Everyone would like to lose a little weight, or especially to learn the best way to lose belly fat. However, most of us waste our time and energy trying to follow the latest fad diet or scam exercise program. Losing weight effectively and quickly, and ultimately improving our health, is all about following four fundamental principles to guide our new diet and exercise program. Here they are:
1) Eat less food more often. This may sound paradoxical, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Eating mini-meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism roaring, increasing the number of calories you burn. Simply eating one or two huge meals will mean your body is starving throughout the day. When it goes into starvation mode, your body burns fewer calories, leading to no weight loss.
2) Exercise less time with more intensity. Unless your goal is to run marathons, two hour marathon sessions at the gym won’t be very beneficial for you. First, they use up a lot of your valuable time. Second, you will get more benefit out of shorter, more intense workouts. Add more sprints, intervals, and circuit training to your workout to get these benefits.
3) Keep track of your progress. This is important because it will tell you if your efforts are worth it. Record your starting weight and, if possible, body fat percentage, and update your numbers every week. Make a graph or chart in Excel to plot your progress over time. This will keep you motivated too, eager to put in the next data point.
4) Make this a lifestyle change. People fail to lose weight when they see this process as temporary, as only directed towards a temporary goal of losing pounds. To lose the weight, and more importantly to keep it off, you need to see this as a change in your habits, not simply as something you’re doing in the moment.