Exercise and Diet is a One, Two Punch to Lose Weight

Spending some time doing physical activity is a great way to keep in shape. However, there are some folks out there who no matter how hard they try, can’t seem to lose weight. What many people tend to forget is that physical activity is only one part of the solution. A good nutrition plan should be part of every workout as it helps your intake of calories. The question on everyone’s mind is “How do you combine exercise and diet?” Below are some highly recommended ways you can try to be a better and healthier you.

Diet and Exercise that Boost Weight Loss

Before anything else, let’s delve on the subject of diets. What is a diet? If you want to get a bit technical about it, a diet is the sum of food a person eats. Diets can be either good or bad depending on what you consume and how much you consume in a day. This is why you call it a diet plan. You plan out what you’re allowed to eat and how much should you eat throughout the day. Different people require different diet plans. A bodybuilder’s diet plan may require them to eat 6 meals a day. An obese man’s diet may only require them to eat only 3 times a day with no carbs. In the meantime, it is best if you consult your dietician and figure which diet plan is the best for you. Here is a list of diet plans to give you an idea how you should plan your diet.

Ketogenic Diets

Ketogenic diets are currently one of the most popular forms of diets to take because of how effective it is in helping you lose weight. A keto diet works by reducing or fully eliminating carbohydrates from your diet. When you do that for a long period of time, your body goes into a state of ketosis where your liver starts producing ketones. Ketones come from the fat your liver breaks down and uses that for energy instead of carbohydrates. However, there are a couple of mistakes people make when doing a keto diet.

The first mistake most people make is by not having enough fats in the diet. When you grew up, you were told that “fats” can make you fat – which simply isn’t true. Fats are used by the body as an energy source and to support cell functions. What really makes you fat is the glucose you get from carbohydrates and sugars. Glucose is also used as an energy source in the body but unless you’re intensely exercising every single day, that excess glucose becomes fat. Ketones are different in that any excess ketones will either be used by the brain and muscles or be urinated out. To make your body use your fat as energy, you have to consume a healthy amount of fat. Some items that have healthy fat are butter, cheese, olive oil, eggs, etc.

Another mistake people often make is eating too many proteins. When you eat too many proteins, your body starts to use protein instead. The reason why this is bad is because proteins are what your body uses to repair cells, make new cells and gain lean muscles. If your body starts using your protein as energy, you’ll start to see a loss in muscle mass which in turn makes you have slower metabolism, loss of muscle strength and difficulty balancing yourself.

The third biggest mistake people make is snacking too much. There’s are a lot snacks that are safe to eat in between meals such as nuts, cheese and yogurt but the problem begins when one eats too many snacks. That can build up excess carbs overtime and you’ll start to gain weight instead of losing it. Try your best to stick to the diet plan and you won’t regret it.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting is another way to control your eating. It is essentially where you eat normally within a certain time frame before you fast the rest of the day. This can hold a number of benefits such as increased metabolic rate and improved weight. Do note, however, that this isn’t for everyone. Children and the elderly and people with certain medical conditions should not do this unless approved by a professional. If you are willing to go through with Intermittent fasting though, there are several approaches you can do. Here are some of them.

The 8:16 fast approach is where you eat for only 8 hours and fast for 16 hours. This approach is great for beginners and can help them ease into the intermittent fasting lifestyle. Most people only eat breakfast and lunch as those two meals are the most important to take throughout your day. The reason why people tend to skip dinner is that you don’t need as much energy in the evening as you do in the morning. That’s why people tend to start their fasting during dinner time. Not only that but you can sleep through the rest of the 16 yours too so it’s easier for you to keep the fast.

Another approach you can follow is alternate day fasting. This approach is a little more difficult to follow but the results can be worth it. To do this approach, you only need to eat every other day or heavily restrict the amount of food you eat on the days you fast. Obviously, this isn’t for everyone with most people not being capable of lasting a full year with this diet. However, you have enough will power to stick with this approach, you’ll be able to see results very quickly.

The Warrior Diet may be the most difficult approach when it comes to intermittent fasting. It’s similar to the 8:16 where you eat within the 8 hours and fast for 16 hours. The warrior diet makes you fast for 20 hours and you’re only allowed to eat for 4 hours at dinner time. Although this may be extreme to most, it can help improve weights loss much faster than the other approaches. But, like the alternate day fasting approach, not everyone has the will to do this for more than year especially if you’re not that committed to this approach.

Veganism

Veganism, like Ketogenic diets, is a very popular form of diet that has just recently gained widespread attraction around the world. Veganism is the elimination of animal-based food products from your diet. This includes but is not limited to beef, eggs, milk, cheese, pork,chicken etc. To some people, Veganism is seen more of a plan that they just go through until they’re done but to others, it is considered a lifestyle change. By sticking with veganism, you bring a whole host of benefits to yourself. Benefits like lowering your blood sugar or reducing the risk of cancer.

However, there are also cons to doing veganism such as limiting some of your essential nutrients like protein. On a vegan diet you are more likely to gain certain conditions like Anemia. Before you decide to go into veganism, you have to do a lot of research and planning in order to mitigate the cons of following this diet

Here are some vegan alternatives that you might want to consider

• Jackfruit
• Soy Milk
• Tofu
• Mushrooms
• Beans
• Cashews

Carnivore Diet

The Carnivore diet is the exact opposite of the veganism diet where instead of eating only vegetables and fruits, you eat only meat and other animal-based products. It’s also similar to the keto diet due to its lack of carbohydrates.

This diet is very good for building muscle because of all the protein you’re consuming. However, it does have the same problems that the veganism diet has which involve limiting the essential nutrients your body needs by just only eating meat. If you’re not careful with this diet, you could end up hurting your liver in the process.

Here’s some meat products that you might want to try out:

• Chicken
• Bacon
• Eggs
• Milk
• Cheese
• Beef

As stated before, a good diet plan should be paired with a good exercise routine. There are a lot of things to consider when you plan your exercise routines, such as how long do you intend exercise or how intense should you be performing. It’s recommended that you do your research first or consult a professional to make the most suitable decision. Some routines may work well for others and it’s best to determine for yourself what works best for you. Here are some exercises that can help boost your weight loss:

Endurance Exercises

Endurance Exercises, sometimes called aerobic exercises, are exercises that increase your heart rate and breathing rate for an extended period of time. This type of exercise is one of the best exercises for strengthening your heart, increasing your metabolism and developing fatigue resistant muscles. It’s highly recommended for older adults and people with certain health conditions to perform endurance exercising at least 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes.

One of the reasons why endurance exercises help with boosting weight loss is because they’re being performed over a long period of time. This means that you expend more energy and, therefore, lose more weight. Some examples of endurance exercise you can do are:

• Brisk Walking
• Biking
• Swimming
• Jogging
• Football
• Basketball
• Dancing

Of course, you need to be careful when performing endurance exercises as they can lead to injury such as sprains and bruising. Be sure to drink lots of water and stop when you think you can’t handle anymore. Always listen to your body and don’t push yourself too hard.

Strength Exercises

Strength exercises are another form of exercise that involves building muscle strength by using resistance. Strength exercises are the opposite of endurance exercises. The latter is all about performing the exercises for a prolonged period of time with low intensity while the former is about exercising at high intensity for a short period of time. Strength exercises can be good for many reasons like reducing muscle loss in your old age and increasing your metabolism. However, this type of exercise can be very dangerous especially of you don’t know what you’re doing. Try to research or consult a professional trainer before attempting to do strength exercises with high intensity. Here are some examples of strength exercises

• Deadlifts
• Push ups
• Squats
• Hip Thrusts
• Rows
• Lunges
• Crunches

Remember to always be careful when adding weights or resistances. You have to only use as much as you can carry or you can end up injuring yourself further. It can be helpful to practice your form first as technique can greatly reduce the risk of injury.

Flexibility exercises

Flexibility exercises such as Pilates and more aggressive forms of Yoga are a great way to help tone your body into shape. These exercises primarily focus on form and using your own body as weight but it can be tweaked to either be more relaxing or more intense. Flexibility exercises are very beginner friendly and often are the number one choice for people with medical conditions or elderly adults. One benefit that’s often overlooked when performing these exercises is that it helps you obtain proper posture. It does this by stretching tight muscles while strengthening weak ones so that your body is more evened out. Some of these exercises include:

• Shoulder Stretch
• Hamstring Stretch
• Triceps Stretch
• Butterfly Stretch
• Ballistic Stretching
• Myofascial Stretch

The key is to always focus on the form and proper posturing. Steady your breathing and trying to relax. Most of these exercises are not meant to be too intensive so learn how to take your time and feel your body. Some flexibility exercises can be considered Strength Exercises because of the use of resistance tools like thera bands and weighted balls.

Balance Exercises

Balance exercises are primarily used to strengthen your lower body but that doesn’t mean it can’t help you with your weight loss journey. When you train in balance exercises, you don’t just lose weight but you begin to train your other senses too like proprioception. Proprioception is the ability to sense your body in space which is very important for things like walking and jumping. These exercises are also good for people who are afraid of falls because it increases your reaction time and confidence.

Here are some balance exercises you can follow:

• Side Leg Raises
• Reverse Lunge
• Single Leg Squat
• Bosu Ball Squat
• Toe Taps
• Knee Bends

One of the interesting things you can do with balance exercises is that you can combine them with the other forms of exercises. You want to turn your balance exercises into a strength exercise? Just add resistance. You want to turn your lunges into a flexibility exercise? Just add a bit of stretching. There’s a lot of ways you can go about this. You just need to do a bit of research and experiment on what works best for you.