How to Lose Weight

I’ve seen a few good friends of mine battle with losing weight. I’ve coached some of them into losing weight through exercise and diet only to find that several months after reaching their weight goals they’ve returned back to their old habits. One of the biggest problems with being overweight is not being able to curb your food intake and feeling too lazy to exercise. In this article we will explore ways in which you can gradually and comfortably lose weight with minimal effort.

Caloric deficit

The first thing you can do if you want to lose weight is to simply eat less. I know, right? Coach stating the obvious? Let’s talk about how you can eat less.

• If you drink more water  you’ll have less space for food. You can also drink tea and coffee. Drink more, eat less.
• Eat at meal times. Many overweight people love snacking. These snacks are there to help them get through the day. Instead of jumping into a fancy diet, try just eating at meal times.
• Gradually reduce the portions of your meals.

• Lengthen the time in between meal.

Exercise

It’s hard to move around when you’re really heavy set. I get that exercise isn’t very appealing when it’s sometimes just hard to walk. So why not start with doing that? I recommend you walk every day. Start with 10 minutes or less and gradually work your way up to 30 minutes a day. Believe it or not, you don’t actually have to do vigorous exercise to start losing weight. A simple walk everyday will get results. If you want to increase your exercise try doing any physical activity you really like to do, on a regular basis. You could play football, do swimming, go cycling or any other sport that you enjoy. The key to exercise is to enjoy it. Don’t focus on losing weight. Just play the game, whatever it is.

Choose healthy company

It’s hard to stick to a diet when all your friends are a tad bit overindulgent with food. You’ll probably have to try to get them all to join you on your weight loss journey, or you need to try to meet other people who are doing the same. It always helps when you have encouragement and when there is a bit of healthy competition.

Choose healthy foods

I really don’t like the idea of diets. I don’t like it because most times it simply isn’t sustainable. I usually eat whatever I want but I have certain basic rules. These rules have helped me significantly in maintaining a pretty even body weight.

• Cut out artificial sugars. Rather opt for fruit.
• Cut out all fizzy drinks (coke, pepsi, etc.) The odd drink now and again won’t kill you.
• Don’t overdo white flour (breads)
• High protein diets often help with weight loss. Eat a lot of protein rich foods like; eggs and meat.

Track your progress

There’s no need to get obsessive about tracking your weight. You don’t have to weigh yourself every day and count down every gram. Weighing yourself twice a month or once a week is good enough. Our aim here is to change your lifestyle, not lose weight overnight. The idea is to take baby steps and make little gradual tweaks in the process. If you are gaining weight, obviously you’re doing something wrong. If your weight drops slightly or stays the same you’re still on track.

Reward yourself

Set out mile stones for yourself. For example, you could set a target of losing two kg’s a month for the first three months. Each time you hit it, get yourself something that you’ve abstained from. If you stayed away from ice-cream, get an ice-cream at the end of the month. Dieting is often not fun. You have to trick yourself into staying the course by rewarding yourself. Don’t go extreme and you’ll have long-term success. I hope this is helpful. You can check out some of my exercise videos if you’re not sure where to start.