7 Quick Weight Loss Tips

Weight loss is quite easy, in theory. You’ve got to reduce the calories you’re taking in, and increase the calories you’re expending. Calories come from three sources: carbohydrate, protein and fat. Total energy expenditure is determined by your basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food and your physical activity. To learn how to calculate your basal metabolic rate and how many calories you need you may want to visit this link. Now, how do you go about losing weight? Here are 7 quick weight loss tips:

1. You should strive for a bodyweight that optimizes your health. Even though people talk about an “ideal bodyweight”, that may not be a practical goal for you. The first step is to stop weight gain. If you’ve been gaining weight on a regular fashion over the last couple of years, your main goal should be to stop that.

2. You also want to aim for metabolic fitness. Metabolic fitness means that the biochemical risk factors (high blood pressure, triglycerides, etc) improve. You can do that loosing 5% to 10% of your total bodyweight. Let’s say you’re trying to lose 10% of your bodyweight. You ideal bodyweight may be 120 and you weight 200. Even getting down to the range of 180 pounds is going to help you reduce your risk factors.

3. Focus on creating a lifestyle that includes eating healthy foods, getting exercise, thinking positively about your food choices and body image, and learning how to cope with stress (having time of rejuvenation). Most of the problems we have are lifestyle problems. If you develop a lifestyle for successful weight management during early adulthood, healthy behavior pattern are very likely to take hold. You also need to adopt behaviors you can maintain. What might work best for me isn’t what is going to work best for you.

4. Losing weight is simple: take in less calories than you burn. This is the MOST EFFECTIVE STRATEGY. Watch your portion sizes! Most of us significantly underestimate the amount of food we take in. You should also take care of the balance of foods. Crash diets don’t work! These are diets that contain minimum calories. You may set the goal of eating 500 calories daily, but you’re not going to be able to control it when the hunger kicks in. When this happens we beat ourselves up, we think there’s something wrong with us and become depressed. This is not very intelligent.

5. Fat, with 9 calories a gram, is the easiest place to reduce calorie intake. Fat is the most concentrated source of calories. Fat calories are also more readily converted to body fat than calories from protein and carbohydrate. Fat intake should be lowered to 20% to 35% of your total calories. High fat, low fiber diets tend to make us feel not very full and encourage overeating. Foods that are labeled low-fat or fat-free can actually be high in calories. Despite lowering their fat content, manufacturers often increase the sugar to make it taste good.

6. To balance your energy sources you also need to look at the carbohydrates in your diet. Between 45% and 65% of your total daily calories should come from carbohydrates. However, some people are going to do better with a reduced carbohydrate intake, those who have insulin resistance. High-sugar foods provide calories but really few nutrients.

7. Eating an all-protein or almost-all-protein diet is not going to promote optimal wellness. Aim to balance your energy sources. Focus on creating a healthy lifestyle. Diets that are high in complex carbohydrates and moderate on protein are better paths to take. Protein helps promote a sense of fullness, but be careful, because foods high in protein can also be high in fat. Protein should be in the range of about 10% to 35% of total calories.

More tips to come! Stay tuned!