When it comes to weight-loss, exercise seems to get a lot of the attention. Often, when a person’s progress stalls, one of the first things they do is increase exercise duration, frequency, or intensity— sometimes all three!
While emphasizing on exercise, we need to pay attention at few other things first:
1. Nutrition
2. Sleep
3. Stress
4. Daily movement
5. Training
Each one of these factors have an effect on the other, and to be able achieve the best results possible it is important to optimize each of these areas.
To get started with the process of weight-loss in a sustainable and healthy manner is way more effective than just increasing exercise duration.
If you are struggling to keep up with one of these areas, then it could be the reason why you are not experiencing the results that you wish to see.
Nutrition: Eat Proper & Exercise Consistently
Losing weight is a skill…a composite of underlying skills like mindfulness or nutritional knowledge. We lose weight when we eat less calories than what we use up.
Both Gym and Diet are equally important to lose weight and to improve health. Doing less exercise consistently is better than doing more sometimes and missing it completely at times. Don’t get caught up in the “all or nothing” mindset. Start slow with exercise and stay consistent.
Seek out exercise that rewards you mentally and emotionally as well as physically. Find things you enjoy doing, at any activity level. It’s more important, especially when you’re getting started, to focus on what you can do and step up from there.
Sleep
Sleep makes you feel better, but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more.
If you are thinking about going on a diet, you might want to plan an earlier bedtime too.
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that dieters who were well rested lost more fat—56% of their weight loss—than those who were sleep deprived.
Dieters in the study also felt hungrier when they got less sleep.
“Sleep and metabolism are controlled by the same sectors of the brain,” “When you are sleepy, certain hormones go up in your blood, and those same hormones drive appetite.”
Sleep is the key for optimal health, and when you are short on sleep it affects everything from mood, hormones, stress levels, appetite, willpower, energy, the ability to train hard and recover well, and so much more. If you discover that you’re frequently getting less than seven hours of sleep per night, there is a good chance that this is hampering your weight loss.
Stress
I think we can all agree that stress is bad. Excess stress can cause headaches, muscle tension, digestive problems, sleep disturbances, depression, and now new research shows it may also wreak havoc on metabolism.
Some stress is essential and even a good thing, but too much of it for longer periods of time will cause problems.
High level of the stress hormone cortisol has been shown to up appetite, drive cravings for “junk” food, and make it oh so much easier to accumulate belly fat. But now, study shows that stress may also result in burning fewer calories. If stress causes your body to burn less of the fat you eat (making it more likely to be stored) aim to include some healthy fat in your meal—but avoid “doubling up.”
In the context of weight loss, stress can prevent us from getting good sleep, and it can contribute to emotional eating. Not only that, but the body also views intense training as a form of stress, and when you start piling stress on top of stress, it can affect your weight loss efforts, not to mention that you won’t feel great.
Breathe before you eat
We continuously breathe without thinking about it, yoga guru’s always mentioned & recent western research also showed that relaxed, controlled breathing can effectively reduce cortisol levels. Before each meal, take a few minutes to sit comfortably in a chair, and spend a few minutes focusing on breathing, slowly and deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. You may be amazed how quickly this technique can help relieve muscle tension and shift your mindset.
Daily Movement
Most of us sit for eight hours or more each day, which makes us quite inactive. It’s handy to exercise or just get up and move your body as often as possible. This allows you to get out of the same seated position, and possibly prevent musculoskeletal imbalances that often arise from sitting for long periods of time. (Also read, exercises that can be done on a chair or while setting)
Activity and exercise are not always the same. If you’re already training several times a week, think of ways to increase your non-exercise physical activity. Move your body at every given opportunity. Find time during the day for an extra walk. Make it a point to get up and move around as often as possible. At night, do something active for half an hour before you sleep.
Training
Ah, training, at last. Training is the most important for weight loss and preserving and building muscle, fixing imbalances, gaining confidence, improving bone density, and keeping your heart healthy, just to name a few benefits.
We recommend the following for most women who want to feel better, lose weight, and gain or preserve muscle:
• Strength training three to four times per week, prioritizing big multi-joint movements, and following it up with supplemental work, hypertrophy or “beach” work (typically single-joint movements like biceps curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises), and core work. Its not about making muscular body, its about having a strong fit physic.
• Moderate-intensity cardio twice per week for about 25 minutes per session, keeping heart rate between 120 and 140 beats per minute
• One or two interval sessions, or HIIT (high intensity interval training) sessions per week.
That’s it!
If:
• Your nutrition is right for your body
• You’re getting plenty of high-quality sleep
• You’re keeping your stress in check, and
• You’re moving your body a lot each day
Then, Weight loss would be possible in a healthier way.
Remember, everything counts! Nutrition, Sleep, Stress control, Daily movement, and Training works best as a cohesive unit.
Make small improvements consistently and you’ll move in the right direction in leaps and bounds!
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