You want to lose weight quickly and you want to achieve it in a healthy way. But how?
First of all, keep in mind that many experts say that losing weight gradually is the best way. We recommend that you stay away from diets and food supplements that promise to cause quick weight-loss. When you lose weight very fast, you will lose muscle, bone, and water first instead of fat, which may cause you to experience some health problems or decrease in your quality of life. It is best to base the weight loss process on changes you can make over time.
You may think that a strict diet and workout program that pushes the limits is a fast way. However, we would like to remind you once again that experts do not recommend this. Not much research has been done on the long-term effects that these types of diet programs have on your health. In any case, they won’t provide a long-term solution. It is better to have a meal plan that fits your lifestyle and that you can commit to over time. If you insist on getting faster results, you should definitely consult to a doctor or a specialized dietician to make sure you get the nutrients you need. In this case, our advice to you is to immediately throw away the diet plans and food supplements that you have received via the internet or other ways and consult a dietician or a doctor.
In order to lose weight in a healthy way in the long term, you can achieve your goal more easily than you think by considering the suggestions listed below. Firstly, aim to lose 1-2 kilos per week. But never turn this into a constitution. Always give your first priority to how you feel, and closely follow up changes in your body. Above all, keep in mind that this process will be easier with a high motivation. Stress or health problems are the most anticipated enemies that will cause you to fail in this process. If necessary, reduce your target to 1-2 kilos per month.
Have a plan
The first rule to lose weight is to burn more calories than the calories of the food you eat and drink. Although it may seem like a simple rule, you either might have experienced that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, or you will face the real case soon. When you start a diet plan where you reduce the calories you take, your body will perceive it as a matter of life and death. Your metabolism, which basically converts the calories you take into energy, will slow down as a vital precaution. As a result, your weight loss process will stop and your slow metabolism will stay away from several vitamins and minerals necessary for your body with the reduction of nutrients you take in with foods. While weight loss is generally fast in the first weeks of diet programs, the sudden weight-loss causes serious low motivation in people; also, physical fatigue and psychological effects caused by the lack of vitamins and minerals cause people to end their diet processes. So run your weight-loss process following a balanced program that doesn’t include too much calorie deficit.
How do you do that?
Reduce your portions. Switching from 5 spoons to 4 spoons will make huge differences. To do this, replace the serving plates and spoons you use at home with smaller ones. Calculate how many calories are in the foods and portions you take. Read their labels to find out how many calories the foods contain. You will be shocked when you see how many calories pre-made sauces and processed foods have. 2 spoons of pomegranate syrup added to 1 plate of salad will double the amount of calories of that plate. Long story short, try to keep the calorie intake below your daily calorie needs.
Drink more water, choose foods that are useful to you, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein. Thus, you go on having good nutrition.
It is a good idea to consult to a dietician if you believe that you cannot regularly follow what we have mentioned above. They will create a meal schedule and plan that suits you and your needs.
Get Support
Many apps can help you track the amount of calories you take daily. You can use your smartphone to keep up with your program, since, most probably, you always have it with you. Or keep a food log where you write what and when you eat. This way, if you cannot achieve your target weight-loss as a result of your program you can look at this log and create your next program accordingly.
You’ll also want to have people with you to help keep you motivated and cheer you up. Therefore, ask your family and friends to support your efforts to lose weight. Also, talk to someone you know who is losing weight in a healthy way. Their advice will motivate you.
Follow up your progress and your body, take advantage of technology. To keep your motivation high in the process, follow up your progress closely by making use of the technological opportunities around you. Besides your weight, follow up data such as your Body Fat Percentage,Muscle Percentage,waist and hip measures, visceral fat percentage by comparing them over time. These data will help you steer your diet and sports program. We suggest you take a look at our article below about this subject.
Get to know yourself
At the most basic level, food is fuel. It gives you the energy to do things. But very few people eat only for this reason. At every social event, that’s where most of us resort to when we have a hard day. You need to know the food and situations that drive your urge to eat even when you’re not really hungry, and have a plan for those moments.
The first step is to find out what your triggers are. Do you have stress, anger, anxiety or depression in a certain part of your life? Or is eating a reward for you when something good happens? Then, try to recognize these feeling when they arise and have a plan ready to do something else instead of eating. For example, you can walk for a little bit or send a text message to a friend, it will be useful to spend some time on social media, unless you have friends who post their meals and dinner plates.
Take some food types out of your life while giving more room to others.
You don’t have to be vegan, take gluten-free food, or quit any food group to lose weight. However, it will not be a bad idea to stay away from foods that have a load of calories that do not benefit you throughout your life.
Limit the excess sugar in your life. The sugar in crackers, cookies, sweetened beverages, and other products often have many calories, however, their nutrient contents are very little. Aim to consume less than 10% of your daily calories on these additional sugars. Do not consider the amount of sugar you get from natural fruits in this calculation.
Be selective about carbohydrates. You can decide which ones to eat and how much to eat. Choose foods with a low Glycemic Index (for example, asparagus has a lower Glycemic Index than potatoes) or those with less carbohydrates per serving than others. Whole grains are a better choice than processed foods since these processes remove essential nutrients such as fiber, iron, and vitamin B.
Add protein to your meals. It is a food group that will both suppress your feeling of hunger and let you enjoy eating if you like it. It will also help you protect your muscles. Lean meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products can be preferred. Also, you can meet this need from vegan sources such as nuts, beans, and soy.
Alternative protein sources
In Turkish cuisine, sufficient protein intake from various sources is provided in almost every region. So it can already be found in your diet, but the protein in your diet may be from weaker and unhealthy sources (fatty red meat, processed foods, etc.). So first choose to go for healthy protein sources. Remember that your protein requirement depends on your age, gender, and how active you are.
Prefer good fats. A small amount of fat can help you feel good and fit during the diet process. The best options are fish, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. These are foods with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat groups that are particularly beneficial for our health.
Prefer fibre rich foods. You can get fiber from vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. The best sources are artichoke, green peas, broccoli, lentils, and lima beans. When it comes to the fruits, raspberries lead the list.
Eat more frequently. You can avoid the hunger effect by eating 5-6 meals a day. You can divide your calories equally into all these mini meals or make some larger than others. This frequent eating habit will also help speed up your metabolism by keeping your digestive system constantly active.
Pay attention to what you drink. An easy way to lose weight fast is to cut liquid calories such as soda, juice and alcohol. Replace them with zero-calorie drinks such as lemon juice, unsweetened tea or black coffee. Diet drinks will save calories compared to sugary drinks. But if you consider them like a meal, you will deprive your body of food sources and make your diet difficult.
Work out Of course, one of the indispensable elements of a healthy life is to exercise regularly. But working out should definitely not be regarded as an instrument to lose weight. Of course, regular exercise speeds up your metabolism and indirectly helps you lose weight by burning fat. But this is just one of the benefits of working out. We strongly recommend that you exercise in every stage of your life. In our article, we want to warn you about the workout program that you will perform in the process of losing weight. As we mentioned at the beginning, your first priority should be how you feel. In this process, a heavy workout program can decrease your motivation by increasing your fatigue. In addition, during the diet, your body’s self-repair period will be longer after working out. Therefore, we advise you should do follow a workout program under the supervision of a professional trainer during the weight loss process. For this, you can subscribe to a gym with experienced trainers in your area. These trainers will direct you to the necessary sports equipment and programs according to your age, gender, and health status.
In Turkish cuisine, sufficient protein intake from various sources is provided in almost every region. So it can already be found in your diet, but the protein in your diet may be from weaker and unhealthy sources (fatty red meat, processed foods, etc.). So first choose to go for healthy protein sources. Remember that your protein requirement depends on your age, gender, and how active you are.
Although the formulas for determining your ideal fat ratio are still controversial in the medical and fitness world, we share the two most commonly used measurement parameters below to get an average figure:
