One of the most common mistakes of those who want to lose weight is to expect visible results in a very short time. Losing weight is hard work and should be done slowly so that the body can adapt to the changes. For long-term and stable weight loss, it is essential to be patient and work for it for a long time, accepting that real and durable results will not come overnight. With the right habits, you will notice the first results after 3 months. Here’s the list of healthy and golden rules for sustainable weight loss.
1. Drastic diets are the number one enemy of healthy and permanent weight loss
The first rule to keep your weight under control is to avoid drastic diets. You see, starving won’t get you anywhere. Drastic diets may show some quick results, but unfortunately, these disappear as soon as you start eating the wrong foods again. However, this is not the only reason why you should avoid these regimes. Usually, this method is detrimental to our health. Research has shown how harmful is for your heart to gain and lose weight too fast and repeatedly. Your heart pumps oxygen and blood throughout your body and since it must adapt to more or less body weight, this can cause a lot of stress. Plus, this might cause irregular heartbeat, and in worst cases, heart failure. This is why it’s far better to lose weight healthily and gradually and then maintain it with good habits.
2. Try the HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
The second golden rule to lose weight and keep it steady is to try the HIIT — High-Intensity Interval Training. The HIIT is a training method that consists of alternating low or moderate-intensity intervals with high-intensity intervals. This method is a very effective way to burn fat and stay healthy — if you combine it with a super healthy diet. To put it into practice, you can alternate running and walking. Running is a great form of exercise if you want to lose weight, but alternating it with walking is enough to burn fat, and it doesn’t require high cardiovascular and muscular endurance. What I suggest is to workout at least 4 days per week. You can start slowly and increase the intensity and duration of the HIIT every two weeks. The HIIT method is an effective way to burn fat and stay healthy. The best thing is to combine it with a healthy diet. A good way to start training with this method is the following:
- warm-up with a 5-minute walk;
- walk at a fast pace for 1,5 minutes;
- run for 30 seconds;
- repeat points 2 and 3, for 3 to 5 times;
- add a 5-minute cooling-down interval. Once you get used to it, you can increase the intensity of the training, by walking a bit faster and repeating points 2 and 3 up to 7 times. You are going to experience the benefits after a short period, and you are going to love it.
3. Drink water before meals, it’s essential for your weight loss
Another important rule to control your weight is to drink a lot before meals. I suggest two glasses of water, at least. As you probably know, the consumption of water significantly boosts weight loss and metabolism. Plus, drinking two glasses of water before each meal will make you feel full and will prevent you from binge eating — one of the worst enemies of weight loss. A good habit for sustainable weight loss is to add one or two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to your glass of water. I usually do it before meals. Apple cider vinegar can be a good ally on your weight loss journey. It improves the digestion process and decreases cholesterol levels and blood glucose levels. Also, according to research, fat is burned more easily if vinegar is present in your body. However, it’s important to drink it in small doses. Experts suggest drinking 1 to 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar in 1 glass of water before meals.
4. Make vegetables the biggest part of your meal
It’s important to make vegetables the biggest part of your meals. This means that you shouldn’t eat meat, fish or pasta for example as the main course, with some vegetables as a side dish. Instead, you should have a huge portion of vegetables as if it was your main course, with a small portion of meat or fish and bread or pasta as a side dish. This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind. I can’t stress this enough: eating a lot of vegetables is one of the best habits you can build if you want to control your weight. It’s vital both for good health and to help control weight. Vegetables provide a source of many nutrients, help to fill us up, and are low in calories — in addition to their many other positive health benefits.
5. Move every day
Don’t you feel better when you work out or when you practice your favorite sport? Daily exercise is essential for healthy weight loss. And the more you are consistent, the better you will feel and look. Being a form of preventing diseases, regular exercise improves our brain performance and keeps our body healthy and strong. So, it benefits both mind and body, which as you know are strictly related. In other words, exercise has a great impact on our overall health, since it helps lose weight and eliminate toxins, it reduces the risk of many diseases, and it helps stay focused throughout the day. Some good ways to move every day are taking long walks, swimming and taking fitness classes.
6. Dance, dance, dance a lot
Believe me, this is a must. If you want to lose weight having fun, if you want to live longer, and most importantly, if you want your inner beauty to shine through, you must dance regularly. Dancing is a great way to work out regularly. It improves physical performance and increases energy levels. Not only it’s a good way to lose weight, but it is also a great way to meet new people and have fun, it makes us feel good, boosts our mood, benefits our heart and our cardiovascular system, and might help prevent dementia and other mental diseases in the long run. It prevents volume loss in the crucial hippocampus area of our brain and improves memory since memorizing the steps is an excellent exercise for our mental activity and it keeps our brain quick and efficient. Also, dancing helps reduce depression, anxiety, and stress, it boosts our self-esteem and helps develop our social skills.
7. Avoid sugar like the plague
Avoiding added sugar is essential to lose and maintain your weight. You might think this is obvious, but most people don’t get this. Added sugar is particularly bad for our body, worse than we think since it contains a large amount of sucrose and other substances, which are not essential to our body functioning in any way. Also, the only organ that can metabolize added sugar is the liver. When we eat a lot of added sugar, most of it gets turned into fat. Eating a lot of added sugar can cause the deposition of fat in the liver and other organs like intestines and pancreas. Not only that, but it might cause high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and heart diseases. Finally, the most important thing to do is to focus on having a super healthy lifestyle. A healthy body can easily lose weight and maintain the ideal weight over the long term.
To summarize:
Controlling your weight is all about self-discipline, consistency and building good habits. Here’s the list of the golden rules for weight loss:
