Everyone wants to lose weight and get fitter but where do you start with it all? That’s actually the whole secret, starting. If you have made the choice to get healthy and well that’s the biggest part of the whole equation. From here you can build off this and start to fine tune things.
If you’ve had difficulty losing weight, or have a hit a sticking point, this episode is going to share 7 tips for healthy weight loss to help get you on track.
Let’s do this thang.
In This Episode On Healthy Weight Loss You Will Learn:
- The 3 different time frames you want to reach to get results
- What prevents most people from making changes
- How to know if you’re not eating enough
- The importance of rest and recovery
- Why sleep helps you lose weight
- How protein is critical in weight loss
- Making sure you’re not eating too much
- The #1 thing to cut out of your diet
- The issue with carbs and weight loss
Tips For Healthy Weight Loss
If you are looking at some tips that you would need as a refresher or if you are in for just healthy weight loss strategies this podcast will be helpful. Some of these information might be brand new to you, so I’m trying to cover 7 that I think are the most important points for getting good weight loss results.
If you have been making good progress as far as health changes, diet, your nutrition, your fitness and your weight loss, and you know you’re progressing along pretty well, but you might be wondering is there one small change that’s preventing you from losing weight.
And it’s not always down to specifically one thing, it can be a combination of things but it is all about looking at all those individual aspects that might be involved. You know you have made all those great changes to your diet like increasing exercise and others, but you have not been losing weight or you have begun to lose a little bit, and it seems to maybe come back quickly.
So, the first thing is you would ask yourself why it can be so hard to start losing weight. You might doubt that it’s because maybe for a handful of one or two things, but, the most important thing is that you yourself have obviously made the decision to start getting healthy. That’s always the biggest obstacle one has to overcome.
The prospect of just facing this whole journey is pretty daunting. And if you have gotten under way with it, you’ve made the biggest change right there. It is as simple as making changes with your diet, or you get more conscious of your food selection, all that sort of thing.
If you can manage to decide on that then you have cleared the biggest hurdle and you need to simply fine tune things a bit. You know it’s so much easier to keep eating poorly and just sit on the couch, but for the fact that you have taken that action to improve yourself in your health and that really does speak volumes and that’s the driving force behind your success and it will come!
I know everyone could use some extra information and knowledge to approach this issue of weight loss in the best way.
So here I’ll be discussing 7 things that are usually either neglected or overlooked or done the wrong way and has been putting a damper on progress and results on the path of weight loss.
Working Out Too Much
Some of you might have started a new workout routine and you are getting into the swing of it. It’s exciting to get more in-tune with your body, you are getting into more physical activity you are feeling better and you are getting a feedback. The morphine rush that comes after physical exercise might be exciting, as you may be seeing some increases in your strength, which is always encouraging.
Even with lean muscle you might get positive results, like losing an inch or two. If you are always start from doing nothing to fully working out in two weeks you’re going to see a lot of positive feedback response from the body so that’s always kind of the good jumping off point you get in that two weeks.
Around the 6 to 8 weeks’ time you can really see some definite changes as far as weight loss and muscle gain. You will also see a lot of programs whether they are online or in gyms which are usually like 6 to 8 week programs because it’s a good amount of time to really give it a kick start for weight loss. But after around the 3 to 4 month point that when you can start seeing some big over hauls happening.
Basically if you have been enjoying work outs and keep seeing some of these positive benefits it might make sense in your mind to start working out longer and harder, like, if 3 days a week has felt great then why not 5? Then why not 7 days? Then why not start training cardio every day? One hour workout has been great why not 2 or 3?
But actually this entire over working scheme seems to be a sure way to lose weight and get fitter but unfortunately doesn’t actually work that way. And you are better off allowing your body to rest, as it than to overusing it.
When you work out too much you can make things very taxing on your central nervous system and put your body into situation where it’s constantly being stressed where it will be releasing stress hormones, like cortisol, which is one of the main ones. When you don’t allow the proper rest time and recovery this can throw your whole body out of whack.
And over training is going to lead to injuries, muscle tears, strains, it can also weaken your immune system and make you more prone to sickness. And that’s why you really want to avoid this over training syndrome for the key of losing weight, as it is going to make you take that step backward.
And when these stress hormones are elevated, it is much more difficult to lose weight as your body wants to preserve whatever it has. Your metabolism can slow down throwing off your natural circadian rhythm and your body just wouldn’t want to respond to weight loss.
Your body thinks some sort of trauma is happening to it since the stress hormones are elevated, that makes weight loss almost next to impossible. Your body doesn’t want to lose its backup energy source, that’s where your body fat is. So, allow yourself time to rest and recover to improve your fitness all through your weight loss.
I wouldn’t recommend intense work out training for more than 3 days in a row. Heavy training like cross fits or circuit training I wouldn’t carry out those 3 days in a row without having an off day. And that off day would mean you would do absolutely nothing. It actually may be beneficial to do some light cardio, walking or get on a bike, that can serve as an active recovery.
It just shouldn’t be something which is beating your body bad. In the gym you are basically breaking your body down, especially like your muscle fiber and tissues, and they are responded when the build back they get bigger, and better and whole deal, but when you are constantly breaking your body down you are not getting a chance to recover, it when the central nervous system takes a warp.
And then your immune system is suppressed that’s when all the negative things happen. Don’t be afraid to put in those rest days.
Not Getting Enough Sleep
And I have covered this a lot on the show but, if you are not getting adequate sleep you will be creating this same over training syndrome on your body. It is the same thing; if you are not sleeping enough your body will again think it’s in some sort of trauma, external chaos is basically happening, or else why wouldn’t you be asleep?
So, this also leads to higher stress hormone levels and over time elevated chronic stress hormone sensation in your body gets pretty nasty and leads to lot of inflammation. And inflammation has seen to be the core of a lot of diseases, and then again along with that the stress hormones are going to make things a lot difficult, metabolism again slows down. You can imagine if you combine over training and lack of sleep you can pretty much kiss any weight loss or any really fitness benefits goodbye.
So, as usual make an appointment to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night. Basically you will have to create a new wind down routine and keep sticking with it. Starting it at the same time each night, sleep experts always says this is the number one thing to do as going for that very consistent sleep it is create that wind down routine.
You know you should also look into cutting down electronics which can really disturb your sleep and your natural melatonin levels. I would cut off screens, at least an hour before going to bed. If that’s not possible you could at least put a night mode setting if you have an iPhone, things like that. And know you the usual things like avoiding alcohol and caffeine later in the day aren’t really going to help. Keeping your room as dark as possible is going to help.
And keeping your room a little more on the cool side, it just provides better rest and rejuvenation. Your body temperature is lowered when you sleep, so if you keep your room a little cooler, you can hurry that process along better and get your body to sleep quicker. I mean it can vary as to what temperature it should be, your sheet should be kind of cool to the touch, and that’s usually in the right range. So, that with your body fully rested and repaired you rally set the stage better weight loss and improved fitness.
You Might Not Be Eating Well
This may be confusing, yes you might be eating less and because of this act surely you should be losing weight, this makes proper sense, but again it all comes back to metabolism and the stress hormone issue.
So let me mention quickly, think of your body fat as a backup fuel source and as a reserved energy tank, that’s what fat is. And, moments of physical stress or trauma makes the body fat break down and use as energy by your body.
And that’s why your body wants to hold onto its fat stores for emergency use. Your body doesn’t know we’re living in 2020 and have all these modern conveniences your body is still primitive in that aspect. It doesn’t know the difference between the trauma like environmental trauma or droughts or your know lack of food, or the difference between you been up all night watching House Hunters marathon, it just knows some sort of external trauma happened and wants to hold onto its body fat and use that for another time.
That’s the thing, and that’s why body fat is such a good energy source, cause, without getting too deep into it, like our bodies obviously use glucose for fuel and sugar is stored in the muscle, liver and stuff like that. Even the leanest person has upwards of 50,000 calories in their body fat that are there to be able to use.
When you restrict too many calories, here your body thinks there is another form of trauma. So your body fat is like your body’s contingency plan. And when you don’t eat enough your metabolism source rates down and your body doesn’t want to waste what it has. Everything becomes about conservation at this point and losing weight is not going to be on top of your body’s priority list.
And add to this over training and the gym or the lack of sleep your weight loss comes to a squelching halt. Your body is fighting against you to hold onto what it has and again this is where the injuries and the sickness occur. This might be your body’s way of trying to slow things much as possible by like actually trying to get you off your feet, by knocking you out with a sickness or whatever. It’s just trying to do what it can to regain what it has. So allow yourself to be fed and nourish. Your body needs consistent fuel in order to function properly and lose weight.
You Might Need To Build More Muscle
I am not talking about giant body building muscles here but good lean muscles, this can be the first to what helps you lose weight. So first off, the act of having to build the muscle through strength training is going to take a whole lot of effort. This is going to burn a lot of calories which is going to help in that weight loss.
And also the style of training that helps to build muscle you probably hear of High Intensity Muscle training and you may be associate with that like circuits or spinning classes or sprints that style that mechanism of working is happening with strength training you are basically going pretty full out, with exertion with around you know say 30 seconds or so for the length of the set. Then you have a 90 second to 2 minute recovery time. So you are doing the same aspect of it.
Also this style of work out, strength training or hit training or whatever it’s going to put your body in a better state than hormonally. And your body will be able to burn calories long after work out is done. They call it EPOC Excess Post Oxygen Consumption, and it’s the after burn effect, your body keep your body uses us so much throughout the work outs that its depleted and has to rejuvenate it and replenish itself, and it does that by using calories. So that’s the main advantage of this type of training or high intensity interval training.
So either way, the act of building more lean muscle your metabolism is now going to be more higher and losing weight will be much more achievable, along with that just having more muscle increases your body’s ability to burn calories. Lean muscle is metabolically active even at rest and takes energy just to maintain it. So when you have more muscle you’ll be burning more calories even if you are sitting still or riding the bus or whatever it is.
You Might Not Be Eating Enough Protein
And you probably hear about protein all the time, and its main goal is not just to build muscle, protein is obviously crucially vital for so many different functions in your body from building hormones, you know the structure the function, regulation of tissues and organs in your body, its, I mean your body is made up of protein.
You cells are made up of protein, it’s so vital to the actual functioning of your body that from weight loss perspective protein has what they call thermogenic effect meaning it takes calories just to eat and digest it, and think of this as meat sweats and that’s this thermogenic function in action. And it takes a lot of energy for your body to digest and absorb protein and if you are eating, say, steak. About 30% of those calories is used just to digest and process that protein, that’s how metabolically active it is.
This act of what they call muscle protein synthesis is when your body is digesting protein and turning it into new muscle tissue. This act is a huge calorie burner in the body. And a study or research said that muscle protein synthesis can use up 700 calories just again to digest and process your nutrients that are more than any workout you are going to do.
So, that’s how good of calories burner it is. The next benefit is that protein can help to boost your metabolism again through the day by good 8200 calories, like just from act of eating, so not only breaking down muscle protein but just that act of eating it be upwards a 100 calories a day.
So, this has under the good effect as it makes you eat also several 100 calories less a day from other food sources because, again as it’s metabolically active. And the thing is also protein also helps to fill you up, it keeps you full, and it increases satiation satiety. You’ll be less hungry at various points in the day and again that’s going to help you take in less overall calories and then helping you to lose more weight.
That’s why if you are hungry and have a snack and have a handful of Almonds, it’s going to keep you fuller than having, you know a couple Oreos in which you’ll be hungry in fifteen minutes it’s that satiation idea. That’s why nuts are such a perfect snack, because they are a combination of things that keep you full, that’s protein, fiber and healthy fat.
And then to some degree water most foods contain a good amount of water but those things keep you full, so when you focus on protein that going to be a really good way to stave off hunger. It’s also a good way to control cravings as well too.
If you are constantly eating carbohydrates, I’ll get to you that in a second, you know your blood sugar will be going up and down, and it’ll cause you to crave more carbohydrates, but proteins and fats, they kind of stave off, keep your glucose and blood sugar levels a little more stable and can stave off those cravings for sugar.
So, it’s a good idea to keep a good serving of protein for breakfast awesomely as this can help you lose weight, as it’s going to help you stay full through the morning and you’ll be less likely to turn on that mid-morning snack or those 10 am mid-morning cravings for sugar.
You Might Be Eating Too Much
If you have been serious about losing weight, you must probably more aware of your food portions than your calorie intake. You might be eating more than needed. And the whole calorie counting issue is a bit of a more complicated area and it’s not as simple as calories in and calories out.
Sugar based foods are going to have more of a hormonal reaction, a spike in your blood sugar, it’s going to go up and then drop, whereas the walnuts are a little more stable. Think of like these cheap easy carbs. A good way to kind of classify them is call them fast acting carbs.
Because they digest way too quickly in the body, that’s when the blood sugar issues come in and then more cravings and more hunger and the whole thing. But then it’s still important to be aware of how much you are eating. It might surprise you the amount of calorie you are in-taking without now even knowing. The first big thing for losing weight is something I recommend right off the bat it to stop drinking your calories.
So that means cutting out soft drinks, juices, sport drinks, coffee. These are those fast acting calories that don’t fill you up and they can make you hungrier. And then you have taken in 100s of calories without even knowing as there’s no solid structure of protein or fiber. You don’t have to spend chewing or digesting or absorbing this is instantly booming 700 calories without even noticing it.
Since these drinks, whether even if it’s fruit juice, even if it’s freshly squeezed orange juice you’ll get some vitamins and minerals but it’s not the way we are meant to consume fructose. We need that whole fruit package of fiber and everything that will slow the digestion. So these drinks are all sugar that’s the spike that’s going to happen to blood sugar it’s going to crash.
The crash phase is when you crave those fast acting carbs in simple sugar forms and fine carb forms. And for weight loss this makes it so difficult. Just get rid of drinking your calories just switch to water whenever possible. It can help also to track your calories for a few days just to get an idea of where you stand. And form there you’ll know how to structure thing.
Most people have no idea how much they are eating, they could be eating 2000 calories, and they could be eating 4500 calories and have no idea, that’s a massive difference. So just get an idea where you at. Say you know the Almonds for example are perfect healthy snacks and having a small handful is perfect but you do that over multiple times a day it can add up.
So, one cup of Almonds has around 530 calories which maybe more than you are planning to intake. But even though it’s a super healthy snack it’s always a good alternative to any sort of junk based food. But just start having a look and start being aware. You don’t have to be a slave tracking calories in food. But just for a little bit just to get that jumping off point and see where you at.
You Are Eating Too Much Of Carbohydrates
The last point of losing weight is related to carbs. When it comes to losing weight, you need to be aware of them. You may want to lower the amount of carb. This is something you do want to talk over with your doctor but the majority of carbohydrates we are being exposed to are really not evil. Things like white bread, white rice, white flour, white sugar – they provide no nutrition very high glycemic. That’s very fast acting carbs right there.
These are going to keep your blood sugar constantly elevated and they make it hard to lose weight. So, keeping things low on carb can also have a positive effect on triglyceride levels, controlling cholesterol and the blood sugar. So carbs based on your work out can be great for energy, but you want to look at the best choices and that’s going to be things like carrots, wild rice, sweet potatoes, etc.