1. Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
You’re not just trying to lose “weight”, at any cost. That usually involves losing water and muscle mass from the body, both of which are bad! You really want to lose excess body-fat and reduce your body-fat percentage, whilst preserving your existing muscle mass.
2. Shoot For the Goal
Setting specific, realistic goals is absolutely essential to success, in anything. You need to know exactly what you’re trying to achieve, by when and why. Who are you really getting in shape for: you or somebody else? Simply wanting to “lose weight” is no good. Be specific!
3. Eat Real Food!
You’re designed to eat a natural diet, made up of “real food”. When you eat like this, your body will be lean, strong and healthy. A modern diet based around highly processed, commercially farmed “fake foods” is likely to leave you overweight, exhausted and generally unhealthy. This is not the way it should be!
4. Move Like a Human
You’re a human being and you’re designed to move, a lot. You’re not designed to sit in a chair for 8 hours a day and stare at a computer screen! When it comes to moving properly – moving like a human– the quality is more important than the quantity. More is not necessarily better.
5. Do Less Cardio
What? Have all those people pounding away on the treadmill day in and day out really got it wrong? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Doing more cardio-vascular exercise is not the best way to lose weight and can even make you gain fat around your middle. Resistance training (lifting weights) is far superior for fat loss.
6. Drink More Water!
Your body is about 75% water and your brain about 40% water. It’s essential to stay hydrated for physical and mental performance. Being dehydrated can also show up as “false hunger” and cravings, making you eat more than you need.
7. Get More Sleep
You need 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Lack of sleep and poor quality sleep (due to waking up to urinate or sleep apnea for example) lead to increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This can encourage your body to store fat and can contribute to increased inflammation in the body, thought to be the precursor to many chronic diseases.
8. Address Your Stress
Chronic stress is the enemy of fat loss and your health in general. Like too little sleep, it can elevate your cortisol levels and lead to increased fat storage around your middle, memory deterioration and premature aging.
9. “Good Carb/Bad Carb”
The modern diet is based around refined, starchy carbohydrates (“bad carbs”) mainly in the form of gluten containing grains. You’re not designed to eat these, they’re bad for your health and a disaster if you’re struggling to lose weight. Watch this video to find out what “bad carbs” are and what “good carbs” are and start to lose weight within 7 days.
10. Diets Don’t Work
Restrictive, fad diets don’t work, are unsustainable and can seriously damage your health. Of course, some people will lose weight on the latest, fashionable diet. The big problem is when you stop, you’ll quickly put weight on again, with interest! Too many yo-yo diets can make you fatter than ever.