Eat Yourself intoShape
How to lose weight and keep it off? Follow these steps to get started.
Tweight loss cycle is a story that starts with the realisation that extra fat has to be lost, an understanding that could have either gently dawned or crash landed on the head after seeing the latest picture one is tagged in. The sudden awakening then leads to a determination: not only to lose weight but to lose weight now. A trendy diet is googled, main meals are replaced with milkshakes and a crazy exercise regimen is started. Only to cease as suddenly as it started because no human body can withstand a protracted war on its well-being. Weight cheerfully slides back up, and motivation woefully slides further down. Wounds are licked till the next time a tagged picture presents itself. This, in essence, is the weight loss cycle, where you lose only to gain again. Keeping your weight down is a frustrating and tedious experience and it is far too easy to succumb to the temptation to give up your efforts entirely or mid-way. There is a way out though. To understand how to get off the weight loss cycle is to understand how the body loses weight.
Eat to delete
Fat burning is a bodily function just like eating, breathing and sleeping. Your body needs fuel to perform this high metabolic activity. And that fuel is food. Of course, it has to be the right foods but your body needs to eat to delete. Eating right is about making healthier choices in your regular diet and using smart alternatives. All severely low calorie diets do is make the body think that it is starving. When the body thinks it’s starving, it stores much of the food you eat as fat, as a future energy reserve.
Get moving
Your body is designed by nature to move. And movement doesn’t mean complicated exercises or going to the gym if you don’t want to. A simple, brisk 60-minute walk four to six times a week is all you need to stay in the pink of health.
Water is not just a health fad
Water is an integral part of losing weight and aids so many metabolic functions that enable weight loss. I will recommend that drink more to lose more.
Eat every two hours
Just like eating, breathing and sleeping, digestion also burns calories. By eating smaller and smarter meals frequently—every two hours—your body is able to burn calories far more efficiently. Think of it as putting your body in the gym.
Eat less as the day progresses
This is because your activity level goes down during the day. A heavy breakfast, a substantial lunch and a light dinner ensures that your calorie intake is as per what your body needs at that time of the day. Heavy meals, especially late at night, are counterintuitive to weight loss.
Watch both sugar and oil
Two to three teaspoons of oil per day in your food is optimal for both weight loss and weight management. Try and limit your intake of sugar in your food. Opt for sugar substitutes such as stevia and other herbs which are natural and contain zero sugar.