Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
Trying to lose weight is never a bad idea. Your weight has a direct impact on how you feel and can affect your mental health in many ways. If you are overweight, you may find yourself getting ill more often, you’ll be more likely to feel fatigued and your confidence may not be as high as it can be.
From regularly exercising to watching your diet, there are many vital things that you should be doing when trying to lose weight. Sleep is another essential and drinking plenty of water to not only stay hydrated, but also help with losing weight – interesting enough, water can disguise hunger!
Whatever your reasons for trying to lose weight, whether to feel better in your clothes or to improve your well-being, we all have our reasons. But no matter what your motivator is, there are some essential things that you must be doing when trying to lose weight. Keep on reading to discover the six things that are essential.
Exercising
Number one (this will always feature in most people’s lists) is exercising regularly. Along with your diet, exercising three to four times a week is vital when losing weight. How you exercise is down to your own personal preference. Some people will join a sports team, and play football, rugby or tennis regularly. Others prefer to workout alone and enjoy a run, swim or go to the gym. Whatever your preference, consistency is the key to success, so make sure you go weekly and set yourself targets to make it more enjoyable. For added motivation, exercising with friends or family members can help, as they will keep you accountable.
Diet
As mentioned above, your diet is joint with exercising. Some people say your diet is more important than exercising and there is a lot of truth to this. You should aim to eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables a day and keep the calories you consume to the recommended 2000 for women or 2500 for me. To eat more fruit and vegetables, consider adding them to your daily meals. Fruit can be added to your breakfast and be enjoyed as a snack. Vegetables can be added into sauces, such as carrots, peas and sweetcorn into a spaghetti bolognese sauce. If you are finding it hard to eat the right foods, you could look at a soups and shakes diet NHS to help you.
Sleep
You may not have thought about it before, but the amount of sleep you are getting will affect how much weight you are losing. If you are not getting enough sleep your metabolism will be slower, meaning it’s harder to process and break down the foods you are eating. The recommended amount of sleep that you should be getting varies on your age, however, on average you should be trying to get around 7-9 hours of sleep each day. There are plenty of apps that you can download that you can use to track your sleep – it’s worth doing this as you may not be getting as much sleep as you think you are.
Water
Are you drinking 2-3 litres of water each day? There are many benefits to drinking water including helping your digestion, normalising blood pressure, regulating your body temperature and of course reducing the chances of you getting dehydrated – that can be particularly nasty. Water also helps with losing weight. When you are feeling hungry, the majority of the time you will eat something to satisfy your hunger. There are other times when your body uses hunger to disguise thirst. And what you should be doing is drinking water instead. The best way to drink more is to buy a 1-litre water bottle and aim to fill it up two or three times a day – this way it’s easier to keep track of. Another way to keep track of how much you are drinking is to use an app on your phone to keep count. Apps are great as they will keep track over a long period of time.
Reduce alcohol consumption
Drinking alcohol can be fun and if you are drinking sensibly, there shouldn’t be a reason to cut it out completely. That being said, if you are over-consuming alcohol, there can be many health risks and you will find yourself putting on weight. Alcohol is very high in calories and by binge drinking, you can consume a lot in a night. This can make it very hard to lose weight, therefore, if weight loss is a goal of yours, cutting down on your drinks can make a big difference.
Cut out junk food
Another area to consider when losing weight is the junk food you are eating. Again, like drinking, it’s nice to treat yourself every once in a while, but overindulging can cause you to put on weight and reduce the chances of losing weight. Food like crisps, chocolate bars, ice cream, and biscuits all have a very high-calorie count and so do fast food takeaways like McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King. If you are going out for a meal, try to look at the healthy takeout options or the calories on the meals available to you and choose the ones with the lower options.
As you can see there are many ways to lose weight. As long as you are consistent and pay attention to the calories you are putting in your body, you will lose weight. The trick is to make sure the changes you are making are realistic and achievable, as this way you are likely to stick to the changes you are making. As mentioned above, exercising and your diet will play a key role in your weight loss journey.
How are you doing on your weight loss journey and are there any tips that you would like to share that really helped you? Which of the above tips in our guide did you find most useful? Is there anything missing that you think we should be adding? Let us know in the comment box below, we look forward to hearing from you.
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
