The ability to lose weight is one of the problems that the human race is facing globally – from vigorous exercises, to starvation, diets and magic weight-loss tea, men and women alike are trying everything.
Dr Charles Livingston has come up with yet another weight loss routine, only better and more likely to work. He explains why people fail to lose weight even when they are dieting and working out regularly. Why at a certain point people stop losing weight just when they are only a few pounds away from their goal weight.
MORE MEALS, SMALLER PORTIONS
One of the few myths that steers people in the wrong direction of weight loss is “having bigger but fewer meals.” It is believed that having fewer meals would help you reduce weight. However, by eating six meals that are the size of your palms rather than three big meals, your ability to lose weight faster will be increased. The reasoning that Dr Charles gives for this is that having a little amount of food every three hours keeps your body in a constant state of metabolism, which utilizes energy but at the same time it’s a constant supply of energy.
SLOW AND STEADY, WINS THE RACE
The second myth revolves around “trying to do too much at once.” Dr Charles suggests that rather than bringing about a change in a period of 30 days, slowly change it in 90 days. Start with exercising for the first 30 days, the next 30 days bring about a change in your diet (more meals, smaller portions) along with exercise and the final 30 days try eliminating all the unhealthy food from your plate for lean protein. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Even though a shock treatment helps for weight loss, it is short term and harmful to your system.
NO HEALTHY EATING HABITS, NO ABS
“The secret to abs is in exercise,” is yet another myth. While it is partly true, you can’t get prominent abs without altering our kitchen habits regardless of the exercise you’re involved in or the machine that you use to build abs.
DON’T STARVE YOURSELF
Another myth discussed is that “starvation is the key to weight loss.” When you starve yourself, your body goes into a slower metabolic mode as food is suddenly in short supply and your body is not used to it. Since people can’t starve for long, a sudden increase in food intake leads to increase in weight as rapidly as ever. You should think of your metabolism as an engine. It needs constant supply of high quality fuel to run efficiently and smoothly.
CLEAN YOUR LIVER
Remove toxins from your body and prepare it for a weight loss program. People usually consume processed carbohydrates that are easily converted to sugar in the body than complex starch. Higher sugar means more fat. So first, you should switch to whole grains, brown rice, lean protein and legumes rather than white rice, refine atta rotis and noodles.
This change in your diet will cleanse your body and make it toxin free. Your liver is the main toxin remover of your body. When you keep eating processed foods, you clog your liver leading to unbalanced fat metabolism and storage. Therefore it’s important to get rid of toxin and cleansing your internal system.
EXERCISE
You should focus on different exercise routines as well. The catch here is tricking your body with variety. Since your body tends to get used to the same exercise routine leading to a stop in weight loss, it gives you a different workout routine for every week. Your body adapts to using energy as efficiently as possible. You can do different workouts each week (even every day) such as swimming, boxing, spin class, hill sprints or power walks. This helps your body access excess fat stored and increases body metabolism.
Include high interval training as part of your routine. Jogging at a constant speed might make you sweat and lead you to thinking you are losing weight. However, it doesn’t increase your metabolic rate. The best way to turn up your metabolism is punctuating your workout. Give brief intervals, run at steady pace and then run quickly. This change increases your metabolic rate more effectively then running at a constant pace.
Lastly, don’t focus on what your scale tells you. Understand that the main goal is to lose fat rather than weight. The change in your diet might even lead to increase in body weight as you consume more protein and your muscle mass increases which is a good thing as you lose body fat.
