The best weight loss tips

Weight loss tips are everywhere. They pop up on your phone as adverts, you see them every time you watch TV. Your mum, aunt, cousin and colleagues have different opinions on the best way to lose weight. 

You have heard stories of people who lost weight on juice diets by going keto or using grapefruits. 

But do any of these really lead to successful weight loss? (ie weight loss that lasts).

What you really need is the hard facts and weight loss tips backed by science. Methods that are proven to help you lose weight if you follow them consistently.

So let’s look at the most important things to do if you are trying to lose weight.

Tips for losing weight

There is no quick fix when it comes to weight loss, so the most important tip we can give you is to remain consistent. 

You have to opt for a sustainable weight loss plan. Fad diets and huge calorie cuts are impossible to keep up with over the long term and often aren’t very good for your overall health. Focus, instead, on going slowly so that you can keep off any weight you manage to lose.

Here are some important things that everyone trying to lose weight should do:

Focus on healthy foods and a balanced diet

No carb, no fat or any diet that excludes a food group is a recipe for failure. Your body needs a wide range of macro and micro-nutrients to perform at its best. 

If you are starving your body of fats, it will respond by giving you a really strong craving for foods high in fat. Similarly, people on no-carb diets usually end up binging on high-sugar foods or large amounts of pasta/pizza/bread/whatever your comfort meal is!

The key to avoiding overeating any of these foods and keeping cravings to a minimum is to ensure your body is getting everything it needs to stay healthy. You also have to enjoy your food! 

Otherwise, you are more likely to get bored and lose motivation.

A balanced diet should consist of the following:

• Plenty of fruit and vegetables
• Lean meats such as chicken and fish (unless you are vegetarian or vegan)
• Other high-protein foods such as chickpeas, tofu, beans and lentils 
• Complex carbohydrates such as oats, whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, potatoes and whole wheat pasta
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy fats such as Greek yogurt, olive oil and avocados 

Of course, to lose weight you need to be eating fewer calories, but too few calories or cutting out any one food group simply won't work in the long run.

Eat protein with every meal

A phrase often touted by diet influencers is “no naked carbs”... but we actually agree with this advice! Protein has so many benefits when it comes to weight loss:

• It helps you build muscle which speeds up your metabolism 
• It takes your body more energy to digest protein than carbohydrates 
• It makes you feel full for an extended period of time
• It regulates your blood sugar and hormones

It also helps your hair and nails look healthier, win-win! Aim to ensure that at least 35% of your daily calories come from protein and spread that protein throughout the day to get the most benefit. 

Cook your meals

Cooking, who has time for it? 

Well… healthy people do! Yep, it's tough on a weeknight, but if you do invest the time to make home-cooked meals, you will reap the benefits. 

Processed foods and take-out meals are often very high in calories with added salt and sugar, you can’t control what goes into your food and are likely to overeat. Microwaveable meals on the other hand may be low in calories, but often aren’t as filling so you end up snacking later in the evening.

 We recommend batch cooking at the weekend and learning some quick and easy recipes which you can cook up in under 30 minutes.

Here are a few great, healthy meal prep options which you can freeze and reheat;

• Curries
• Chilli
• Stews
• Pasta bakes
• Homemade meatballs
• Homemade burgers

For quick and easy meals, we recommend learning how to cook a few of these:

• Stir fry - you can use lots of different types of meat and vegetables, so it never gets boring!
• Chicken and vegetable fajitas 
• Baked salmon with a cream cheese crust
• Chicken/Ham frittata 
• Broccoli and chickpea pasta

Or if you have an Instant Pot, check our blog post on “The best instant pot recipes to prep in under 30 mins”

Drink more water

The simple act of staying hydrated can have an impact on your weight! Drinking more water can:

• Cause you to feel less hungry, so you eat less
• Makes sure your metabolism is running at optimal speed
• It removes waste from your body
• You need it to burn fat
• It will make your workouts more efficient  

Sleep well

Getting plenty of sleep can make it so much easier to drop the pounds. Not getting enough sleep has some negative side effects that can contribute to weight gain:

• Your brain function is reduced, which leads to poor decision-making, and you will have less impulse control. This inevitably leads to eating the wrong foods and too much of them.
  
  
• Do you need an extra coffee after staying up late? Unless it’s a black coffee, that’s extra calories added to your daily intake. A large latte contains 113 kcal!
  
  
• It leads to an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which encourages the production of belly fat. Stress, in general, is bad for weight loss, so make sure you make time for relaxation and self-care.
  
  
• A consistent lack of sleep can reduce your insulin sensitivity. This means your body has trouble turning the food you eat into usable energy, so it is more likely to be stored as fat.
  

Get active

The more exercise you do, the more calories you burn and the faster your metabolism will be. However, there is a common misconception that you have to be smashing intense HIIT workouts or enduring grueling spin classes to make a change to your body. 

In reality, walking is one of the best things you can do to help you lose weight. Staying active regularly throughout the day with low-intensity movements can have a huge impact on your weight. So get up from that desk regularly and stretch, do yoga or go for a quick wander. And if the kids are playing an active game after school, get involved! 

Lose weight and prevent future weight gain

Getting plenty of sleep, staying active and eating a healthy diet with plenty of protein are the scientifically proven ways to lose body fat. Maintaining weight loss is often harder than losing weight in the first place. The key to this is to be consistent with all of these, month after month, year after year. That is the best way to maintain a healthy weight throughout your lifetime and look after your long-term health.

Forget the 'lose weight fast' diets and focus on slow, sustainable weight loss by eating healthy foods that you enjoy without cutting out any important nutrients.

Sometimes, however, you can be doing all the right things and still not seeing the results you deserve. Fortunately, we have one more scientifically backed tip for you! 

And that is to try PhenQ.

PhenQ is a natural weight loss supplement that works alongside a healthy diet to help you achieve your dream body. It targets weight loss in five different ways and makes sticking to your diet plan a whole lot easier.