how to heal it.
If you want kick start your nutrition and give your digestive system a boost, look into doing a juice cleanse for quicker healing and nutrient absorption.
4- Avoid These Three Things
In order to lose weight effectively, your whole being has to be involved in the process. This does not mean your weight loss goals should take over your life. As a matter of fact, avoiding these 3 things can improve the overall quality of your life.
The 3 things are stress, sugar, and a lack of sleep.
Stress- Countless research has proven that stress results in unbalanced hormones, which leads to increased appetite, a craving for comfort food, and other unhealthy coping mechanisms that result in weight gain.
Sugar– A bad sugar craving can be the bane of your existence if you are trying to lose weight effectively. It’s like you can’t get enough even though you want to avoid it. I know from experience, and the best way to do this is to go on a sugar detox. You have to be serious about it for it to work.
Lack of Sleep– Research shows that by getting less sleep, you can decrease your weight loss by up to 55%, even if you are eating a relatively low calorie diet. Sleep helps to regulate your hormones and when your hormones are out of balance, it’s harder to lose weight.
5- Dieting Is Not A Long Term Solution
As a nutritionist, I’ve studied the pros and cons of dieting for weight loss. Fast diets can seem useful in the short run but you end up regaining weight, which is the last thing that you want.
So this is why weight loss sometimes require a strategy for you to be successful. For example, if you decide to start a low carb or keto diet to lose fat, you can first set a goal to lose 20 pounds. After you lose 20 pounds, you can start to integrate regular foods into your diet. Choose one healthy eating philosophy and stick to it.
Healthy eating philosophy can be:
- practicing intermittent fasting to reduce food intake
- only eating whole foods (like on a paleo diet)
- starting a healthy vegan or vegetarian diet
- going from keto to low carb (same principle but not as strict)
- and of course exercise is a great tool to help control your weight
Conclusion
With enough research and weight loss tools, you can design your own weight loss experience. Choosing to lose fat is not something to be afraid of; you’re consciously deciding to improve your health and that’s something to be excited about.
Just remember that if all else fails, start eating healthy, and that one healthy habit will start to influence your entire weight loss journey.
