Maximise Weight Loss with These Four Lifestyle Changes

Losing weight is one of the hardest goals to achieve. There are so many factors that contribute to being overweight; eating too much and exercising too little is not all there is to consider. Maintaining a healthy weight can also be made difficult by genetics, hormones, individual metabolic rates, medications, and more. Here are four lifestyle changes you can make to maximise your weight loss efforts.

1. Pick the low-hanging fruit. Almost always, when it comes to weight loss, the most obvious, easiest change to make to cut back on sugar consumption. Sugar and other sweeteners are addictive and fattening. It’s easy be aware of the need to reduce your consumption of candy, desserts, and sugary beverages, but also watch out for products labelled “low-fat.” Remember these products often contain added sugar to improve taste. Read all food labels carefully to make sure you’re choosing wisely.
2. Keep a daily journal. Write down a healthy, realistic, specific goal; this is the best way to achieve results. Then, identify daily behaviour changes that will help you to be successful with said goal. You should track all exercise, and all you eat in your journal or use an app designed for this purpose – there are a variety of decent ones available.
3. Choose a well-balanced, healthy diet to follow. If you need something concrete to go by, choose proven methods such as counting calories or decreasing your carb intake (or a hybrid model of both). Make sure you choose something that fits into your lifestyle and will be sustainable for the long term, and that it allows you the nutrients your body needs along with occasional opportunities to “cheat,” such as one day off, or three free meals, per week.
4. Exercise. Being physically active is not only fun, but it also helps your weight loss efforts tremendously. Start slow if you haven’t been exercising regularly already, and consult your doctor to make sure there are no health reasons why you shouldn’t exercise. If you have the go-ahead, you can increase your activity intensity every couple weeks, as your body adjusts.

These four steps will help you address the main factors that affect your weight and they are effective tools to help you slim down, whether you have ten pounds, 100 pounds, or more, to lose.