It’s easy to get caught up in a cycle: people get busy, opt for quick meals, don’t have time for exercise and so on and so forth. And in the age of the internet, it seems like everyone has a suggestion.
There are all these schemes for losing weight quickly, everyone has an idea or a product they swear by. It can be hard to distinguish what works and what doesn’t. First, we need to start at the beginning: all bodies are beautiful. It less about an appearance change and more about feeling food and fit and ready to take on life by the horns.
There are ways to feel better about yourself and your health. In this post, we’re going to touch on some changes in diet that will help you lose weight naturally.
Fat Burning Foods to Reach Your Goal
First is protein: having a protein high diet is key. Your body loses weight when it is working hard to digest protein and in turn, boosts your metabolism. This means that your body loses more calories while digesting food. In other words: eat lots of proteins and get your body working for you instead of against you.
Stay Away
It has been said time and time again: avoid processed food. A lot of processed foods are high in sugar which is not great for your body. Added sugars can lead to heart disease, diabetes and has been linked to some cancers.
While this is all sound scary, as with everything in life, balance is key. Having a sugary snack here or there is fine: treat yourself! But be aware that a lot of food have hidden added sugars – it’s important to be aware of how much-added sugar is in the food you consume. A study done in 2015, showed that Canadians between the ages of 9 to 18, consumed 115 grams of sugar per day, which is equivalent to about 27 and a half teaspoons of sugar a day.
The same study showed that for Canadians over 19 years of age, consumed slightly less: 85 grams or 20 teaspoons. The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that people ingest no more than 48 grams of sugar a day which comes to about 12 teaspoons.
To put all this into perspective, a can of pop contains about 10 teaspoons which is 85% of your daily added sugar allowance.
Burn Fat While You Eat!
Apart from watching and being careful about what not to put in your body, there are also some fat burning foods that will work with you.
One of these is fatty fish: Albacore Tuna, Salmon (wild or otherwise), Atlantic Herring, Anchovies, Trout. One of the biggest perks of fatty fish, also known as oily fish, is the high amounts of Omega 3 that have. Omega-3 is incredible for your health and wellbeing and comes with a myriad of benefits: everything from maintaining good skin, hair and nails to brain health. Omega-3s do it all, and you want to aim to have them as a regular part of your diet.
In terms of fat burning foods, oily fish is a great source of protein, and as mentioned previously, protein is a good way to raise your metabolism. Apart from that, in a study published in 2010, scientists found that people who took some form of fish oil supplements lost more weight and also had a drop in their cortisol levels. Cortisol is your stress hormone and controls your ‘fight or flight’ instincts: in moments of stress, your body creates a lot of it. However, if your body is always producing a lot of cortisol, it can lead to weight gain.
Green tea and coffee are also both good fat burning foods. Green tea is a great source of EGCG. Epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG for short, is an antioxidant that has been shown to help burn fat. It has also been shown to burn stomach fat specifically.
Pair it with Exercise
Diet is important, especially when it comes to making life changes and trying to change your health and appearance. But diet can’t do it alone. To feel your best, you have to also use exercise while maintaining a good diet.
As great as the “how to lose weight fast naturally” schemes or the organic weight loss pills sound, they are not always the healthiest way to go about it, nor are they the most effective. In order to get where you want to go, start doing some cardio.
If you don’t exercise often, start small. Go for a bike ride or for long walks. Go for a lane swim at the pool. What’s most important is to just get yourself in the habit of it. Remember – all bodies are beautiful. The only thing you are trying to change is how you feel. Getting fit is not about appearances, but about health and mood.