The problem with a quick, easy solution to losing weight is that it usually leads to quick, easy weight gain shortly thereafter. There are hundreds of weight loss tips out there, and you may be tired of hearing the same advice repeated over and over. The truth is, there are no new weight loss tips. The same honest truth of yesterday is the truth today. Losing weight requires that you change your eating habits, exercise more, and live a generally healthy lifestyle. A particular weight loss program can help you lose the initial pounds you need to shed, and give you advice on how to keep them off, but the rest is up to you. Going straight back to your old habits is not going to help you stay in shape, or stay healthy.Before you choose a weight loss program, let’s go through those tips one more time. This time, put them into practice – lose the weight, and keep it off.1. Lose weight for the right reasonsBefore you even look at a diet plan or exercise schedule, look at why you want to lose weight. If you want to improve your health, look and feel better – great! If you want to be able to play with your kids more, that’s super. Trying to get your ex back, look better than the next door neighbour, or because your partner says you should – not so good. The best motivation to lose weight is to do it for yourself – nobody else. Health reasons should be foremost, because being overweight can cause health issues that will be with you for the rest of your life.2. Choose a weight loss program carefullyYou must be realistic when you choose how you are going to go about losing weight. Your lifestyle may not suit every type of program or diet, and choosing one that you cannot adjust to or cope with is setting yourself up for failure. Look at your current eating habits, level of physical activity, work schedule, family and social life.Think realistically about how much change each of those areas can withstand. For example, if you do no exercise at all, you’re going to struggle with a weight loss program that requires intense exercise from the get-go. If you eat out regularly, you’ll need a diet that allows you a wider choice of food types to accommodate that. Counting calories can be time consuming, so if you have a busy schedule, you may want a diet that either lays it all out for you, or gives you more flexibility. Try not to be sucked in by the promise of losing a certain number of pounds in a specific time period – everyone loses weight at a different rate, and the only way to guarantee you will lose any weight is by following instructions to the letter.3. Set realistic goalsThis cannot be repeated enough. Setting goals that are nigh impossible to reach just sets you up for failure, disappointment and misery. Break your goal up into smaller, more achievable steps. Monthly or weekly goals are easier to achieve. Make sure that your goals represent a healthy weight loss – which most often means gradual weight loss leading to a healthy weight for your age, gender, height and body type.4. Write it all downWhether you call it a food diary or a success journal (personally I prefer the latter), get into the habit of recording your eating habits – and preferably start doing this before you go on a weight loss program. Record what you eat, when you eat – and why you eat. Why you eat will help you identify what triggers the unhealthy eating habits that may have led to your weight gain. Boredom, loneliness, anger, frustration and stress can often lead us to unhealthy snacks and comfort food, even though we know it’s not good for us. Use your diary or journal to record your goals, and your progress.5. Program for success, but expect some bad daysForget about all the diets you’ve been on in the past! Program yourself for success on this one, but accept that there will be bad days – and even bad weeks. Nobody is perfect, and you will have a day or two where it just gets too much for you. You may skip a workout, or find yourself unable to resist the donuts your colleague brought to work. It’s okay to slip up! It is NOT okay to give up. One bad day, one poor decision, or even a string of them, does not mean you have failed. It just means you had a bad day. Tomorrow does not have to be the same, so just get started right away.6. Get supportWhether it’s friends, family or an online group, make sure you have people to support and encourage you – especially on those bad days. There are thousands of people in online groups who share their experiences with different diets and weight loss programs, have been through the same difficulties you may be facing, and many who have succeeded. Read their stories, chat to them, and learn from their mistakes.7. ExerciseWhether you like it or not, some form of physical activity must be included in a healthy lifestyle. Not only does it help you lose weight, but it will help you maintain the weight loss. Of course, the health benefits are a big factor – even if you’re thin, exercise is good for you. You will find that the usual recommendation is between 30 and 45 minutes of exercise three times a week. Recent research indicates that those thirty minutes can be broken up into three 10 minutes sessions, with the same results. 10 minutes is often easier to fit into a busy schedule, and the exercise you do will keep your metabolism boosted throughout the day. Your exercise program should involve activities that you enjoy doing. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re going to find any excuse not to do it, or be miserable when you are. One of the three factors most likely to lead to successful weight loss is having home exercise equipment, so that may be an avenue to investigate too.8. EatingWhether you are following a specific diet plan, counting calories, or just cutting down on the ‘bad’ food, there are a couple of things that can help you.Eat slowly. It takes 20 minutes from the time you start eating, for your brain to register feelings of fullness. If you gulp your food down in less time, you won’t know you’re too full until it’s too late. Stop eating when you feel satisfied – not full.Watch those portions – especially when you are eating out. Eat half the meal and take the rest home in a take out box. At home, use smaller plates – a great way to make sure you don’t serve too much, but your plate will still look nice and full.Go easy on the salt, limit high fat foods, replace red meat with lean poultry and fish, and drink lots of water. Don’t skip meals, especially breakfast, as that’s the meal that wakes up your metabolism and gets it going for the rest of the day.9. Chart your progressKeeping track of your progress, including any slow or stalled loss periods, will let you see what helps you to succeed, what causes problems, and when to celebrate. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, even if they are following the exact same plan as you. Everyone loses weight at a different rate, due to metabolism, muscle tone and body type differences.If your progress has stalled, particularly towards the end of your diet, you may have hit a plateau. The best way to overcome this is to change something. Exercise in the mornings instead of the evenings, swop carbs for proteins and vice versa in a few meals, or even take a few days break altogether. A plateau means your body has settled into a routine, and often all it needs is a little jolt to get it working at losing weight again.10. Maintain, maintain, maintain!It is common sense that once you’ve lost weight, going back to your old habits will bring the weight back on, but so many fall into that trap. Either their diet was so radical it is impossible to continue in real life, or the weight loss program failed to explain how the dietary changes made to lose weight can be adapted to maintain your new weight. After your ‘diet’ is finished, you should have a better idea of what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat it. You should be feeling the benefits of regular exercise, and in fact be able to do more exercise because you are now fitter and stronger. Adapting your weight loss program to a weight loss maintenance program and a new healthy lifestyle should be a priority.Although these tips may seem like common sense, old hat or just another repetition, that doesn’t mean you’ll take heed. Most of us know when we’re eating the wrong food or not exercising enough, but that isn’t always enough. You have to take action in order to change your life, and there is no shortcut. A weight loss program can help you get the weight off, but you have to keep it off. It is not easy to lose weight, and no-one takes kindly to change, but if you want to improve your health and well-being, you are going to have to put some effort into becoming healthy. The results will, however, definitely be worth it.
Tag Archives: Weight Loss
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!