Five Simple Strategies for Weight Loss

There are so many diet plans out there that it’s enough to drive you over the edge. If you’ve tried some of them—and failed—it may through no fault of your own. That’s because most fad diets come with too many complicated concepts and strict rules about what you can and cannot eat. With all the confusion about what really works, it’s no wonder that most people become frustrated and simply give up.

Ready for a change? While there’s no sure-fire, rule-driven diet plan to lose weight that works as a one-size-fits-all formula for everyone, there are a few simple strategies that can work for every body of every age, size and shape. And here they are…

Break the Fast. If you think the way to become a skinny Minnie is to skip breakfast, you’re wrong. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. When you don’t break the fast from the night before the body thinks that it’s going into starvation mode, so it prepares by storing up more fat instead of burning it for fuel. To avoid this, you should try to eat breakfast within 45 minutes after getting up each morning.

Drink More Water. This is an important strategy. If you did nothing else to shed extra pounds but drink more water throughout the day you would still lose weight. That may sound hard to believe, but it’s true! Your body needs to be hydrated in order for your metabolism to function properly. So, try to drink about 1/2 ounce of water for every pound that you weigh every day.

Keep the Food Coming. Huh? Doesn’t dieting mean that you’re supposed to be eating less? Not necessarily. In fact, the way to keep your metabolism in high gear and burn fat is to keep up the supply of calories need to do the job. You can do this by eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day instead of the traditional ‘three square.’ Make sure that each meal contains a balanced variety of lean protein, healthy fats, and carbohydrates.

Understand the Rule of Three About Carbs. Carbohydrates are good for you and necessary to maintain energy, a healthy metabolism, and to keep your blood sugar in balance. However, if the carb of choice wasn’t 1) grown in the ground, 2) plucked from a vine, or 3) harvested from nature, pass on it. That means skip refined carbs, such as pastries, white bread, pastas, etc.

Lifting Weights = Weight Loss. Which burns more calories, muscle or fat? The answer is muscle. That means that building more muscle will help your body to burn more calories. You don’t need an expensive membership at a gym or health club either to get into weight training. Simply practicing lifts with any object that has weight to it will do the trick.