7 surprising weight loss tips you wish you’d known sooner

So many people have misguided views about weight loss. They think it’s all about calories and workouts  and cutting out fats. Weight loss definitely shouldn’t be hard work or require will power. You should not feel deprived. You should feel empowered  – in fact, when you do it the right way you should really enjoy the process! We have put together a comprehensive post on weight loss tips that are proven to work. There are no gimmicks or fad diets here simply strategies that help you shed unwanted fat and keep it off forever.

If you follow conventional weight loss advice and eat meals that focus on lean protein and vegetables. Plus you exercise appropriately at least three times per week and you still can’t get your body into the shape you want there may be other factors at work that you don’t know about.

Understanding these factors, making just a few simple lifestyle changes and sticking with them will not only melt away the pounds but also

• make you healthier over time
• slow down the ageing process
• improve the quality of your sleep
• boost your confidence and self-esteem.

Here, we have outlined a few tips and facts that will help improve your overall health and increase your weight loss results – and make the process so much more enjoyable.

Get Plenty of Sleep

You didn’t know that sleep had anything to do with weight loss? Well, it does!

Recent weight loss studies have shown a link between how much sleep you get and how heavy you are. It seems that sleeping less than five — or more than nine hours — a night is likely to increase the size of your waist line.

According to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Not sleeping enough—less than seven hours of sleep per night—can reduce and undo the benefits of dieting.

In the study, dieters were put on different sleep schedules. When their bodies received adequate rest, half of the weight they lost was from fat. However when they cut back on sleep, the amount of fat lost was cut in half—even though they were on the same diet. What’s more, they felt significantly hungrier, were less satisfied after meals, and lacked energy to exercise. Overall, those on a sleep-deprived diet experienced a 55 percent reduction in fat loss compared to their well-rested counterparts.
Source

Lack of rest also makes you crave stodgy, high carbohydrate and sweet sugary foods, and makes healthier choices harder to resist so do your best to get your eight hours a day. It really will help you to make better food choices

Take at Least One Exercise Rest Day Every Week

Most people don’t realize that over training can cause a weight-loss plateau. Exercising every single day is not as good at boosting fat loss as you may think. You see too much exercise does not give your body time to recover properly and causes a bunch of ‘stress triggers’ that switch on your body’s built-in protective mechanisms including sleep disruption even when you feel overtired.

Exercising just 3 times a week is enough to trigger fat burning so long as you are consistent. On this subject here is an extra exercise weight loss tip that is gaining popularity. Burst Training is a proven way to improve your metabolic rate for better fat-burning and faster muscle-building.

Never Miss a Meal 

So many people associate dieting with going hungry, but this should never be the case. When you miss a meal, you send your body into starvation mode. This is another protective mechanism that makes your metabolism slow down and store calories as  body fat. It also eats away at your muscle, which is what gives us a toned appearance.

Starvation mode:

• Makes it harder to lose weight/burn fat.
• Can mess up metabolism in the long run.
• Stores body fat rather than burns it.
• Eats muscle, giving us a ‘skinny fat’ appearance.
• Over time as your lose muscle you gain more fat making your BMI higher.

Some people believe that the best approach is to keep yourself satiated throughout the day with lots of smaller meals. BUT, I can tell you that if you have stubborn fat clinging to your body this is not true.

By grazing around the clock, you’re preventing your body from burning fat. When you’re constantly eating, you’re consistently releasing insulin, which puts your body into its “absorptive phase.” Basically what this means is that the insulin in your body is storing sugar — and not letting other enzymes in your body release sugar to break down fat. The goal is for your body to be in “postabsorptive phase,” where it uses your energy stores for sustenance, and burns more fat
Source

Try three carefully portioned high protein, low carbohydrate meals a day and if you get hungry in between meals aim for a small pot of cottage cheese or other low fat protein with an apple and / or some almonds that have been soaked overnight in filtered or mineral water.

I am not a great believer in so called diet pills however as most people are deficient in essential vitamins and minerals, and our metabolism is mostly messed up, my best weight loss tip is to flood your body with nutrients such as liposomal vitamin C,  and choose a natural weight loss supplement designed to kick start your metabolism.

Recently I came across Phen375. I have checked out all the ingredients and they are all natural.

It contains chromium which is great for improving blood sugar control and helps to regulate how hungry you feel. It might make it easier for you to avoid snacks and sweets if you have a sweet tooth. It also contains Eurycoma, better known as Tongkat Ali. This may be especially useful if you are struggling with menopausal belly fat and flagging libido.

Stop Counting Calories

The only time that counting calories is a good idea is if you have no clue how many calories are in different foods, and you’re new to dieting.  Calorie counting has been shown to create obsessive thoughts about food and often leads to bad food choices.

Weight loss isn’t all about calories; you should be paying more attention to the ingredients on nutritional labels and avoid foods high in sugar if you want to boost your weight loss results.

Even better, learning about the nutritional and health giving properties of clean natural foods that have not been sitting on a supermarket shelf for months (or even years).

Instead of focusing on the number of calories you consume/burn, focus on getting a good workout in and eating foods that really nourish your body. Weight loss should be about improving your overall health, not about looking skinny.

Allow Treats in Moderation

I don’t know about you but over the years I have found that depriving myself of treats  only make me crave them.  We all know that will power alone does not work and trying to avoid all high sugar or high fat foods only makes you want them more and can lead to bingeing.

What most people don’t realize is that we are actually genetically hard-wired to seek out high calorie foods because famine and feast was a normal way of life for our ancestors. These days the abundance of cheap, fatty, sweet, processed foods give us the opportunity to overindulge every day and this is causing a slew of  health issues and modern diseases we can all live without.

Practice the art of moderation and motivation and and indulge on your sweet treats just one say a week – trust me, after 6 days of cutting them out of your diet you will enjoy them more and you really won’t binge on day seven. What’s more building a treat day into your diet won’t kill you or ruin your progress and it helps you to build a sustainable lifestyle that you can keep up with forever.

Don’t Focus on the Scale

Body weight is about so much more than just fat so  stop focusing on the scale. This might seem strange, as this post’s focus is weight loss. But really, the number on the scale has little to do with how much fat you hold and it can’t tell you how fit and healthy you are.

Your body weight is just a number, so don’t let it define you. Instead, pay attention to how your body looks in the mirror, how it’s measuring up, and how your clothes fit you. These ways are a much more accurate indication of your true heath and wellbeing.

 

Share your weight loss tips.

Do you have a great story or weight loss tips to share with others who are struggling with slimming down or shaping up? What works for you might help someone else so do share.

As always, your interaction with our posts creates a reservoir of wisdom for all our readers to benefit from so please join in the conversation with your thoughts, stories and questions in the comments box below and remember to tweet, like and +1 ~ thanks

 

Additional Resources
The Gabriel Method – transform your body & life forever
7lbs in 7 Days Super Juice Diet
The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat
Superfoods to Jumpstart Your Weight Loss