weight loss tips and lessons learned

weight loss tips and lessons

weight loss tips and lessons

1. Effective weight loss is really 80% diet and 20% workout effort.

You can workout for hours and hours but not lose weight if you eat too many calories.

You can diet and not workout but you can lose muscle mass and your metabolism will also slow down to a crawl.

 

2. NEVER treat yourself or cheat on your diet for working out.

Treating yourself for working out will just make you gain weight in the end.

Work out calorie trackers are also known to be off and tend measure slightly higher than actual calories burned.

Relax a little bit (just a little!) on weekends or special occasions for sanity.

 

3. Cooking most of your own meals and meal prepping for the week is the best way to control calorie intake.

Its way too easy to order unhealthy meals or giant portions when eating out. Preparing meals also allows you to use healthier/better quality ingredients while saving alot of money.

Youtube is a great source for healthy or low carb recipes.

For the fellas!, you can also impress the ladies by learning to be a wizard in the kitchen. ????

 

4. Weighing Yourself : no more than once a week at the same time of day.

Our weight fluctuates throughout the day so stick to weighing yourself at the same time every week or every 2 weeks. Dont drive yourself crazy weighing yourself every few hours or other day either. Once a week will give you a good idea how you are doing.

In the beginning you may lose more but for the long run shoot for 1lb to 2lbs weight loss loss average per week.

 

5. Lifting weights is amazing and should be done, but CARDIO is king for burning calories.

You MUST SLOWLY OVER TIME increase your cardio performance (duration, Speed) or your weight loss can plateau as the body is always trying to maintain homeostasis so your metabolism can stall.

Its a good idea to use performance gains as motivation. If you keep progressing and your diet is in check results in the mirror always follow.

 

6. We all have crappy days or weeks so you will skip workouts or screw up the diet or just give up at times. It’s ok, as long as it’s not too often.

This weight loss journey is all about the long game and lifestyle change so never forget how far you have gone and how far you have to go. One day or a few days of screwing up wont erase weeks or months of progress. Get back up and keep going!

 

7. You will stall or plateau at times, even in a calorie deficit when you should be losing weight.

Don’t be upset when the scale stops dropping. Keep going and if you don’t lose weight after a few weeks then you must lower calorie intake or increase cardio duration.

 

8. Eventually you may find yourself at an advanced stage with the cardio such as running or biking at a fast speed for an hour a day etc. Its a good time to throw in HIIT, Interval training or Tabata workouts.

After losing my first 60 or so pounds I was running 6 miles every day and found it hard to advance with the cardio. At this point I threw in 15-20 minute HIIT workouts on the Elliptical machine or Bike followed by another 20 minutes of easy to moderate steady state cardio. This helped me break a plateau, shed 30 more Lbs and also increase my running speed.

You can find tons of HIIT, Interval or Tabata workouts on Youtube for everything from running, cycling, Jump rope, elliptical machine and more.

 

9. For the most part weight or resistance training (even simple weight training plans) will keep and/or build muscle while the cardio burns more calories/fat off.

You always need both for optimal health and also because  muscle can be burned off instead of fat without resistance training if doing a lot of cardio.

 

10. Highly satiating food (high protein , high fiber) is generally the healthiest stuff you can eat and the easiest way to stay full in a calorie deficit.

Processed carbs (most things made in a factory or bakery) are just high calorie ,low fiber, low nutrient, low satiating foods.

Its really easy to eat a few loaves of bread and be hungry soon after, but eat a nice big bowl of  steamed Broccoli with chicken or steak and you wont be hungry for quite a while. In addition you would be eating way less calories and getting much more nutrients.

 

11. Sugary sweets should mostly be removed from your diet.

Those who cant live without Sweets should learn to make their own low carb healthy versions at home with Stevia or other zero cal sweeteners. Youtube is a great resource for healthy recipes.

There are also great lower carb/calorie/fat options of sweets available in stores such as Halo Top Ice cream or Zevia Colas but you shouldn’t go crazy with them.

 

12. I know this is hard for some as I’ve been there, but NEVER be ashamed to work out in public because you feel that you dont look  just like some gym addicts, athletes or trainers.

Focusing on your workouts and increasing your performance over time in addition to the scale dropping is the best motivator to reach your goals.

No one should or can judge what fit and healthy is solely based on appearance. We all have different genetics and more people than you think out there who look fit are actually not very fit or healthy on the inside. Steroids, illegal/dangerous fat burning drugs, horrible starvation diets,  plastic surgery, fat or oil injections and other unhealthy tactics are used by some (fitness models, trainers, or normal gym goers) without putting much effort into performance/health – all in pursuit of certain looks.

It’s not worth paying too much attention to others or feeling ashamed for not looking a certain way. Its best that you stick to just doing you and staying active for long term health, better performance and also being happier with the mirror over time.

IF I CAN, SO CAN YOU!

  • NEVER STOP BELIEVING IN WHAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH HARD WORK AND DEDICATION!

    IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS OR QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO HIT US UP HERE OR ON INSTAGRAM : @S4HEALTHFIT

s4health

Pain is temporary, Pride is forever!

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6 Responses

  1. Jay95 says:

    Thanks for sharing your tips. Your IG is very inspirational too!

  2. SassyM says:

    Ugh I’m at the worst plateau of my journey. I wont budge I’m between 205-198 for almost three weeks ???????????????? I sooooo needed to read this. Thank you!!

  3. Luvbee357 says:

    I lost 100 lbs with eating right and exercising. I had a baby and continued dieting and exercising afterwards and lost the baby weight plus more. You can do it people. You’ll feel more good about yourself too

  4. Gizzeleee92 says:

    @s4healthfit you just won over a new fan… I’ll be following you on Insta ????

  5. Sarah92livefit says:

    Hey this is Sara, we met last week at the gym. Awesome site! Hope to see you there again soon ????????????

  6. Puppyluvr212 says:

    Really great advice! It’s frustrating sometimes, but I noticed that when I stick to my diet, eventually the number on the scale drops, even if it goes up first! 🙂

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