What are the best ways to lose weight?
Many years ago, I spoke with someone whose BMI was so high her GP refused to prescribe her the contraceptive pill. I will hold onto this conversation forever more because it seemed crazy. You see, she was in the army. Her body was, and possibly still is, made up mostly of muscle, bone, and water. She was fit beyond belief. Although she was shorter than average and stocky; she could run for miles with a heavy weight on her back. She could climb over the biggest obstacles and dash through rivers without concern. The GP did not consider this. When she stood on the scale it showed a bigger number than the chart expected. The GP concluded it wrong to prescribe the pill.
The research shows that the combined hormonal pill is contraindicated for use by women with BMI ≥35 kg/m2 because of increased thrombotic risk. However, the research I cite below includes the comment “BMI does not distinguish between lean and fat body mass, but for most people (other than highly trained athletes) a higher BMI reflects more body fat” (Lopez, 2016). There is an assumption that higher weight = higher body fat. This is an assumption and I have learned never to assume! If you feel interested in your body composition you can use a bioelectric impedance analysis body scale which will tell you (to the best of our current technological ability) the proportion of your body that is fat, water, bone, and muscle. You can then look to set yourself goals to increase or decrease the fat / water / muscle according to what is right for you.
How to Lose Weight Fast
I have always preferred to write about health and body confidence rather than losing weight. When I do write about weight loss, I prefer to think of adapting your lifestyle to achieve a healthier body, with a healthy combination of fat and muscle rather than “losing weight”.
A good friend of mine recently reduced the amount of fat on their body quickly and easily. They spent a long time in the lead up (months) researching an eating plan that they believe in. Health is important to them, and the new lifestyle needed to take this into consideration. The new daily menu included everything they needed nutritionally but nothing more. The number of calories taken in daily was significantly lower, around half the amount, of the recommended daily calorie intake. This makes sense. The recommended daily calorie intake is the number of calories recommended to maintain balance based on an assumed amount of movement in a day. To reduce the amount of fat on their body whilst moving the same amount each day the calories taken in needed to reduce. However, it is important the nutritional value of the food was high to maintain health.
How to Kick Start Weight Loss
When you move more and eat in a way that is accustomed to what your body requires, your body composition will adapt accordingly. Taking the time to research the nutritional quality of the foods you take in alongside some investigation into what your body needs will help you to make sure you eat well. A nutritional therapist will guide you if you feel overwhelmed when you research alone. I recommend the work of Dr. Chatterjee to learn at home.
Once you have an idea of the right diet for you a hypnotherapist will help you to commit to the new plan. Hypnotherapy will also help if you want to stop eating specific foods. I recently saw a client that I worked with many years ago. In one of our sessions, we used hypnosis to generate an aversion to chocolate. They haven’t eaten chocolate since, many years on. Hypnotherapy is beneficial if you need further motivation to exercise and to explore reasons for overeating if you feel this is an issue for you.
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What Foods are Good for Weight Loss?
I remember when people used to say that you burn more calories eating celery than you take in. Sadly, for those that spent many days on the celery diet it is an old wives tale! Instead of looking at foods that are good for weight loss I prefer to focus on foods that benefit us holistically. Dr. Chatterjee has a ‘top 5 to reduce depression’ which includes eliminating processed foods and highly refined carbohydrates, reducing sugar intake, increasing healthy natural fats, eating more fatty fish / seaweed / grass fed beef and lamb / leafy green vegetables / chia seeds / flax seeds / nuts for the omega -3 fats and eating more prebiotic fibre. When you eat these foods that benefit your body instead of the less nutritious foods your weight will adapt accordingly. The bonus will be a better mood.
In summary if you wonder how to lose weight well the simple answer is to focus on your health. Learn what your body needs. Provide your body with what it needs and only what it needs. Keep in mind that low fat processed foods generally make you build fat.
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To help you start your ‘increase muscle, lose fat’ journey now you might like to read about Why Is Nutrition Important?
Lopez, L.M., Bernholc, A., Chen, M., Grey, T.W., Otterness, C., Westhoff, C., Edelman, A. and Helmerhorst, F.M., 2016. Hormonal contraceptives for contraception in overweight or obese women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (8).