By on Saturday, December 1st, 2012 | No Comments
Best Way To Lose Weight
If you are looking for the best way to lose weight, the truth of the matter is the formula is simple. Diet and Exercise! Now before you click right off the page looking for the next “fad diet” fix, you need to just recognize that this is a fact. However there are many ways to “diet and exercise”, and some do it right while others fail miserably. So learn to do it right from the start, and you will have found the all too elusive beach body you seek.
The biggest mistake that people make when trying to lose weight is that they take too drastic measures to do so. Recognize that you didn’t become overweight overnight, it took a matter of months or maybe even years of poor diet and nutrition choices to get you to this point. Thus we need to get you back on track to making the right choices in small steps over and over until you reach the pinnacle of where you want to be. So it is important to understand that losing weight is a marathon rather than a sprint, so if you keep in this frame of mind, it will help you to lose the most amount of weight and keep it off successfully.
So the first thing to understand is that losing weight is the culmination of making small choices will move you in the right direction. Our goal is to not do anything drastic, as though this may deliver short-term success, we will end up in square one back to where we started. So what is the fastest route to weight loss nirvana?
Well first, we are going to GRADUALLY reduce our caloric intake. No crash diets here, just a daily reduction in calories. People don’t realize that even the smallest changes can have huge effects on our waistlines. We don’t need to banish ourselves from all things tasty, just eat a little less of these tasty things. Also we need to choose healthy snacks for weight loss over those that may add to our bellies. A good weight loss goal to shoot for is approximately 1-2 lbs a week, which typically can be achieved if we reduce our daily caloric intake by about 500 calories. If you are not sure about what your daily caloric intake should be, you can use a weight loss calculator to get a better idea of a caloric starting point.
So what exactly is 500 calories? Well though 500 sounds like a lot, it really isn’t. It could mean that you eliminate soda from your diet (many of us drink 2-3 of these a day!), or maybe eat at home instead of going to the local fast food place after work. Maybe it means skipping that morning cream laden Starbucks coffee you love and opting for some black coffee instead. Even such a slight change in eating habits can have a huge impact on your fitness goals. You don’t have to live on salad and water all day long, just eliminate some of the unnecessary stuff and adopt some small steps for big dieting success and you’ll be on your way.
If you are on the go all the time you may consider looking into bodybuilding supplements that will help make sticking to your diet a little easier. Things like high protein meal replacement shakes and protein bars are great alternatives to fast food. When those hunger attacks hit, it is nice to have these ready to eat supplements on hand to prevent you from making a bee line to the nearest golden arches.
So diet aside, it is also important that you do some sort of cardio activity. This not only helps you to burn calories, but it is great for your overall heart health, and it works to increase your metabolism which will help you even burn more fat later. However when most people think of “cardio” they imagine running on a treadmill for hours at a time like a hamster in a cage. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are many programs that are fun and can help you to maximize your weight loss. However even hiking your favorite trail or cycling down the beach are all great ways to mix things up and keep you motivated.
If you are new to cardio or exercising in general, again take it slow. Start off with a walk around the neighborhood, or if you’re up to it, do some speed walking. After you become more acclimated to the physical demands of such activity, take it a step further and do a little jogging. 30-45 minutes a day a few times a week is all you really need to get going.
So remember the fastest way to get in shape is really taking a gradual approach. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your dream body. So if you have to, take it slow. Make the small changes, and do them over and over on a daily basis. The culmination of all these right choices after a while will lead to great improvements to your body as well as overall health. So understand that getting is actually not tough at all, it is understanding that every day we try to make the best choices we can, and we don’t have to resort to extreme measures to losing weight.