Losing weight can be a struggle no matter your age, gender, or ancestry. It can also feel like you’re fighting a losing battle when all those low-fat diets, pills, and pre-packaged meal plans don’t work how you’d hoped they would. Eventually, you start to feel like a failure. But, don’t give up yet. Here are some of the quickest ways to lose weight naturally without risking your health or gaining all the weight back.
#1: Get rid of the junk food to lose weight.
The quickest way to lose weight naturally is to get rid of all the junk food in your home. If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. That means get rid of any snack cakes whose names sound like they belong to exotic dancers. Toss the bread containing a paragraph-worth of unpronounceable ingredients. Skip regular and diet sodas and grab a glass of water. And just say no to quick-fix fast-food burgers and candy.
Research has shown that significantly reducing carbohydrates and sugar in your diet can help lower insulin, so your kidneys can shed excess sodium and water from your body. This helps reduce bloat and water weight, which may help you lose up to 10 pounds or more in the first week, alone!
#2: Eat more protein, healthy fat, and vegetables.
If you want to lose weight quickly and naturally, fill your plate with healthy protein, good fat, and organic vegetables. Protein helps keep you fuller longer and has been shown to reduce obsessive thoughts about food by 60 percent! Eating more protein has also been shown to help your metabolism burn 80 to 100 more calories each day.
Organic, low-carbohydrate vegetables are great sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber to keep you feeling full and energized while safely regulating your digestive system.
10 low-carbohydrate vegetables you can enjoy:
- Mustard greens | ½ Cup | 0.1 net carbs
- Raw spinach | ½ Cup | 0.1net carbs
- Romaine lettuce | ½ Cup | 0.2 net carbs
- Broccoli florets | ½ Cup | 0.8net carbs
- Raw cucumber | ½ Cup | 1 net carbs
- Raw, green cabbage | ½ Cup | 1.1 net carbs
- Summer squash | ½ Cup | 1.3 net carbs
- Raw cauliflower | ½ Cup | 1.4 net carbs
- Steamed asparagus | 4 Spears | 1.6 net carbs
- Cherry tomatoes | 10 cherries | 6 net carbs
#3: Remember, not all fat and carbs makes you fat.
In fact, the right types of fat can help you lose weight. These fats, including coconut oil, butter, olive oil, and avocado, keep your blood sugar stable and keep you feeling fuller longer. Adding the right fat to your diet, also means you’re less likely to experience light-headedness, shakiness, and/or irritability. All of which is known for sending people running to the nearest vending machine.
It can be challenging to stick to a new eating routine. Therefore, you can always take one day per week to eat more carbohydrates, but make sure those carbohydrates are rich in nutrients. Sources like potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, rice, quinoa, and fruits are good examples of these.
#4: Take digestive enzymes to lose weight.
Digestive enzymes are dietary supplements that help you better digest food and absorb nutrients from it. They have also been shown to reduce chronic inflammation, which can have a negative effect on your metabolism.
There are multiple types of digestive enzymes on the market. Some are made with papain, a protease enzyme derived from papaya. Others are made with bromelain, a natural digestive aid and anti-inflammatory compound found in pineapple. There are also digestive aids that utilize ox bile extract, which has been shown to help break down fats.
alignlife doctors recommend Gastro Plus or Absolute Greens from Aceva. Both contain bromelain. Order your 60-day money back guarantee supply and see if you notice a difference in how your body digests and absorbs food.
#5: Learn to eat mindfully.
One of the quickest and safest ways to lose weight naturally is to eat mindfully. Not only will this technique help you lose weight, it will keep you from gaining it back.
Being mindful means being fully engaged in the moment with all five senses. It’s a way to slow down the perception of time and tune into everything that is occurring right here, right now. This technique is very effective in treating anxiety, and the practice of mindful eating has been shown to be beneficial in treating binge-eating disorders.
To eat mindfully, it is important to sit down to a meal with no distractions. Take note of the food on your plate. What colors, shapes, and textures do you see? How does the food smell? Cut a small piece, and take a bite. How does the food taste? When you savor each bite of food, you get more enjoyment from eating and, you’re less likely to overindulge.
Dr. Susan Albers, Psychologist and New York Times Bestseller, explains the effectiveness of mindful eating this way in her article published on HuffingtonPost.com:
“Clinical studies have examined the effectiveness of awareness and eating. For example, Timmerman and Brown (2012) conducted a study on middle-aged women who frequently ate out at restaurants. The intervention was just teaching the women how to be more “aware” of their choices, hunger, fullness and mindless eating behavior. The result? The women ate 300 calories less each day.”
#6: Try intermittent fasting.
Your body is in a “fed state” while your digestive system processes a meal. This state begins when you start eating and lasts for approximately three to five hours while your body digests and absorbs food. During this time, your insulin levels are high, which keeps your body from effectively burning fat.
When your body is not digesting a meal, it enters into a”post-absorptive state”, which lasts for 8 to 12 hours after your last bite. After this, your body enters into its third state, the “fasted state”, where your insulin levels are low and you can start to burn fat.
Eating regular meals and snacks doesn’t allow our bodies to reach a fasted state, so we are either always digesting or resting from digesting. This is why losing fat can be so difficult.
Intermittent fasting involves eating all your meals in an eight-hour block of time and then fasting for 16 hours (usually in the late evening, at night during sleep, and in the morning).
For example, let’s say you rise at 7 a.m., but your last meal was at 8 p.m. the following evening. In order to stay fasting for 16 hours, you would skip breakfast and instead break your fast at noon. Then, you would have until 8 p.m. that night to eat until you renew your fast.
In order to do intermittent fasting properly, it’s important to eat plenty of protein, fat, and vegetables during your eight-hour window to keep your blood sugar stable and your belly full and satisfied. Resist the temptation to eat to excess at mealtimes. Instead, eat the most filling and nutrient-dense foods available.
The best way to lose weight is to focus on gaining health. Changing your mindset, habits, and attitude are far more important than weighing your food or counting calories. With these tips, you’ll not only lose weight safely and quickly, you’ll feel better than you have in years!