How to Lose Weight the Healthy Way (Road to Healthy part 14)

Hello :)

Yes, it's another health post, I just feel more inspired to write these types of posts lately. As you can tell by the title this is a weight loss post, I just figured since it is the summer and everyone wants to look their best, it would be useful to find some tips and tricks to how to lose weight without going on some fad diet or going crazy with the working out. I looked a bit into it and here's everything, I personally approve of.

As most of you know, who have been following the health posts for a while, I do not support calorie restriction, since that will most definitely lead to a lack of micronutrients, however eating a little bit less, especially if a person is eating more than their recommendation is, is one way of losing weight. Another method is to work out more, therefore increasing the calorie need, but not changing the food intake. Those I feel wold be the most common ways that people know of, to lose weight. I'm obviously no expert, but I wouldn't recommend going anywhere below your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate), because that's the amount of energy you need just for all of the organs to work properly.

A good point to start would be to assess, if you actually need to lose weight, maybe you're perfect already. One of the easiest ways to do that would be to calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index), that gives you the estimate of wheather you're within a healthy range or not. For most people, who have an average body fat percentage, the perfect BMI would be between 18,5 and 25, I'll just link a calculator HERE, for anyone interested to check out their BMI, you need to know your height and weight to calculate it. Obviously it is not completly accurate, since it doesn't show the body fat percentage and it also doesn't actually show how fit or healthy you are, however it has been proven that for optimal health the BMI should be between 21 and 25, there are increased levels of risk for different health problems for people below or above that range.

Now that you've got an estimate of where you belong on the scale of BMI another thing I personally find more important is how I feel, if I feel good in my body and confident in it and I also fall under a healthy weight range, then I don't think I need to lose weight. A good estimate for me is also to take my measurements every now and  if they're roughly about the same as always, then I don't feel the need to worry. The problem with this is, that a lot of people will still feel bad about their bodies, although they are a perfect weight and obviously very thin, I can't say that I fully understand that, since I've never been in their position and I think a lot of it is stuck in our heads, whether we like ourselves or not. I'm not perfect by any means, but I don't concentrate on all the things I think could be different, I think about how great my body is for keeping me alive and most days I feel good about the way I look, but that's a whole other subject related more to confidence and bodyimage, so I won't talk about it much longer.

Now that you have decided that you wish to lose weight or be slimmer, more fit, here are some healthy ways you can start moving towards your goal. The most important part is your diet. So I found a few things that should not be done, when choosing out a diet to follow, it is advised to be sceptical of combination and crash diets. The first ones are the big fad diets that are constantly found in magazins and online articles, but in fact they only work because they are low calorie diets in disguise and we don't want that. Crash diets cause a person to lose weight very fast and eventually, once the diet stops, also gain weight very fast, that's not good because with every weight loss and gain cycle the body learns to store fat more efficiently, your body doesn't trust you anymore and therefore holds on to the fat even more, so say no to crash diets.

An interesting thing to try is to wear less clothes, it may sound odd as a way to lose weight, but when you are constantly warm, then you burn less calories than you would, if you were feeling a little bit cooler. That also goes for the tempereature in the house, perhaps turn the heat down a little bit, especially if your roommate is constantly saying that it's too hot and she can't sleep, yes that's directed to you Kai.

In addition to that interesting fact, one thing that is advised is to watch the balance of macronutrients, especially fats, the recommeneded amount of energy that should come from fats is 25%-35%, to lose weight it would be good if the percentage would be 30% or less. You can track your macronutirent intake via various apps or Nutridata/Cronometer, I'm sure you can find one that would suit you.

It's also advised to consume less sweet and startchy foods, yes that makes me sad as well, I love all things sweet, but if you are trying to lose weight, then maybe a little less of those. That doesn't however mean that you can't have carbs at all, it simply means that maybe replace potato for pasta, processed white-flour products for those that are whole-grain and also obviously have fruit and vegetables.

Another weight loss tip is to eat meals rather than snacks, apparently food eaten as meals gives you less calories than the same amount of food eaten throughout the day, this was definitely interesting for me, since a lot of people recommend having smaller meals throughout the day, but in fact the body burns more calories digesting a bigger meal, so for those wishing to lose weight, that might be the way.

Also it has been shown that coffee, drunk with a meal, helps to burn calories, I don't personally like coffee, but if you do, then maybe give it a try.

When it comes to exercise, it is advised to work out for 20 minutes three times a week. Moderate exercise is the best for your health, so keep that is mind, give yourself rest days Intensive exercise increases the free radicals produced in the body and therefore if you are training very intensively, you should at least be consuming a combination of antioxidants.

If you feel like you're doing all that, you're also eating a relatively healthy diet, not too much sodium, processed food, saturated fats, you have enough energy to go about your day and your doctor says you're healthy, then maybe you actually don't need to lose weight after all.

If you still feel like you wish to be fitter, which definitely is the case for me, then you can try to improve that side of you instead of focusing on the numbers. Now this got really long again, there were actually quite a few other things I would've wanted to cover in this post, but I think this will be it for now. I definitely have more health related posts coming up, so stay tuned.

Kaiela :)