The weight loss process can be daunting and seem difficult. But if you leave outdated ways, restrictive diets and quick fixes behind, this year could be the year of your transformation!
It is important to keep in mind that nothing will happen quickly. Just as we didn’t gain weight overnight, we can’t get rid of it overnight. Be patient, listen to your body and trust the process.
To help you with this process, we’ve gathered the best tips and singled out a few obstacles that might be found on the way to your goal.
1. Working out – cardio or weights?
It is important to include physical activity in every weight loss process. By reducing the number of calories we eat, we will gradually lose fat, but also muscle mass, which is crucial for maintaining good shape and a fit appearance of the body. However, you need to choose the type and amount of activity that is optimal for achieving your goal.
A large number of people automatically turn to cardio training, which has received the award of ‘best form of exercise for fat loss’ over the years. Although no form of exercise, including cardio, should be completely excluded from the training plan, it is good to include exercise training with it. Why? Strength training and weight training have been proven to speed up metabolism, boost calorie expenditure and promote fat loss. With weight loss, we also lose fat, but we also reduce muscle tissue, so it is important to maintain this balance by including weight training.
2. Calorie deficit and quality foods
Most people who embark on a weight loss journey identify this process with rigorous diets, detox juices, and avoiding large amounts of foods. This restrictive attitude towards food is one of the main causes of giving up and feeling bad about the weight loss process.
Calorie deficit (intake of fewer calories than spent) is the basis of any weight loss process and the most reliable way to adjust your diet to lose weight. The reason why many diets don’t work, or only work in the short term, is that even though we avoid certain foods, we can still ingest too many calories and thus be in a calorie surplus that creates a counter-effect.
In addition to the amount of calories, it is important to pay attention to the type of food we eat and whenever possible to choose nutritious unprocessed foods. Also, it is necessary to eat enough protein and fiber that stimulate the feeling of satiety and reduce appetite.
3. Tracking progress exclusively by numbers on the scale
Although the most commonly used method of tracking weight loss progress is just weighing, this method has several drawbacks. For starters, scale can’t tell the difference between muscle mass and fat. It often happens that the numbers on the scales remain the same and it seems that we are not making progress. However, with exercise we increase muscle mass and lose fat, so the weight does not change drastically, but we can notice a change in your body. This is why pre- and post-photography methods and measuring circumference on different parts of the body are much more rewarding.
The change in body weight is influenced by many factors, both on a daily basis and over a long period of time. During the weight loss process, your weight will fluctuate which is completely normal and therefore you should not be discouraged by the numbers shown by the scale.
4. Too many meals
One of the tips that is repeated in blogs that cover the topic of weight loss is that it is better to eat more smaller meals a day than 1 or 2 large and plentiful meals because consuming more smaller meals stimulates the metabolism and speeds it up. Unfortunately, this can lead to more calories than you really need, and if you stick to a meal plan, you may find that you have to eat even if you are not hungry.
Here we return to the advice on calorie deficit. If you rely solely on estimating meal size, it can happen that you actually eat a large number of oversized portions throughout the day thinking you are eating smaller meals. Therefore, it is best to eat when you feel the need for food, but still consume calories in a controlled manner in accordance with your goals and needs.
5. Setting goals
All of these tips aren’t worth much if you don’t have well-defined goals that are realistic and measurable. Goals are the best motivators and they push us further. On the other hand, unrealistic goals do us more harm than good. If we set unattainable goals, we will feel bad and demotivated the moment we fail to achieve them. That is why it is best to set several smaller goals that will ultimately lead us to achieve the main, big goal, which in this case is to lose a certain amount of weight.
Get moving, do something good for your body and develop healthy habits!
See you at your workout,
tvoj Gyms4you tim!
