Losing weight can be an absolute struggle. Your body seems to work against you no matter how many different things you’ve tried, none of the methods seem to work! However, there are a few ways that are guaranteed to work, but which one is going to suit you the most? Well if you carry on reading, you’ll find out!
Shake Diets
Shakes come in all sorts of different forms, from protein to fruit, there are loads of different ones to help aid you achieve your goal, and this goes for weight loss too! But how do diet shakes work? Well, they contain very low calories and low amounts of other macronutrients but are packed full of vitamins. When you drink these, it tricks your body into thinking that you’re full because of the abundance of vitamins that are present without actually having to take in many calories. This means that your body starts to break down your fat stores to give itself the energy that it needs to fuel itself, fat is made up of excess glucose in your system and so it’s a wonderful source of energy for your body! By replacing some of your meals in the weak with these shakes, like the ones you can find in the cambridge diet, you can slowly but surely start losing weight.
Intermittent Fasting
This is a more extreme option for weight loss but it has a myriad of other benefits too. Fasting sounds nasty, but if you do it in a controlled way then it’s safe! How does it work? Well, like we discussed in the previous point, the key to understanding fat loss is to understand what fat actually is, in essence it’s a compressed form of glucose, the metabolite that we all need to keep our body going. In order for your body to burn the fat that you have down into glucose to be used for energy, you have to give it no other option to, which is where fasting comes in. Fasting is only done for around 6-8 hours at the most and it has to be done safely. When your body realises that it’s got no other source of energy, it starts to burn your fat first meaning that for the time that you’re not eating you’re going to be losing weight! As well as losing you weight, it also gives your digestive system time to relax because your stomach is going to be empty which gives it time to rest and recuperate, giving you a more efficient digestive system. It strengthens your immune system too, your body automatically begins to digest the weak white blood cells in your blood to use as energy, so it gets rid of the weakest white blood cells and then replaces them, if that’s not enough reasons for you to try this out then we don’t know what will be!
Cardiovascular Exercise
This is a bit of a departure from the other two things mentioned here, but it’s still one of the best ways to lose weight. Cardiovascular exercise refers to anything that puts a strain on your heart and get’s it pumping; this goes for things such as running, rowing, playing field hockey, anything that gets you breathing hard and heavy! But how exactly does it lose you weight? Well it’s the same concept that we’ve covered twice in this article, but it’s a much more aggressive process this time round. So we know by now that fat is burned to be used as energy when you’re lacking it, but why exercise is so good for losing weight is because it maximises the amount of energy that your body needs. When you exercise, your body gets through glucose incredibly fast, sometimes so fast that it actually releases a substance known as lactic acid to break down the glucose, which is what makes your muscles stiff and sore the day after. This puts into perspective how much energy exercise needs, and when you’ve burned out all of the glucose that’s in your stomach, guess where it goes to next? That’s right, it starts burning the fat, but much quicker and faster than the other ways which is why it’s the best way to do so. However, the only drawback with this is that it takes a large chunk out of your day and requires a lot of effort, so make sure you time it correctly!
Doing any one of these things is certainly going to help you lose weight, and it’s a good idea if you use them all in tandem with each other. If you fast once a week on the weekend you’ll be losing weight there, if you drink the diet shakes then you’ll still be slowly chipping away at it, and if you start running you’ll finish it all off by burning loads more! However, if you’re going to be exercising you’re going to need a protein uptake, so read this to find out how to get it!