About the Author:
Jif Neal is a home health registered nurse in the Los Angeles area and has been dealing with being overweight for years as a result of stress and a busy schedule. But he found an effective solution for himself and now enjoys the benefits of being slim and having a healthy and active lifestyle. He holds a master’s degree in health administration and owns WriteLoved.com, a research blog. Jif is happily married with a daughter and their pet cat.
Simply Slim Fat Loss Solution – Ultimate Guide To Quick and Effective Fat Loss for Beginners
Introduction
Hello and welcome to our short, introductory weight loss guide for beginners. I hope you will join us right through to the end as we embark on a discovery of simple secrets to permanent weight loss.
According to a survey done in 2014 by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, over 70% of the population in the United States are considered overweight, obese, or extremely obese.
When looking at statistics like this, it’s no surprise that heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans considering it’s one of the biggest side effects of being overweight.
Dangers of Being Overweight
If you are overweight, you are putting yourself at an increased risk of developing a number of dangerous health conditions.
Although genetic and other lifestyle factors do come into play when it comes to many of these conditions, obesity will certainly increase your risk of developing them.
Here are some of the conditions that obesity increases your risk of developing:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Gallbladder disease
- Gallstones
- Osteoarthritis
- Gout
- Sleep apnea
- Asthma
- Cancer
Why Lose Weight
In addition to decreasing or even eliminating your risk of developing these conditions, there are a number of reasons that you will want to lose weight if you are obese.
Here, we’re going to list just some of the advantages to losing extra weight and getting your body to a normal, healthy body weight. Some may surprise you, but studies have proven all of these benefits of losing weight.
Here are some of the benefits of losing excess weight:
- Higher salary/pay
- Improved cognitive function
- Food tastes better
- Increased libido
- Decreased dependency on certain medications
- Less general pain/discomfort
- Better sleep
- More energy
- Enjoy more activities
- Healthier hair and skin
- Save money
With all of these dangers that come from being overweight and the benefits that come from losing weight, it’s easy to see that there is a definite need to be healthy.
Unfortunately, this can be difficult for a number of reasons, several of which we’ll be getting into in the next section, so keep reading to find out more about what it will take for you to lose weight.
Chapter 1 – Get Your Head In The Game
For everyone that is overweight, there are one or more reasons that they can’t seem to lose weight, but unless they have a legitimate medical condition that is preventing them from losing weight, then the biggest barrier is their mentality. There are several reasons that many people share that can make it difficult or even impossible to lose weight.
You Think of Food the Wrong Way
For many people, food is a way to comfort or entertain themselves. They eat not because they’re hungry or because they need to sustain themselves, but because they’re sad, happy, or bored. Often, the foods we eat when we’re sad are high in carbohydrates and unhealthy fats, and are known as “comfort foods” because they comfort us.
Instead, you have to start thinking about food for what it actually is: a tool that you’re using to provide nutrients to your body. It can make you gain weight or lose weight depending on how you use it. It can make you healthier and even cure various afflictions if you’re using it right, or it can make you sick by causing new conditions or worsening existing ones.
You’re Not Willing to Change Your Habits
Most of weight loss and weight maintenance is about having good habits. However, for many people, they feel stuck in their ways and aren’t willing to change their habits for the long term. A crazy crash diet can help you lose weight fast, but you won’t be able to keep it off for long since you most probably will go back to your old habits as soon as you’ve dropped a few pounds.
To lose weight and then keep it off, you have to be willing to change your habits, particularly when it comes to eating. Everything you are is a result of your habits, from where you are in your job to the way your house looks and how much you weigh. Cutting out bad habits and replacing them with good ones is the only way that you’ll be able to get yourself healthy.
Your Weight is Connected to Psychological Problems
For some people, a bad relationship with food and bad eating habits are connected with deep psychological problems related to shame and a fear of getting close to people. They feel ashamed of being obese, but eat as a way of dealing with the shame. Or, they are afraid to be vulnerable with people and see their extra weight as a way to keep people from getting too close to them.
It may be hard to admit, but if you fall into this category of having these deep-seated issues, then you won’t be able to start your weight loss journey until you get professional help to deal with these problems. Just as you would see a medical doctor for a medical condition that you can’t solve yourself, you shouldn’t feel ashamed to seek help from a doctor to get help from a psychological problem.
Once you get your head in the game and are mentally prepared to lose weight, it’s time to move onto the next step in the preparation process before you can start your weight loss journey.
Chapter 2 – Getting Prepared
Before jumping into any new diet plan to lose weight, it’s important to prepare yourself. For one thing, if you don’t know where you’re starting from, then it’ll be hard to see the progress you’re making since weight loss can often be slow and steady. So, here are a few things that you should make sure you do before you start your weight loss journey.
Get Your Health Evaluated
If you have not yet been evaluated by a doctor regarding your weight, now is the time to do it. For some people, it’s impossible for them to lose any weight because they have an underlying medical condition. One of the most common conditions that causes weight gain is hypothyroidism.
With hypothyroidism, many of your body’s processes are slowed down, including your metabolism, making it impossible for you to lose weight no matter what you do. This is because you will be working against your body. In order to lose weight, you will have to work with your doctor first to correct the hormone problem with medication.
Another important reason to see your doctor before you get started is if you are going to be starting to exercise as part of your weight loss journey. Although food is the most important part, exercise can certainly help to boost your weight loss. For that reason, you’ll want to make sure you get the all-clear from your doctor to start an exercise regimen.
Write Out Your Goals
You should have two basic types of weight loss goals, one primary, long-term goal and smaller milestones that will help you reach that goal and keep you motivated. Carefully evaluate where you currently are and where you want to be. Then, set a realistic long-term goal, whether you want to lose 30 pounds in a year, or 100 pounds in 5 years.
Once you have your long-term goal in place, then you can set up your milestones. Usually, the best way to do this is to divide the total weight loss that you’re hoping for into 5- or 10-pound increments. You should also set specific timelines for these as well. Something to keep in mind, however, is that you will likely lose weight faster at the beginning, so give yourself some wiggle room as you go.
Set Up Your Rewards
At each milestone and of course at the end of the long-term goal, you should set up a reward for yourself so it’s something that you can look forward to. What’s more important than the size of the reward is that it’s not food-related. Letting yourself eat an entire chocolate cake because you lost a pound kind of defeats the purpose of having lost the pound.
Some good rewards may include going out to see a movie, buying a fashion accessory, going to a sport’s game, or even going on a trip somewhere that you’ve always wanted to visit. Whatever it is, having that reward to be excited about will help keep you motivated to keep pushing through even when you’re having a difficult day.
Make Your Baseline
Your baseline is your starting point. It will be something to look back on and remember how far you’ve come. Start by calculating your BMI, weighing yourself, taking “before” pictures, and measuring your body. This will be hard for some people, but it’s important to know so you can really see your progress since sometimes the mirror alone makes it hard to see a difference.
You’ll want to measure the circumference of several parts of your body because that will help you track your weight loss more than the scale alone. Be sure to use a non-stretching tape measure.
You’ll also need to keep it parallel to the floor and at the same height all around the body part you’re measuring, and lay it on your skin without pulling it too tight.
The parts of your body you will want to measure to track your weight loss are:
- Chest. For men, measure around the thickest part of the chest. For women, measure directly under the breasts.
- Bust. For women only, measure around your breasts, keeping the measuring tape in line with your nipples.
- Waist. This measurement is taken around the narrowest part of your torso, which is usually right above your belly button.
- Midway. Take this measurement halfway between where you took your waist measurement and the widest part of your hips.
- Thigh. While standing, measure the thickest part of your upper leg.
- Knee. For this, you’ll want to measure right about your knee.
- Calf. Measure this part of your lower leg around at the widest part.
- Upper arm. Take this by measuring around the fullest part of your upper arm.
- Forearm. Measure around the thickest part of your forearm, usually slightly below the elbow.
Educate Yourself
The good news is, by reading this guide, you’re already doing this. And, all you have to do is keep reading to be able to learn even more about how you can lose weight and keep it off. Soon, you’ll learn more about how different types of nutrients work with your body, what the best weight loss diet plan is, and get tips for fast, effective, and lasting weight loss.
Chapter 3 – Nutrition & Diet Overview
There are two main keys to losing weight by dieting: WHAT you put into your body, and HOW MUCH you’re putting into your body.
If you’re like most people that are overweight or obese, they’re not putting the right things into their body and they’re putting in too much of them. So, let’s take a minute to talk about both of these.
Macronutrients
Macronutrients are the three primary types of nutrients that you put into your body: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Of course each of these can be broken down further into subcategories since there are different types of each, but we’re going to focus only on the most important things you need to know about each of these macronutrients.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates get their name from what they’re made of, as their molecules contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Included in this type of macronutrient are sugars, starches, and fiber. The primary purpose of carbohydrates is to provide energy for the body. Contrary to popular belief, not all carbohydrates are bad. In fact, many people who eat diets high in carbohydrates are thin and healthy.
You should be eating a diet that’s fairly low in carbohydrates as you will soon see, because your body can also get energy from fat. When you do include carbs in your diet, make sure they’re complex ones like those which are found in whole wheat, because these will be broken down slowly by your body and release sugars into your blood stream slowly.
Simple sugars like the refined white sugar that gets added to more foods than you thought possible will wreak havoc on your body. When released into the blood stream by your digestive tract, they cause your blood sugar levels to spike. This triggers the release of insulin which often removes too much, then causes your blood sugar levels to crash, leading you to crave more carbs and start the cycle over again.
Another problem caused by these simple sugars is weight gain. Part of the sugar molecule is also processed in the liver, but it can only process so many at once. Any additional carbs are then converted into stored fat. For many people, it’s the consumption of simple sugars that causes weight gain in the first place and prevents weight loss.
Proteins
Proteins are molecules that are made up of amino acids. The source of the protein will determine which amino acids it contains. Protein found in egg, for example, is different from the type of protein that you will find in soy. They are all broken down and absorbed by your body at different rates, and the amino acids they contain do a number of things in your body.
One of the primary purposes of protein is to build muscle. That means if you’re doing strength-training exercises as part of your weight loss program, you need to be especially vigilant to be sure that you are getting enough protein in your diet so that your muscles will be built up as you damage them during strength training.
In terms of losing weight, protein is important because it will help you feel full for longer. Protein molecules are the most complex of the macronutrients and therefore take longer for the body to break down. This can help reduce your food cravings after you’ve eaten since your body is still working on the protein you ate.
Fats
Fats can be broken down into two basic categories: saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are also known as solid fats and are solid at room temperature. Most saturated fats come from animals and animal products. Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, and mostly come from plants as well as fish.
A common misconception is that eating fat will make you fat. As mentioned before, eating sugar will make you fat. But, if you’re eating the right kinds of fat, then you’ll actually lose weight. A diet high in saturated fats can lead to weight gain and high cholesterol levels. However, a diet high in unsaturated fats will help keep your cholesterol low and help you lose weight.
Fat is used in the body for energy, and it also helps to store certain important vitamins, like A, D, and K. Some types of unsaturated fats, like omega-3 fatty acids, also help with brain function and other important functions in your body. Because the best weight loss diets involve relying on fat for energy, it’s vital to be getting enough healthy fats.
Calories
A calorie is actually a way to measure energy. It is defined by the amount of energy it takes to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius. You get calories from the food you eat, 4 calories from each gram of carbohydrates or protein, and 9 calories from each gram of fat. Your body requires energy for every process it does, and it gets this energy from burning calories.
What you need to know about calories and weight loss is that there are about 3500 calories per pound of body weight. That means in order to lose a pound, you need to burn 3500 calories beyond what your body is already burning for its normal functions. It also means that every time you gain a pound, it means you’ve eaten 3500 calories more than your body needed.
Although some weight loss plans encourage you to exercise like crazy to burn these extra calories, it’s easier to let your body do the work for you and simply not eat as many calories in the first place. The number of calories that your body requires per day varies by how much you weigh, your activity level, your age and gender, and your climate.
Because a deficit of calories is one of the most important parts of losing weight, there have been a number of diets that revolve around counting calories, which means tracking how many calories you’re eating at every meal and burning at every activity. Although this sounds hard, as we’ll discuss soon, it’s not as difficult as it sounds
Chapter 4 – Proven Principles of Long Term Weight Loss & Healthy Eating
Why experiment with your body and waste your time trying to find the best weight loss solution when there are plenty of proven principles of long term weight loss? The truth is that by following a few proven principles, you can lose weight and keep it off in the long term. You don’t have to follow the latest diet trends or do any crash dieting.
Track Calories and Macronutrients
The first step is to limit your caloric intake, as we mentioned in the previous section. By choosing foods that are low in calories but high in good macronutrients, you’ll be able to lose weight just by allowing your body to work as it normally does. When limiting your caloric intake, choosing foods that are high in protein and fiber is an important part of feeling full for longer so you don’t eat more than you should.
The best way to see how many calories you’re eating is to track them. Fortunately, there are a number of apps that you can use to track your calories. Simply input the food that you’re eating, about how much of it you’re eating, and you’ll be able to see exactly how many calories you’ve eaten.
Because the source of your calories is just as important, many apps will break down your caloric intake by macronutrient type. For most people that are overweight or obese, aim for getting 25% of your daily calories from carbohydrates, 35% from protein, and 40% from fat.
If you find that you’re not losing enough weight like this after several weeks, you can start tweaking your diet until you’re getting the results you want. Then, stick with that ratio. Since every body is different, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to a balance of macronutrients, so you may find that you need more or less of one type.
Meal Planning
One thing that makes it hard to lose weight is if you’re always eating on the go or trying to throw together meals at the last minute. If you’re serious about your weight loss, you need to get organized and start planning all of your meals in advance. You can do it for a week, two weeks, or even a month at a time, depending on what you’re comfortable with.
The first step to successful meal planning in order to lose weight is to put together a list of foods that will fit with your new diet, and to organize them by macronutrient. You could also come up with a list of recipes that contain the right balance of macronutrients for weight loss. However you decide to do it, you’ll then need to sit down and make your meal plan.
Later on, we’ll provide a week-long sample schedule that will help give you a better idea of what meal planning for weight loss should look like. Although it can be a bit of work to get started, it will help you lose weight for the long term. You can also save money by meal planning since you’ll be able to buy just what you need for the week.
Get Support
Support is just as important to your weight loss journey to how many calories you’re eating every day. In fact, a number of studies have shown how much of a difference emotional support makes for people that are working to lose weight in whether or not they keep it off. One of the most popular weight loss plans, Weight Watchers, is built around this idea of support being needed for weight loss.
Whether you find support in friends, family members, or even a community on the internet, it’s the best way to help you reach your goals during your weight loss journey and then keep the weight off when you’ve gotten to your ideal weight and size. The sooner you put this support system into place, the better chances you have.
Weight Loss Diet Accelerated
The best way to accelerate your weight loss through dieting is to focus on a low-carb diet that keeps your body in a state of ketosis. Once you get your meal planning down and your diet tweaked so that you’re able to lose weight, it’s easy to maintain a state of ketosis that will help you lose weight more quickly and then continue to keep it off.
What is Ketosis?
Ketosis is a state in which your body is burning fat for energy instead of glucose. This is a process that kicks in naturally at night when you’re sleeping, but you can keep it going throughout the day by limiting your carbohydrate intake so that your body keeps using fat for fuel instead of the glucose that it pulls from carbs.
What causes ketosis to accelerate your weight loss is that when you’re combining it with a low-calorie diet, your body looks for fat to burn when it needs to use energy, so when it’s not getting it from food, it starts targeting stored fat. This means that the extra calories you’re burning come directly from fat so you’ll see the weight loss sooner.
Chapter 5 – Exercise
Another way to accelerate your weight loss is by exercising. There are two types of exercise, and both of them are important parts of helping you to lose weight because they have two different effects on your body. If you want to lose weight fast, you’ll need to do both strength training and cardio training.
Strength training is important because it builds muscle. At rest, muscle burns more calories than fat which means your body’s metabolism will be higher and you’ll be able to burn more calories during the day than before. This is important because as you lose fat, your metabolism will slow because you don’t need as many calories to maintain that fat.
Cardio exercises are ones that get your heart rate up which we will cover more in depth below. These burn large amounts of calories, and can help accelerate your weight loss by increasing the number of calories you burn throughout the day. Some types of cardio exercises will also give your metabolism a boost even after you’re done exercising so you can benefit from that as well.
How To Boost Your Results From Traditional Aerobics/Cardio
Let’s start with a simple fact. Traditional aerobics, or long duration, low intensity cardio, is not the be all end all when it comes to either weight loss, or overall health and fitness.
For starters, the number of calories burned are relatively low for the amount of time put in, much lower than most people realize. A typical thirty minute cardio session of fast walking or jogging, outside or on the treadmill, only burns about 150 to 300 calories, hardly a life changing number. This is easily negated by a beer or two, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter or even a bagel with a little cream cheese!
Aerobics also does nothing for keeping or building lean muscle, which helps to boost your metabolism and positively reshape the body.
Okay, so that kills the idea of using aerobics for fat loss. Well, not so fast. It’s not completely useless for fat loss, plus it can have some important health benefits, too.
First, let’s go with cardio as the term instead of aerobics. It just sounds better. Athletes do cardio. Aerobics is for 80’s women in leggings and drugged up bodybuilders in brightly colored clown pants leaning out for a contest. And that’s not us!
We’re talking about exercises using the largest muscles of the body that elevate the heart rate and allow you to do thirty minutes or more at a steady state or do interval training.
This means a lot of different exercises like:
- Walking / Jogging / Running
- Rowing
- Elliptical Machine
- Treadmill
- Stationary Bike
- Stair Climbing (the machine or actually running stairs)
- Bodyweight exercises and calisthenics (jumping jacks, squats, skater hops, burpees, etc.)
- Sports (like tennis, basketball, racquetball, etc.)
- And many more!
Yes, the first one is walking, jogging and running. They can have their place, provided you don’t overdo it and that they are part of an overall plan that includes resistance training. You can also combine them into an interval training workout, such as hard running for 30 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of walking and repeating for “X” number of rounds.
Also, walking, while not the best calorie burner in the world, has fantastic overall health benefits. Everyone should walk for twenty to thirty mintes a day if at all possible.
A great way to use traditional aerobics to boost your fat loss results is to include a shortened session immediately after an intense resistance training session.
A key to making this effective is using a resistance training program that is intense and gets the heart rate elevated. We’re talking about maximizing fat burning, not doing singles on the bench press with five minutes of rest between sets.
Your resistance training workout should include short rests between sets and even techniques like supersetting, where you perform two different exercises back to back without rest. For example, you might do a set of bent over dumbbell rows for ten repetitions, followed by a set of dumbbell bench presses for ten repetitions. You would then rest thirty to sixty seconds and repeat.
It’s also important that you perform full body workouts and not split routines where you might just work your arms one day, your legs another day, your chest on a third day, etc. Perform three full body workotus per week on nonconsecutive days, such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
When you perform a full body intense resistance training workout of twenty to thirty minutes and then add ten to twenty minutes of cardio immediately after, you greatly increase your fat burning results. You don’t waste time getting your body “ready” in the first ten or fifteen minutes. You’ve already tapped into your glycogen stores from the resistance training, you’ve already elevated your heart rate, and now your body is primed and ready to keep burning calories from your cardio, starting from minute one.
In short, use a cardio session immediately following an intense resistance training session that utilizes short rest periods between sets (or interval training style), and a full body workout.
Perform a normal aerobic session (that sometimes is done in interval training style), on your non-weight training days for thirty to forty-five minutes. Do not always use the same exercise. Your body is highly efficient and the number of calories you burn the first time you go running will not be the same as the tenth time if you always do the same thing. Use a variety of exercises like in the list above, to keep your body guessing and your metabolism revving.
Chapter 6 – Sample Weight Loss Meal Plan For A Week
While we would love you to learn more about food choices and a menu that suits you, the foods you enjoy, while also being delicious and affordable, we know it’s difficult.
Here is a sample weight loss meal plan that provides you with 3 meals a day for 7 days. It will give you a good idea of what you can expect to eat while following a low-carb diet and show you how easy it is to stick with this diet since there are plenty of delicious meal options.
While the meals are listed below, the recipes are not. Google the low carb recipe and you will have many varieties to choose from, so pick which one suits you
After this sample meal plan, you’ll find a few tips to creating a meal plan you can stick with.
In order to keep your body in a state of ketosis where you’re only burning fat for energy, then you’ll need to eat less than 50 grams of carbs per day. As you mix and match different low-carb meals, keep that in mind and always give yourself some extra “wiggle room” since you’ll likely also be eating a few snacks along the way and may be getting more carbs per meal than what are actually listed.
Monday
Breakfast: Spinach and Egg Frittata (4 grams of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Asian Beef Salad (11 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Meat Pie (7 grams of carbs per serving)
Tuesday
Breakfast: Low-Carb Pancakes (5 grams of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Chicken and Cabbage Soup (4 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Pork Chops with Green Beans (6 grams of carbs per serving)
Wednesday
Breakfast: Egg Sandwiches (2 grams of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Keto Italian Plate (8 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Cabbage Stir Fry (10 grams of carbs per serving)
Thursday
Breakfast: Bacon Omelet (3 grams of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Tuna Salad (6 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Ground Beef Tacos (12 grams of carbs per serving)
Friday
Breakfast: Dairy-Free Latte (1 gram of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Quesadillas (5 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Salmon and Cheesy Broccoli (6 grams of carbs per serving)
Saturday
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs (1 gram of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Avocado, Bacon, and Goat Cheese Salad (6 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Hamburger Patties with Creamy Tomato Sauce (11 grams of carbs per serving)
Sunday
Breakfast: Coconut Porridge (4 grams of carbs per serving)
Lunch: Shrimp, Artichoke, and Hard-Boiled Egg Plate (6 grams of carbs per serving)
Dinner: Low-Carb Pizza (10 grams of carbs per serving)
Breakfast Tip
When it comes to breakfast, you may want to pick one of these low-carb meals that you love and stick with making that every day. That can make it easy to whip up every morning without having to think too much about what you’re going to make. Since breakfast is the most rushed meal of most people’s days, keeping it as simple as possible will help ensure that you eat it.
Lunch Tips
If you’re like most working people, you don’t have time to go home and prepare yourself lunch at home every day. However, this is vital for the success of your weight loss plan since finding low-carb options in fast food places and restaurants is extremely difficult. If you don’t already pack yourself a lunch, then you’ll need to start doing that to stick with your diet.
Packing your lunch in the morning can be hard, so something you can do is cook extra the night before. Before you even eat dinner, pack your lunch for the next day so you won’t be tempted to have seconds during dinner. Then, all you have to do in the morning is pull your lunch out of the fridge and take it with you.
Dinner Tip
For people cooking for a family, dinner can be the most difficult meal, especially if there are picky children involved. The best way to deal with picky eaters when trying to eat a low-carb diet is to make sure that you have other options for them. Fortunately, many of these meals are easy to include some carbs with to satisfy everyone at the table.
Snack Tip
Although we didn’t include snacks in the meal plan, you’ll likely want to include some throughout your day. Snacking in between meals can help keep you from over-eating at mealtime and can help keep you focused at work since you won’t be feeling hungry. Make sure you prepare your snacks in advance so they’re easy to grab and go.
Chapter 7 – Tips For Healthy Food Shopping
If you don’t want to ruin your diet by eating junk food, then you have to make sure that you’re only buying healthy foods. Fortunately, by following a few tips, then you can keep junk food completely out of your home.
Here are some of our tips for healthy food shopping:
Always Have a List
Before you leave the house, make sure you write out a list of exactly how much you need. If you’re doing meal planning, all you have to do is go through your schedule of meals for the week to figure out exactly what you need to shop for. Then, unless you’re 100% sure that you’re out of something that’s not on your list, stick to that list and don’t buy anything unless it’s on the list.
Eat Before You Go
If you go to the store hungry, you’re far more likely to buy more food than you need and to gravitate towards junk food. So, make sure that you eat a big snack or even a meal before you leave the house. You’ll also avoid the temptation to stop at a fast food place on the way there or back. Although not all fast food is bad, it’s easy to eat far more calories, carbs, and sodium that you normally would.
Don’t Linger
The longer you spend in the store, the more likely you are to see something you don’t need and buy it. So, rather than walking up and down each aisle, use your list as a guide and only get what you need, then get out. If you do find yourself lingering, try setting a time limit for yourself from the time you enter the store to the time you get to the checkout counter.
Check Labels
Taking just a few moments to check food labels before buying can help keep you from accidentally buying junk food. Always buy whole foods when possible like fresh fruits and vegetables instead
of canned versions, which often have added sodium or sugars. Nearly everything you find in a package will have preservatives and other additives that you want to avoid.
Added sugars can be found in a surprising variety of foods, so always read through the ingredient list to make sure you’re not being tricked by clever packaging that claim to be healthy or “natural”. Some added sugars to avoid include fructose, corn syrup, and dextrose. Artificial sweeteners can be just as bad for you, so be on the lookout for aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, xylitol, and sorbitol.
Chapter 8 – Beginner Mistakes To Avoid
The beginning of your diet is the most important part because it will help you ensure your future success. This is because the new habits that you’ll establish as you begin will be the most likely to stick with you, so you need to make sure you go into your new diet with the right mindset and prepared to follow it closely to succeed.
Here are some beginner mistakes to avoid:
Focusing Too Much on Avoiding Carbs
There’s a lot more to a low carb diet than not eating carbs, and this is a huge mistake for many beginners. Rather than worrying so much about what you can’t eat, focus on what you can eat and make sure that the foods you’re choosing are healthy and good for you. You also need to make sure you’re getting plenty of fiber which is a carb but doesn’t get absorbed by your body.
Getting Stressed
While stress seems to be inevitable for many people, you have to do what you can to eliminate the stress that’s in your life if you want the best chance at losing weight. Stress releases a hormone known as cortisol which blocks fat-burning processes in your body, preventing weight loss. Take whatever steps you need to relieve stress in your life.
Not Getting Enough Sleep
When you get the right amount of sleep, your body will be well-rested and ready to properly process the foods that you put in it during the day. It will also limit the stress in your life. Getting the right amount of sleep is important, because too much or too little will both negatively impact weight loss. Adults need to be getting between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night.
Trusting Food Packaging
As mentioned before, you need to check the actual label and ingredient list before you buy food since a food only needs to be 10% naturally-derived to be able to call itself “natural.” Many treats that are labeled “low carb” are just meant to draw you in
to buy them, but they often have more carbs than they imply and have dangerous artificial sweeteners in them.
Eating Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners are often just as bad for you as actual sugar which is why you need to avoid these just as much as sugars and carbs. Many of them will still cause spikes in your blood sugar levels and some can increase your cravings for actual carbs, which will make it difficult to stick to your diet and continue losing weight.
Skipping Meals
Although it may sound like a good idea to skip a meal in order to lower your caloric intake during the day, you shouldn’t skip meals. What generally happens when you do that is that by the time you get to the next meal, you’re feeling extremely hungry and end up over-eating or indulging in the carbs your body begins to crave when it’s feeling low on energy.
Conclusion – Long Term Health Planning
Congratulations on making it to the end of this short, introductory report on simple secrets to permanent weight loss.
You may be surprised to know that the majority of people who start something never complete it.
Take your time and progress at your own pace. This is not a race. The more you understand and comprehend what is happening when you undertake a permanent weight loss course the better
If you really want to succeed at losing weight, then everything you do for your diet must be with long-term health planning in mind. These changes you’re making and the diet you’re following are not meant to be temporary. They’re meant to be part of a
new lifestyle that you follow in order to keep off the weight that you lost and help keep you healthy.
As you take this leap into a new diet for your health, remember that, and leave all of your old bad habits behind you. Keep looking to the future and keep in mind all the benefits that you will gain from losing the extra weight you’ve been carrying around. Your future will be much longer now, which means you’ll have more time to enjoy life as you move forward
Bonus Chapter – Resources & Apps to Aid in Weight Loss
Don’t think that you have to do everything on your own. There are a number of tools that can help you with your weight loss journey. Here, you can find some resources and apps to aid in weight loss.
Keto Diet App
If you want an easy way to find low-carb recipes and do all of your meal planning with a few touches of a screen, then the Keto Diet App is the way to go. It has over 450 low-carb recipes that you can search through and choose from, and the option of creating your own low-carb meals. You’ll also have access to the website through the app which gives you tips, tricks, and additional information.
Ketone Meter
There are several ways to test the level of ketones that your body is producing as a result of burning fat for energy. Keeping track of these is the most accurate way to know for sure if you’re doing your low-carb diet correctly since they show exactly how much fat your body is burning. Ideally, your level should be between 0.5 and 3.0.
The most accurate ketone meters work the same way as glucose meters test blood sugar levels for people with diabetes. These require you to prick your finger to test your levels. You can get some that test both blood sugar levels and ketones with just one strip. If you don’t want to prick your fingers every day, you can also get urine strips, though these aren’t quite as accurate.
Fitness Tracker
One simple way to improve your health is to make sure you keep yourself moving. And one of the best ways to do that is to get a fitness tracker. There are a number to choose from depending on what else you may want to use it for, but the simplest are the
fitness bands that will let you know how many steps you took each day.
Set yourself a minimum goal of 4,000 steps to begin with, then keep raising your goal until you’re taking 10,000 steps every day. This one simple change will help you be healthier and lose weight more quickly. It’s also important if you work in a job where you spend a lot of time sitting down that you stand up at least every 90 minutes and move around for 5 to avoid a number of dangerous health conditions.
Diet Coach
It may sound extreme, but having a personal diet coach may be just the thing you need to keep your diet on track and get the most out of your weight loss. Although it’s best to get a diet coach that’s in your area that you can meet with as often as you need, you can also try looking online to find someone who will work with you to answer all of your questions.
Bonus Chapter 1: 3 Exercises to Ramp Up Your Metabolism
While exercise alone rarely leads to significant weight loss, there are some exercises that can help boost your metabolism and make your weight loss diet more effective. By adding even one metabolism-boosting exercise into your daily routine, you can burn more calories even after the exercise so you can lose weight faster.
Here are 3 exercises to ramp up your metabolism:
1. Strength Training
Any type of strength training will help to permanently boost your metabolism. This is because muscles burn more calories while at rest than fat or anything else in your body, so by building up your muscles so that you have more of them, your body will begin burning more calories throughout the day without you having to do any extra work.
Try to do just 20 minutes of strength training every day, focusing on a different muscle group every day. You can use dumbbells, kettlebells, or other workout equipment if you want, but there are also a number of strength training exercises that use your body weight. That means that you can get in strength training anywhere and without needing to set up a home gym.
2. Interval Training
You can do interval training with nearly any type of aerobics or cardio exercise. Interval training helps you burn more calories than cardio exercise alone because most cardio exercises require doing them for a long period of time before you’re able to burn a decent number of calories. However, through interval training, you can burn more calories in less time and get a metabolism boost afterwards.
Interval training essentially involves pushing yourself as hard as you can for short bursts of time, then taking a period of rest in between where you’re still moving, but not pushing yourself. For example, if you are running for exercise, you might sprint as hard and fast as you can for 10 seconds, walk for 1 minute, and repeat that five times.
3. Burpees
This is an exercise that combines strength training and cardio, and is one of the best exercises to boost metabolism. It not only gets your heart rate going because it is a high intensity exercise, but it also works out all of your major muscle groups. That means you’ll get a temporary boost in metabolism from the cardio and a permanent boost from working your muscles.
To do a burpee, start from a standing position. Then, do a squat and end with your hands on the ground in front of you. Jump backwards with your feet into a push-up position and do a push-up. Jump your feet forward again and then leap upwards, reaching your hands as high into the air as you can. You can do these in sets or simply try to do as many as possible in a short amount of time.
Keep in mind that whatever exercises you do, they need to be in addition to having a healthy diet so they will boost your metabolism and help you lose weight. Most of the time, it takes hours of intense exercise to make up for poor eating habits, so start with good eating habits and then add these exercises to boost your metabolism.
Bonus Chapter 2: 5 Must-Have Foods to Aid Weight Loss
Choosing the right foods will help you lose weight faster and then keep it off. These foods help in a variety of ways to ensure that you will be able to lose weight. When put together along with an overall healthy diet, then these five foods will aid in weight loss.
Here are 5 must-have foods to aid weight loss:
1. Leafy Greens
There are a number of plants that fall under this category that all work the same way to help you lose weight. The best are spinach, kale, swiss chard, and collards. The first way they help you lose weight is by providing you with a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These work together to make sure your body is working the way it should.
The other way that these help you lose weight is because they are high in fiber. Fiber keeps your digestive system working the way it’s supposed to which helps you lose weight. It also makes you feel full for longer, which keeps you from eating too many snacks in between meals and can prevent you from eating too much as your next meal.
2. Whole Eggs
Contrary to what was believed for a while, the yolks of eggs are beneficial to people that want to lose weight. Recent studies have proven that whole eggs don’t increase cholesterol or increase your risk of heart attack. In fact, eating eggs will help you lose weight and are a vital part of low-carb diets since they are low in carbs but high in healthy fats and protein.
3. Cruciferous Vegetables
This family of vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Like leafy greens, they are high in fiber but low in carbs. They also contain surprisingly high amounts of protein compared to other vegetables, making them an excellent choice for people who want to lose weight. Additionally, they have a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
4. Salmon
Salmon, along with other oily fish like trout, mackerel, herring, and sardines are excellent for losing weight. The first way they can help you lose weight is by providing you with a good amount of healthy fat. These will help keep you feeling full for longer, and also do a lot for different processes in your body, especially your brain.
Another way that salmon and other fatty fishes can help you lose weight is the amount of iodine they contain. Many people don’t get enough iodine from their diets which can lead to low thyroid function. Because the thyroid controls metabolism, it’s important to keep it running the way it’s supposed to if you’re going to lose weight.
5. Chicken
Along with other white and lean meats, chicken can help you lose weight. This is because of the amount of protein it contains. Protein is a vital part of weight loss because of how much a high-protein diet can contribute to weight loss. In fact, studies have shown that by getting between 25 and 30 percent of your calories from protein, you can lose up to a pound a week just by reducing cravings.
Bonus Chapter 3: Can I Lose Weight with Diet Alone?
The short answer is yes, you can lose weight with diet alone. The truth is, that diet is the main determining factor in whether or not you will lose weight. Many people think they need to devote hours a day to exercising if they want to lose weight, but the truth is that if you want real, lasting weight loss, all you need to do is change your diet.
Here are some small diet changes that anyone can make to start losing weight without making any other changes:
1. Cut Out Soda
Even drinking just one can of soda a day can increase your chances of being overweight by up to 65 percent, according to a study done by the American Diabetic Association. By simply cutting out the soda that you’re drinking and replacing it with unsweetened green tea or plain water, you can lose weight without even trying, and save money on sodas to boot.
2. Eat More Protein
You should be getting between 25 and 30 percent of your daily caloric intake from protein. The best way to make sure you’re doing that is to cut out half the carbs on your plate and replace them with a lean source of protein. Getting more protein in your diet will help you feel fuller for longer so you won’t need to eat as much at your next meal.
3. Eat on a Schedule
When you set up an eating schedule for yourself, you’re much less likely to over-eat during meals because you’ll be eating before you get too hungry. The best schedule to set up is 5 – 6 smaller meals spread out throughout the day, about 2 – 3 hours apart. Set alarms on your phone if you need to, and you’ll soon find yourself losing weight without trying.
4. Snack Right
When you’re looking for something to snack on, it’s usually junk foods that are easiest to grab, so keep yourself from falling into this temptation by providing plenty of healthy snacks for yourself. Keep fresh fruit like apples, bananas, and oranges on the counter where you can see them, and bagged veggies or yogurt at eye level in the fridge where they’re easy to see and take with you.
5. Quit Pre-Eating
Many people fall into the trap of eating before they actually eat, especially if they’re cooking a big meal and frequently taste test it as they go. These little tastes add up to hundreds of extra calories that you’re not counting since they’re not in your actual meal. To avoid pre-eating, have a big glass of water on hand while cooking or baking and drink that instead of sampling your food before dinner.
6. Satisfy Your Cravings
Often, when you have a craving for something, it can be hard to know exactly what you want, so you end up eating a bunch of things until you find something that finally satisfies it. Take a few moments to identify what exactly you’re craving, then look for a healthy version of that to satisfy you. Most cravings fall into one or two of the following categories: sweet, salty, crunchy, or creamy.
Bonus Chapter 4: 5 Steps to Setting Successful Weight Loss Goals
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If you want to be successful in your weight loss, the first thing you have to do is set realistic goals that will help you keep your weight loss on track and keep you motivated. However, if you set unrealistic goals that you’re not able to reach, it will quickly become discouraging and you may find yourself giving up long before you reach your goal.
So, here are 5 steps to setting successful weight loss goals.
1. Make Your Primary Goal be Health
When your overall goal is to live a healthier life, it’ll be a lot easier to feel successful as you work to make better eating choices every day. This will also help you stay motivated since you can evaluate yourself at the end of the day to determine what you can to better the next day to keep reaching your goal of being healthier.
2. Do Some Research
Before you set your main goal, you’ll want to spend a bit of time doing research to determine what a realistic goal is for you. Ask other people who have already lost weight how long it took them to help you determine how much you can expect to lose and how long it might take you. Then, you will be able to set up a realistic goal for your own weight loss.
3. Set Your “Big” Goal
This is your total weight loss goal and could take you several years to reach. However, it’s important to have this big goal so you know what your target weight loss is. Add a timeline into your goal, whether it’s one year, two years, or five years. It’s important to give yourself plenty of time to reach that goal so that you don’t feel rushed, but also keep it a short enough time to keep you focused and on track.
4. Set Up Milestones
These are little goals along the way that will help you reach your big goal. You’ll want to set these up the same way you set up your big goal: after doing some research and with a timeline. These will be spread out every month, every few months, or even every year.
What’s most important to keep in mind when setting up these goals is that weight loss is typically easier at the beginning and then takes longer as your body’s metabolism changes. So, you may be able to lose 10 pounds in the first month, but will need 3 months to lose the last 5 pounds.
5. Set Up Rewards
For reaching your big goal, set up a big reward, whether it’s buying your dream car or going on your dream vacation. Getting to your ideal body weight and to a point where you can live a healthier life is a big deal and should be celebrated, so don’t be afraid to go all-out.
For your smaller milestones, these should also be celebrated, but in smaller ways. Just make sure that the rewards you set up are activities or anything non-food related, since rewarding yourself by eating junk food contradicts the whole point of a healthy lifestyle!
Bonus Chapter 5: Tips to Maintain Healthy Eating When Eating Out
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Although it’s best to avoid eating out as much as possible when eating healthy, of course you’ll still be going out sometimes, whether it’s with friends or for a special occasion. Fortunately, there are some ways that you can enjoy your time at a restaurant without ruining your diet.
Here are some tips to maintain healthy eating when eating out:
1. Pass on the Bread Basket
Limiting your carb intake is important for any diet plan, and the bread given to you at restaurants is nearly always simple carbs that are bad even for people that aren’t looking to lose weight. So, as long as everyone is in agreement, ask the waiter to leave your bread basket in the kitchen. If someone does want it, keep it as far away from you as possible to avoid temptation.
2. Just Drink Water
When it comes to your drink options, water is going to be the safest in terms of limiting your caloric intake. This is especially important when you’re getting free refills since you feel like you need to drink several glasses to get your money’s worth. Avoid alcoholic beverages as well, except maybe a glass of wine, since most beers and specialty drinks are packed with extra calories.
3. Check the Menu in Advance
If you know where you’re going to be going out to eat long enough in advance, take some time to find out what they have on their menu. Many restaurants post their menu with nutritional information online, so you can plan on what to order before you get there. This will help you be able to make a good decision that’s not influenced by the atmosphere or pictures in the menu.
4. Get a Box
Since most restaurants offer huge meals, you can limit how much you eat by asking for a take-home box as soon as your food arrives. Put up to half of your meal in the box then just eat what’s left on your plate. This will not only help keep you from eating the excessive portion sizes offered by most restaurants, but will also provide you with lunch for tomorrow!
5. Ask for Extra Vegetables
When your meal comes with a few vegetables on the side, ask them to pile them on for you. Most restaurants won’t charge you extra for more vegetables and it will help you fill up on these rather than the higher-calorie options on your plate. Just make sure these vegetables are raw, grilled, or sautéed in butter rather than fried since most oils used for frying are unhealthy.
6. Get it Your Way
Remember that you’re paying for this meal, so you have every right to order your food the way you want it. That might mean asking for a different type of dressing for your salad or different toppings on your burger. Just make sure you’re polite about it and give clear instructions to your waiter so you can get your food the way you need and want it to be.
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