10 tips for weight loss

Welcome to The Lose Weight Diet's free list of weight loss tips. The purpose here isn't to just give you a big list of tips, but to also help you separate the useful tips from the useless ones. 

  tip -1

Take the stairs instead of the elevator

 This is one of the most popular weight loss tips on this list. I've seen this one everywhere. But, let's be honest here... unless you live or work on the 400th floor, taking the stairs instead of the elevator isn't going to do much for you in terms of losing weight. Sure, you'll walk a little extra, and that's obviously always good. But uh, 1 or 2 flights of stairs a few times a week won't have much (if any) effect on the weight loss of most people. 

Workout early in the day so there is less chance of missing your workout.

I do this, but not out of fear that I may miss my workout. However, I can see how this would happen to people. Something might come up, you might get tired, you might forget, who knows. What I do know is that there are more possible reasons for why a person would miss a workout at 6pm than there would be at 6am. Your alarm clock rings off, you eat, and you go workout. There's very little time in there for something to get in the way or for you to come up with an excuse. 

Keep a workout and diet log or journal.

------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm a big fan of this one. Progress is made by improving upon what you've already done. This applies to workout progress, too. Want to get stronger? Want to increase muscle? If so, you're going to need to make progress. To do that you're going to need to keep track of how much weight you lifted and how many sets and reps you lifted it for on each exercise. By knowing this information, you'll know exactly what you need to do in your workout the next time in order to improve on it. 

Were you able to do a certain exercise for a certain weight for 8 reps? Next time try doing 10 reps of the same weight, or try adding 5 pounds and getting the same 8 reps. This type of progress is what causes muscle and strength gains, and it is only possible when you know exactly what you did the previous workout so you can improve it.

As you learned throughout The Lose Weight Diet, one of the most important parts of your weight loss diet plan is keeping track of how many calories and grams of protein, carbs and fat you're eating each day. No matter how great you think your memory is, keeping a log of it all (on paper, on the computer, on fit day.com, etc.) is the only way you'll be able to keep track of it as accurately as possible.

Plan and prepare your meals in advance.

------------------------------------------------------------------

You know what makes sticking to your diet real easy? When you plan what you're going to eat in advance and, if possible, have it ready for you. For example, I know I'll be eating egg whites as part of my breakfast every single morning. By knowing this I can figure out how often I need to buy eggs so they're always in the house. I never wake up wondering what I'm going to eat or if I'm going to find something I SHOULD be eating. I also know I'm going to eat tuna fish, whole wheat bread, brown rice, chicken breasts, nuts, vegetables, etc. every single day. I have it all ready and waiting at all times.

By planning what you're going to eat in advance and having it prepared for you when possible, you greatly lower your chances of eating something you shouldn't be eating.

Sleep enough!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hold on. If you're thinking "Wait, are you saying I can lose weight just by sleeping? AWESOME!!!!" you'd be slightly mistaken. Sleep alone will not cause weight loss. It will however help. There are a bunch of science-y reasons for this, and if you are in the 1% of people reading this who want to know those reasons, email me and I'll explain. If you're in the other 99%, just know that sleeping enough will indeed help your weight loss.

That's not all though. You know what it feels like when you're tired? You become lazy. You don't feel like doing anything. Well, when you're goal is losing weight, you can't be lazy and you can't feel like not doing anything. Sleeping enough will eliminate this problem.

Keep junk food out of your house.

------------------------------------------------------------------

You know all of that really tasty junk food that is high in saturated fat and useless calories that serves no positive purpose other than being yummy? Good. Then you also probably know you shouldn't be eating any of it. One way to stop eating junk food is to stop putting yourself in a position to eat junk food. By having these types of foods in your house you are obviously going to be much more likely to eat it than if they weren't there. So... throw out/give away whatever junk food you have in your house now and don't buy anymore.

T

They say drinking hot water instead of cold water will help speed up your metabolism and help you burn more calories.

Eat right AND workout.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Like I mentioned back in Phase 1 of The Lose Weight Diet, it is technically possible to lose weight through JUST your diet plan or JUST your workout. However, for best weight loss results and for best all around health, you should do it through a combination of both. This will also make it easier to keep the weight off once it's gone.

Set realistic goals.

------------------------------------------------------------------

No one wants to just lose weight, they want to lose it FAST. They want huge results... quickly. The only problem is, weight loss doesn't happen fast. Results don't come quickly. The reason you need to know this is because setting goals that can't be reached will make you very depressed and discouraged when you realize you didn't reach them. You are basically setting yourself up to fail.

Forget everything you've ever seen or heard. Every advertisement for a weight loss program, pill, machine, or product of any kind is lying to you. The people who claim to have lost huge amounts of weight in insanely short periods of time are lying to you. Those amazing before and after pictures are lies. Yes, really. Like I mentioned in the lose weight fast article, the only way you are going to lose 40 pounds in 1 month is if you have some sort of chainsaw accident.

When you set realistic goals, like losing 1 pound a week or losing 6 pounds a month or losing 60 pounds a year, goals that can actually be reached, you are setting yourself up to succeed.

(I'll admit that whole "setting yourself up to succeed" line was pretty lame, but really, it's true.)

Change how you eat your food.

------------------------------------------------------------------

This one is actually a compilation of similar weight loss tips all revolving around ways people trying to lose weight should eat their food to almost "trick" themselves into not eating more than they should.

For example, eat slower. The faster you finish your food, the more likely you are to eat extra food. Chew slowly. Put your fork down after every mouthful. Take a minute break in the middle of eating. Take smaller bites. Drink water before/during eating so you get full faster. Instead of starting off with your full serving amount, take half a serving and then go back for seconds. Use smaller plates. Etc., etc., etc.. 

Workout on the same days, at the same times.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Working out is obviously an important part of weight loss. And, the best way to stick to your workout is to turn your workout into something that just gets done without really thinking about it. Make it a regular part of your life. You know how you just know to brush your teeth after you wake up? In that same way you should just know to workout. It needs to become part of your normal routine. The best way to accomplish this is to workout at the same times, on the same days.

If you workout on random days at random times you become more likely to miss a workout. If you train yourself to workout on a strict schedule, it will become much harder for you to break from that schedule. That of course means you won't miss workouts.