How do I lose weight through healthy life choices?
Lifestyle Shift is necessary to lose weight:
Even before the pandemic, people were used to be less into physical activities, less connected to nature, and hence less connected to their social well-being. But the Covid-19 pandemic makes it worse, it not only isolated people but also made them go through traumatic events of their lives. The lifestyle adopted by people during this whole issue of the pandemic was more stubborn and lazy instead of fighting against this global disease. Living a healthy lifestyle is necessary not only to lose weight but is a necessary thing for the well-being of a person.
Isolation due to pandemic made people work from home, doing no exercise, and no social interaction, eating comfort foods at home. All these things not only resulted in the bad mental well-being of people but also make them gain weight at a vast rate.
How to lose weight using healthy choices:
(1) By investing more in mental health to lose weight:
A fear to die by a tiny virus during this whole Covid-19 pandemic resulted in lots of mental issues. These issues not only increase the stress level of people but due to increase stress level and releasing a high level of insulin hormone in the body, the abdominal fat increased.
(2) Making healthy life choices to lose weight:
Exercise alone cannot help you to lose weight if you don’t consider healthy eating choices. Eating fewer calories along with doing proper exercise can help you lose weight easily, but consistency and other factors (age, genes, healthy conditions, etc) also come into consideration
(3) Be consistent, be patient:
To achieve healthy body weight, you need to put in some effort to do it. Efforts may be in the form of eating no refined carbs, baking items; adopting healthy choices and exercising regularly can also play a major role. Efforts that you put in the process to lose weight will take time so be a little kind to yourself.
(4) Avoid skipping meals:
Skipping a meal causes more harm than good. It decreases the overall metabolic rate, and hence lower calories are burned. The situation can make us more fat because if we eat the usual amount of meal after skipping some meals then the metabolic rate is already slow enough to burn the calories on time.
(5) Use no refined carbs:
Using less-refined carbs decreases the production of insulin. Insulin is one of the major culprits behind your body fat. Controlling the level of insulin production can make you lose weight in very little time. This can only be done if you cut down on all refined carbs. There are some diets eg: keto diet, which focuses mainly on cutting all kinds of carbs to lose weight. This diet has also its limitations too. So, cutting only on refined carbs totally can do major work for you.
(6) Using no sugar drinks:
Sugar drink includes fructose, which is linked to some major dangerous fat increase in our body. Cutting it out will only do good for you as sugary items are linked with heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. It is said that women who drink one or more sugary beverages a day have more risk to develop type 2 diabetes than women who only drink one or fewer beverages.
(7) Exercise regularly:
Studies show that people who live a more healthy life and those who maintain their healthy weight for the long term, are those people who are more involved in physical activities. (Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, Updated 2018) Health experts recommend brisk walking as it is not only a moderate and nature connected exercise but also a great way to stabilize cardio related problems.
How to lose weight by brisk walking:
Losing weight isn’t an easy thing to do; t requires patience and consistency. Along with healthy eating and a healthy diet, a good amount o exercise is necessary to maintain the required heath. Brisk walking to many scientists seems to be the easy and more natural way to do this.
Start with shorter periods of the walk and steadily increase your walking time. You should be walking 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Also, the walking should be as such that you will be breathing harder than usual but can speak full sentences. If you are new to walking then divide the days into walking and non-walking days. On walking days, go for a brisk walk and connect yourself with nature. On a non-walking day, do some high-intensity training exercises. However overdoing any exercise can increase your risk of burnout and injury, so take a day off when you feel worn out. Get back to the walking routine as soon as possible, after taking a day off.
One study defines that moderate walking is 100 steps per minute for ages of people under 60. Study shows that a woman who walks 3 days per week with 50 to 70 minutes has lost about 60 pounds over 12 weeks when compared with women who didn’t walk (Hye Ryun Hong, 2014). In another study, it has been mentioned that, by brisk walking, one moderate woman can lose 10% of her initial body weight after 6 months (Gwinup, 1987).
Abdominal obesity is the most common lifestyle hazard which can increase the level of insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome. Walking can be suggested to those women having problems such as abdominal obesity, with no prior exercise experience. Walking can initiate some significantly good changes in their body such as body exercise can increase energy consumption through physical activity which will lower the amount of body fat. Another benefit is that increasing blood flow causes the removal of excess glucose, which balances the amount of insulin and hence moves your body towards a healthier life-style (Hye Ryun Hong, 2014).
Conclusion:
Make healthy choices and decisions in your life, not those which will haunt your physical and mental health like a monster. Walking is a must and necessary step for maintaining a healthy weight and proper lifestyle. It’s effective to lose weight. Remember to take small steps towards your target weight loss goals and make small and consistent efforts by eating healthy and doing exercise such as brisk walking. Remember to intensify your walking routine to reach your weight loss goal. Don’t shy yourself to go out of your comfort zone and shake up your regime to stay motivated.
Bibliography
Gwinup, G. (1987). Weight loss without dietary restriction: efficacy of different forms of aerobic exercise. Am J Sports Med, 15(3):275–9.
Hye Ryun Hong, J. O. (2014). Effect of walking exercise on abdominal fat, insulin resistance and serum cytokines in obese women. J Exerc Nutrition Biochem, 18(3): 277–285.
Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. (Updated 2018). US Department of Health and Human Services, 2.
