Life
5 things you can do to lose weight
Karl from Vitruvian Health shares some tips on how you can lose weight.
One of the biggest reasons why people don’t lose weight is because their body is too stressed. A happy, healthy body does not want to hold onto excess weight. A stressed body holds onto weight (fluids, toxins and fat) to ‘protect’ itself. Stress is a blood glucose mobiliser. If you impair your body’s ability to handle glucose, then it will not store it in the muscle, it will store it in the fat cell. Muscle burns energy, fat keeps us warm.
The tips below are to help your body stress less and to help you become more insulin sensitive.
Tip 1 – Stop eating without direction!
Eating without direction refers to:
- Overeating;
- Undereating;
- Binging;
- Pretending you’re doing ‘intermittent fasting’, but really just not having breakfast and then eating whatever you want during the rest of the day;
- Not tracking your food;
- Shoving food in your gob when you only have 5 mins and not caring what it is;
- Doing what you are currently doing and worrying about weight loss;
- Doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result.
To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit – that is, you need to eat less energy than your body needs for the day.
We all know eating vegetables is good for us. We know protein helps, yet we get complacent and look for the most convenient thing. In doing this, we stop prioritising ourselves and what goes in our mouths. Quite simply, the weight gain is a reflection of this.
If you really want to lose weight, it requires commitment and changes to what you’re eating on a consistent basis.
Tip 2 – Get sufficient protein
Protein is the building blocks for muscle and recovery.
Protein when consumed will break down into amino acids and will help with countless processes such as metabolism, immunity, reproduction, cell regeneration, the endocrine system etc
Only when the body is in homeostasis (balance) will it then prioritise fat loss, whilst sustaining muscle.
Tip 3 – Drink more water
It’s more than you think – way more in fact. It’s very unlikely that you’ll drown from doing so.
In short, if you pee is yellow, your body ain’t mellow for weight loss. So drink up until it’s clear, particularly in the first 6 hours of your day.
Tip 4 – Improve your sleeping habits
To sleep, your body needs to be ready to do so.
If you pass out from exhaustion, your body is just playing catch up. If you’re laying awake for 10+ mins after laying down to go to sleep thinking about things, your mind is not ready to sleep.
To improve your sleeping habits, our top 3 tips are:
- No tech 1 hour before bed;
- Have a hot / cold shower;
- Condition yourself to go to sleep when you lay in your bed;
Tip 5 – Limit your caffeine intake and breathe instead
Caffeine should be consumed within the first 6 hours of your day starting. After this, caffeine’s half-life will keep your cortisol high and delay the release of melatonin – making it more difficult to sleep and hindering your ability to lose weight.
Next time you go and reach for a coffee, reach for a green tea instead. It has a compound called L-Theanine which helps lower cortisol in the body and helps with focus.
Bonus Tip! The Magic Powder: Cacao powder
If you like hot drinks and chocolate, this is for you! It’s full of magnesium so it will help relax you either into your afternoon or preparing you for sleep.
If you’re interested in understanding more about your exercise and what you’re working towards, check out this video with Karl in which he explains that if you want to achieve a result with your health and wellbeing, then you’ll always have a direction to work towards.
This article was kindly provided by Vitruvian Health.