Is weight loss one of your goals? If so, you're not alone. Carrying excess weight isn’t ideal for your health, and losing weight and achieving a healthy body mass index (BMI) can be a noble goal. Obesity is connected to a host of health conditions that can severely affect your well-being.
Understanding the Fundamentals of Weight Loss
For weight loss to be successful, it is important to develop healthy habits that you can live with and be happy with for the long-term. Losing weight and keeping it off is a commitment that will take time, with ups and downs along the way. Losing weight isn’t a linear experience, but if the overall trend is downward, that’s when you know you’re having success. That’s why we have to think about how to lose weight as a lifestyle.
In a nutshell, healthy, successful weight loss involves:
- Setting reasonable goals.
- Expending more calories than you take in.
- Eating nutritious foods that give your body all the nutrients it needs, with less of the stuff it doesn’t.
- Getting your heart pumping with aerobic exercise.
- Maintaining or building muscle to help your body burn calories at rest.
- Exploring the ways emotions affect your eating and physical activity.
- Getting enough sleep to allow your body to function at its best.
- Expecting that you’ll need to make adjustments.
Setting Achievable Weight Loss Goals
It's important to set a realistic weight goal and timeline to achieve it. Ask yourself what weight has felt comfortable for you before. Then ask yourself if you can achieve that target without feeling overly deprived. Although losing weight can be exciting and encouraging, stay focused on actions more than outcomes. Setting reasonable and manageable lifestyle goals means paying attention to what we have the most control over - our behaviors. Concentrate on the areas that will impact your health and weight the most.
Weight loss is likely to taper off over time, but if you pay attention to the non-scale victories - like better sleep, more energy and improved fitness - you’re less likely to get discouraged. Aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a week over the long term. Losing 5% of your current weight may be a good goal to start with. Even this amount of weight loss can lower your risk of some long-term health conditions.
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It can help to set two types of goals. The first type is called an action goal. You can list a healthy action that you'll use to lose weight. For instance, "Walk every day for 30 minutes" is an action goal. The second type is called an outcome goal. You can list a healthy outcome that you aim to have. "Lose 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms)" is an example of an outcome goal.
Understanding Calorie Balance
Weight loss is, at its core, a matter of burning more calories than you take in. Our bodies use calories from the foods we eat to power our systems, giving us energy to do everything from running a marathon to digesting our food and pumping our hearts. When you take in excess calories, your body stores them as fat. But when you eat fewer calories than you use, your body starts to take energy from your stores. That’s a calorie deficit, and that’s when you start to lose weight.
We each have different calorie needs, depending on a host of factors, including your current weight, goal weight, height, age, muscle mass, and how physically active you are.
When we know how many calories you’re burning, we might suggest getting about 500 calories a day fewer than that, which will typically yield about a pound of weight loss per week. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) MyPlate Plan or the NIH body weight planner can suggest how many calories would be appropriate for you to maintain your weight or lose weight. Some smartwatches and wearable fitness trackers can also tell you how many calories you burn, both through exercise and your regular biological processes. That can give you a good starting point to know what you need to maintain or lose weight.
When you know how many calories to aim for, it can help to keep a food journal, either on paper or in an app, to keep track of when you’re eating and when.
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Adopting a Sustainable Diet
Find a meal pattern that includes healthy foods that you enjoy eating. Both the Mediterranean diet and DASH meal plan include whole grains, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and some dairy products. The backbone of a healthy diet for weight loss is to eat more natural foods and fewer processed foods. Hitting the right number of calories isn’t enough. The quality of those calories is also important.
The calories in an apple come with nutrients that you don’t find in soda, like fiber and antioxidants. What’s more, the apple will fill your belly and satisfy your hunger in a way that soda can’t. Natural and less-processed foods fill your body with what it needs - without the stuff it doesn’t.
Healthy fats tend to come from plants, nuts and seeds rather than animals. And healthier carbohydrates are less processed.
In broad strokes, try these swaps to get started with cleaning up your diet:
- Less Beef: More Chicken, turkey, fish and nuts
- Less Butter: More Olive oil
- Less Cakes, cookies and candy: More Fruits and vegetables
- Less Soda, lemonade, juice, sweetened tea and alcohol: More Water
- Less White bread and pasta: More Whole-wheat bread and pasta
- Less White rice: More Brown rice
Managing portions of all foods allows you to include foods you enjoy in moderation. Remember, weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. Depriving yourself of your favorite foods and labeling them as “off limits” is a recipe for discouragement, backsliding and guilt. Rather than vowing never to eat another slice of cake or have a soda, work them in sparingly. And remind yourself that an occasional treat is OK. It’s not a reflection of your willpower or your worth as a person. You don’t have to give up all your favorite foods. Learn to make smart food choices and simple substitutions instead.
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Incorporating Regular Physical Activity
Set a goal of at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week. Aerobic exercises increase your breathing and heart rate, such as a brisk walk, bike ride or swimming. Add in strength exercises two or more days per week. Strength training can increase your metabolism which helps you burn more calories. Physical activity is anything that gets your heart rate up, such as brisk walking.
Remember, losing weight comes down to expending more calories than you’re taking in. And exercise is an important factor in burning those extra calories. Although people lose weight in a variety of ways, those who keep it off tend to exercise regularly.
I’ll typically advise people who are looking to lose weight to ratchet up their workouts to something more like 250 to 300 minutes per week - or an hour-long workout four to five days per week. But there are no hard-and-fast rules that are right for everyone. Find activities that you enjoy and that fit into your life on a regular basis.
Try these aerobic workouts to get your heart pumping:
- Walking, hiking and slow running.
- Swimming.
- Cycling.
- Cardio machines, like treadmills, ellipticals and steppers.
Any extra movement helps you burn calories. So think about ways to move more throughout the day. You can set yourself up for more activity by wearing comfortable clothes and shoes. This may help you move more throughout the day.
Building and Maintaining Muscle Mass
Muscle is imperative for losing weight. That’s because muscle works to burn more calories, even when you’re not doing much of anything. So, when you build muscle, you’re making your body composition work in your favor. The more muscle mass you have, the quicker you burn calories. There are two important elements to maintaining muscle mass as you lose weight:
- Eat plenty of lean protein: Healthy sources of protein help to build and repair muscle. So, protein is a critical component of healthy weight-loss eating. Most people will be well served to make protein count for around 25% to 30% of the calories they eat each day.
- Engage in strength-training exercise: That can be activities like yoga, Pilates, barbells, free weights or calisthenics, all of which help to tone and strengthen muscle. Aim for at least 20 minutes of strength-training exercise twice per week.
Addressing Emotional and Psychological Factors
Emotional eating is real. It’s a natural coping mechanism for some people to turn to food when they’re feeling stressed, bored, frustrated or any number of emotions. Strong emotions, like stress, release the hormone cortisol, which can heighten our cravings for sugar, fat and salt.
What can you do when you feel that pang to reach for food - not for hunger, but strictly for comfort? Step away from the fridge and try some quick relaxation strategies:
- Take a walk.
- Do some breathing exercises.
- Try some meditation.
Food journaling can also help you understand patterns in your emotional state and how they relate to eating. Keep track not just of what you’re eating, but also how you’re feeling at mealtimes or when you reach for that snack. That can help you to see patterns and gauge whether you’re eating because you’re hungry or if you’re turning to food for comfort.
Weight management programs offer support for your weight management journey. Be wary of programs that promise quick fixes. Long-term weight management is a journey that takes time.
Prioritizing Sleep
While they may not seem related, sleep and weight loss go hand in hand. If we aren't getting good rest, your hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin) can get out of whack. You actually feel hungrier when you’re not well-rested. Aim to get enough sleep (between seven and nine hours a night for most adults). And keep to a regular sleep schedule.
Monitoring Progress and Adapting Strategies
Keeping track of food intake and physical activity is a proven tool for managing weight. Tracking helps to increase awareness of our eating and physical activity behaviors. Know where you are today so you know how to get where you want to be. Learn your body mass index (BMI). Use a food diary or tracking app to understand what, how much, and when you’re eating.
It’s easy to overeat when you’re served too much food. Smaller portions can help prevent overeating.
Evaluate your progress regularly by revisiting your goals. Decide which parts of your plan are working well and which parts need to be changed. Remember, occasional setbacks happen. This is expected. When they happen, get back on track as quickly as possible.