Your goal is to lose body fat fast, but you dont know how. Heck, you even wonder if its possible. Take heart because you can lose body fat fast if you follow my 10 terrific tips to fast weight loss. You weigh what you weigh because of your total calorie intake, your exercise habits and your metabolic rate. Of these three the single most important part of the equation is the type and quantity of food you are eating on a daily basis. These 10 tips will free you up from destructive lifestyle habits and free you to become the person you want to be.
1. Start with reducing your carbohydrate intake. You face an uphill struggle to lose weight and keep it off without eating drastically reducing carbohydrates in your diet and particularly those high on the GIycemic Index. Highly processed carbohydrates are rated as high on the GI scale. This includes white bread, cakes, candy, chocolate, biscuits and soda. High GI foods are rapidly converted to fat by the body through the Insulin Response and should therefore be avoided. The double whammy is that eating high GI carbohydrates stimulates your appetite for more foods of this type. However eating a low-carbohydrate, low-GI diet will help you control your appetite and decrease cravings. Because the Insulin Response isnt triggered by low GI foods your blood sugar doesnt wildly fluctuate and you dont feel artificially hungry. Low GI foods are brown rice, wholewheat breads, wholemeal pastas. With low GI foods you will feel fuller sooner, and you will find it easier to eat enough without overeating. Another bonus is that you will be less tempted to snack between meals because your blood sugar will stay constant. Keep your total carbohydrate intake to under one-sixth of your calories and eliminate all high-GI carbohydrates such as sugary foods, pastas, and breads. If you are serious go through your pantry or larder and lose candy, cakes, biscuits, processed desserts and so forth. Read the label.
2. Watch your fat intake but don’t get paranoid about this. Foods high in fat have more calories per gram that carbohydrates and proteins – 9 calories per gram versus 4 for carbohydrates and protein but there is no real science behind the desperate attempts to reduce fat consumption. The more low fat foods we have introduced over the past decade, the fatter we have become as a nation! Also be very wary of low fat foods which are often packed with salt and sugar to replace the flavor that fat imparts. You need fats to absorb some vitamins and fats add flavor without actually making you fat. Avoid all trans fats such as found in potato chips which you shouldnt be eating anyway (See Number 1.)
3. Start a love affair with vegetables. They are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and flavor. Fall in love with broccoli, carrots, root vegetables, stir fried or steamed. Really focus on foods that have low caloric density (that is, low in calories but high in weight). The ideal vegetables are low-starch vegetables, which have a low GIycemic index and are rich in valuable nutrients of all kinds, high in fiber, and filling. Potatoes are great au natural. Try them without cream, salt and all the other junk. Let them seduce you with their wholesome flavor.
4. Increase your fiber intake. This is vital as most western people dont eat anywhere enough fiber. Fiber protects you from bowel diseases such as cancer and diverticulitis and soluble fiber protects your heart. So include more fiber in your diet. Fruit is a great source of fiber, as are raw vegetables, freshly made carrot juice and so on. Try to eat at least 25 grams per day, including at least 10 grams of insoluble fiber. It will protect your heart and your bowels from disease and will add years to your life.
5. Adopt your new lifestyle slowly and steadily rather than in one massive coup. If you try to change everything overnight it is pounds to peanuts the change will be too radical and you will lose heart and drop everything. Rather than lose weight you will go backwards at a rapid rate of knots. Make any changes steady rather than dramatic. Dramatic lifestyle changes rarely work. You end up dropping the program, not the pounds. Successful weight loss comes from steady application of a good well-researched weight loss program. Weird diets and drastic changes will not give you long term success. You regain any lost weight almost as soon as you stop them. The goal is a long term sustainable lifestyle change in eating, not a radical short term shift
6. A good program will guide you into developing a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. From this healthy lifestyle will flow all the benefits you desire such as sustainable weight loss, improved health, a better sex life and a better attitude towards life. Weight loss is much more than becoming thin because thin and flabby isn’t much more attractive than fat and flabby. Long term health not weight loss, your goal. When a healthy lifestyle is your goal, you will succeed in both improving your health and permanent weight loss will be a benefit along the journey. Losing body fat is a long term goal, not a short term one.
7. Don’t be desperate to lose weight. It might be very important that you lose weight but if you become desperate it all just becomes hard work. Allow yourself to enjoy the journey. Link your new lifestyle to positive emotions and the weight loss will be a bonus. It may take a little longer, but it will ensure that you’ll never have to lose weight again.
8. Expect the weight loss to fluctuate from week to week. Some weeks it will seem to fall off, other weeks it takes a little longer. Two factors are at work here. Firstly if you have included an exercise program, you will be gaining muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. That’s good news because the more muscle the faster your metabolism and the more body fat you’ll lose. Secondly hormones, the time of the month, your own health or medication can all affect weight loss. Don’t be discouraged by what seems to be a slowdown. The main thing is that you are travelling in the right direction and the longer you travel in the right direction the more successful you will be in losing body fat.
9. Eat sensibly! Don’t starve. Our bodies react to starvation in a most interesting way. It interprets starvation as signs of an impending famine. It goes into self-preservation mode and tries to preserve all the reserves of energy it has at its disposal. Your metabolism slows down and weight loss stops dead for weeks. The result is that losing body fat becomes impossible. The body protects itself starvation and you stay fat.
10. Always eat breakfast. And make it a wholesome and filling meal. When you begin the day with a hearty breakfast containing whole grains, proteins and fats like porridge, whole wheat bread, even bacon (drained after cooking) and eggs, you avoid feeling hungry until lunch. When you miss breakfast you are starving at morning break and fill up on junk food, thereby undermining all your hard work. Don’t get hung up on cholesterol in eggs by the way. There is no good science is saying eggs raise your cholesterol levels. This is looking more and more like another food myth. Eggs are good protein and good breakfast food.
Having a well-designed weight loss program is an essential tool to reaching your goal. It teaches you the right foods to eat, the right exercises to do and the right mental attitude to succeed. The plans with a meal planner are ideal because they simplify your weekly shopping and let you plan ahead the meals you will eat. Find a plan that works for you and stick with it. And never, never, never give up. Remember its always too early to quit.
