In theory, losing weight isn’t complicated—but it’s not necessarily “easy.” You know you have to eat fewer calories. You know you need to burn more calories. At Thin MD Med Spa in Jacksonville, FL, we want to help you achieve your weight loss goals. From fitness specialists to certified nutritionists, we have a top-tier team whose mission is to help you get or stay healthy. Today, we reveal four tips for good weight loss.
4 Ways to Achieve Good Weight Loss
1. Cut Back on Carbs
Have you ever come back from a cruise and felt like you gained 15 pounds? That bloated feeling is primarily caused by water retention. You probably know sodium causes your body to retain water. But did you know that carbohydrates make your body retain water, too?
When your body converts a single gram of carbohydrates into glucose for storage, four to five grams of water is stored with that gram of carbs. This might not sound like a huge deal. However, if you eat 200 grams of carbs (a mere 800 calories) per day, your body holds on to 800 to 1,000 grams of water. Remember, 1,000 grams is a kilogram, or 2.26 pounds. That’s right. Your body will hold on to over two pounds of water if you eat 200 grams of carbs. And let’s be honest: nearly all of us eat more than 200 grams of carbs per day.
2. Take a Long Walk
Not everyone is fit enough to run. Some people are recovering from injuries. Others are recovering from surgery. It doesn’t matter why you can’t run: the important thing is you can probably still walk.
Cutting carbs is a good weight loss tip if you are already at or around a healthy weight. It allows you to shed significant pounds and inches quickly for your rapidly approaching event. Where cutting carbs fails is in achieving sustainable weight loss. That is where walking regularly comes in.
Good Weight Loss Through Walking
In the short-term, walking can burn about 85 to 150 calories per mile, depending on how much you weigh. If you burned 100 calories, you would burn off 25 grams of your body’s glycogen reserves and at least 100 grams of water.
If you took your one-mile walk before breakfast, your body’s glycogen stores already depleted from the night before, it taps your fat reserves for fuel. We call this “Exercising Low”. This allows your body to be in an ideal state for fat burning. Since there are nine calories in a gram of fat, your one-mile walk would burn roughly 11 grams of fat.
Walk up and down hills, jog to the mailbox five houses down from you, or pump your arms while wearing wrist weights. Adding a little intensity to your walk can make a drastic difference in weight loss.
3. Eat More Protein, Fat, and Vegetables
We all need calories to live. Some of us need 1,200 calories per day to maintain a healthy body weight. Others are competitive athletes or work blue-collar jobs and need a few thousand calories per day to maintain a healthy level of muscle mass. If you’re supposed to be cutting carbs to lose weight, where are your calories supposed to come from?
You don’t have to jump on the keto bandwagon and eschew carbs for good. You can still eat birthday cake in moderation. But you want most of your calories to come from protein, fat, and veggies.
Getting Protein
Full-fat Greek yogurt is an ideal breakfast choice because Greek yogurt is significantly higher in protein and lower in sugar than traditional yogurt. Moreover, the fat in the yogurt helps to keep you feeling full.
Other great sources of protein include poultry, game meat, eggs, fish, and other seafood. We don’t recommend eating too much cheese because it is so calorie dense. Cheese is high and sodium and can raise your blood cholesterol levels. If you don’t consume meat or dairy, we strongly recommend nuts (like almonds and walnuts) as well as legumes. Included in the legume family are peas, lentils, quinoa, and beans.
The Right Fruit and Veggies
While most fruits are relatively high in fiber, they are also high in sugar. The type of sugar most commonly found in fruits is known as fructose. It’s not bad for you, but you want to limit your overall sugar intake as much as possible when trying to lose weight. When deciding which veggies to include with your meals, remember that your plate should look like a rainbow.
Deeper, richer, or more vibrant colors are the best. For example, Brussels sprouts and kale are more nutritious than iceberg lettuce. Similarly, different colors indicate the presence of different nutrients. For example, orange in fruit or a vegetable is a good sign that there is beta carotene, essential for your eye health.
4. Pump Iron
Any good weight loss plan includes weight lifting. Neither women nor the elderly produce enough testosterone to “bulk” from weight lifting. Rather, lifting weights allows you to develop sleek, toned, beautiful muscles. We strongly recommend weight lifting three to four times per week to all our clients. There are a few reasons for this.
Calorie Burning
First, lifting weights burns calories. Whether you’re lifting heavy weights with fewer repetitions per set or you’re lifting moderate weights with many repetitions per set, you’ll feel your heart pumping by the end of the session.
Muscle Building
When you dial in on the adequate types and amount of protein you need, you’ll build muscle. Weight lifting doesn’t just burn calories and fat while you exercise. In fact, you’ll burn calories at a higher-than-normal rate for up to 72 hours after you lift. That’s because when you exert your muscles, it makes tiny tears at the cellular level. Your body must then spend energy to repair these torn muscle fibers.
Future Burning
A pound of muscle burns approximately four times more calories than a pound of fat when your body is at rest. Once you finally hit your goal weight, you can consume more calories and maintain your ideal weight than if you were at the same weight but had less muscle mass.
Schedule Your Free Initial Consultation Today (904) 694-0992
Good weight loss is hard. It takes both discipline and education. Contact the dedicated medical professionals at Thin MD Med Spa in Jacksonville, FL, to schedule an initial consultation today, and tomorrow you may have the body of your dreams!