Weight loss: Top tips for successful weight loss

 Losing weight is losing fat. In this sense, losing weight means losing only fat, not muscle. However, many people wanting to lose weight embark on draconian diets combined with bad training methods, which will harm their health and disrupt the whole body.

To be successful in fat loss, you need to understand how important it is to avoid muscle wasting because good muscle mass is essential for good health. The decrease in it is both a relevant indicator of deteriorating health and of unsuccessful weight loss. Indeed, muscle loss is a major and all too common problem with fat loss. This error is linked to a poor diet and too risky, ill-adapted training. To succeed in losing your fat while maintaining your muscle mass, you must intelligently combine your diet and your training. There is nothing rocket science, you have to make the right choices and the right adjustments.

Food tips for successful weight loss

Tip #1: Forget diets that prevent the body from functioning properly, effectively eliminating fat reserves and stabilizing muscle mass. Not to mention the frustration generated and the impact on social and family life.

    Tip #2: Consume good fats every day. The consumption of natural fats (of animal and vegetable origin) is essential. There is no question of hydrogenated and transformed fats. Consuming fat stimulates the release of stored fat while promoting the maintenance of muscle mass and a healthy immune and hormonal system. To go further, you can read the article Eating good fats to be in shape.

    Tip #3: Give pride of place to proteins! Eating a lot of protein will prevent you from degrading your muscle mass and your joint, bone, and cellular health.

    Tip #4: Consume the right carbs/sugars. Carbohydrates/sugars to promote are quinoa, white rice, sweet potato, fermented (or sprouted) bread, buckwheat, coconut flour, winter and summer squash, wild berries, and fruits.

    Tip #5: Decrease carbohydrates on OFF days (non-training days and/or when your daily activity is very low), favoring good fats and proteins instead. If you want to lose fat, your caloric intake must to a certain extent be lower than your energy expenditure, but it is above all the nature and quality of your intake that will make the difference. In this way, you will positively stimulate your hormonal system and the use of your reserves, avoiding storing bad calories (sugars and refined, industrial, and artificial fats).

Workout tips for successful weight loss

Tip #1: Stop 100% cardio

Certainly, cardio training is an effective way to spend energy, but be careful how you use it and how important it is in your training. Many people train this way because for them:

•     it's the only way to lose weight
•     it's the fastest and easiest way to lose weight
•     the more you sweat, the more calories you burn!
•     everyone does this and it seems to work
•     they do not have the right information or know-how

Energy expenditure is a crucial point of weight loss but not only. The nature and quality of your physical activities (as well as the quality of your diet and lifestyle) will impact your body and your health differently. Do not see sport only as calorie expenditure. You have to look at the long term, not the quickest route: any results obtained quickly will be lost just as quickly. Doing too much cardio or exclusively cardio is a short-term solution that will inevitably lead to disappointments in your physique and your health. Don't experience it.

Tip #2: Develop basal metabolism

Basal metabolic rate is the minimum energy cost that the body (organs and muscles) needs at rest to function. Fat is therefore not part of the energy metabolism since it does not cause any caloric expenditure when the body is inactive. On the other hand, the organs and the muscles yes. Thus, the more you develop your muscles, the more your basal metabolic rate increases, and the more your resting calorie expenditure also increases. Practicing a muscular activity or doing bodybuilding has the following effects: maintenance of muscle mass, gain in strength and tone, improvement in the silhouette, and greater caloric expenditure at rest. You are a winner on all counts!

How to boost your metabolism?

It is advisable to solicit all of the muscle mass through training that will sufficiently stress the body. The types of training can vary (hypertrophy type training, strength exercises, explosive work, speed exercises, cross-training, etc.) as long as the muscle and hormonal stimulation carried out acts in favor of muscle development. Of course, we are not in a logic of mass gain, far from it. However, muscle development in weight loss is very common at the beginning when the person starts or resumes sport.

Tip #3: Increase energy expenditure. It's mathematical: if your caloric expenditure is greater than your energy intake, you lose weight. In this case, you are burning your energy reserves. For this, your training and your daily activity must lead to an expenditure greater than your daily consumption.

Tips for optimizing weight loss

Tip #1: move every day even a little and favor your own means of transport. Get around on foot or by bike as much as possible, prefer the stairs to the elevator or escalator. On non-training days, also encourage long walks or bike rides at a leisurely pace. You can dance, go swimming or do Yoga.

Tip #2: wait for 1 to 2 hours after exercise before eating to allow the body to continue to burn energy reserves. The more intense the sports session, the greater the post-exercise caloric expenditure. Your energy consumption is essentially carbohydrates during exercise and within 2 hours of exercise, then up to 48 hours later, the body will burn more fat reserves, while at rest. This process is true only for (very) intense efforts.

Tip #3: Drink 1.5 L to 2 L of water per day (excluding sports sessions). Drinking water activates the basic metabolism and therefore boosts energy expenditure while contributing to the proper functioning of the body. A body that functions well is a body that eliminates more easily. To spread out your water intake, you can drink a glass of water when you wake up, when you go to bed, before and after showering, and before and after each meal/snack. When traveling, always have a bottle of water on you.

Tip #4: sleep in quantity. Sleep is the most powerful antioxidant the body has. It is essential for the health of your immune and hormonal systems. In addition, controlling your diet requires quality sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you tend to make poor food choices and consume a lot of sugar. For an adult, it is advisable to sleep between 8h and 10h per night to be operational mentally and physically. It will also help you to be fit and motivated for your training!

In conclusion

You have understood it, to succeed in weight loss, diets and excess cardio are behaviors to be banned. Focus instead on your lifestyle (sleep, diet, activities, and quality social relationships) and promote activities that stimulate all of your muscle mass. Relearn how to eat properly by choosing seasonal raw foods and giving pride of place to proteins and fats, especially of animal origin. Avoid industrial and processed products that negatively influence the functioning of your body and that are detrimental to both your health and your physique.

What you must remember

•     lifestyle: eat better, sleep in quantity, limit stress factors, move every day even a little
•     training: combine cardio and strength training with loads
•     type of effort: favor efforts ranging from moderate to high intensity