Focus on what's important!
If you are reading this then you are probably interested in losing some fat, right? Maybe you’ve tried before but haven't had any luck. Maybe you’ve been considering losing a few pounds but didn’t really know where to start. Or maybe you’ve slowly watched the scale creep up over the years and you are ready to finally change that.
Well, you’ve come to the right spot! In this article, I’m going to share with you 7 super practical tips you can put into action starting today to help you lose fat.
Fat loss can be a little overwhelming when first getting started, but once you understand the process, it’s really not as challenging as it seems.
Oftentimes people overcomplicate the whole process by stressing over all the little things.
What “diet” should I follow? Can I eat pizza? Can I still have dessert? Can I go out to eat with friends? Do I need to do a bunch of cardio? And on and on...
Rather than focus on all the little nuances let’s just keep this simple and practical and focus on what's actually most important.
Fat Loss Made Simple
First and foremost, you must understand when it comes to fat loss you need to be in a calorie deficit. This simply means you are burning more calories than you are consuming through food and drink over a certain period of time.
There are a few different approaches people take towards fat loss to get into a calorie deficit.
Move more.
Eat less.
A combination of both of those which is typically the most effective and sustainable.
Let’s talk about the first method. Since we know more exercise, more steps throughout the day, more training, or a combination of all three will lead to burning more calories this idea makes a lot of sense if fat loss is the goal.
It’s certainly true that by adding more movement into your routine you will burn some extra calories, but it’s probably not the most effective method to rely on for fat loss. In terms of the number of calories you burn compared to the amount of work and time you have to put in it isn’t very practical for most people because you probably don't have a bunch of extra time you can spend on exercise each day.
Don't get me wrong physical activity is great for overall general health and fitness and it can certainly help with fat loss, but it’s not your singular answer to fat loss.
The amount of time it takes to burn let’s say 500 calories, could take up to an hour or more on the bike or treadmill! Rather than spending an extra hour of your day trying to burn those calories, you could take 10 seconds and just turn down that second serving of dessert after dinner. This is why you often hear people say “you can’t out-train a bad diet”.
And it’s usually true, sometimes younger or more active people can get away with poor diets, but eventually, it catches up with everyone.
So while some extra physical activity can help, a much bigger factor in fat loss is managing your food intake which basically means eating less.
There is a little more to it than that because if it was that easy there wouldn’t be so many people who struggle with their weight. There’s a reason most people who lose weight end up gaining a majority of it back. They don’t understand the whole process and they don’t know how to get results they can actually sustain.
If that happens to be you then don't worry because I am going to help you out with that today!
Why is weight loss hard to sustain?
Actually understanding how to body works will help you approach fat loss in a more effective and sustainable way.
You have to remember that your body doesn’t really want to change a whole lot. You can thank evolution for that.
Many years ago when food was hard to come by our bodies had to find ways to adapt to the conditions they were given. If there wasn’t a lot of food available our bodies could slow our metabolism down to burn fewer calories. When people were fortunate enough to come across large amounts of food our bodies also had the ability to take this excess energy and store it on our body for future fuel as body fat.
Fast forward to the modern-day where food is in abundance and you have more food to eat than you could possibly handle. All it takes is a few clicks on your phone and you can have your favorite meal waiting on your doorstep! It is easy to see why obesity and weight gain are on the rise and have been for a while.
So then what’s the answer? How can we make fat loss easier to achieve?
The answer is not whatever “fad diet” is popular at the moment. Instead, let me give you some tips centered around adding some simple things into your that will make fat loss easier to achieve.
A lot of fat loss methods and tactics are focused on what you can’t do or what you can’t have.
"Don’t eat this food group or don’t eat past this certain time of day. "
And while a lot of this advice is well-meaning, it's hard for people to actually do.
Instead of trying to struggle through this somewhat restrictive process let’s play into our natural human behavior and focus on adding some things. Rather than focusing on what we can’t have, we'll focus on what we can do. It’ll make these new behaviors a bit easier to stick to.
The cool part about doing this is by adding in more positive behaviors some of the old behaviors we wanted to get rid of in the first place seem to fade away on their own with less effort.
Win, win solution!
Tip #1-Add More Whole Foods To Your Diet
Let’s define whole foods first. Think of foods that don’t have a long list of ingredients. Foods that are minimally processed. Your fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins will make up the bulk of this group.
Eating more whole, minimally processed foods will lead to less overeating, less hunger, and more nutrients! Ever notice how easy it is to scarf down a whole bag of chips.... well think about this for a second. In one large bag of chips, there are 3-4 pounds of potatoes. I'm betting you could easily knock down at least a half bag if not more of potato chips in one sitting if you really wanted to.
We’ve all been there. I know I could (and have...). On the other hand, I would be surprised and kind of impressed to be honest if you could eat 3-4 pounds of straight baked potatoes. Probably not going to happen.
Why is that?
Well, lots of processed foods have delicious combinations of things like fat, sugar, and salt that make foods tasty and extremely easy to overconsume.
So in general, more minimally processed whole foods are going to be harder to overeat. Stick to more whole foods and less ultra-processed, hyper-palatable foods most of the time and you will notice yourself eating fewer calories over time.
Realize I never said you had to eliminate other types of food, but rather just focus on getting more whole foods first. 80% whole foods is a great goal to shoot for and the remaining 20% feel free to enjoy some of the cakes, cookies, pizza, or anything else you’d like!
Tip #2-Add In More Daily Movement
This one is probably obvious, but here's your friendly reminder. First off, moving more will cause you to burn more calories. Pretty straightforward. Whether it's standing at work, taking the stairs, or parking further away from the door, or getting some extra steps in your day. That extra movement adds up over time! Only a small percentage of the calories you burn in a day comes from exercise.
On the other hand, 15-30% of your calories burned in a day will come from NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) which consists of that extra daily movement we are talking about. So by moving more throughout your day you could potentially burn more calories than you would in a single exercise session.
There’s a second part to this one too. By becoming a person that takes the stairs, decides to stand rather than sit, and gets some extra steps in when you can you may start to notice that you are making other healthier choices throughout the day. You start associating these actions with becoming a healthier version of yourself. Soon these actions become just part of who you are!
Tip #3-Eat More Protein
Why more protein?
For one protein will leave you feeling more satiated and satisfied compared to other types of foods. Think about your morning breakfast. Will a sugary donut keep you feeling full and energetic for your entire morning? Well, what about a high-protein breakfast like steak and eggs?
Not saying that you can't have a donut. Donuts are delicious and can definitely be part of a healthy diet from time to time. However, if fat loss is the goal right now then you want to stick to more foods that help satisfy your hunger, not add to it.
Secondly, protein is going to help retain muscle mass as we cut some of the stubborn fat off. How many times have you heard people say “I just want to get toned.”
When people say this what they actually need to do to achieve the toned look is to lose fat and gain or least retain muscle mass. There's actually no such thing as “toning” muscles. Muscle grow, they don’t "tone", and protein is essential for that growth to happen.
If you’re serious about fat loss add in more protein. Anywhere from .6 grams to 1 gram per pound of body weight is a great range to shoot for most people!
Tip #4-Drink More Water
This one sounds too good to be true right. You’re telling me all I need to do is drink water to lose weight? Well, not exactly. Drinking a bunch of water is not going to make you magically drop the pounds. It will lead to a couple of effects that making losing weight that much easier though.
Let me explain. When losing fat, keeping calories in check is key which we already know. Without a calorie deficit, we won't have any success losing weight. That's just a fact.
So think about this. What's the quickest way to run those daily calories up? Drinking calories. Those high-calorie "coffee" drinks everyone loves or big sugary fountain sodas can be upwards of 500 calories in a single serving! Before you know it, you’ve downed a bunch of extra calories in a short amount of time that didn’t do much your hunger or add any nutritional value to your day.
You can imagine when you have these types of things on a regular basis how it could cause those calories to add up week after week. An extra 500 calories a day could lead to a 1lb weight gain over the course of just one week. Now think about what that one daily choice could do over the course of an entire year if you are not careful.
The second reason drinking more water will help you has to do with your hunger cues. Sometimes those hunger cues we feel can be a little deceiving. You will often get similar cues from your body about thirst as you do hunger. You can probably figure out how this could be problematic when the goal is to lose weight. How many times are you reaching for some extra food when all you needed was a glass of water?
To limit these issues make sure you are properly hydrated. A baseline to shoot for is drinking about half your body weight in ounces. If you weigh 200lbs then get at least 100 ounces in throughout the day. If you are a less active person you can probably get away with less and more active people who may need a little more.
One of the simplest things you can do is carrying around a water bottle to ensure you drink more water throughout the day.
Tip #5-Eat More Veggies
We’ll keep this one short and sweet. Eat your veggies.
Most vegetables are extremely low calorie and extremely filling. Eat more veggies for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or anywhere in between. A whole pound of broccoli is only 150 calories! Not to mention vegetables are full of nutrients and fiber.
If you are one of those people who say they don’t like veggies then you should start experimenting with different ways to prepare them. Bake them, fry them, sautee them, season them, add them to salads, soups, stews, stir-frys, smoothies, or shakes. There are dozens of ways you can get more veggies in your day!
Tip #6-Use Resistance Training
Resistance training, also commonly referred to as strength training or lifting weights has a whole host of benefits when it comes to fat loss as well as just general overall health. The most crucial being adding muscle to your body. More muscle means you will burn more calories from doing absolutely nothing! That's right just by having extra muscle on your frame you can burn more calories than someone who has less muscle mass.
On top of that resistance training is going to send the signal for your body to hold onto muscle mass as you are going through of fat loss phase. We aren't just after weight loss here, we want fat loss which means keeping more muscle and ditching the fat. Remember this is how you get that “toned” look that everybody talks about. The best way to do this is through resistance training and a calorie deficit.
If you’re a person who’s afraid to lift in worries of getting too bulky. Please stop thinking that way. It doesn’t really work like that unless you are part of the 1% with absolutely insane genetics who basically just looks at a dumbbell and gains muscle. Even then it still takes months, and most times years to pack on serious muscle.
You are not going to get bulky overnight. I repeat you are not going to get bulky overnight from lifting weights.
If it was that easy we would have a lot more people running around looking like massive bodybuilders. Think how often you see those types of people in person? Not very often, and even if you do you must understand that person is living a lifestyle way different than the average person. They are training 5+ hours a week and absolutely dialed in on every little thing they put into their body.
Add in strength training 2-4 times a week and watch your body start changing in the best way!
Tip #7-Find Accountability
Find a way to stay accountable! Studies show when you have some sort of accountability the likelihood of accomplishing your goal increases quite a bit!
There are several ways to do this. One of the most popular ways is to track your food intake. Most people drastically overestimate how much they move and underestimate how much they eat. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out this isn’t a winning combination for fat loss.
Another great option is to find someone to hold you accountable whether it be a friend, family member, or even a coach! You'll think twice about skipping that workout or eating that second piece of cake if you know you have to tell someone about it.
(If you are interested in a coach to hold you accountable and get the results you are after you can check out this link!)
Think of getting a coach as an investment in yourself. When you invest money, time, or effort into things you take them more seriously. If you think about it, it’s really the best investment you can make because the return rate on investing in your health is so high and it will improve just about every single area of your life!
Get Started Today!
There are no magic pills or crazy hacks for fat loss. Well, I take that back because there are plenty of pills, products, and programs that promise just that, but none are actually legit. If that’s where your focus is at then you’ve already lost at fat loss.
There are things you can do, just like these things listed above, that will help make the process simpler, but it will still take some work, patience, and consistency.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t waste any more time. Add these tips in today and start making progress!
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