Three steps to permanent weight loss
As many people know too well, losing weight can be very difficult. What’s more, if you manage to lose weight, keeping it off can be even more difficult!
Below I reveal three steps that can make losing weight, and keeping it off permanently, much easier. The permanent weight loss is still going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be far less of a challenge, which means that your chances of succeeding will be significantly increased. First, let’s go over a few key points about weight loss.
Key points about weight loss
1. The formula for losing weight is simple
Your body needs a certain number of kilocalories each day to fuel your bodily functions and physical activities. In order to lose weight, each day, all you have to do is consume fewer kilocalories than your body needs.
That’s it. That really is the gist of weight loss. As long as you eat fewer kilocalories than your body needs, you will lose weight — even if you only eat chocolate!
2. Not all kilocalories are equal
Even though you can eat nothing but chocolate and still lose weight, you obviously must never do such a thing. To promote optimal health, you must primarily consume nutrient-dense foods that provide your body with everything it needs for survival, growth, and repair. As you’ll learn below, this certainly does not mean that you have to struggle through boring meals every day.
3. Some foods make weight loss much more difficult
The foods that you eat can affect your metabolism. Some ‘healthy’ foods can slow down your metabolism and make weight loss much more difficult. They can even encourage your body to store fat. Other foods can speed up your metabolism and encourage your body to burn fat. Knowing what foods to eat and what foods to avoid can therefore make losing weight much easier. More on this in Step two, below.
4. To keep the weight off, you must enjoy your new diet
Probably the biggest challenge in losing weight and keeping it off is the temptation to return to your old diet. The new diet usually lacks diversity and is alien, tasteless, and depressing, which makes you yearn for your old favorite dishes. In order to stick to a new diet, it must include a wide range of easy-to-prepare meals that excite you, keep you feeling full, and make you happy, in addition to providing you with everything you need for health and well-being.
5. To preserve your muscle mass/shape when you diet, you must lift weights
When you diet and put your body into a state of caloric deficit, your body can burn your muscles for fuel if it thinks that they are not being used. Initially, it burns glycogen stores in your liver, before moving on to fat stores. However, it doesn’t like using up fat stores, because fat is a rich source of energy and is also required for heat insulation, so your body soon turns to unused muscle mass. Loss of muscle is not a bad thing only if you’re a male; it’s also a bad thing if you’re a female because muscle is what gives you your shape and curves. If you lose muscle and then put all the fat back on again, your body will look less shapely and toned than it did before you lost the muscle! The best way to avoid losing muscle mass when you diet is to lift weights, which will tell your body that your muscles are in use and important.
6. Rapid weight loss is not good for you
If you do manage to lose weight, it’s very important that you do not lose weight too quickly. The reason is that rapid weight loss increases your likelihood of losing muscle mass, even if you lift weights. What’s more, if you were significantly overweight, rapid weight loss could leave you with ugly, loose skin. In extreme cases, rapid weight loss can even damage your liver.
The three steps
Now that I’ve laid out those key points about losing weight, I can reveal the three steps to successful and permanent weight loss. As you will notice, the three steps address the concerns raised in the key points listed above.
Step one
Start counting the number of kilocalories that you eat each day. It’s easier than you think. Just use an app. I recommend MyFitnessPal.
Simply install MyFitnessPal on your phone. If you don’t have a phone, you can use the MyFitnessPal website, which provides the same functionalities. The app and website are free. Once you set up the app, it will tell you how many kilocalories you have to eat each day to lose weight. You’re going to add everything you eat and drink to the app, and it’s going to count your kilocalories for you. It’s also going to show you if you’re getting enough of the right macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals, which is useful if you want to be healthy. Adding your meals is easy, and the process becomes easier the more you use the app. All you have to do is consume the number of kilocalories the app asks you to consume, and you will lose weight. It’s as simple as that. I explain how to set up the app for weight loss in How to lose weight by counting kilocalories.
Note that you will not have to count kilocalories for the rest of your life. After several months of using the app, you will learn portion sizes and portion control, after which you can stop counting kilocalories and use portion size estimates instead.
Step two
Download the Metabolic Cooking package.
The package will make losing weight, and keeping it off, much easier. The package includes a cookbook that contains over 250 genuinely tasty, nutrient-dense, and easy-to-prepare recipes (breakfasts, dinners, lunches, desserts, sides, snacks, and smoothies). The recipes are designed to boost your metabolism and encourage your body to burn fat. The package also includes various guides that will teach you everything you need to know about tasty fat-loss cooking, including what ingredients encourage your body to store fat and what ingredients help your body to burn fat. You will never again have to struggle through bland weight loss meals that bore you to tears. Instead, you will be able to enjoy tasty and exciting fat-burning meals that will make you happy, boost your energy levels, and keep you feeling full for longer. This, in turn, will increase your likelihood of sticking to your new diet and keeping the weight off. Best of all, the whole package costs only $10.
If the package is no longer available, you can always do your own research to learn about tasty fat-loss cooking. There should be other resources out there that provide the same types of information, tips, and advice.
Step three
Start training. As you’re aware, weight training is important to preserve your muscles and shape as you lose weight. By helping you to burn kilocalories, it can also help you to lose weight, as can cardio training. On this website, you have more than enough weight training programs and cardio training programs to choose from. Take advantage of them.
The time-saver weight training program together with just two cardio workouts per week should be enough to completely transform your body, dramatically improving your weight, body composition, flexibility, fitness, athleticism, and appearance. Try them. Once you start seeing results, you will almost certainly want to move on to the more advanced weight training and cardio training programs.
Another benefit of training is that, the more exercises you add to MyFitnessPal, the more food it will allow you to eat without exceeding your daily caloric limit. In fact, sometimes, you will find yourself having to eat without wanting to do so!
