The four proven things you need to do to lose weight

In the technological age, you have an excess of information and misinformation at your fingertips. Every screen you see, page you peruse, person you speak to, ‘expert’ you hear from: all have a differing opinion. In fact, some of these opinions are comical, some are dangerous and some are loosely based on fact. Yet, through the sea of white noise there is a small percentage of scientifically proven, achievable, nutritionally balanced and safe options to weight loss.

Once you find these gems, you need to study them and be able to replicate them in your own life and circumstances. So how do you find them? How do you navigate the mine-field of information out there? How do you apply it to your life?

1. Eat less.

As much as you hear to eat less, you need to know exactly what that means for it to have any value in weight loss. Eating less implies that you can either starve yourself by drastically reducing portion sizes or that you should govern your food intake by points and kilojoules. Both if these methods are false, misleading and can be quite dangerous. Yes, you will need to reduce portion sizes but if the smaller portion size is still composed of high fat, processed food- you will not lose weight. Drastically reducing your intake by counting points or kilojoules will also miss one valuable piece of learning. If you follow this route, you will not learn how to eat healthily. Fewer points will still result in the wrong foods for weight loss being consumed.

Portion sizes do need to be reduced but again, drastically making changes to portion sizes can often lead to binge eating. Deny yourself enough for long enough and you WILL binge. This is not healthy and can have massive negative consequences for your major organs.

2. Move more.

This old chestnut is vague and ambiguous but does hold merit.

Moving your body creates a need for blood flow. Any part of the body that is required to move will require fuel (blood). This fuel carries with it essential nutrients. Once these nutrients are distributed around your body, you can heal disease and lose weight. A fuelled, sustained body will be a happy, functioning and sound body. There is no need to carry excess kilograms of you have a harmonious body.

3. Drink plenty of water.

In a coffee drinking society, it is all too easy to succumb to the notion that tea and coffee can be included in your daily hydration count. What is a hydration count? This is the number of litres you need to drink daily to replenish the body. Every day (even when you sleep), your body uses water to sustain itself. The body is 80% water and requires a suitable water intake to have the ability to flush toxins out of the body, replenish hydration from expiration and transport sufficient nutrients around it. Your hydration count needs to be high enough to sustain all of these processes without causing damage to the body or organs within it.

4. Sleep well.

Studies over the years have shown that an average of 7.2 undisturbed sleep hours is essential to weight loss and a healthy standard of living. This is quite a task when you consider how many times you actually achieve this. Never the less, sleep is essential to resetting your body’s internal clocks and processes. Sleep is the time for your body to clear excess hormones, equalise blood sugars and blood pressure and repair muscles.

Sleeping well will set you on a path of health that will leave many envious. As elusive as these titbits are, they are worth the search. There are five stalwarts that you have heard through various medium. They will serve you well as long as you remember: learn, apply and replicate.

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