Ten Foolproof Ways to Speed up Your Weight Loss

Ten foolproof ways to speed up your weight loss

Once you decide to lose weight you want to see results fast! Here are my top ten tips to help speed up your progress.

1 Write it down
Actually putting pen to paper to record what you eat has a dramatic effect on your discipline when following a calorie-controlled eating plan. It makes you think before you eat that extra sweet or chocolate or drink that extra glass of wine. But the key is to record everything you eat and drink as you consume it, and not at the end of the day when you will have, perhaps not intentionally, forgotten half of what you had!

2 Weigh it out
Portions can be deceptive so use your weighing scales to check exactly how much cereal / rice / pasta you are actually serving to yourself. If you stick to the eating plan strictly, your excess weight will fall away. Cheat - and it won't!

3 Get moving!
When you sit down you use half the number of calories com­pared with when you are standing, and a quarter the number compared to when you are walking, so be aware that being more active generally will greatly speed up your weight-loss progress. Do get yourself a pedometer and try to achieve 10,000 steps a day. It's not easy to do that many at first, but with a few changes in your day-to-day lifestyle it is very achievable. I try to do it and on six days out of seven I achieve it. The great thing about wear­ing a pedometer is the fact that it makes you much more aware of trying to be more active.

4 Exercise, exercise, exercise!
If you want to lose weight fast, get exercising. Doing any form of exercise that makes you breathe more deeply BURNS FAT! Once you have warmed up for aerobic exercise, for say five minutes, you will be entering into 'fat burning mode'. Keep exercising for another 25 minutes at a rate that makes you a bit breathless and warm, and you are into serious fat burning. Then cool down with less energetic moves and some stretches and you will feel fantas­tic. It will give you a real boost to how you feel as well as dramat­ically help to speed up your weight loss.

5 Turn yourself into a fat burner
Exercising aerobically on a regular basis will help you create more mitochondria (little engines) in your muscles. If you have fit and strong muscles, you automatically'turn your body into a fat-burning machine, which means that even when you are not exercising you will be burning rather than storing fat as you go about your everyday work. This is such good news for weight maintenance once you reach your goal.

6 Don't cheat!
When you eat or drink something extra to your calorie allowance, you are only cheating yourself. If you want to lose weight fast and continuously, stick to your calorie allowance. Realise that if you ate just one chocolate digestive biscuit every day for a year on top of what you normally eat you would gain 12lb in 12 months!

7 Cook without fat
With non-stick pans it is really simple to cook everything you need without adding fat or oil to the pan or to recipes. I never cook with oil or any form of fat and personally hate the taste of it when dining out. It doesn't take long to change your taste buds and it is the quickest and surest way to cut down on hun­dreds of calories without even affecting the portion size. Remember, fat that you eat becomes fat on your body, so cut it right down and you can avoid 'replacing' the fat you are burning off during aerobic exercise and just get leaner!

8 Eat the low-fat
Low-fat foods are filling and satisfying. They are good for your health and your appetite as they help you feel fuller for longer thus avoiding the temptation to snack on high-fat, high calorie, foods between meals - the downfall of most dieters. You don't have to be a slave to low-fat. Just eating more low-fat foods than you used to within your daily diet will give you a real health boost and will satisfy your hunger.

9 Prepare your own food
We all know that a busy lifestyle and lack of time can cause us to dive into the ready-meal section at the supermarket, but cook­ing your own food needn't be difficult or too time-consuming. Try the recipes in this book. You'll find them really easy to pre­pare. Also, give some ready-made sauces a try as, combined With some dry-fried meat or poultry and some cooked pasta, a meal can be prepared in minutes to satisfy the fussiest of families. By cooking it yourself, you can make the meal more nutritious and usually much more satisfying. You could involve the children in the preparation of the dish and help them to learn about healthy cooking.

10 Attention alcohol!
While drinking alcohol in moderation can be good for us, if drunk in excess it is definitely bad for us! Alcohol not only weakens our willpower, it also increases our appetite, so drink with caution if you want to see your weight disappear quickly! Alcohol is also dehydrating, which is also unhelpful. I know everyone tells us to drink more water but it IS good for our health.