Summer is here! If you still don’t feel quite confident being beach body ready then, you probably need to exert more effort and set aside more time for some serious body contouring. The countdown to lazy days at the beach sipping margaritas has begun. There are a number of effective tips for achieving your dream body, but we represent you 5 easy steps to lose weight before summer, that’s worth a try at least, no?
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Get your hot body ready to burn, baby, burn, with this Strategy to a Slimmer You:
Set your weight loss goals
Have a way to monitor your progress by setting exactly how much weight you want to lose. Make sure you are setting realistic goals. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control generally recommends weight watchers to lose only up to 2 pounds per week. Even if you feel this isn’t enough to get you into your skimpy bikinis, this ensures you are following a healthy weight loss plan. Besides, according to fitness experts, sticking to this goal increases your chances of keeping the excess weight from bouncing back.
To plan on how much weight you want to lose requires a combination of a weighing scale and a meter tape. Get your starting weight and vital stats. You can reference your ideal weight using a BMI calculator to help you determine how much weight you have to lose. Record then, keep measuring the same parameters weekly so you can keep track of how far and long you are from your goal.
Revamp your lifestyle
You must be doing something that’s making you weigh more than you should, right? So, if you’re bent on claiming the hot bod you desire, it’s time to examine what you eat, how frequently you workout, what you do on your days off of work, how much physical activity you’re getting on a typical day, and even how many hours you get to sleep most nights. Take it from Gunnar Peterson, the booty trainer responsible for giving Chloe Kardashian, and countless other celebs bodies to die for. He has been quoted to have said, “You can’t out train a bad diet and you can’t out diet a bad lifestyle”. Here are some tips to make sure your lifestyle is supporting you to lose weight:
- Eat for variety but, mostly eat fresh fruits and veggies, cross out processed foods from your market list, and ban fast food from your diet.
- Head to the local farmers’ market to source your food, not in the supermarket.
- Learn to cook simple meals so you know exactly what’s going into your food.
- Never skip meals. It forces your body shift to starvation mode.
- Substitute driving for jogging or, taking the lift for climbing up the stairs whenever you can.
- Establish a workout routine so your body can adjust and respond better to your workouts.
- Find a workout that interests you so you don’t end up feeling like you’re dragging yourself to complete your routine.
- Give your muscles time to heal and recover in between your workouts so you can perform even better than next time around.
- Make sure to get between 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep every night.
Keep a journal of your day-to-day activities
Keeping a record of what you are eating and how much physical activity you do every day makes you become better aware of just how much calories you are filling up with and whether or not you’ve been burning it well. Journaling gives you a means of evaluating if you’ve been moving towards your weight loss goals or if you’ve been deviating from it.
Losing weight does require you to account for energy input (calories from food) and energy output (calories burned). To lose weight, you must burn more calories than storing these, Being aware of these mundane things helps you make adjustments to your lifestyle right away.
Level up your workouts
To burn more calories, you have to keep moving. You don’t have to avail of a gym membership if you absolutely abhor spending your time locked away in its walls. There are other outstanding alternatives like whole body workout and running, swimming, hiking, and dancing. There are various types of equipment you can buy and have a perfect workout at home. Dumbell workout can be a perfect choice. People who incorporate strength training into their fitness routine, are able to lose and control weight more effectively than those who don’t.
Cardio workout is a must if you are trying to lose weight. Exercises that isolate specific parts of your body are helpful in toning your muscles but, these will not make you lose excess calories in the same way that cardio exercises can. However, do not leave out muscle toning exercises, like weightlifting, from your routine. Building more muscle increases calorie burn while you are resting, a process known as Basal Metabolic Rate. Every time your muscles contract, these burn calories from your system so, the more muscles you have, the more burn you get.
Increase your metabolism
Whether you are moving or not, there are gazillions of chemical reactions happening throughout your body that use up energy from calories derived from your food. Collectively, these are termed metabolism and there are scientifically proven ways on how you can speed up its rate, listed below are just some of these:
- Incorporate more lean protein into your diet. Your body uses up the most energy when it digests protein.
- Get enough sleep and never skip your meals. Your body readily detects if you fail to achieve these. It slows down your metabolism then, it enters the starvation mode where it scavenges for calories and stores it as fats.
- Always take your breakfast. When you do, it revs up your body and prepares it to churn out energy throughout the day.
- Keep chewing. Don’t eat less but, eat or snack in small portions throughout the day. Doing so helps keep your metabolism going at a constant rate.
- Drink plenty of water. Drinking excessive amounts of water spaced evenly throughout the day drives up thermogenesis, the process by which the body produces heat to keep you warm. Or you can drink herbal tea. Not only does it help you burn fat, it is specially formulated to provide you with stamina while you’re dieting.
Getting your beach body ready for summer is a good motivation for shedding off weight. Thinking beyond summer and placing your health at the center of your weight loss goals will give you the motivation to stay in shape. There is mounting evidence to prove that staying fit not only decreases your risk of contracting lifelong diseases but also in improving your longevity. So get healthy and shed that extra weight for summer and for longer life!
