I’ve always enjoyed the simple things – a beautiful day, a good meal or a great workout.
I believe that’s why I’ve always gravitated toward simple, fundamental concepts that can have huge impacts on your daily life.
Instead of learning the ins and outs of every new diet fad or miracle product that comes along, you can implement these simple tips that will work now, tomorrow and for as long as you need them.
These 15 weight loss tips will make a tremendous difference in how you feel and how you approach weight loss.
Remember, you don’t need to start all of these immediately.
I would recommend working one or two tips into your life every week or two, but don’t stress if you need more time!
Also, weight loss and achieving a healthy, strong body can take different paths for different people. It’s been proven in scientific studies that all other factors aside, what works for one person will not necessarily work for another.
So try them out and see what works for you. Be like Bruce Lee, take what is useful, and discard the rest!
1. Cut Back on Sugars and Starches
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It is essential to your longevity that you cut back on sugars and starches in your diet. This can be nearly impossible on the typical Americans diet, as it is replete with processed sugars and carbs.
But if you are following any type of path to a healthier body, it is essential that you limit the amount of sugars and carbs in your diet plan.
Sugars and carbs are the types of foods that spike your insulin the most, which throws your blood sugar levels totally out of whack. This can mess with your mood, appetite, and a whole host of other factors.
As you work to reduce insulin in your body, fat can be more easily burned in your body (R). Additionally, because your body does not have any carbs to burn, it will begin to burn body fat instead.
So every workout you do will be that much more effective in taking and keeping weight off!
2. Focus on Proteins, Vegetables and Healthy Fats
In order to make dieting simpler, in the beginning you should just focus on getting the basics of each meal right.
Every meal should contain a protein source, a fat source and vegetables. Ideally, you should try and eat vegetables that are low in carbs to keep your overall carbohydrate levels low.
Protein is vital to include in every meal, as studies have shown it can boost metabolism anywhere from 80 to 100 calories a day. Protein also fuels muscle growth, so you will be burning fat and gaining muscle at the same time (taking into account you are working out).
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3. Hit Those Weights
Studies have shown you can keep your metabolism running at full performance by going to the gym and lifting weights at least 3 times per week, 4 if possible.
Normally when you lose weight, your metabolism slows down as well, but doing any kind of resistance training prevents that (R).
You will also begin to build muscle as well if you commit to working out, which helps you to look and feel healthy.
Muscle also burns energy while resting, so you will be burning more calories while resting as well.
4. Drink Green Tea
Green tea is the wonder drink from the East, I personally can’t get enough of the stuff. Besides a multitude of other benefits, green tea has been shown to boost your metabolism and burn fat (R).
If you don’t like the taste of tea, you can also opt for green tea extract. I personally drink green tea and take the extract!
Coffee also has similar benefits, and caffeine contains powerful antioxidants called catechins that enhance fat burning. So enjoy yourself a healthy cup of green tea or coffee in the morning!
5. Use Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil has been shown to up your metabolism by 120 calories a day, while at the same time reducing your appetite so that you eat 250 fewer calories per day (R).
6. Use Smaller Plates
Evidence has shown that using smaller plates, bowls and spoons can actually lead to you eating less. This study shows that people often underestimate the amount of food they put into large bowls and large plates (R)
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7. Eat Mindfully
Living mindfully makes life a much better experience, and eating mindfully is no different. Eating mindfully involves consciously focusing on the food you are eating.
Take your time eating, smell the wonderful aromas of the meal, chew slowly and try to savor each bite. Don’t feel like you messed up if you rush a bit, just slow down again and refocus.
It is especially important to try not to eat when you are distracted – such as when you are watching television for example as you will likely eat larger portions.
Studies have also shown that the more mindful you are about your meals, the less likely you are to overeat when faced with external stressors (R).
8. Eat Spicy Foods to Boost Metabolism
Spicy foods, like hot peppers and sauces, are hot because of a compound known as capsaicin.
Capsaicin has been found to boost your metabolism and also reduce your appetite slightly (R).
9. Get a Good Nights Sleep
How many times have you heard this one?
Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial to so many of our body’s functions.
Researchers have found that not getting enough sleep or having poor sleep is one of the top risk factors associated with obesity. This risk was even higher in children than it was in adults.
10. Watch What You Drink
Sugary and high calorie drinks are all around us, and it can be easy to forget just how much empty calories and massive amounts of sugar they contain.
Studies have shown that sugary drinks, like juices, sodas and energy drinks are linked to a 60% increase in childhood obesity.
Fruit juice can be just as bad, so don’t think just because you are going for apple juice that you are avoiding excess sugar!
11. Don’t Diet, Go For Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Stop – right now, I would recommend you remove the word “diet” from your vocabulary! “Diets” almost never work in the long term and they give what you are doing a temporary feeling.
You can’t just eat good for a few months, then go back to eating junk and expect your weight to stay off or to feel as good as before. It just doesn’t work like that!
Instead, make a conscious choice that you are going to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. This doesn’t mean you can’t ever enjoy cake again or everything is going to come crashing down if you gorge yourself one night – in fact, it is the exact opposite. You can mess up many, many times but as long as you keep returning to your healthy lifestyle, you are succeeding.
12. Fill Up On The H2O
Water is essential to all life – it makes sense that drinking more water puts your body in a healthier state.
Drinking water has been shown to boost metabolism by 24 – 30% for about 1 to 1 and half hours (R).
Drinking water before meals is another tip that will cause you to eat less as you will already be partially full from the water.
13. High protein breakfast
Instead of loading up on cereals or biscuits, try and go for a high protein meal in the morning.
One study has shown that removing carb heavy foods and replacing them with something like eggs can actually help you to eat fewer calories for the next 36 hours!
As stated earlier in the article, consuming protein actually leads your body to burn more calories as well.
Eggs are not necessary, then can also be substituted for any other high quality protein source.
14. Keep healthy foods around you
It’s important to understand that you will have cravings, probably a lot of cravings, in fact.
This is natural and the cravings will calm down as time goes on. It is important to keep healthy foods, and especially healthy snacks around you to beat a craving.
You can satisfy that sweet tooth without going for a giant piece of pie.
15. Set goals
Setting goals is extremely important, you need to know where you are going before you get there.
You will end up wasting a lot of valuable time chasing after nothing. Set both short term and long term goals for maximum motivation.
I like to set weekly, monthly and yearly goals and track my progress towards each one. While setting a desired weight is a decent goal, it would be better to try and hit a desired body fat percentage or weight at the gym.
Hey! My name is Stephen and I’m the owner of Ultimate Core Health. Since we started, we’ve grown into a trusted resource for unbiased, science-based articles and reviews on fitness, nutrition and supplements. Check me out on social media, feel free to add me if you want to talk health!
