When it comes to free weight loss tips, it’s not the “magic cures” that you should pay attention to, it’s the real, solid advice that will set you on a healthy track for the rest of your life.
And when you’re starting a new weight loss goal, anything that’ll make things easier on yourself is worth trying. With that in mind, here are 5 steps you should take at the start of your weight loss journey.
1) Buy A Scale: This is the first of the free weight loss tips and it’s a very important one. You’ll need to keep a scale not only to keep track of your weight, but also scales for the kitchen to weigh out proper portions of food. Many of us overeat when we don’t strictly measure our portions!
2) Find Support: If you can find an exercise and/ or dieting buddy then you’ll have support to continue even when things are at their most difficult. Studies show that dieting alongside someone else makes it a lot easier to meet your targets and set up healthy new habits. If there really isn’t anyone who wants to join you, one of the best free weight loss tips is to at least confide in others and share specific goals that will keep yourself accountable.
3) Get A Notepad: You need a notepad to note down the foods you’re eating, and even the exercises you’re doing if that helps. Although it can be tedious, knowing exactly what goes into your body helps you to improve things little by little. You can also use your notepad as a place to vent if you’re feeling frustrated, and to reinforce your goals to help motivate you to continue.
4) Go Through Your Cabinets: If you’re going to be dieting then you don’t want to have temptation all around you in your home. So go through all your cabinets and get rid of food that will lead you astray and won’t serve you well. Then go shopping and buy plenty of healthy snacks, like fruit, that you can have on hand whenever you’re feeling peckish.
5) Choose An Exercise Program: Now that you’ve got everything else sorted, it’s time to work out the kind of exercise you want to do. Although you’ll have to make sacrifices and sometimes do things you won’t enjoy, you can cater your exercise to what feels best for you. This could mean starting by walking every day, or running x amount of miles on the treadmill. Whatever you do, make sure you put it into a solid plan!
Consider a Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet Plan
People try a huge number of different diets in an effort to lose weight, one of which is a vegetarian weight loss diet plan. If you’re looking to lose weight in this way then here’s a quick guide to the various benefits and how to get started.
Improve Your Health
Studies show that vegetarians are more likely to have a healthy BMI – body mass index – and are less likely to suffer from obesity, coronary artery disease, some types of cancer, and hypertension. Why is it so healthy? Because vegetarians avoid meat (the main source of saturated fat in our diets), they often eat more polyunsaturated fat, and a lower amount of fat in total.
Although the word vegetarian is generally understood as someone who doesn’t eat meat or fish, there are other types of vegetarian that may still eat fish (pescetarian), or that may avoid all animals products including cheese and eggs (vegan).
Help The Environment
Although this isn’t directly related to your weight or health, it’s motivating to know that a vegetarian weight loss diet plan is good for the environment. Eating vegetables instead of meat, or even just reducing the meat you eat, will lower your carbon footprint! Why? Because the animals raised for meat also have to eat vegetables throughout their lives. Skip out the animals and eat the vegetables yourself and you’ll be saving a lot of resources!
How To Get Started On A Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet
You don’t have to go 100% vegetarian to benefit from a vegetarian weight loss diet plan. Simply cutting down on the amount of meat you eat can have a positive effect. For example, you may choose to eat meat three times a week and stick to a vegetarian diet the rest of the time. You can still eat similar portion sizes, but you’ll find that you lose weight more easily as a vegetarian diet generally contains fewer calories.
While on a vegetarian diet, take care to ensure your diet is balanced. The main concern is usually that vegetarians don’t get enough protein. This is unlikely to be true, as most meat eaters take in far more protein than they need – and an unhealthy form of protein at that. As long as you’re eating plenty of legumes, beans and soy products, you should have the protein you need.
Remember, a vegetarian weight loss diet plan alone will not cause the weight to fall off. You’ll have to keep track of calories and perform regular exercise if you’re really serious about getting your weight down.
Watch What You’re Drinking!
Everyone knows that losing weight means cutting down on your calorie intake and burning more calories through exercise. However, many people fail to consider the impact that their drinks have on their weight loss goals. Drinks contain calories just like food, but some drinks can even hinder your weight loss efforts in other ways! Here’s a guide to the main drink categories you need to watch while losing weight.
Alcohol
Many people are good at looking at their diet and knowing what they should and shouldn’t eat, but don’t take time to look at their alcohol consumption in the same way. Alcohol should be accounted for as part of your daily calorie allowance, so a couple for drinks a day will soon add up!
And they don’t call it a “beer belly” for nothing: research has shown that alcohol can actually reduce the rate at which your body burns calories! It can also lead to some pretty unhealthy cravings, so it’s important to be careful.
Coffee, Tea And Weight Loss
Some other drinks that many of us have every single day include coffee and tea. But are these helping or hindering your weight loss efforts? Studies have shown that any drinks containing caffeine can interfere with weight loss. The stimulation that occurs after you drink caffeine, whether from coffee, tea or even soda, really isn’t good for cravings!
Many of us also even link the drinking of tea or coffee to eating a snack. In this case, even if the coffee itself isn’t doing you any harm it’s still encouraging your snacking habit, which isn’t going to help you lose weight!
Many people drink green tea for weight loss. There’s been a lot of hype over this drink in recent years, and studies have shown that green tea extract may help you to lose weight. However, drinking too much green tea means you’ll still experience all the negative effects of caffeine listed above.
Juice
Many people switch their unhealthy sodas for juice when trying to lose weight, on the assumption that this is “healthy”. While it’s true that fruit juice does come with more health benefits than sugary drinks, you still have to be careful about how much you’re drinking. Make sure you choose juice without added sugar and include the calories within your daily allowance. Try not to have huge amounts in one go, as you’ll want to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
Water
When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s vital that you drink enough water. Not only will you need this to keep you hydrated while you’re working out, you’ll also want to use it as a way to make losing weight easier. There’s no miracle cure for losing weight, but water comes pretty close.
Did you know that what you think is hunger is often thirst? Drinking more water as standard every day can reduce those cravings that force you to overeat. And drinking a couple of glasses of water before each meal can help fill you up to prevent overeating. This makes it a lot easier to reduce your portion sizes!
The truth is that water is always best. If you’re used to drinking coffee, sugary drinks, alcohol and soda, then gradually replacing them with water will help your weight loss efforts, even if you do nothing else!