Have you ever wondered why weight-loss seems to come so easy for other individuals? Its okay, you’re not alone. When I first started my weight-loss journey, watching people lose 60lbs in 4 months was so wild to me. I was barely able to hold on to 5lbs. This is because everyone’s metabolism runs different for a variety of reasons. Height, Weight, Sex, Hormonal, Current Activity level, etc.
Taking this into consideration, you can then say to yourself that a one-diet-fits-all approach is definitely not going to work. Don’t lose hope though! There are actually 5 simple ways you can jumpstart your weight loss now! I am going to actually share them with you in this article:
Here Are My 5 Tips on How to Jumpstart your Weight-Loss Journey with Ease:
1. Start with a calorie deficit
You may be asking yourself what is a calorie deficit?
In simplest terms, this just means you are eating calories that are lower than what your body needs. This will then lead to weight loss.
Simple right? Well, not entirely.
Unfortunately, when some individuals see this, they immediately do drastic low calorie diets like 1,000 calories a day. Please don’t do this! This won’t just leave you feeling miserable but it’s unsustainable. Eventually you’re going to give up because your barely eating, always feeling hungry so any weight loss you might have lost. You might as well kiss it good-bye. What is a good place to start then? It all depends.
As I stated in the introduction, every one’s body is different so while 1800 calories a day may work for one person 1,600 may work better for someone else. Here is my best advice. Download a food tracker like MyFitnessPal, record your daily food intake for a week as well as weighing yourself everyday, in the morning, for a week. If your weight went up or stayed the same with the calorie intake you had that week then lower by 100 calories. If your weight went down that week with your normal calorie intake then there is no need to change it. You’re good to go!
2. Get Proper Sleep
You may be shocked but sleep plays a HUGE role in weight loss. This is because your body is recovering from all the “stress” it endured. Your body does numerous of task such as repairing cells, restoring energy, releasing hormones & proteins, etc.
Why is this important?
Well, think of it this way. If you were to drive your car & never give it gas, get a oil change, wash it, change the breaks when it was time to then what would happen? The same thing would happen to your body. It’s not going to work at it’s best! If weight loss is the goal, then getting proper sleep will allow your body to work at it’s best level of performance everyday!
3. Walk!
When it comes to the fitness part of weight loss. We are told the hardest workouts will get us the results we want. While working out is important, it doesn’t mean every time you are physically active it has to be difficult.
Walking 30 minutes everyday has actually been shown to help with weight loss & keep it off. This is because you’re increasing something called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). This is just as important for weight loss because doing these type of activities also increase the amount of calories your body burns daily!
This is mainly effective because the act of walking is generally easy. You can even split the 30 minutes into intervals throughout the day.
4. Drink More Water
You have probably heard this so many times but its true! I can even vouch for it through personal experience. Drinking anywhere from 80-120fl oz of water daily helped me lose weight. It isn’t necessarily because water has any weight loss components but due to the fact it helps you feel full during, after, & in between meals.
Feeling full is the key to losing weight. Think about it, if you’re always feeling hungry, what are you going to do? Eat, right? If you drink 16fl oz of water with your meals though this could make you feel full & satisfied.
Decreasing the chances of you grabbing seconds or a snack an hour later. Water has 0 calories, unlike other sugary beverages, therefore you can also drink as much as you like & wont add any calories to your overall daily intake. That’s a win-win in my book.
5. Lift Weights
I’ve noticed women tend to stray away from weights due to the fear of being bulky. You’re not alone. I did the very same thing! I did tons of cardio but I desired to look slim & feminine. What I didn’t realize though it’s actually a lot more difficult for us women to get bulky. I’ll explain why.
Men & women have a major hormone that is different from each other. Men’s major hormone is testosterone & women’s are estrogen. I bring this up because this the reason why men carry more muscle mass than women do. Testosterone promotes the build of muscle mass. Women have testosterone as well but, normally, not nearly as much as men.
I say this to put your mind at ease about becoming bulky but how does muscle help with weight loss?
When you have more muscle mass on you, believe it or not, your daily calorie needs actually increase. Why is this the case?
Well, it’s because muscles require more energy to function properly. This means you will burn more calories daily than someone with low muscle mass. Saying that, don’t be afraid to pick up those weights & tone up. Muscle also gives you a “tone” look. Enhancing those curves & areas you want to keep like the glutes.
These are my 5 TIPS to Jumpstarting your weight loss journey. I hope this was helpful. Now get out there & smash those weight loss goals!
