If you've plateaued in your weight-loss quest or just need some new ideas to keep your motivation in place, there are many tips to help you change or improve your workouts or eating habits. To ensure that any new techniques you use to burn or decrease calories work, use those that have some scientific rationale behind them. Raising metabolism and decreasing calories without starving yourself is the key to taking and keeping off weight.
Step 1
Eat twice each morning to help prevent overeating and weight-gain related reactions to breaking a long fast. Going long periods without food slows your metabolism, causing a reaction when you finally eat that encourages fat storage and promotes weight gain, according to Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky. Men who ate breakfast at two different times each morning ate almost 30 percent fewer calories than those who ate only once, according to a study by Dr. David Speechly, of South Africa's University of Witwatersrand.
Step 2
Exercise at a moderately intense pace or greater, 60 to 90 minutes per session, three to five times per week, suggests the American Heart Association. A 30-minute workout helps improve heart health, but for weight loss, you'll need to work out longer, according to the AHA.
Step 3
Buy a heart rate monitor to track your heart rate during exercise. Certain exercises, such as crunches or lifting heavy weights, may seem intense because they require difficult muscle movements, but they may not keep your heart rate in your aerobic zone, where you'll burn calories efficiently for weight loss. Using a heart rate monitor lets you accurately note which exercises keep you in your target heart rate during your workouts.
Step 4
Weigh yourself regularly. While some fitness professionals may believe that frequent weighings lead to frustration or poor self-esteem, researchers cited in "The Nutrition Journal" found that women who weighed themselves daily or weekly lost more weight than women who didn't.
Step 5
Read nutrition labels. Note how many calories per serving a food item has--some marketers may state that a small package of food or drink contains two servings in order to make the calorie amount look small at first glance. Ask fast-food restaurants to give you a pamphlet with calorie information before you order.
Step 6
Write daily entries in a food journal. Note which foods satisfied you and which didn't, if you had any side effects from eating certain foods and how you reacted to foods eaten shortly before or after exercise.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Why Does Eating Breakfast Help Control Weight?
- Asian Food Information Centre: Grazing for Weight Loss
- American College of Sports Medicine: Basic Recommendations from ACSM and American Heart Association
- Nutrition Journal: Weight, Physical Activity and Dietary Behavior Change in Young Mothers
Member Comments