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Last updated on January 8th, 2024 at 09:39 pm

Many people find it challenging to stay motivated when it comes to weight loss, they struggle to reach their weight loss goal or to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

When beginning a weight loss program it’s important to understand that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes.

There are different weight loss programs you can do,  but you need to put in some effort for you to get the best results.

Weight loss is a process that takes time and commitment,  however, with the proper knowledge, support, and motivation, you can reach your weight loss goals.

When attempting to lose weight, you need to understand the energy balance concept.

Energy balance is the difference between the calories you take in and the calories your body burnout.

Food provides calories to our bodies and at the same time, we burn calories in everything we do.

If the calories we take in are the same as the calories used, our body weight doesn’t change.

The goal is to burn more calories than calories taken in and eating a healthy diet is essential.

The key to successful weight loss is to find healthy ways to keep a balance between the calories you take in and the calories you burn.

We will guide you in how you can reach your weight loss goal and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Set Your Weight Loss Goals

Goals are important to us because they help to maintain accountability.

Having goals will help you to have something to drive you toward your goal, and they keep you motivated and focused.

Making your goals specific and time-oriented will help you know what goal you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it.

 Specify Your Goals And Time Frame

The more measurable your goal is, the more success you’ll have because you’ll be able to objectively achieve that goal.

Instead of saying I want to lose weight or I want to get strong,  it’s best to break that down for example if you currently can exercise for 5 minutes,  you can make exercising for 20 minutes your goal.

If your goal is to lose weight, you need to know how much weight you want to lose in a specific amount of time.

This helps you to measure how close you can get to that specific goal.

Focus On One Goal At A Time

Trying out everything all at once especially when starting to try out a new healthy lifestyle is going to set you up for failure.

When trying to lose weight, you want to drink more water, get more exercise, go to the gym, eat healthily, and you want to reduce added sugars.

There are all these things that one could do to lose weight but it’s a lot of things to pay attention to.

 Focusing on one goal at a time helps you to put all of your energy into that specific goal, and after you master that, then you can take on another goal.

Set Achievable Goals

You wanna set yourself up for success by giving yourself a goal you know that you can achieve.

This is a good strategy because every small goal you achieve will make you feel good and accomplished.

For example, if your goal is to eliminate added sugars, you can start by reducing the amount of sugar you consume, if you took 2 teaspoons of sugar with your tea or coffee, you can start by reducing it to one teaspoon, then half a teaspoon until you eliminate it.

If you’re using sweetened creamer in your coffee, you can replace that with an unsweetened creamer.

Once you’ve achieved that goal, then you’ll set another goal.

The more success you achieve in your fitness journey, the more motivated you are going to be to continue.

Find Motivating Factors For Weight Loss

You need to know why your goal is important to you, we all have goals and we all want to achieve things for ourselves but there’s always a reason behind it.

Is it because you want to look good and feel good about yourself? is it because you want to be healthy?

Understanding the why behind that goal is so important when you are having a hard time and 

struggling with motivation to keep going.

Not having a motivating factor, will make it difficult for you to stick to your health plan.

Weight loss is a motivator for sure but it’s a short-term motivator,  most people are motivated until they lose the weight and then they go back to their old habits and they end up regaining most of the weight.

Figure out what motivates you long-term so that you’ll be able to make those lifestyle changes and stick to them.

Many different things can motivate people to lose weight and my motivating factor is my family, I want them to have healthy eating habits and exercise regularly.

Even when I find myself backsliding a little, I know that my motivating factor will always encourage me to get back on track.

Tips For Successful Weight Loss

We have 9 tips that can help you to lose weight and reach your weight-loss goals.

1. Portion Control 

Restrict calories by reducing your plate. It’s easy to overeat when you use bigger plates.

Work to make your portion sizes smaller, this is an easy way for you to reduce the number of calories you eat every day.

Using smaller plates will help you to get used to eating smaller portions.

2. Get Enough Sleep

Getting an adequate amount of sleep each night is good for your body.

Lack of sleep can cause weight gain because lack of sleep can reduce hormones that make us feel full.

If your sleep is deprived, it’s almost going to be impossible to lose weight because sleep deprivation causes chronic stress.

You’re also not going to be able to have enough energy during the day to engage in a regular exercise routine.

If you can get 8 hrs of sleep, that will help your weight loss.

3. Learn About Nutrition 

Learning about nutrition doesn’t mean you’ll have to become a qualified nutritionist.

It will help you understand what you need, how much you need, and how different foods work in your body.

When you have good nutrition knowledge, you’ll be able to understand what carbs do, what protein does, what fat does to your body, and how it all works together.

People use different kinds of diets when it comes to weight loss and they include, soup diets, keto diets, smoothie diets, and more.

All this information will help you understand how to navigate through your weight loss goal.

4. Avoid processed food 

Avoiding processed foods is a great way to help you to achieve your weight loss goal.

You are more likely to eat good food when you make it from scratch.

Have you ever found yourself eating a bag of chips and couldn’t stop? This is because processed foods are highly addicting.

They are not only addicting, but they are also high in sugar, fats, and added chemicals.

This does not mean you should cut out processed foods completely because realistically avoiding any type of processing ever is kind of unreasonable.

5. Drink more water ( for weight loss )

Can drinking water help you to lose weight? The short answer is yes.

Drinking enough water helps to boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and acts as an appetite suppressant.

Drinking more water helps your body to stop retaining water which helps to lose weight.

Water aids digestion and promotes the normal functioning of body organs including the liver.

The lack of regular intake of water slows digestion, decreases fat metabolism, and makes you feel bloated and tired.

Drinking a sufficient amount of water increases the rate at which our liver burns off fat.

  Drinking inadequate water exhausts the liver and your body ends up storing more fat as it becomes difficult to burn fat effectively.

Getting a good water bottle that you can have with you all the time is a good way to increase your water intake.

6. Increase Physical Activity.

It’s important to stay physically active as it helps to lose weight and to keep it off.

When you are active, the heat produced by your muscles increases your body temperature, and this makes the heart beat faster, pumping more blood to the muscles you were using.

Exercise helps our bodies to burn off extra calories and over 90% of people who successfully lose weight keep it off by exercising every day.

There are many activities you can do to help your body burn off extra calories and these include:

• Walking
• Cycling 
• Weight training 
• Jogging
• Zumba
• Pilates
• Running 
• Swimming 

Exercise doesn’t have to be difficult or boring and it’s important to do exercise that you enjoy because enjoyment can boost your commitment to physical activity.

7. Intermittent fasting 

Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that alternates between periods of fasting and eating.

It is one of the most powerful tools for losing weight and the goal is to systematically starve the body long enough to trigger fat burning.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to get into a fat-burning state especially when paired with exercise and a health-promoting diet.

Intermittent fasting routinely gives your digestive system a break and allows for reset.

When doing intermittent fasting, it’s important to figure out the regular window that is easiest for you not to eat.

8. Drink Protein Shakes

Protein shakes are made using protein powder, which is a condensed powder made using proteins from either animal or plant sources.

Using protein powder for meal replacement can often be a smart move when following a weight loss plan because it takes longer for the body to digest, keeping you fuller for longer.

Protein powders are often used to make smoothies or shakes and some use protein powders in protein pancakes or protein muffins.

Protein powders are not just for bodybuilders or super heavyweight lifters.

They can also be for people who want to have healthy protein levels and for people who want to lose weight.

9. Eat Foods With Fiber.

Fiber is the part of a plant that your body can’t digest and can play a huge role in weight loss.

In addition to keeping your gut healthy and helping food to pass and keeping you regular, it helps make you full for longer, so you are not as hungry.

This will help you eat less and to stay within your calorie deficit.

Eating more fiber helps to keep your blood sugar levels stable and prevents a blood sugar crash.

Bottom Line  

There is no one quick fix when it comes to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

When you reach your weight loss goal, you need to practice a healthy eating lifestyle so that you won’t gain those extra pounds back.

It is also beneficial to exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.

Remember exercising doesn’t have to be difficult or boring and it’s also important to do exercise that you enjoy and are comfortable with.