Do you want to lose weight quickly and keep it off?
You don’t need to completely overhaul your eating and exercise habits to get results. You can shed pounds effectively by making a few low-effort, high-impact changes.
Don’t do all of these at once. Choose the one that seems the most feasible for you, and try to stick with it for a week or so. Once you’re doing it fairly consistently, add another one. Over time, you will realize that many of these habits can be interconnected.
Try practicing these seven daily habits.
- Fuel Up With Protein at Breakfast
When it comes to breakfast, often called the most important meal of the day, skip the typical carbs of cereal or bread, or muffins, and fuel up on lean protein instead! Protein has been shown to reduce fat, especially around the belly, and promote weight loss. One study found that women who increased their portion of daily calories coming from protein from 15% to 30% reduced the total amount of calories they consumed each day by 441. They saw a significant weight loss of 11 pounds in 12 weeks.
- Strength Training and High-Intensity Exercise
Any exercise is good if you are trying to lose weight, but if you want to take it to the next level, the experts agree that strength training and high-intensity workouts are the way to go. High-intensity exercise involves short bouts of intense exercise followed by low levels of active rest. For example, you could try sprinting for two minutes, followed by light jogging for one minute. Doing this for around 15 minutes every day increases your heart rate and can see you burn more calories than a 40-minute jog.
- Take a Walk
It’s not all about the high-intensity stuff. Walking is an exercise we can all do. It’s low-impact and won’t leave you sweating buckets. If you increase the number of steps you do every day, you’ll be burning more calories in the background. Taking the time for even a 20 to 30 minute walk each day can burn a significant amount of calories during the week as well as boost your wellbeing.
- Add More Fiber to Your Diet
Adding more fiber to your diet can help you lose weight. Ideally, men should be aiming for 35 grams of fiber in their diets, while women could aim for 25 each day. Fiber is essential for a healthy gut, and it can also reduce your appetite by making you feel fuller. It isn’t metabolized by your body, which means lots of food that is high in fiber will fill you up without packing on the pounds.
- Kill the Carbs
Carbohydrates increase the amount of sugar in your system, which sparks an increase in insulin which in turn sends glucose into fat cells, which turn into fats.
Try to cut out all white carbohydrates such as sugars, white bread, potatoes, and pasta. Even certain fruits, such as bananas, can have high carbohydrate content. Breakfast cereals are notoriously stacked with carbohydrates – even those which market themselves as being healthy.
- Drink Plenty of Water
Staying hydrated is essential for good health; it can also help you eat less and stave off cravings. To avoid hunger during our day-to-day routines, we can easily fall into the temptation of a quick snack. Even if that snack is relatively healthy, it will involve more calories. However, our bodies can often confuse hunger, thirst, and fatigue. If you feel hungry during the day, try drinking a glass of water. You may find it does the trick.
- Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Disturbed or not getting enough sleep can lead to weight gain. Too little sleep makes your body produce more of the stress hormone cortisol, which slows down the metabolism and encourages you to reach for the sugar. Inadequate sleep also brings on fatigue which can cause hunger, including cravings for high-sugar foods, which will only add to the list of temptations encouraging you to break your diet and prevent you from losing weight.
A lack of sleep also brings fatigue which can make prompt hunger, including cravings for high-sugar foods. This will add to the list of temptations encouraging you to break your diet and prevent you from losing weight.
Get started on these seven healthy habits today, and you will be on your way to a slimmer, trimmer you tomorrow!
