Being overweight or trying to lose weight can be tedious and tiring because it requires self-discipline and consistency to achieve the desired results.
Although various “fad” diets are available, a balanced lifestyle and nutritious diet are the key to healthful living and better weight control.
Additionally, just as there are lots of misguided weight loss advice out there to be avoided, there are also a lot of legitimate and expert-approved tips for weight loss.
Before you embark on your weight loss journey, you need to understand that quick weight loss is rarely sustainable.
This means that you have to focus on long-term health tips and consistent habits that you can stick with over time will help improve your health and are more likely to result in lasting weight loss.
Some of these tips include:
Do not skip breakfast or any meal
Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. Moreover, skipping breakfast will not help you lose weight, instead, you’ll miss out on essential nutrients included in your breakfast.
A balanced breakfast consists of special nutrients such as fiber, protein, and healthy fats that will fill you up, keep you satisfied, and stave off cravings later in the day.
This means that skipping breakfast may influence your hunger hormones later in the day, and it might be difficult for you to refrain from oversized portions or cravings for sugary and refined carbohydrate foods. Therefore, you end up snacking throughout the day because you tend to feel hungry.
Generally, skipping meals can cause metabolism to slow down which results in weight gain or make it harder to lose weight
Drink lots of water
One of the major tricks to weight loss is drinking lots of water. This is because sometimes, people confuse thirst with hunger and most times end up consuming extra calories when a glass of water is really what they need. This happens because thirst can mask itself as hunger, causing you to eat more.
Water is essential in your weight loss journey especially drinking water before any meal because water makes you feel fuller, causing you to eat less during a meal.
Get Enough Sleep
Most people believe that you need to starve yourself of sleep if you want to lose weight. However, contrary to what most people believe, lack of sleep increases your hunger hormone and decreases your satisfaction hormone, which can contribute to weight gain.
This simply means that you need enough sleep to lose weight. Your hormones function better and are balanced when your body gets enough sleep and rest.
Engage in regular physical activity and exercise
This is a major weight loss tip that cannot be neglected. For your weight loss journey, you need exercise as it is vital for both physical and mental health.
You must increase the frequency of physical activity in a disciplined and consistent manner.
However, if you are not consistent in engaging in regular physical activity, you can slowly increase the amount of exercise that you do and gradually increase its intensity.
This approach is the most sustainable way to ensure that regular exercise becomes a part of their lifestyle.
On the other hand, if you are new to regular physical activities or exercises, you can carry out simple daily physical activities to increase your exercise levels.
Activities such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, raking leaves, walking a dog, taking a walk, dancing, playing outdoor games, etc. can go a long way to help increase your exercise level.
Additionally, exercising at any time is good for you, but evening activity may be particularly beneficial because, at this time, your metabolism typically slows down towards the end of the day.
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