Do You Want to Know the Secret to Losing Weight?
Now losing weight is the number one reason why clients come to me but losing weight isn’t the only thing I work on with clients. Their health, happiness, longevity and living the life they want is where its really at, but working towards those goals will also help with weight loss. When I say weight loss I specifically mean fat loss as it’s not so much non-specific weight you want to lose, but fat weight. You want to maintain muscle mass, bone, etc.
Watch the video below:
Now one of my first questions with anyone that wants to lose weight is, why do you want to lose weight? If that’s you, ask yourself this question because its important to know. We want to make sure you are losing weight in a way that is good for your health and is done healthfully. As mentioned above, you want to lose weight in a way that maintains or even builds muscle mass, bone mass, improves your health markers as well as has you feeling good.
So let’s get started on the secrets to losing weight.
1. Eat low carb
It’s not the one diet for everyone but if it helps reduce your insulin levels, has you feeling full and enjoying your meals then chances are its going to help with fat loss. There are many studies that show that a low-carb diet is effective for weight loss particularly if you stick with it. This is my number one recommendation when someone is wanting to lose weight as it’s one of the biggest levers we can pull.
2. Time restricted feeding aka intermittent fasting
We know that WHAT you eat is important but also WHEN you eat is almost equally as important. Restricting your food to say a 10 hour eating window and fasting for 14 hours does wonders when it comes to weight loss even irrespective of what you eat. After you get the hang of it, work at increasing it to 15 hours of fasting or even 16 or more hours. See what works for you. If you are taking any medications, please consult with your physician or healthcare professional first before embarking on time restricted feeding. It’s important!
3. Eat ONLY when hungry
At first this might be challenging when starting out however once you reset your system, this is gold! In the beginning, eat in a patterned way and then overtime as you get more in tune with your hunger cues you can get rid of the standard breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat more when you are truly hungry. The key with this one is, is to not eat just because the clock says you should eat. Meaning its noon and therefore I should eat. Not necessarily.
4. Avoid “easy to overeat” foods
If you’re going to be following a low carb diet, you’re most likely going to be avoiding these foods anyways so it won’t be an issue but its still good to address it such foods as chips, crackers, Doritos, Cheetos, pretzels, etc. Even foods such as nuts, cheese, and other dairy can fall under this same category of hyperpalatable foods. I personally eat dairy however if you find it causes you to eat more and stimulates your hunger, avoid it, at least for a time until you get your weight down to where you feel comfortable.
5. Pay attention to what you drink
What you put in your drinks AND what you drink matters. If you add half and half cream in your coffee for instance (which I don’t recommend) and you have 3,4, or 5 cups a day; its going to add up. So just be aware of these sorts of things. If you are going to add something to your coffee and tea, I would like to see you go with either canned coconut milk, table cream or heavy cream. Avoid half and half as mentioned above as well as well as all milks such as skim, 1%, 2%, and whole.
6. Stress less, sleep more
The more chronically under slept and overstressed you are, the higher your cortisol, adrenaline, and blood sugar, which is all going to make you hungrier and as a result, you're not going to make the best nutrition choices.
7. Exercise as an adjunct to your diet
Don’t exercise to lose weight but use exercise to help you lose weight in a healthy way. Ultimately exercise should be a tool to help you lose weight, not the thing in and of itself. As I like to say to my clients, you can’t out exercise a bad diet and also you can’t out eat zero exercise.
If you know of anyone that may benefit from this, please consider sharing it with them as you may help them resolve their health issues or at a minimum, drastically improve them.
Happy fat loss,
Tyron