7 Tips to Lose Weight + How to Speed Up Your Metabolism

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Weight loss is a topic of vital importance for everyone that is truly interested in their health. Although many of us make weight loss our new year's resolution, it is a topic that must be dealt with year round. I've put together 7 simple steps to lose weight, plus details on how to speed up your metabolism. 

• When starting a weight loss journey, especially a significant one, clients that set multiple small goals instead of focusing on the main goal are much more successful.  It is much more daunting to think about losing 50 pounds in 6 months than it is to focus on losing 10 pounds in one month. By choosing the smaller goal, in 6 months you will have lost 60 pounds instead of 50.

• Reducing your stress level is essential when on a weight loss or fitness plan. Depression can cause you to eat more, eat unhealthy foods and reduce exercise. When you are stressed out it is hard to find motivation to exercise, so reducing stress can lead to being more active.

• Increasing the taste and zest in your food can help you feel full and make dieting a great deal more pleasurable. By choosing spicy food and other flavor-packed cuisines, you entertain your taste buds and add to the overall level of satisfaction you take in eating. Meals no longer have to be bland, self-denying experiences.

• As soon as you start to see some progress with your weight loss goals, reward yourself with a little shopping trip. You don't have to spend a lot of money. Just buying a new pair of pants or a new shirt will go a long way toward motivating you to continue. Soon you will see even more changes!

• To help achieve more noticeable weight loss, watch the amount of sodium that you eat each day. Eating too much sodium can cause you to retain water which will lead to pounds on the scale. If you do not see your weight go down, you may become discouraged and give up your diet. Knowing that muscle weighs more than fat is important because the scale isn’t always the best indicator of improved fitness. I always go by how my clothes fit versus the number.

• You should always try to find diets and eating plans that emphasize long term lifestyle change. Using methods of weight loss that have you losing weight much too quickly will only lead to you gaining back all of the weight you lost just as fast as you lost it. This becomes a vicious cycle for too many women. Are you one that's tried every diet? I am! Before becoming a trainer, I did the Cabbage Soup diet, South Beach, Atkins, Detox Diet....and the list goes on. Inevitably I'd lose and then gain back everything I'd lost plus another 5 or so pounds! Those are not long term fixes, and once you're 'off' the restrictive plan, you make up for lost time and gain more weight back than you lost. 

• Weight loss is all about consistency. Don't wake up one morning, think you are going to go to the gym or start boot camp one day, and be skinny the next day. Weight loss is about waking up every morning with the motivation and determination to keep on going, to keep changing your unhealthy habits into healthy habits, until you reach your target weight.

Every one of us has an idea about what we would look like if we were our ideal selves. For many of us losing weight is a vital step toward achieving that vision. By applying the tips from this article you will help ensure that you reach and maintain your ideal self. Weight lifting is a critical piece of any good weight loss program. Research has shown that weightlifting boosts metabolism. For a lot of people trying to speed up their metabolism, the first thing they think is to engage in an aerobic or cardio-exercise program. However, by merely focusing on cardiovascular activities, you may actually miss another piece of the fitness puzzle. Few people realize that when it comes to speeding up metabolism, good old-fashioned weight lifting is one of the effective methods, if not the best way to boost metabolism.

A number of studies have shown that athletes exhibit higher RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) than non-athletes. RMR is the number of calories we burn to maintain our vital body processes in a resting state. It is usually determined by measuring a body’s oxygen utilization (which is closely tied to calorie burning) while one is lying down or sitting quietly in the early morning before breakfast or after a full night’s sleep. RMR typically accounts for about 65 to 75 percent of the total daily calorie expenditure.

When you lift weights, you’re not actually building muscle, you are breaking it down. The physical exertion involved in weightlifting causes the metabolism to speed up. After the muscle is broken down, the body compensates by building more muscle to try and keep the muscle from breaking down again. It takes a large amount of energy from calories to rebuild new and bigger muscles (happens while you sleep), So lifting weights burns calories and speeds up metabolism not only during the weight lifting workout but also while the body builds bigger and stronger muscles.

A weight lifting routine must be done correctly and at regular intervals to get the maximum effect. Going to the gym once a week will not bring the kind of results I am talking about. It will take some time and dedication to build new muscle mass but the end result will be worth it with a better body and a sped up metabolism. Texas Fit Chicks boot camp trainers teach women HOW to lift and at intervals that work. Our program is proven to get results, and we are so confident in it that it’s 100% guaranteed.

For taking the time to read this article, I would love to extend the offer of a free class with Texas Fit Chicks if you've never experienced a TFC workout, to see if our program might be right for you. Feel free to visit our website (www.texasfitchicks.com) to see which location works best for you. Reach out to the trainer in your area and let her know you’d like to try a free class. She will sign register you for the trial and get you all of the information you will need.

Committed to your success,
Melody Chandler, CPT
Owner/Texas Fit Chicks Boot Camp
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