11 Healthy Ways to Lose Body Fat
There is more nutrition coaching advice available now than ever before. With so much information it can be easy to become frustrated with trying to find the best nutritional habits for you and your goals. After more than 25 years of coaching, I have concluded that keeping it simple is best when asking someone to make changes to improve their health and fitness. These tips aren’t exactly secrets, but they are the real deal I offer with all my nutrition coaching in Laramie specializing in weight loss.
Losing weight in a healthy way doesn’t have to be rocket science and maintaining it shouldn’t feel like an overwhelming chore. In my quest to help as many people as possible, I’d like to share 11 proven healthy ways to lose body fat you can start using today.
1. Keep Your Expectations Realistic
Real-life weight-loss is not like The Biggest Loser. Instead of daydreaming about speedy and oftentimes, unhealthy, fat loss, set down-to-earth fat loss goals that will allow you to make small changes to accomplish them over several weeks, to a few months or longer, depending upon your starting point.
2. Diets Work, If You Do
I have seen just about every diet work for fat loss. After all, they are all set up to put you at a calorie deficit. As long as you stick to the plan, you will most likely lose weight. The most important difference in diets comes down to how extreme they are about their particular method of driving down your calories. Be sure to choose one that is as balanced as possible to ensure you lose weight in a healthy way. As people are often deficient in protein, you could think about supplementing your meals with protein powder.
3. Log It To Lose It
If I could only offer you one piece of diet advice, it would be to start keeping a food journal. Tracking everything that goes into your mouth is one of the best methods of fat loss there is because it is such a great accountability partner. Writing down your daily food intake will help you to clearly see if you are eating as healthy as you think you are. It can also assist you in finding eating patterns, habits, or certain foods that are holding you back.
4. Share Your Fat Loss Goals
Build a circle of your trusted friends and family members by letting them know you are trying to improve your health and eating habits and ask for their support in holding you accountable. Having a support group you trust can be crucial to overcoming some of the roadblocks on the journey to losing weight. You could also find a personal trainer near you so you have someone to keep you accountable.
5. It’s OK To Be Weak
Everyone has weak areas and cravings when it comes to foods. For some people, it’s sweets, for others it’s salty foods. No matter what kinds of food choices challenge you the most recognize them and replace them in your home and work environments. Have healthy ALREADY made alternatives on hand. By knowing your weaknesses you can avoid falling into their trap after a long stressful day at work. For example, rather than keeping chocolate in your cupboards, why not fill them with sweet, high-protein snacks?
6. Pre-Plan Dinner
Planning your meals in advance should happen all the time, but this tends to be especially true for dinner time. We seem to be the most susceptible to after-work brain fatigue in the evening and large meals can be comforting. Have a plan that controls the components and quantity for this deal to avoid over-eating and weight gain.
7. Bend The Rules
While some nutrition principles are pretty hard and fast, some diet trends just don’t make much sense. In many cases what works for one person won’t necessarily meet the needs of another. Do enough research about your eating plan that you can decide if an eating suggestion makes sense for you. A great example of this scenario is meal timing. While there are ideal times to consume your macronutrients, your schedule may require you to make adjustments that fit your lifestyle better.
8. Use The Buddy System
Misery loves company is probably not the best saying to apply here because eating better doesn’t have to be miserable. However, no matter how well designed your nutrition plan is, there will be challenging times. During those times, having a buddy and accountability partner can be a huge plus. Not only can you work through the challenging times together, but you can also share ideas and recipes and celebrate each other’s victories.
9. Drink Up To Trim Down
Since humans are more than 60% water, it makes sense that even a small amount of dehydration can harm all our body’s systems including digestion, metabolism, and hunger-controlling hormones. Purposefully drinking more water can help you overcome many dieting challenges including hunger. Interestingly, the estimated number of chronically dehydrated people in the United States is similar to the estimated number of overweight and obese individuals. In many cases, the USDA recommendation of 8 glasses of water per day may not be nearly enough, especially for active adults. So, drink up!
10. Read The Back Of The Label
The front of processed food labels is typically where all or most of the advertising takes place. This is also where misleading information is posted like, “sugar-free” or, “fat-free.” Avoid this marketing smoke and mirror tactic by avoiding processed foods whenever possible. When you do need to buy them skip right to the back of the label for the real and important nutrition facts.
11. Learn Portion Sizes
Learning the number of calories that correlate to food portions can be a great real-life tool to help you control your eating habits wherever you are. For instance, an average-sized chicken breast weighs about 3 ounces and is an appropriate and common amount for many people to eat at a meal. Getting squared away with many common foods like this will help you understand how to control your whole food portions and avoid overeating.
These tips aren’t fancy, but they are practical and I have personally seen them help thousands of clients make the small changes necessary for long-term healthy fat loss.
If you liked this article, you might also like these articles on the pros of PTs if you want to lose weight, the benefits of working with a personal trainer for fat loss, weight loss circuit workouts, and fat loss hacks.