When it comes to losing weight, it can be a bit of a waiting game. For sustainable results, quick fixes won't cut it: you need to be consistent for a while before you reach your goal. However, there are ways to make the journey easier. By making some small habit changes, you'll speed up weight loss and find it easier to stay consistent.
Focus on the tasks you do every day rather than the outcome and use these five tips to speed up your weight loss.
Increase Your Lean Protein Intake
While it's true that you have to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, not all calories are the same. The food you consume can be broken into three macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Protein not only feeds your muscles and assists with growth that improves your metabolism, but it also keeps you feeling fuller for longer, so you don't give into snacking.
Incorporate lean proteins like chicken and fish into your diet, replacing some of the fattier protein options. If you struggle to reach your protein goals, there are plenty of protein powders for women for weight loss to supplement your diet.
Drink More Water to Speed Up Weight Loss
Drinking plenty of water is the key to losing weight. Adequate hydration will flush your system of impurities and keep your metabolism operating as it should. The added moisture helps with digestion, and the water takes up space, making you less likely to overeat.
Set a goal to drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up and before every meal. If you have a history of inadequate hydration and dysfunctional eating cues, there may be times when your body confuses thirst signals for hunger.
Do it with a Friend or Coach
Working with a friend creates a sense of accountability that helps speed up weight loss. Rather than struggling to reach your goals alone, you'll have someone by your side experiencing the same challenges. You can motivate each other and use some collaboration and friendly competition to get the job done.
If you don't have a friend with similar goals, it's worth investing in a nutrition coach to help you lose weight on your schedule. They'll be able to help you set realistic goals and determine the path to get there. A good coach is a sounding board for plateaus and challenges while providing accountability.
Blend Resistance and Cardio
While cardio tends to burn calories faster, resistance training burns calories over a longer period. In simple terms, building and maintaining muscle burns requires more calories than maintaining fat. By incorporating weight training into your fitness regimen, you'll start torching calories hours after you've left the gym.
For the best of both worlds on a tight schedule, add in some high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. Take some time to educate yourself and move past the stigmas of weight training to speed up weight loss and accomplish your fitness goals.
Create a Sleep Routine
While exercise and nutrition play a huge role in weight loss, there are other underlying factors to consider, as well. Getting enough sleep is crucial for proper metabolic function and hormonal regulation. If you're sleep-deprived, your body gets confused. Stress can cause weight gain even when you're doing everything else right.
Create a sleep routine that ensures you're getting the rest you need and an environment that promotes sleep: a dark, cool room with noise cancellation. Limit screen time before bed to offset the impacts of blue light on your circadian rhythms. Consider leaving your phone across the room to remove temptation, both for late-night scrolling and hitting the snooze button.
Additionally, you can take a glass of warm milk with a pinch of turmeric. There are numerous benefits of turmeric and one of them is that it helps in stabilizing metabolism. So this little routine can have a considerable effect giving you two benefits, i.e. good sleep and help in weight loss.
By incorporating these healthy actions into your plan to speed up weight loss, you'll improve your chances of not only reaching your goal but doing so efficiently.
