Although it may seem like a simple issue of losing a few pounds, struggling with obesity or being overweight can be a psychological problem that affects every aspect of a person’s life. After all, there’s nothing more unsettling than feeling like a stranger in your own skin. Unfortunately, the journey of losing weight and keeping the extra pounds off is usually two different processes. The good news is that there are millions of people who have managed to shed off extra weight and stay in shape for the long run, and, if you want to join the club, you’re definitely in the right place!
Whether you’ve tried to lose weight before and quit midway or it’s your first time in uncharted territory, here are seven amazing hacks you can follow to lose weight in a simple way.
1. Stay Active
Exercise helps you lose weight; it’s the oldest trick in the book and one that may not even be considered a hack. Shouldn’t a hack make it easier for you to get something done? Well, here’s how you can leverage the basics of training programs to your benefit.
There are three basics to working out: cardio helps you lose fat, resistance training strengthens and/or buffs up your muscles, and flexibility training maintains the health of your muscles and joints. While a wholesome training program incorporates these elements according to your fitness goals, you can start by taking small steps.
Don’t overwhelm yourself, just commit to something that’s easy enough for you to do on a daily basis. If that’s taking a light walk for 15 minutes a day then so be it, but if you want quick results, it’s best to spend these 15 minutes doing it all in one. You start by stretching and then add some cardio to your strength training. Once you feel confident about your routine, you may add more minutes, increase the intensity, or feel motivated to get a tailored personal training regimen from a specialist.
2. Stay Hydrated
Here’s another thing you must have heard a million times: drink your water. You probably know why staying well hydrated is generally good for your health, but what on earth does it have to do with losing weight? Many things, actually. For starters, sometimes your body’s way of expressing thirst is to trigger your hunger, so drinking a cup of water instead can soothe your appetite without adding any extra calories. After all, water has zero calories! That’s another reason why you may want to consider substituting all your sugary drinks with water, or flavored water, instead. Keep in mind that you’ll need an average of eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, which will increase with exercise or on hot days.
3. Log In Your Beauty Sleep
Exercising and hydrating are great steps toward a healthier lifestyle, but, if you really want to hold your healthy routine together, you’ll need to log in 8 hours of beauty sleep every night. Giving your body the rest it needs is crucial in maintaining regular bodily functions, which translates into a healthy and active metabolism. In case you’re wondering, a high metabolic rate means your body is burning more fat and/or calories throughout the day, and a low metabolic rate means exactly the opposite. Guess what slows down your metabolism? The biggest culprit in the list is stress, which, as you’ve surely figured by now, is triggered by lack of sleep or poor sleep quality.
4. Rev Your Metabolism Up
Once you’ve set out the optimal conditions for your body to operate, you can pick up a few hacks to rev up your metabolism. One of the most popular hacks is to use a fat burner, which plays a major role in boosting fat loss by increasing the body’s basal metabolic rate. What’s even better is that good quality fat burners not only help you burn fat faster, they help boost energy and curb appetite. You can take fat burners in the form of supplements or find natural herbs like green tea.
5. Plan Your Meals
It’s important to point out that fat burners and other supplements do their best job when combined with a solid nutritional plan. It won’t really matter if you increase your metabolism without limiting the calorie intake; your body will just store in more fat instead of what it burns. However, we still understand that counting calories are just as big of a turn-off as exercising for most people – if not worse. Although having a wholesome nutritional plan is still the most surefire way of losing weight, you can start with a few effective hacks instead. Cut down sugar and white carbs, stay away from grease and junk food, and increase your intake of vegetables and fibers.
6. Try Intermittent Fasting
At one point, you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that you need to stick to a limited number of nutritious calories throughout the day. Once you accept that, it’s better to eat most of your calories earlier in the day, since your metabolic rate is higher during the day anyway. This also works in favor of intermittent fasting, which is, typically, fasting 6 to 12 hours of the time you’re awake. Intermittent fasting is an effective hack that works wonders for people all over the world looking to effectively lose weight and keeping it off. You don’t have to follow this advice blindly though, you’ll eventually find the right window to eat your calories.
7. Track Your Progress and Celebrate
The final piece of advice works in a way that hacks into your subconscious. Everyone will have different worries and doubts going into their weight loss journey, but what all of us have in common is that we get motivated by seeing results. Make sure to take before and after photos, track your progress on the scale, and, most importantly, keep a journal of the positive changes you’ve started to enjoy thanks to losing weight. With every milestone, you cross, be sure to celebrate and enjoy your victory!
The battle of losing weight is so much more than starving yourself or exercising yourself to the edge of unconsciousness. It’s as much a psychological battle as it is a physical one, so it’s important to dive into it with a strong mind and an effective plan. If you try a few tricks that don’t work, don’t give up; just look for others that work better for you.
Follow Us