Losing weight may seem like a major challenge when you’re first beginning your weight loss journey. But it is only daunting when you don’t understand the basics. Once you gain a better understanding of how your body functions and specifically how it stores and burns fat, you will find losing weight to be a breeze.
The first thing to understand is that there is no magical cure for weight loss. There is no simple diet that just makes you lose weight, and no magical exercise plan that will evaporate the pounds from around your waist. That being said there are certain things that you can do to put your body on the correct tract towards weight loss.
Ultimately, the most important factor in successfully losing weight is your diet. What you put inside of your body will determine not only your eventual weight, but also your overall health. The standard theory about weight loss is that weight loss is triggered when you burn more calories than you consume.
This is correct, but things are a little bit more complicated than that. Not all calories are made equally. Eating calories that have little to no nutritional value, also known as “empty calories”, is going to put on weight. This means, avoid foods prepared with refined sugars, refined flour, or processed foods. Eat whole and unprocessed foods, like fruits, whole wheat grains, natural sweeteners, etc.
Your diet not only affects how much food you eat is stored as energy, it also affects how your body makes use of that energy. You can affect your metabolism with your diet, you just have to eat foods that burn slowly, such as protein and dietary fiber rich foods. This will keep you satiated longer which will reduce your cravings, and it will keep your body constantly expending energy.
