Wouldn’t it be great if you could lose weight and achieve your dream body! But this could be difficult if you don’t know what to do to lose weight. There’s a great deal of confusing and conflicting advice concerning weight loss. This results in many people being baffled about the best ways to lose weight.
Everyone is looking for that magic pill or potion that will make them lose belly fat instantly. You should know by now that there’s no magic pill or any quick fixes. What you need to do to lose weight isn’t difficult. Below is a list of 13 awesome slimming tips which will help guide you to a leaner, and healthier you.
You don’t need to follow all of these slimming tips all at once. Instead aim to initially incorporate three to five of these tips into your life. You’ll soon notice that you’ll start to lose belly fat. This will encourage you to incorporate even more slimming tips, and in no time at all you’ll have your dream body!
1. Positive Attitude
All things are possible if you have a positive attitude and that includes losing weight! When you have a positive attitude towards life, you expect good things to happen. This helps you achieve success and live the life you want.
There’s a direct correlation between having a positive attitude towards yourself and better health. Because when you love yourself, you want the best for yourself and will do anything it takes to achieve happiness. When you accept your body, you’ll treat it well and change your ways to incorporate a healthier lifestyle.
A positive attitude towards yourself makes it easier to implement ideas that will help you to take better care of your body by changing your lifestyle. To succeed in changing your lifestyle so that it’s healthier, simply take one day at a time.
Change one unhealthy meal per day for a healthier alternative. Schedule one workout into your week and then build up from there. If you take it one day at a time, you’ll slowly but surely begin to eat healthier foods and start to exercise more regularly. And soon your weight with begin to drop.
Having a positive attitude will allow you to make constructive changes to your lifestyle. It will help you to use the power of your subconscious mind to meet and deal with difficult challenges. When you think positively, you’ll succeed at whatever you what in life including losing weight!
2. Don’t Skip Meals
Many people want to lose weight quickly, they do this by skipping some of their main meals. But skipping meals doesn’t help you lose weight quickly! Instead it causes your metabolism to slow down. This makes losing weigh more difficult.
When you skip meals, your body starts to crave food. This can lead to binging on sugary or fatty foods which will result in you gaining even more weight.
What you need to do to lose weight is to eat at least three main meals each day. Eating three healthy main meals everyday provides you with the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs. Eating healthy meals makes you feel good and gives you the energy to get through your day.
If you are committed to losing weight, never skip meals especially breakfast. Always eat a nutritious breakfast every day. Otherwise later in the morning you’ll find yourself scoffing down sugary or fatty foods when those hunger pangs kick in. And as you know, fatty and sugary foods aren’t good for your waistline!
To lose weight, eat healthy foods such as wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables. These complex carbohydrates are high in fiber as well as vitamins and minerals. Complex carbohydrates fill you up while providing your body and brain with fuel and energy.
Other great superfoods for weight loss include eggs, yogurt, cheese, avocado, nuts, beans, lean meats, skinless chicken and fish. These foods contain proteins and are low in fats. Proteins help the development of your muscles so that your body works efficiently. Proteins also reduce hunger and appetite so that you won’t feel inclined to snack on junk foods.
3. What To Do To Lose Weight: Reduce Sugar
Weight gain is a result of what, and how much you normally eat and drink on a daily basis. One of the biggest culprits which result in weight gain is consuming too much sugar! Foods and drinks that are high in sugar spike up your blood sugar levels. Your blood sugar levels then drop just as quickly which makes you want to eat again.
Excessive sugar consumption can also result in constant cravings, low energy and weight gain. Cravings quickly put an end to a strict diet. This is because cravings lead to binging which result in even more weight gain. To stop binging eat wholesome foods such as apples, nuts, plain popcorn, hummus and vegetables.
One of the best ways to lose weight quickly is to reduce the amount of sugar in your diet. The keyword here is REDUCE, NOT ELIMINATE. You should never totally eliminate any foods or drinks that you love from your diet as this leads to cravings.
Instead reduce the amount of sugar that you normally add to your tea, coffee, cereals, fruit and desserts. If you bake your own cookies or desserts, try reducing the amount of sugar in your recipe by a quarter of the original amount. The end result is a healthier alternative to your original recipe.
You can further reduce the amount of sugar in your diet by reducing the amount of sweet toppings that you add to foods. Reduce the amount of honey, jam, chocolate, fudge sauce, ice-cream by 20% every three to six-weeks. Continue to reduce the amount of added sugar in your foods until you halve your original amount.
4. Eat Fruit And Veggies
Food accounts for 80% of your weight gain! It’s therefore important to eat nutritious foods that fuel your body but don’t add to your weight problems. What you need to do to lose weight is to add a variety of different colored fruits and vegetables to your daily menu.
Fruit and vegetables contain many vitamins, minerals and fiber that your body needs for good health and vitality. For a healthy diet aim for:
- 2-3 fruit serves per day
- 5 serves of vegetables per day
It’s important not to eat more than 2-3 serves of fruit each day. Eating too much fruit will add to your weight problems. This is because fruit contains high amounts of fructose which is a form of sugar. Fruits that are high in sugar include mangoes, cherries pears, oranges, guavas, figs, litchis, pomegranates, bananas, and grapes.
Fruits that are lower in sugar include, lemons, limes, grapefruit, strawberries watermelon, raspberries, blackberries, avocado, cantaloupe, honeydew and peaches. To lose weight, eat more fruits with a low sugar content and less fruits with a high sugar content.
Fresh vegetables are low in calories, as they contain minimal fat and sugar. Vegetables are also a great source of vitamins, minerals and fiber that are essential for a healthy body. To lose weight, eat vegetables which don’t have any fat, butter, cream, cheese, syrup or sugar added to them.
Different colored vegetables contain different kinds of vitamins and minerals for good health and vitality. Choose a variety of different colored vegetables so that your body benefits from a mix of nutrients. Vegetables such as kale, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, etc. can form a great low-calorie base for main meals.
5. Reduce Fat
Many people think that they must eliminate all fats from their diet when dieting. This isn’t the case at all. Good fats such as unsaturated fats are essential for a healthy body. However most overweight people normally eat way too much fat. To lose weight, cut down on the amount of fat you consume. Just don’t totally eliminate it from your diet.
One of the easiest and best ways to lose weight is to remove visible fat from meat prior to cooking. Also remove the skin and underlying fat from chicken. Removing fat prior to cooking meat and chicken will mean that your food automatically contains less saturated fat and fewer calories. You can save cooking time by prepping your meal before hand.
To further reduce fat in your diet, use fat-reduced or skim milk products instead of full cream. Other ways to reduce fat in foods include adding mashed potato to soups instead of cream. This gives you a tasty soup with a creamy texture without the fat content.
To lose weight reduce the amount of margarine, butter, mayonnaise, fatty dressings, cream or sour cream that you normally add to foods. Reduce the amount of fats that you add to foods by halving the original amount. This allows you to still enjoy the flavor of these fats, but with half the fat content.
Foods that don’t contain added fats needn’t be boring. Use lemon juice, vinegar, herbs, garlic, onions, spices and salsa to spice up your meals and improve their flavor.
Click on this link for more tasty healthy foods that help you to lose belly fat!
6. What To Do To Lose Weight; Limit Fried Foods
If you regularly eat fried foods or deep-fried foods then you’ll certainly have a weight problem. Fried foods contain high amounts of fat. Your body doesn’t require excessive amounts of fat. This means that excess fat will be stored as body fat.
For fat reduced leaner meals, BBQ, steam, boil, grill, microwave, or roast meats and vegetables instead of frying them. If you really must pan-fry any foods use a minimum amount of oil.
To succeed at getting rid of your abdominal fat, limit the number of fried, deep-fried foods, battered and crumbed foods that you eat. Reduce the amount of these fat laden foods to one meal per week. After a period of 3 to 6 weeks, reduce the number of fatty fried foods to one per fortnight.
7. Drink More Water
People know that to lose weight they need to watch what they eat. They however seem to forget about the drinks that they consume. Many overweight people drink heaps of sodas, soft drinks, “diet” drinks, fruit juices, smoothies, thick shakes, cordials and/or alcohol. These drinks are high in sugar, fat and/or alcohol. These calories aren’t required by your body so they get stored as fat.
Many people think that fruit juices and smoothies are healthy as they’re based on fruit. However, fruit juices and smoothies usually contain more than two serves of fruit. Drinking these drinks results in consuming more fruit and sugar than the daily recommendation which results in weight gain.
If you want to lose weight, DON’T drink “diet” drinks!! Diet drinks contain artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners make your taste buds reliant on the taste of sugar so you’ll desire sweet foods. These chemicals cause an increase in appetite which results in excessive eating.
Alcohol is high in “empty” calories. This means that it’s easy to consume too much alcohol yet still feel hungry. Excess calories aren’t required by your body, so they get stored as fat. To lose weight, reduce your alcohol intake to a maximum of one alcoholic drink per day for women and two drinks for men.
To reduce the amount of sweet or creamy drinks and alcohol that you consume, drink more water. Substitute water for “diet” drinks, sodas, juices, smoothies, shakes and alcoholic drinks. Don’t eliminate all these drinks from your diet. Just swap some with water or unsweetened tea or coffee and your weight will soon disappear.
A great way to lose weight is to drink two glasses of water 15-20 minutes before a meal. The water helps to fill you up and stops you from overeating!
8. Eat Slowly
Another awesome tip to lose weight is to eat your food slowly! The benefits of eating food slowly include better digestion and greater satisfaction of meals. It takes approximately 20 minutes from the time you start eating for your stomach to signal your brain that you’re full.
Having that full feeling in your stomach discourages you from wanting seconds or indulging in a fattening dessert. As a result, you’ll eat less food. Eating slowing is a simple technique to help you eat less food.
Below are a few additional easy tips that can help you to slow down how quickly you eat your food. These include:
- Sit down at a table to eat.
- Chew every bite thoroughly.
- Put down your cutlery between each bite.
- Consciously taste every bite and enjoy the flavors.
- Drink water between bites.
- Pay attention to the colors, aroma, texture and the taste of your food.
- Don’t be distracted by the T.V, texting or other technology.
- Take at least 20 minutes to eat your main meal.
9. Reduce How Much You Eat
To lose weight you need to eat less than you normally do. But strict diets can leave you feeling hungry. The trick to being satisfied is to increase your consumption of low-calorie foods while reducing the amount of high calorie foods in your diet.
To reduce the number of calories in a main meal ensure that your plate contains:
- 50% of steamed, boiled or microwaved vegetables. Plain vegetables that don’t have added fats such as butter, mayo, cheese or oil are low in calories. They’re high in water and fiber which fills you up so you won’t feel hungry.
- 25% grains such as wholegrain bread, brown rice, or wholegrain pasta. Wholegrains satisfy your hunger as they’re high in fiber.
- 25% proteins such as lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese or legumes. Proteins also fill you up so that you won’t feel hungry.
Other tips that help reduce how much you eat include:
- Place your usual portions of food on your plate then remove 20% of the food. Another method is to use a smaller plate.
- Eat filling proteins such as yogurt, cheese, milk, lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and legumes with every meal. (Limit red meat to 3 times per week.)
- Begin your main meal with a vegetable soup or a salad. These low-calorie meals help fill you up.
- Drink 2 glasses of water 15-20 minutes before eating and during your meal.
- Take 20 minutes to eat a main meal. This give your stomach time to signal your brain that you are full.
- Use smaller spoons and forks and chew your food thoroughly. These tactics help to slow you down.
- Use different colored vegetables and spices to please the eye, add flavor and gives off a wonderful aroma. When your senses are satisfied, you won’t feel hungry.
10. What To Do To Lose Weight: Drink Skinny Teas
What should you drink to lose weight that is tasty and slimming? The answer is skinny teas.There are many skinny teas that can help you to lose weight. These include Matcha tea, cinnamon tea, peppermint tea, green tea, ginger tea, and Rooibos or red tea.
Skinny teas are natural, delicious, and refreshing. They can be used as nil-calorie replacements for higher-calorie beverages. When used in combination with exercise and a nutritious diet, they’ll help you to lose weight quickly.
Healthy, natural skinny teas help you lose your belly fat quickly by boosting your metabolism to burn more fat. Skinny teas also have the ability to make you feel full. This helps to reduce cravings which in turn reduces food consumption.
Another benefit is that they contain powerful antioxidants, which may reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer. Skinny teas are easy to brew. They are a great nil-calorie addition to your diet. They help you feel refreshed and revitalized and ready to take on the world!
11. Reduce Occasional Foods
Occasional foods and drinks shouldn’t be consumed regularly as they’re high in either sugar, fat, salt and alcohol, or a combination of these. As the name suggests they shouldn’t be consumed every day, but on an occasional basis.
Added sugar is one of the worst ingredients to consume if you want to slim down! So sugary foods should only be consumed on an occasional basis. Sweet foods include cakes, sweets, cookies, sweetened breakfast cereals, sweet biscuits, sweet pies, deserts and pastries.
Drinks that are loaded with sugar and fat should also only be consumed on an occasional basis. This includes drinks such soft drinks, sodas, fruit juices, cordials, “diet” drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, full-cream milk shakes, thick shakes and alcoholic drinks. Replace most of these drinks with water or skinny teas.
Foods that are high in saturated fat and salt include processed meats and foods with a high fat content. Limit foods such as salami, fatty sausages, pizza, savory pastries, savory pies, French fries, potato chips, commercial burgers, fried foods, and deep-fried foods. Also reduce the number of take-away meals and fast-foods that you consume.
To lose weight, reduce your consumption of crisps and other fatty and/or salty snack foods such as savory biscuits. Reduce your consumption of foods high in saturated fats such as ice cream, confectionery, chocolate, foods containing sweetened condensed milk, cream, butter and spreads.
NEVER totally eliminate your favorite foods and drinks from your diet as you will binge! Instead, occasionally allow yourself to enjoy sugary and fatty foods and drinks in moderation.
12. Regular Exercise
Eating a healthy diet on its own won’t ensure weight loss! What you need to do to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. Adding regular exercise to your lifestyle allows you to burn more calories than dieting alone. Exercise will help you burn more calories if you exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes, 3-5 days per week.
The best way to burn body fat is through cardio or aerobic exercises such as running, brisk walking, elliptical training, and bicycling. For greater results combine aerobic exercises with resistance training, such as lifting weights.
For weight loss to occur, the intensity of your exercise needs to be such that you breathe more heavily than you normally do. When you exercise for weight loss your heart rate will increase and you should sweat a little. To find out the correct level of exercise for you, check out my heart rate chart.
When you exercise you breathe in more oxygen than you normally do. Oxygen burns fat! So the deeper you breathe, the more fat you’ll burn. Breathing oxygen in deeply also helps to reduce stress and strengthen your lungs.
There are many incredible benefits that your body will gain from regular exercise. Exercise helps:
- You lose weight
- Boost your moods
- Improve your body and bone strength
- Condition your heart and lungs
- Increase your energy levels
- Reduce stress
- Improve your flexibility
- Reduce your risk of chronic disease
- Boost your brain health and memory
- Improve your ability to relax and your sleep quality
With all the above awesome benefits why won’t you consider adding exercise to your daily routine?
13. Reduce Stress
Many overweight people experience a high level of stress in their lives. Stress can be caused by many factors including:
- Money problems or financial obligations.
- Work problems or loss of job.
- Poor health, chronic illness or injury.
- Changes in lifestyle, including moving house, getting married, or divorced.
- Death or severe illness of a loved one.
- Emotional problems including anxiety, depression, anger, fear, grief, guilt, low self-esteem.
- Being under a great deal of pressure.
- Having overwhelming responsibilities.
- Worrying thoughts due to uncertainty.
- Not having any control over the outcome of a situation.
Unfortunately, excess stress can lead to an increase in weight. This is because chronic stress elevates your cortisol levels. Cortisol stimulates your appetite and boosts your hunger levels. This leads to an increase in food cravings for sugary or fatty foods with the end result being a gain in weight!
The good news is there are simple and effective ways to reduce stress and therefore manage your weight. One of the best ways to reduce stress and increase happiness is by living a healthy lifestyle. Other ways to combat stress include:
- Exercising regularly.
- Eating healthy foods.
- Loving and respecting yourself.
- Reducing caffeine intake.
- Minimizing your commitments or to-do list.
- Not comparing yourself to others.
- Spending quality time with friends and family.
- Relaxing and/or meditating.
- Laughing more often.
- Getting enough sleep.
What To Do To Lose Weight: Summary
Your weight is determined by what and how much you eat and drink. But it’s also affected by your lifestyle, attitude, exercise levels and the amount of stress in your life. There aren’t any magic potions to losing weight, but there are things that you can do that will help you to lose weight.
The above 13 tips are some of the best ways to lose weight. Change your life by incorporating three to five of the above weight loss tips into your lifestyle. Follow the above advice on what to do to lose weight and soon you’ll have the body of your dreams!
