If you want permanent weight loss, you need to make lifestyle changes. Most people think of dieting when they hear the words weight loss, but dieting won’t help you lose weight and keep it off. Diets are restrictive and leave you feeling deprived. They always end sometime, either in success or failure. Once they end, you go back to old eating habits that put the weight on in the first place. Before you know it, you’re right back where you started or even heavier.
Start your journey to permanent weight loss by eating healthy.
Start your meal by piling the plate full of greens and colorful vegetables with a light dressing like oil and vinegar or balsamic. After the salad, fill your plate half full with several types of vegetables. Choose a quality protein. You can add starchy food in small amounts, like potatoes, or skip the starch and substitute, like zoodles instead of noodles. Make small changes, such as choosing Greek yogurt for potatoes instead of sour cream. Choose fruit or fruit sorbet for dessert. Skip foods with added sugar and avoid fried foods. You can eat as many vegetables as you want, as long as they aren’t root crops or starches.
Exercise regularly.
When you exercise, you burn extra calories and build muscle tissue. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does, so you’ll boost your metabolism and burn more calories 24/7. While eating healthy plays the most significant role in losing weight and keeping it off, exercise burns extra calories while you’re doing it. High-intensity workouts create afterburn, which keeps your body burning more calories for hours after you quit.
Get adequate sleep.
When you sleep, your body heals the microtears that can occur with intense exercise. That builds muscles. You also need adequate sleep to keep your body operating at peak performance. If you have too little sleep, it can affect your hormones. Your body makes more ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry, and less leptin, which makes you feel full. You’ll eat more and often crave sweets because you’re exhausted.
- Increase your water intake. Drink a glass of water an hour before your meal. You’ll feel fuller and eat less. Make it ice-cold water to burn more calories to warm your insides.
- Schedule your workout at the same time daily. It makes it easier to make it a habit that way. Habits are difficult to break and become lifestyle changes.
- Eating healthy doesn’t mean you can never eat sweets again. Just do it infrequently. Do it on special occasions, like having a slice of cake at a birthday party. Healthy eating is all about making smarter choices.
- Be more active. Park further from the store and walk. Turn on music as you clean and dance your way through the household tasks. Spend time playing games with the kids or take them hiking.
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