5 Top Tips To Achieve Successful Weight Loss

Achieving weight loss and maintaining it can be one of the most difficult things to do! There are countless diets out there that offer the quick fix. However the problem is, they want to you to completely change your lifestyle to get you losing weight.

With the sudden change in lifestyle that often comes with a diet, you suddenly lose your enjoyment for life. There isn’t a diet that is best for weight loss. Instead, making small but manageable lifestyle changes are the way forward. Small lifestyle changes are far easier to stick with over a longer period of time, don’t lead to your mental health suffering and also help to put in place steps for the future.

1 – Calorie Deficit – What Is It?

This is the key part to any weight loss programme. Knowing exactly what you put into your body and what your burn during your typical day is a must. Firstly, to get the best out of your calorie deficit, set yourself some SMART Goals. This will help to give you motivation and a target to aim for. After setting your goals you will be able to get a firm grip on the amount of exercise you will be doing day to day or week to week.

Once the exercise plan is written up, you can now get an understanding for the number of calories you need to consume daily. To calculate your calories use this calculator. The ideal target for a good calorie deficit is 10% of your daily calories. This is a manageable value that your body can cope with. Reducing your calories too much can lead to your body going into protective mode, storing more fat.

2 – Exercise – How Does It Help With My Weight Loss Programs?

Getting into a good routine with exercise is a great way to help with weight loss. Doing exercise won’t necessarily mean you lose weight, but instead help to assist you with a calorie deficit. Day to day our body is burning calories to maintain its natural functions, this is your BMR. Our BMR will be naturally higher the more muscle we have. So with that theory, the more muscle we can build through exercise, and more specifically resistance/weight training will lead to more calories burnt daily without the need to burn it through exercise.

Different types of exercises and intensities will lead to different amount of calories burnt during the activity. The higher the intensity and the longer the duration of a session the more calories you will burn. Find out how many calories you burn through exercise with this calculator. This doesn’t mean that you need to exercise to increase the number of calories burnt. Did you know you can wiggle your toes, tap your fingers and just try to move your body as much as possible.

3 – Diet – How Does My Dietary Intake Affect Weight Loss?

A healthy and balanced diet is a neglected part of the routine of many. It is often seen as an expensive and a hard to maintain part of life. Instead, there are many affordable ingredients that can take your diet to the next level.

A healthy, balanced diet will concentrate on your macronutrients. The macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Many diets claim that carbohydrates are the reason you’re putting on weight. However, these are a key fuel source for your body. Special attention should be taken on the type of carbohydrates you’re putting into your body. Chocolate, for example, will be high in carbohydrates but this is due to the amount of sugar in the product!

If you are reducing your daily calorific intake and are worried about being hungry, increase your protein intake as this will help reduce that hungry feeling! To learn more about the amount of macronutrients you require, check out the calculators below.

Carbohydrate Calculator

Protein Calculator

4 – Hydration – Why Does Hydration Affect My Weight?

Hydration is a key component of daily living, and we all know how much water we should consuming daily. Our fluid intake will affect many other things besides our weight loss journey. Alongside this, if we are dehydrated it will massively affect our performance levels during exercise. Learn more about hydration here.

5 Ways Water Helps With Our Weight

• Water Helps Us To Burn Calories
• Natural Appetite Supressant
• Aids Removal Of Waste Products
• Helps With Burning Of Fat – Body Fat Calculator
• Helps With Performance During Exercise

Find out how much water you need with this water intake calculator.

5 – Accountability Approach To Lose Weight

Trying to be accountable for your actions is key during any weight loss program. Being accountable will make sure you’re tracking key things like your diet and exercise. However, if you have an off day, you shouldn’t punish yourself. Instead allow yourself that day and get back to it tomorrow.

The easiest way to become accountable is to write up a plan for yourself. Start with your exercise plan. Make sure that this fits in with your time-constraints, even if you only have 30 minutes available, that is plenty of time to do a HIIT session or go for a walk. Following this, you don’t necessarily have to write out a full diet plan. Try instead to write a meal plan, aiming to have 3 meals a day. Start with a wholesome breakfast that sets you up for the day, into lunch and then dinner. You will be able to manage the size of these meals to hit your dietary requirements.

Take a look out our Weight Loss and Accountability E-Book. It is a free resource that provides in-depth information to help with your weight loss journey.

What Is The Main Key To Losing Weight?

To lose weight fast it is about small changes in your lifestyle to best put in place something for the future. Initial changes to your diet and exercise routines will all help you to achieve a calorific deficit. This deficit is the key to prolonged and safe weight loss. Putting in place small and manageable goals can really help you to achieve this. Achieving your calorie deficit and setting yourself up for the future is the priority in all weight loss programmes.

What To Do If All Else Fails?

The final stage and the last resort would be a medical intervention. Surgery would involve constricting your stomach so you eat much less and the weight will fall off. However, this is for more the morbidly obese population where their health is at risk. Ultimately, you end up losing all interest in food and lose that real enjoyment for anything that you eat. Check your BMI and see what yours is.

Learn more about gastric bands here.