The World Wide Web offers a host of the best diet for weight loss ideas that would have you drawn in. Only to realize that those diet tips don’t actually work.
Have you been a victim to innumerable methods that they say would get rid of your belly fats but to no avail? How many times have you been frustrated about diet pills that didn’t help you lose pounds?
Maybe, the problem is that you keep looking for a magical formula that can instantly melt those fats away. But let me tell you this. There’s no quick-fix, one-stop solution to losing your unwanted flab.
To succeed at achieving your desired weight, it would require your time, effort and discipline. Well, trust me on this. It may be uneasy at first. But the result will definitely satisfy you.
Not only do you gain the figure coveted by many. You can even improve your overall wellness! How good can that possibly get?
Here are six basic lifestyle changes you can adopt to naturally and effectively shed off excess pounds.
1. Be Mindful of What You Eat.
Recall your health and nutrition lessons when you were in grade school. This very first natural best diet for weight loss tip is as basic as properly classifying the food on your plate.
If you tend to consume more carbohydrates, it’s time to cut back. These are generally broken down into glucose sugars, which give you a spurt of energy. However, if unused due to lack of physical activity, they soon deposit as adipose fats in the very areas we absolutely do not want them to go, e.g. bellies, thighs, or arms.
Instead, go for protein-rich foods such as lean meat, eggs, dairy products, beans, and legumes. This diet provides a greater feeling of fullness, as proteins are tougher to digest and stay longer in your stomach, minimizing your cravings. There are many awesome weight loss foods that you can consume to lose weight.
You must also avoid carbohydrates with added sweeteners, including pastries, ice cream, candies, soda, canned or bottled fruit juices. They have empty calories with no nutritional value and contain the most fattening sugars.
But of course, you still need the energy boost your body can get from eating carbohydrates. Therefore, it is recommended that you select whole grains as sources of carbs and add to your diet green leafy vegetables enriched with fiber, which can improve metabolism and digestion aside from making you feel fuller for longer.
2. Slow Down and Chew Your Food Thoroughly.
Who would have thought that eating slower was the way to control our ravenous appetites?
Once we sit down at a meal, our hunger hormones come into play, stirring our appetite. After about 20 minutes of eating, our brains signal these hormones to stop, causing us to feel satiated. This mechanism is supported by a study that revealed that slowing down on eating lessens hunger and stifles cravings.
Taking more minutes to finish your plate has been found to be beneficial if you’re seeking to control your caloric intake leading to more weight gain. If you’re a fast eater struggling with weight issues, put on the brakes and chew your food a few times more.
3. Drink Plenty of Water.
Always keep that bottle of H2O handy as water is the best form of liquid to accompany your journey to a fitter body. In contrast to sweetened beverages, water has zero calories, which means it can quench your thirst and control your cravings without adding more pounds.
Besides lessening your appetite, water acts in accelerating fat metabolism or lipolysis specifically at the adipose tissues – those fatty sites on our body we want to slough off. At the cellular level, water enhances the function of mitochondria, the cells’ powerhouses which produce energy for metabolism.
Who would have thought that the solution to weight loss was simply gulping down a cold, refreshing drink of water?
4. Exercise Is Key.
This is unfortunate news for those who are already accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle. But if you’ve been reading other articles like this, chances are, you have heard this tip mentioned over and over.
It is essential not to neglect this important fitness routine as performing regular exercises will not only burn excess calories. It works wonders for your overall well-being, lowering stress and lessening the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and the like.
So, get your body moving with an aerobic or cardio exercise routine like walking, cycling, or swimming. Compared to strength training, flexibility, or other types, a cardio workout is the most recommended if you want to blast out those fats.
5. Manage Your Stress.
Recall those times you came home super stressed from work or from a fight with a loved one. Perhaps you curled up on the sofa, watched three movies, and binged on two cups of instant noodles, a bucket of popcorn and a half-gallon ice cream.
Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But generally, we tend to run to our favorite comfort food to cheer us up when sad situations like a lover’s fight occur. What we do not know is that stress and loneliness could trigger our sympathetic nervous and endocrine systems to release stress hormones that promote appetites and cravings.
To help control “stress eating” habits, you need to find ways to manage your stress. Engaging in exercise, getting adequate sleep, and taking a nutritious, balanced diet all have their long-term, beneficial effects on warding off stress. However, if something really gets on your nerves and you need to calm down right away, yoga and tactical breathing techniques can help relieve you in minutes.
6. Try Intermittent Fasting.
This may be unfamiliar territory to some, but studies have shown that intermittent fasting or alternate-day fasting is highly effective for managing one’s weight as well as controlling one’s blood pressure and sugar and cholesterol levels.
If you’re into rewarding yourself with good food, you’ll love this kind of diet which has its perks of fast days and feed days. On a fast day, you are required to consume only 20% of your caloric requirements. Whereas in a feed day, you may eat as often or as much as you desire.
In fact, there are delicious, snackable diets available on the market that promote intermittent dieting one day and eating regular meals the next. Hence, intermittent fasting may well be the best diet for weight loss you can find today.
A word of caution though. Before you plunge into all these natural weight loss tips, particularly intermittent fasting, it is wise to first check with your family’s health care provider for a proper health assessment.
So, which of these six tips for weight loss appealed to you most and why? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Author Bio:
Brenda Albano is the owner of Whole Family Products, a successful fertility coach, mentor, and entrepreneur. She is passionate about sharing her journey to hormonal health through blogging and uses this passion to create natural hormone creams and supplements for all stages of life.
Follow Brenda on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to keep updated on the latest natural health articles, tips, and guides.
