Understand the basics of how to lose weight
Health FitnessThe basics –
We meet some people who do not gain weight even though they eat what they feel like eating. At the other extreme, there are people who seem to gain weight no matter how little they eat. Consequently, some remain effortlessly lean, while others struggle a lot to avoid gaining weight.
Essentially, our weight depends on the number of calories we consume: how many of those calories we store and how many we burn. But each of these is influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The interaction between all these factors begins at the moment of our conception and continues throughout our lives.
If we consume more energy (calories) than we expend, we will gain weight. Excess calories are stored throughout the body as fat. Our body stores fat within specialized fat cells (adipose tissue), which are always present in the body, either enlarging them or creating more.
To lose weight, you would have to create a calorie deficit. A good weekly goal is to lose ½ to 2 pounds per week or about 1% of body fat every two weeks. The amount of calories you take in to accomplish this should be approximately 250 to 1,000 calories less than your daily calorie burn. We can do this by increasing daily activities with more daily steps or other activities other than exercise. Standing and pacing burns at least 2-3 times more calories than sitting for the same amount of time. You can also create a 250 to 1000 calorie deficit by increasing the time or intensity of your workout and decreasing your food intake by approximately 200 to 300 calories per day.
Despite our sincere efforts to lose weight, sometimes we fail due to specific reasons that get in our way without us noticing.
Reasons not to lose weight –
• Lack of sleep – Lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain. Experts speculate that lack of sleep may affect the secretion of cortisol, one of the hormones that regulate appetite. When we are tired due to lack of sleep, we can skip exercise or simply move less, which means burning fewer calories.
• Chronic stress – Stress and weight gain go hand in hand, although some of us are unaware of this fact. Chronic stress increases cortisol production, which not only increases appetite, but can also lead to additional fat storage around the abdomen. It triggers cravings for foods high in sugar and fat. So-called comfort foods make us feel better. Also, we skip workouts because we feel too stressed to exercise.
• Eat excessively – Researchers have found that most of us underestimate how much we eat, especially when we eat out. A careful scrutiny of our diet is the only way to know how much we are actually eating. We need to space our meals in such a way that we are not hungry for long. Otherwise, we may overeat at our next meal. We should try to eat smaller portions and eat more often.
• Exercise – Exercise is another crucial element of weight loss, along with our daily activity levels. If we are not losing weight, we must increase the time and intensity of our training to match our weight loss goals or we must change our weight loss goals to match what we are actually doing. To lose weight, we need to build lean muscle by doing some type of strength training in addition to our cardio. The more muscles our body has, the more fat we will burn.
• Sedentary clothing – Any prolonged session, such as at a desk, behind a wheel, or in front of a screen, can be detrimental. In addition to exercise, we must try to be as active as we can. We must also limit our screen time. Therefore, we must take a break from sitting every 30 minutes. If we spend more than 8 hours sitting, it could be one more reason why we have trouble losing weight.
• Weekend Indulgences – Having a few treats every now and then is fine, but mindlessly indulging in treats on the weekends will hurt our weight loss goals. The trick is to plan our indulgences so that we can have a little fun while keeping up with our weight loss goals.
• Unrealistic goals – There are many factors that affect weight loss that, again, cannot always be measured or accounted for with the tools we have. Our bodies may be making changes that cannot yet be measured with a scale or tape measure. Experts agree that a realistic weight loss goal is to focus on losing 0.5 to 2 pounds per week. For more than that, we would have to cut our calories so low that it may not be sustainable. On the contrary, we may be losing inches even if we are not losing weight. If we are not getting the results we expect, it is crucial to find out if it is because we expect something from our body that it simply cannot deliver.
• Stage – Almost everyone reaches a weight loss plateau at some point. As our body adapts to our workouts, it becomes more efficient and therefore does not expend as many calories doing it. Some common reasons for this include doing the same workouts every day, not eating enough calories, and overtraining. We can avoid stages by trying something completely different at least once a week and changing our frequency, intensity, duration and type of training.
• A medical condition – This is especially important if we are doing everything right and have not seen any change on the scale or in our body after several months. There may be a health problem or some common medications that frustrate our weight loss efforts. One should consult his doctor to rule out such a possibility.
The bottom line –
There are countless diets, supplements, and meal replacement plans that ensure rapid weight loss that we find in the media. But most of them lack scientific evidence. In fact, many gullible people fall victim to them, and some have to deal with their damaging side effects as well. However, a good understanding of the reasons that frustrate our efforts would have a positive impact on our weight loss program.