The 5 best tips for losing weight

Losing weight can be hard, keeping it off can be even harder. There are a lot of myths and ‘how to’ ideas out there that are simply a waste of time and energy and will only leave you feeling exhausted and burnt out. To help you out, we’ve done our research and rounded up the 5 best tips for losing weight and detailed them below. Read on to kick-start your weight-loss journey now!

  1. Consistency

The key to losing weight is consistency and planning. To see results, you need to form healthy habits. This routine is crucial to not only drop kilos but to then maintain the desired weight. Kim Beach, a personal trainer explains that losing weight and keeping it off requires creating solid food habits which can take 30-90 days to create. Ideally, you want to create a healthy lifestyle to safely lose weight and maintain it long term.

Beach suggests that if you can consistently eat well and exercise for 80% of the time you can splurge 20% of the time and still get results. To keep your weight loss journey on track, she suggests focusing on fuelling your body with good foods as often as you can while allowing yourself to enjoy treats every now and again.

Lastly, organisation will help you maintain this consistency and allow you to change your body. Planning meals and prepping your lunches earlier will give you healthy food ready to eat, making it easier for you to make good choices when it comes to your meals. Create a weekly schedule and add in your training sessions, doing this will allow you to organise the rest of your day around it.

  1. Eating Habits

Many people would argue that diet is more important than exercise (including the good folk at Women’s Health and Body+Soul) when it comes to losing weight and there is a lot of scientific material supporting this including articles from Sydney University all the way to the University of New York.

 

The reason for this is that to lose weight we must create an energy deficit, meaning we need to burn more energy than we consume and here lies the problem. So, with this said, how should we go about creating a diet that will help us lose weight?

Eat more whole foods

Eating less processed foods and more whole foods will immediately help your weight loss journey. The number one weight loss food tip is to eat more vegetables, fruit and other foods that have limited self-life. This means your meals are full of nutrients which is great news for your body and as a bonus these types of foods will help keep you felling fuller for longer (which will hopefully mean you splurge on less food/bad foods)!

Avoid processed sugars

Carbs and fats get a bad rep in the dieting world but it is actually added sugar that is the real dieting demon. Due to sugar’s addictiveness, added sugar is in a lot of our food. Next time you are buying food check the ingredients list. If it says sugar, this means there is added sugar in your meal not just natural sugar. Try to avoid eating these foods, doing this should be easier by eating meals that include a lot of whole foods.

Make sure you don’t skip meals

Although we need to consume less calories, skipping meals is never a good idea. Not only can your body go into starvation mode and actually start storing fat but it can also leave you feeling lethargic and increase your chances on splurging on fatty or sugary foods. Make sure you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and make wise choices if you feel you need a morning or afternoon snack to keep your body fuelled and happy.

  1. Weight Lifting

Our third tip for successfully losing weight is weight lifting. If you are starting out on your weight loss journey, remember to add a weight session or two to your workout schedule. There are multiple benefits to lifting weights that will help you lose weight.

weight lifting
Dumbbells are an effective, portable weight lifting option. Photo: Kzenon, Bigstock.

This includes:

  • Burning more fat instead of muscle
  • Increasing bone density
  • Lowering heart disease
  • Helping your joints through low impact exercises
  • Preventing injury
  • Showing results faster than if you did cardio

Lifting weights produces these results as this form of exercise activates your metabolism and you continue to burn fat long after you finish your workout!

  1. Changing it up

If you are looking for tips to help you loose weight for the long-term then this weight loss advice is exactly what you need! At the start of your health journey dropping kilos is often easy, your body reacts well to any exercise as it is not used to it yet, but muscle memory is a sneaky thing. Soon, you will start to see less rewards as your body becomes accustomed to the exercise and routine. This state is known as a plateau.

If you are stuck in a plateau there are a few easy ways to change this:

Adjust your exercise routine

Kristina LaRue, a certified sports dietitian, explains that your body starts to get comfortable with activities it does regularly meaning now is the time to modify what you are doing or try something completely new. If you have been focusing on cardio lately add in some more weight training, look at doing sprints on a cardio machine (where you work really hard for a short amount of time and then break to catch your breath) or consider some circuit training using both cardio and weights.

Modify your diet

If you have hit a fitness plateau, take another look at what you are eating or more importantly drinking. Are you getting enough water? Your body often needs more water than you are think and not drinking enough can increase your food cravings. Next time you think you are hungry try drinking a cup of water before grabbing a snack.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep

Another golden tip LaRue has advised is ensuring you are getting enough sleep. The body needs a full night’s sleep (approximately 8 hours) to be able to reset your hormones. This is especially important to keep in check a stress hormone known as cortisol. This hormone is responsible for keeping fat around your midsection so get enough shut eye to help move fat from around your tummy!

  1. HIIT Training

This last weight loss tip is aimed at those that are trying to lose stubborn kilos. If you are at the point of your fitness journey where you are failing to see results you may need to increase the intensity of your training.

Fitness people exercising with battle ropes at gym
Battle ropes are a great HIIT exercise. Photo: Maridav, Bigstock.

HIIT Training stands for ‘High Intensity Interval Training’. It involves short, intense stints of exercise with active recovery or rests in between. So why is this type of exercise so good?

  • HIIT gets your heart pumping and fires up your metabolism to create afterburn
  • This type of exercise lets you push yourself to your limits
  • You can complete this type of training almost anywhere
  • HIIT allows you to change up your routine regularly so your body can’t plateau
  • You can complete cardio or weights based HIIT training
  • HIIT workouts are shorter so you spend less time in the gym

Ready for the challenge? Start by integrating small session of HIIT training into your fitness routine, 10 to 15 minutes of intervals that consist of 30 seconds or 1 minute of full capacity exercise than a minute of rest or low intensity exercise (such as walking).

Use these 5 tips to create a healthy life

Although losing weight can be hard, these fitness tips are the best and should help you successfully move unwanted kilos along with helping you create a long term healthy lifestyle for yourself. If you are still finding it hard to lose weight ensure you consult your doctor or talk to trained professionals at your gym. Now, go get organised to tick those fitness goals!

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This article is a private opinion based on private research and it shouldn’t be considered as advice.

Mike Smith
Mike Smith
Executive Editor at Best in Australia. Mike has spent over a decade covering news related to business leaders and entrepreneurs around Australia and across the world. You can contact Mike here.
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