Many diets, supplements, and meal replacement plans out there that claim to ensure rapid weight loss that stays off forever, but many of these lack some scientific evidence behind them. The good news is that there are some weight loss strategies out there that are backed by science, and these all have an impact on weight management. Strategies can include exercising, keeping track of calorie intake, reducing the number of carbohydrates in the diet and even intermittent fasting.
There are plenty of effective methods for weight loss, and while some people may choose to use fat burners or go down the route of a gastric sleeve, it’s important to realise that there are other things you could be doing to keep your body healthy while you drop weight to a more manageable level. So let’s take a look at how you can drop body fat healthily.
1. Intermittent fasting
This is a pattern of eating that involves regular short-term fasts and consuming meals within a shorter period of time. There are several studies out there that have indicated that short term intermittent fasting for up to 26 weeks is as effective for weight loss as following a daily low calorie diet. Some people choose to mix it up with alternate day fasting, which is fasting every other day and eating a typical diet on non fasting days. The 5:2 diet is possibly the most popular, where people eat around 5-6 hundred calories on fasting days for two days per week.
2. Tracking calories
Losing weight is simple science. It’s calories in VS calories out. If somebody wants to lose weight, they should be aware of what they eat and drink every day, and one way to do this is to log their food into a diary or an online food tracker. There is research that suggests that diet tracking and exercise can be helpful for weight loss because it promotes those behaviour changes needed. Often people don’t realise how many calories they are consuming because they’re not following any kind of tracking. There are studies to show that consistent tracking of physical activity can help with weight loss, and even a device as simple as using a pedometer can be a useful weight loss tool rather than pounding it out in the gym.
3. Mindful eating
If there’s one thing that children are very good at, but that adults are not particularly good at, it’s paying attention to their own hunger cues. Mindful eating is the practice where people pay attention to how and where they eat food, as well as how they feel before and afterwards. It’s easy to load up your plate and then finish your plate because you’ve got an ingrained lesson in your mind that you have to clear your plate to be able to get down from the table. However, if you wait until your body physically feels hungry to eat, and then you eat slowly until your body feels full, you’ll notice your hunger cues easier and you’ll start to pay more attention to what you’re putting in your body as a result.
To support mindful eating, you can add ProPlant Complete Shake into your routine. With its plant-based protein and fiber content, it can help curb cravings and promote satiety, allowing you to listen to your body’s natural hunger signals without feeling overfull or deprived.
4. Focusing on protein
This is possibly the easiest way to drop body fat. Protein can regulate appetite hormones to help you to feel full. If you’re sitting down to a meal and you start with eating your protein and then your vegetables before eating carbohydrates, you will minimize how many carbs you’re eating and focus more on the protein on your plate. Protein helps to regulate those appetite hormones because of a decrease in the hunger hormone ghrelin and a rise in the satiety hormones peptide GLP 1 and cholecystokinin.
5. Cutting back on sugar
It’s important to realise that there is nothing inherently wrong with sugar, but it’s all about the portion size that you’re having. A western diet is increasingly high in added sugars and that has definite links to obesity. Understanding the sugars in your food will help you to stick to more Whole Foods and minimise any processed sugars. That doesn’t mean you cut out fruit, because fruit is a necessary part of a balanced diet. Fruit also has naturally occurring sugars, not processed sugars, which is the difference.
6. Focusing on fibre
Dietary fibre describes plant based carbohydrates and these are usually impossible to digest in the small intestine. When you include plenty of fiber in your diet, you can increase this feeling of fullness and that can lead to weight loss because you’ll be eating less. Focusing on fibre rich foods including whole grain cereals, whole wheat pastures, whole grain breads, oats, barley, peas, beans and pulses will mean that you’re having a very varied diet without having to push too hard.
7. Balance your gut bacteria
If you want to drop body fat, you need to make sure that the role of bacteria in the gut is paid attention to. The human gut holds a variety of microorganisms. Around 39 trillion bacteria is included in that. While every individual has different types and amounts of bacteria in their gut, some types can increase the amount of energy that you extract from food. Some foods can increase the number of good bacteria in the gut, including fruits, vegetables and grains in the diet. A plant based diet is helpful for some people to help with that balance, but you don’t have to go fully vegan if you don’t want to.
8. Sleeping well
Dropping body fat depends on you sleeping well at night time. Getting less than six hours of sleep is associated with an increased incidence of obesity because usually that exhaustion through the day leads people to sugar rich foods. Insufficient or poor quality sleep can slow down the process in which the body converts calories to energy and that is essentially your metabolism. When you have a less effective metabolism, your body may store unused energy as fat. In addition to this, poor sleep can promote insulin resistance and that can promote fat storage.
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