How to trick you body into losing weight?
I have heard over and over again how hard it is to lose weight. I know the feeling, I have gone through the struggle of trying to lose weight and failing many times. But I finally figured out the trick.
There are multiple factors to look at when trying to lose weight but the most important one is the simple formula below
Calories intake < calories burned =>Weight loss
First you should know how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. Its very easy to calculate with the modern fitness devices we have. Wear a fitness watch and measure how many calories you are burning in an hour in resting state. For eg, my resting calories burned in an hour is between 50–60 calories. Multiply that with 24 hours and you get your daily calories burned in non-active/resting mode. So this means that I can eat anywhere between 1300–1440 to maintain my current weight.
Second thing you need to do is to start calculating how many calories you are eating per day. Again, its very simple to do that. I use MyFitnessPal app. It gives me a rough estimate of the calories intake. In the beginning just enter the amount you need to eat to maintain and try to eat 100 calories less than you normally eat. 100 calories isn’t that much, a slice of bread normally is around 100.
1 pounds of weight = 3500 calories
So if you are eating 100 calories less everyday you will lose approximately 1 pound in a month.
Once you hit a month of eating 100 calories less, measure your weight and update your new weight and new calories intake required to maintain that weight. Now repeat the same process again till you reach your desired weight.
What!!! Its that simple?? Honestly it is if you don’t cheat.
There are other things you can and should do to accelerate the weight loss.
Eat food that helps you feel full for longer time. Food with high fiber and higher protein. Some examples of such food are eggs, tofu, any kind of cheese, melons, quinoa, brown rice, lentils, cucumbers, broccoli, Cauliflower, Garbanzo, Almonds, Cashews, peanuts, oats, yogurt, berries and many more. All these foods help you burn more calories and keep you feel full for longer.
Gain muscles to burn more calories while resting. Its well known that more muscles means more calories burned=> Weight loss. You have to workout to gain muscles, there is no other way around it. Its not that hard to gain muscles, believe me, I have done it. You don’t need to be in a gym to lift weights. If you can get a few variation of dumbbells, you can do it at home. Focus on very basic movements. A couple that should get you going are Bench Press (can do it on the floor), Front squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, bicep curls, shoulder presses, triceps, fly, reverse fly, rows, dips, plank holds, crunches.
Avoid unhealthy habits that can deter you from continuing your healthy journey. Some of the things that are big culprits are — Drinking alcohol, smoking, staying up late, eating out too much. Frozen food, cheating on your meals on weekends. Don’t make excuses to fall into the ugly trap.
That’s all folks! Try it out and share your feedback.
