If you’ve made up your mind to lose weight, you may feel overwhelmed by several methods: regular, restrictive diets, fasting, exercises of all kinds, and even sports supplements.
It is a reality that some of these options work to lose weight fast. However, not all of them are the best or the healthiest in the long run.
This article describes how to lose weight healthily. What methods exist and which ones work and which ones don’t.
How to lose weight?
The best-known rule is that your body must expend more energy than it consumes to lose weight. However, it is not the only method. To lose weight, the most important thing is nutrition; exercises come second and continuity factor third.
How to lose weight? :
- Step – 1 caloric deficit
The most classic method of losing weight is a calorie deficit – or a low-calorie diet. If you combine it with some physical activity, it is no doubt an effective technique to lose weight. This technique not only works but is considered the healthiest.
- Step – 2 – Start moving more.
Starting to exercise or walk more per day will help you lose weight faster. Also, it will make your body healthier. If you are not one of the athletes, invite a family member or co-worker for a walk.
- Step – 2 – Start moving more
Starting to exercise, or just walking more per day, will help you lose weight faster. Also, it will make your body healthier. If you are not one of the athletes, invite a family member or co-worker for a walk.
- Step – 3 – Cut the sugar and flour.
Starting to exercise, or just walking more per day is going to help you lose weight faster. Also, it will make your body healthier. If you are not one of the athletes, invite a family member or co-worker for a walk.
- Step 4 – Give continuity.
To lose weight permanently, you must give continuity to the first three steps. However, following a strict diet will not help you reach your ideal weight. Any professional nutritionist will agree that dieting has a rebound effect.
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Weight Loss Methods That Work
Here are weight loss methods that work:
- Caloric deficit and cardio
It is not news that by lowering the amount of food per day and starting to run, you will lose weight. Most nutrition professionals recommend this, and international organizations such as WHO consider it the healthiest. (1)
The key to continuing this method is not to exceed calorie reduction or training times. The diet should be balanced – most of the foods should be complex carbohydrates: cereals, vegetables, etc. Healthy proteins and fats should provide about half of the rest of the calories.
- Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is a method to lose weight and refuse food periodically. It is not about cutting a food group but about not eating at least twice a week for an extended period.
The most classic method of intermittent fasting is 16 hours. What is also known as the 16/8 diet? This method is not only effective for weight loss, but studies associate it with several health benefits. (2,3,4)
- Ketogenic or low carb diet
The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb type of diet. Its effects on losing weight are high-speed, so it is one of the methods that has become fashionable.
The advantage of this method is its speed. However, it is not the healthiest. It can decrease the power of attention and nutrients in the long term and cause dizziness, constipation, and others.
If you still decide to use this method to lose weight, make sure you do it well and for some time, no longer than 12 months.
- HIIT o Tabata
HIIT is a type of high intensity training. This method of losing weight has extra benefits, such as improving the cardiovascular system and toning the muscles.
In addition to being short and effective types of training to lose weight, they improve the body’s response to carbohydrates and stimulate the synthesis of hormones necessary for your mental well-being.
- Vegetarian or vegan diets high in plant fiber
Starting a vegan or vegetarian diet is an effective method of losing weight. Research has confirmed that there is a tendency for vegans to have lower body mass indexes than those who eat omnivorously. (6)
In addition, vegans tend to have better results than traditional low-calorie diets. This is due to the high consumption of foods with plant fiber, making a person feel more full. (5)
Weight Loss Methods That Don’t Work
Here are some weight loss methods that don’t work:
- Eat more than five times a day
To lose weight, you can eat 7, 5, or 3 times a day. The important thing is to keep this amount constant. If you want to lose weight, taking your total calorie intake per day is much more important than counting the number of times you eat per day.
Research affirms that changes and irregular patterns in the number of times eaten per day can cause being overweight or obese. But not the number of meals per day or dishes you eat. (7.8)
- Eat more at breakfast and less at night
While the importance of breakfast cannot be denied, science has confirmed that it is a myth that eating more in the morning is good for weight loss.
In two studies where the same amount of food was provided to a group of people in the morning and another at night, losing weight was practically the same. Which has made it clear that this method does not work. (9.10)
- Constant diet
Dieting throughout your life is not a good way to lose weight. While it works in the short term, there is a marked tendency for extreme dieters to regain it.
In other words, people who go on extreme diets gain more weight compared to people who don’t. This is due to psychobiological adaptive mechanisms that are triggered in the brain. This leads us to a result opposite to the one sought: the famous rebound effect.
How to reduce abdominal fat?
Belly fat cannot be reduced in isolation. To reduce abdominal fat, you must lower your body fat percentage.
Combining a good selection of foods with cardiovascular exercises at least 3-4 times a week is the healthiest way.
By losing weight with this method, you will not only reduce your waistline, but you will also improve your health, reduce the level of “bad” cholesterol and normalize the body’s response to insulin. Tips to lose weight:
- Reduce your daily calorie intake by 10-15%. (Caloric deficit)
- Increase the consumption of foods with fiber
- Eliminate sugars and refined flour
- Limit saturated animal and trans fats in the diet
- Avoid stressful situations – sleep healthy – meditate – yoga
- Do cardio 2-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes
ABSTRACT
To lose weight, there are a large number of methods. The healthiest are reducing calories or caloric deficit by 10%, vegan or vegetarian diet, cardio, intermittent fasting, and HIIT.
Other faster but less healthy alternatives are the ketogenic diet and the low-carb diet. These methods must be done for short periods.
Eating more times a day, a lot of breakfast or a constant diet does not work for weight loss. They can make you go up.
