For effective fat loss, you need to do the following:
- Eat 5-8 small meals per day, highlighting proteins, healthy fats and vegetables. The traditional three meals a day won’t do it for burning fat. Balance each meal with about 50% of your calories coming from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 20% from healthy fats.
- Limit restaurant dining.
- Increase physical activity. Cardiovascular exercise is perhaps one of the most important keys to losing weight.
- Don’t skip on carbs post-workout.
- Get at least 6 hours of sleep nightly. Take a nap if needed during the day.
- Don’t eat just before bedtime. The food that you eat will probably be stored as fat since your body will not be able to burn it off fully.
- Drink more water. Water helps you properly utilize all of your nutrients that you take in through food, which is essential when dieting. It will help you transport the nutrients efficiently into your cells and determine how your cells use them. At the same time, it will help you efficiently eliminate wastes while flushing all toxins out of your body to make you even healthier. Water will also improve your complexion.
Some days will be tougher than others, especially if you’re on a strict diet. What you must do is to encourage yourself to follow your plan by whatever means you can use. If you eat all the ice cream and candy you want, can you stand the consequences? Remember that falling for temptation will make you fat and put you further away from your dream body.
These changes are not easy to make all at once. By implementing these changes, however, you will see a decrease in your waistline, improved overall health, and more self-confidence.
Dropping fat is not hard. So why does it continue to be an elusive goal for so many people, who fight to lose just a few inches? There is a secret, over 2,000 years old that was disclosed to the general public by the father of medicine, Hippocrates:
If we could give to every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.
The busier you are, the harder it is to find time to take care of yourself. That’s why we came up with these outrageously simple guidelines – total no-brainers – that make impressive nutrition happen even on days when you’re on autopilot:
- Drink orange juice with added calcium.
- Take a multivitamin.
- Bring an apple to work.
- Buy whole-wheat bread and pasta.
- Find ice cream that builds bones.
- Ask for double tomato sauce and half cheese when you order pizza.
- Eat your veggies.
- Drink lots of tea.
Finding the right exercise program can be a very daunting and wearisome process. Finding time is also a concern. For the busy woman who is looking for a good fat loss program, 3 hours a week is all it takes:
Cardio: you can choose whatever cardio you want to do, but to stay lean you need to do at least 3 weekly cardio sessions. Start slow and gradually move up to 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and then 30 minutes. The best time to do your cardio session is when you first wake up in the morning before you eat anything.
Weights: you also need three 30-minute weight lifting sessions per week. Start with high repetitions and low/medium weight. Working out with weights when trying to lose body fat has numerous important benefits. One study showed that 15 exercise sessions per month can lead to an extra 2 plus pounds per month of fat loss, strictly from the elevated metabolism and extra calories burned.
Combating a Weight Loss Plateau
You’ve been eating all the correct foodstuffs, working out for no less than 30 minutes every day, you’ve gone down one size, but unexpectedly you’ve hit a wall and the weight isn’t coming off any longer. Baltimore-based registered dietitian Noralyn Wilson says “Don’t give up. Weight loss plateaus are very common.” The first step in getting over the plateau is to rejoice in the initial weight loss, then go on.
Avoid Fat and Refined Carbohydrates to Lose Weight
A recent study from the City College of New York shows that after eating a fatty meal, obese people produce more insulin than thin people do. If additional studies corroborate this discovery, people who are inclined to be overweight should keep away from both fatty meals, which bring out higher insulin levels in obese people, and refined carbohydrate meals, which bring out the highest blood insulin levels in both obese and thin people.
14 Habits That Trick Fat
- Cut back on sugar.
- Walk more.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
- Know what kind of calories you are eating by preparing your own meals.
- Cut back on fats.
- Stop believing in fat-free foods because most of them have hidden fats, which are synthetic or fake fats that hurt you more than ordinary saturated fat.
- Eat-in moderation.
- Try to exercise when on vacation.
- Keep your carbs low, but your protein high.
- Go lean when you eat out.
- Eliminate stress.
- Keep an active social life.
- Do yard work to burn extra calories.
- Make the healthiest meal of your day the last one before going to bed.