The COVID-19 pandemic has every second person worried about their weight. Whether it is the fear of looking plump once the lockdowns are lifted or goals set for your body during self-isolation, losing weight has become the motto of the day.

Do you, too, feel like your weight isn’t budging one bit despite your tiring efforts? 

Well, worry, not. The following strategies to boost your weight loss will definitely be of great help to you. 

Increase Your Intake Of Whole Foods

While the common conception holds that you have to stick to a specific diet for weightloss, studies show that you can do so on any diet as long as you consume fewer calories per day.

Our bodies have a fantastic way of turning any food group into an energy source. So, if you think you won’t be storing fats by eliminating it from your diet, you won’t be burning any either!

Whole foods like vegetables, fruits, meat, and healthy fats digest slowly and keep you full for longer. If a significant amount of your diet involves whole foods, it will be easier for you to stick to a diet plan. Planning one odd cheat day isn’t going to do you much harm.

Exercise And Workout

There is plenty of research showing how you can lose weight by just sticking to a diet plan. While there is nothing false about that, it mostly isn’t the type of weight loss you are looking for. 

Weight loss inspired only by diet burns your muscle mass as it burns your fat. Your overall weight reduces, but your fat percentage remains the same, more or less. And by fat percentage, I mean when compared to the muscle mass of your body.

So, you’d probably end up looking skinny-fat instead of having an aesthetic look. 

Working out adds additional benefits to your weight loss routine. Because if you can burn fat and build or retain muscle at the same time, why not?

Including mild to medium intensity workouts as running, cycling, or swimming will bear good results. Research shows that starting off with high-intensity exercises have little chances of success. Not what you thought, right?

The reason why medium to low-intensity workout is recommended is that frequency matters most. Getting your running shoes on and running 10-miles every month wouldn’t bear the same results as running 1-mile every day.

When you exercise daily, you use up energy in a more frequent and sustained way. This improves your metabolism, which helps you digest food faster and burn fats even quicker.

Weight Lifting

The thing that most people get wrong about weight loss is lifting weights. A common belief is that the only exercise to burn fat is cardio, which can never be more wrong. 

While cardio is an amazing way to improve your metabolism and burn fat, it isn’t the only one. The best-recommended strategy by experts is by combining both the workout plans. Weight lifting gives you a better fighting chance against muscle degeneration from low-calorie diets. You retain, or at times, build muscle while burning fat.

But that’s not the only reason to consider this for your routine weight loss. Speaking science means more muscle mass means more energy requirement, which means that you’ll be burning more fats even when you are not exerting during the day.

Improved muscle mass also calls for improvement of your body’s metabolism. So now, you’ll be able to digest food much faster and burn fats even when consuming food. How cool is that?

Use Supplements

It is impressive to see how there is a shift towards acquiring food in healthy and natural forms. Many people, even some gym-goers, believe that nothing beats getting nutrients in the raw form. If you have to eat protein, eating meat is the only way to go about it.

While there is some truth to it, it isn’t always the case. Not all processed foods share the same dreads. Food supplements like protein, amino acids, Omega-3, and yellow Sumatra are some of the best additions you can make to your diet.

Supplements are mostly macronutrients. This means your body takes longer to break the nutrients down and digest them. Before you assume it’s a bad thing, it’s not!

If your body is taking longer to digest these nutrients, it means you’ll be getting a sustained flow of energy. Unlike the random energy spikes, you get from consuming sugar or caffeine.

Supplements like whey protein and mitragyna speciosa seeds pack an incredible amount of energy as well. This not only keeps your nutritional requirement met during weight loss but also makes it easier to stick to your diet. Since you won’t be getting random food cravings because you won’t eat more than you need.

Prioritize Sleep

It is sad to see how many people neglect the importance of sleep during weight loss. So, you just had a busy day and barely made it home in time for your rest. Are you going to hit the gym still or prioritize sleep?

If you think going to the gym and compromising your sleep hours will help you lose weight, you’re wrong. Research shows that the rest needed by your body outweighs the importance of exerciser and working out. Who would’ve thought sleeping is better than working out?!

Because when you’re sleep-deprived, your body secrets hunger hormones, and that’s why you get cravings. So, you end up eating more than you should, canceling out the effects of exercise altogether. Also, you do not allow your body the time to recover completely, which can lead to muscle degeneration as well,

But the important thing to note here is that you shouldn’t make a routine out of missing exercise either. Suppose it is happening one odd day, fair enough. But if your daily routine starts looking like coming late from work and missing the gym, you may need to change your schedule. 

Instead of leaving exercise and working out as the last activity of your day, shift it early in the morning. Waking up an hour before your usual time will improve the overall quality of your sleep and life. You’ll be able to have a shuteye much quickly rather than twisting and turning in your bed as well.

Consistency

This probably doesn’t get the attention that it deserves, but it is more valid than you think. The best workout or weight loss program is the one that you stick to. Because what’s the point of going on a crash diet for a couple of months only to see yourself regain the weight once the diet plan is over?

Although crash diets are an amazing way to rapidly cut off weight, you need to think more about the long term. Because losing weight isn’t as big of a problem as maintaining it is. 

So whether it is dietary changes or including exercise, make sure to select something you can carry out for a long. And the best way to do that is by doing a bit of research. Learn to know what your body type is what weight loss strategy you are most reactive to. And then craft out a plan for yourself or find one specifically for you online.