The weight loss industry makes billions of dollars every year because weight loss is something that haunts so many people. Your weight is one of the first things people will notice about you. In addition, being overweight is often bad for your health.
Unfortunately, if you struggle with your weight, you may have no idea how to get rid of those excess pounds. There are many schools of thought on this.
Some people say you need to eat less while others say you need to exercise more. Some people say you can lose weight without diet or exercise.
Who is right? What is the real method of losing weight? You’re about to get to the truth.
The Science
There are some scientific facts about weight loss that are true regardless. Psychology Today explains that to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. To maintain weight, you need to burn the same number of calories you take in. This is true regardless of anything else. It is the one main fact about weight loss that you must understand.
Complicating things is another scientific truth that says your metabolism plays a large role in how many calories you can burn each day. If you have a slow metabolism, you will need to work harder to burn calories than someone with a normal or fast metabolism.
Finally, you need the right balance of diet and exercise to lose weight and keep it off. However, what you need will change as your weight changes.
With these three points in mind, you can begin to figure out how to lose weight the right way without fad diets or crazy plans.
Your Diet
What you eat is important to not only your weight but also your health. The best diets are those lower in carbohydrates and higher in proteins. The reason is that protein makes you feel full longer whereas carbohydrates cause an instant filling sensation that doesn’t last. You are more likely to feel hungry after eating a carb-heavy meal than a protein-heavy meal, thus you will eat less if you consume more protein.
This does not mean to cut carbohydrates completely. Depriving yourself rarely works because you will crave what you can’t have. It is best to practice moderation.
Also, keep in mind that dieting is never easy. You can’t quit eating. You have to have food. The key is learning how to manage your food intake, which is hard. You have to commit and be ready to fight your cravings and natural instincts to follow a reasonable diet.
Your Exercise
You cannot lose weight with diet alone. The reason is your metabolism. If you lose weight, you will find that you reach a plateau where you stop losing. You may even gain back some weight. It may seem confusing since you are eating the exact same thing that you did when losing weight. The problem is your metabolism has changed. You need to start burning more calories.
You can’t eat less, but you can burn calories through exercise. Adding in exercise into your routine can help you get over the plateau and start losing again. It also can help you to maintain the loss you already have.
Do keep in mind that you should avoid over-exercising. If you exercise too much, it can make you feel hungrier and lead to overeating.
Other Important Points
There are two additional points you should note about weight loss. One is the health benefits and the other is spot fat loss.
If you have health issues, losing weight becomes incredibly important. Even a slight loss can dramatically improve your health. While you may never get to your ideal weight according to those doctor’s charts, you can make a difference by losing some weight, so don’t give up if the weight is coming off slowly. You are still making a difference.
You should note that there is no such thing as exercises that sculpt your body. You cannot lose fat in a specific area of your body by doing targeted exercises. Workouts that target specific areas of the body are for muscle building, not fat loss. The only way to lose fat in a specific area is through plastic surgery.
However, you should only use surgery as a last resort. Liposuction and other procedures are not magic solutions. Doctors can only remove so much fat, so it is not a practical way to lose weight. It is meant for sculpting the body to get the shape and look you want after you do the hard work of losing weight.
Lose the Pounds
Weight loss is not an easy process regardless of what people may try to tell you. It takes hard work and dedication. However, as long as you understand the basic rules, you should be able to create your own plan and put it to work so you can burn away the pounds.
