It’s an unfortunate fact that the world of weight loss has been plagued over the years with a slew of fad diets, gimmicks, and sometimes dangerous pills and supplements.
Dieters are also subjected to shocking tales in the media which recount how celebrities slimmed down to worrying levels of thinness for a role, or how supermodels managed to shed their baby weight seemingly overnight.
Fortunately, there are a variety of tried-and-tested techniques you can use to shed weight quickly but healthily. These methods will not only help you to lose those stubborn pounds but they will also make sure you receive all of the vitamins you need and prevent energy slumps during the course of the day. Using these tips, you will also avoid the unpleasant physical effects that some fad diets can cause, such as dehydration and thinning hair.
Lose weight the fast but healthy way, and it won’t be long before you’re looking and feeling lighter – without having made any unpleasant sacrifices to achieve your weight loss goals.
Start As You Mean To Go On
One of the keys to successful and healthy weight loss is eating a good breakfast. Treating your body to a hearty and nutritious meal first thing in the morning has a number of benefits, including preventing that dreaded mid-morning blood sugar drop that normally has you reaching for the biscuit tin.
As you’ve probably already found, if you’ve ever missed breakfast, going without food when you wake up can also slow down your mental faculties and make it harder to concentrate and think clearly. Eating breakfast before you start your day will give your mind and body a welcome boost and ensure you have enough energy to keep you going until lunchtime.
Swap Your Snacks
If you’re keen to lose weight as quickly as you can, you may think it’s a good idea to cut out all snacks. However, this may not be the best plan, particularly if you have a very busy and active schedule. The fact is, you will probably need snacks at least a couple of times during the day to provide the fuel you need in between meals.
The key to snacking and still managing to lose weight is choosing the right type of snack. Crisps, cakes, and cookies are clearly a no-no, but rice cakes, veggie sticks and hummus, popcorn, berries, and other low-calorie but nutritious goodies are ideal energy boosters that will still aid your weight loss.
Give Diet Shakes a Try
If you have a set time limit for losing weight – perhaps an upcoming beach holiday or a wedding is approaching and you want to look and feel your best – then you may want to consider a meal replacement diet.
Companies such as Shake That Weight provide an assortment of tasty and nutritious shakes that contain essential vitamins and minerals and plenty of protein. Gluten-free options are available and there are plenty of flavours to choose from – who says a shake diet has to be boring?
Pump That Iron
Achieving healthy weight loss should include a combination of both diet and exercise. And what’s the best exercise for burning calories? Weight training!
Not only will lifting weights improve your overall strength – and give you bigger muscles – it also burns the most calories long-term compared to other forms of exercise.
As well as heading to the gym to pump some iron, there are a number of other activities you can do which have been found to burn impressive numbers of calories during exercise. This includes:
- jumping rope a la Carrie Underwood (which can also help increase bone density and improve your posture ad core strength
- kickboxing
- taking spin classes
- rowing
- running/sprinting
Besides helping you lose weight, you will probably find that giving these exercises a try will also help to boost your overall health and lift your mood
Catch Some Z’s
Getting enough sleep can help you shed those pounds in more ways than one.
For one thing, having enough sleep will give you the energy you need to stick to your calorie-burning exercise routine. If you’re well-rested, this will also help to prevent you from making the wrong dietary choices; for instance, by reaching for those sugary snacks when you feel like you need an urgent boost.
For another thing, getting the amount of sleep you need has been linked to lower BMIs while poor sleep can actually lead to weight gain. An analysis of 20 different studies found that, among adults who slept less than 7 hours a night, the risk of obesity grew by a shocking 41%.
If you struggle to get a good night’s sleep, there are a number of things you can try to help you drop off, including practicing yoga or meditation to calm your mind and body; listening to soothing melodies; avoiding too many carbs before bed; and giving aromatherapy oils a go. Lavender and peppermint, in particular, have been found to help people fall asleep.
