Get ready for ‘BER’ months!

Eight months have zoomed by but instead of losing weight this year, you actually gained a few pounds.

The ‘BER’ months have just started and it's exactly 100 days before we celebrate Christmas. During these times, parties will be everywhere. Here are some tips you might want to keep in mind to stay in shape during the rest of the Holiday season.

You can never outrun or out exercise a bad diet. Just because you are working out or playing basketball every day, it does not mean that you can eat all you want and not gain weight. Even elite athletes who train as much as four to six hours a day has to be very careful with their food intake so that they would not gain weight. Keep in mind that its 70 percent food intake and 30 percent exercise. Control your food intake and you will lose weight.

Don’t skip meal. Skipping meals might work on the first few days, but as soon as your body starts to take notice and gets into a survival mode, then you are in a deep hole. Your body will hold on to whatever you have and slow down your metabolism just to compensate and last you the whole day.

Going vegetarian or plant-based diet. Changing your eating habits to vegetarian or plant-based foods may work for you, but I would surely ask help from an expert chef for this kind of diet. One has to be careful on how to prepare your meal. I have dined with some veggie-eating uncles and aunties and so far their food tastes good but mostly deep fried and salty. This diet may contain lots of carbohydrates. Veggies or plant-based foods are only good if you prepare them well.

Portioning the meal and quantity is still important. Bringing on veggie meals is just as bad as eating unhealthy food. There is a difference between vegetarian or plant-based diet, but for the latter, I suggest you contact Chef Chip Lopez for a more comprehensive advice on this diet. I have not tried her food, but would love to try it someday.

Healthy meal delivery. If you have no time to prepare your meal, then you can opt for food delivery. There are tons of healthy meals available for delivery. The only problem is to actually follow the meal being delivered. Others availed of this service, but still order additional pizza on the side. One way to make it work is to actually follow the designed meal plan which was based on your body weight.

Count your calories. One can get your allotted calorie per day by simply multiplying your body weight by 12. For example, if one is 300 lbs., multiply it by 12 then you are limited to 3600 calories for the day just to maintain your body weight. Eating less than the required calorie will result in weight loss. The lesser calories you consume, the faster you lose weight. To get a detailed calorie count, one needs a small, weighing scale to get precise numbers. Although this is very stressful, you can track your calorie by estimating the size or portion. This makes life simpler.

Intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is the most popular fitness trend now and people are using it to lose weight, improve health and simplify their healthy lifestyle. Intermittent fasting is not a ‘diet’ but an eating pattern. It is a cycle between fasting and eating. What makes this interesting is that it does not specify anything about which foods you should eat, but rather when or what time you should eat them. Common intermittent fasting methods involve daily 16 hour fasts or fasting for 24 hours twice per week. I have not tried this method of eating yet, but many friends have claimed that it worked for them. I would love to give it a try and see the difference in terms of losing weight and performance in an endurance sport.

Move. The best way to lose or maintain your body weight is to keep on moving. Walk or jog and stop using the elevator, especially if you are only going one or two floors up. I have a friend who is an attorney that wakes up early every morning to clean his car.

There are many ways to lose weight either it will be through exercise, diet, meal plans, counting your calories or intermittent fasting. What's important is actually doing this method. Most fail because they are just doing it just to be able to post something on Facebook.