Are you looking for the best free weight loss tips? Let me answer that for you, yes… yes you are. The Intense Workout contains countless fully detailed articles covering every single aspect of weight loss which clearly explain EXACTLY what you need to do in order to lose weight.
However, judging by the amount of emails I get from people looking for an additional list of the best ways to lose weight or some extra special list of weight loss tips, this information apparently just isn’t enough. I know, I thought it was strange too.
I don’t know what it is, but people just love these little tips. Maybe there’s something about the word “tips” that makes people… happy? Maybe it’s the convenient and easy format of seeing it all on a pretty numbered list? I really can’t explain it. All I know is that I can direct someone to my free guide to losing weight, or the free diet guide, or the free workout routines guide, and they’ll just keep coming back after looking for additional ways to lose weight.
This is usually when I scratch my head in confusion. How many more ways do you seriously need?
Either way, I have officially given up on trying to figure this thing out. Instead, I’m going to give in and just give these people what they want. So… without further ado… here’s a list of the 10 best tips for easy and healthy weight loss.
10 Tips To Lose Weight
- Replace so called “bad carbs” with so called “good carbs” when you can. By that I mean replace the simple, processed, higher glycemic sources of carbs (candy, chips, crackers, white bread, white rice, etc.) with more complex, lower glycemic, nutrient-filled sources (fruits and vegetables, beans, brown rice, potatoes, etc.). This is one of the keys to controlling your hunger and improving your health.
- Keep a diet log. As I’ve explained before (How To Lose Weight), the biggest weight loss tip of all is knowing how many calories you are eating and then adjusting that amount as needed to cause you to lose weight at the ideal rate. In order to know this information, you need to know what you’re eating and how much of it you’re eating. The only way to do this properly is by keeping some form of diet log or journal. Do it on paper, in Excel or Word, or use some kind of free diet tracking website to do it on. Just make sure you do it.
- Keep a workout log. The key to every workout routine is progression. And the #1 key to progression is accurately tracking what you’re doing during your workouts so you know what you need to do the next time to improve upon it. Do you always remember how much weight you lifted, or how many reps you did each set, or which exercises you did in which order on which days? Do you remember if you were on the treadmill for 20 minutes yesterday… or was it 30? A workout log will allow you to know the answers to these questions, and this will in turn allow you to make progress.
- Don’t cut calories by too much. Yes, you need to eat less calories in order to lose weight. That’s a fact and a requirement for weight loss to take place. However, reducing calories by too much is not only potentially detrimental to your health and metabolism, but it’s just going to make you a whole lot more likely to fail. Why be annoyed, cranky and overly hungry when you can just make a small reduction to your calorie intake and lose weight while barely feeling any difference at all? Don’t set yourself up to fail by trying to do things in the hardest least successful way possible.
- Eat less useless junk. If what you are eating has a cartoon character of any kind on it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it. Seriously, junk food is a waste of calories that often just makes you more hungry. There’s a time and place for cheat meals, but there are no weight loss tips that are going to change the fact that there is a certain amount of calories that you are going to eat each day, and little of it should be wasted on crap whose only positive is that “it tastes yummy.” The food you eat should serve more positive purposes than just taste alone. If it doesn’t, you probably shouldn’t be eating it too often. That’s actually a pretty good food rule right there.
- Eat as many meals per day as you want. Anything you’ve ever heard about 6 meals being better than 3 meals or vice-versa is a myth. As I explain in my article about why 5-6 small meals per day is bullshit, you should always eat as many meals per day as is most convenient and enjoyable for you. If eating 3 big meals will make you more likely to stick to your weight loss diet, then eat 3. If eating 6 smaller meals will do it, then eat 6. Do whatever is best for you… that’s all that matters here.
- Take pictures. No, not of pretty flowers and your friends, but of you, wearing the least amount of clothes you’re willing to wear. Before this one becomes a little too creepy to be on a list of weight loss tips, let me explain its purpose. It’s to help you track your progress. To help you see if what you are doing is working. To give you something to look back at and compare yourself to. You’d be very surprised to see how quickly a person forgets where they started at. You become so used to seeing yourself every day that you don’t notice the changes to your body. Taking pictures (once every couple of weeks is good) is your way of reminding yourself. This not only helps track your progress, but it will also serve as motivation.
- Eat right AND workout. Weight loss will happen when one specific thing happens… when you end up below your calorie maintenance level and create a caloric deficit. This can happen as a result of either decreasing your calorie intake by adjusting your diet, or by working out enough to burn the calories needed to drop below your maintenance level. So while it is quite easy to lose weight through diet alone, it will happen a little faster and easier if you combine some form of exercise with it (weightlifting, cardio, or both). For long term diet adherence and keeping the weight off permanently, all studies show that the success rate is higher when you combine diet AND exercise rather than just do one or the other.
- Don’t drink your calories, chew them. There are no easier ways to consume more calories than you should than by drinking beverages that contain calories. Stuff like regular soda, fruit juices and sports drinks should be completely avoided. Drink water instead, and get your calories from food. It’s a lot more filling and satisfying that way.
- STOP looking! Seriously, stop looking for the magical list of weight loss tips that’s going to make losing weight easy or fast for you and still be safe and healthy. IT DOESN’T EXIST! No matter what, you WILL have to put forth high amounts of effort and hard work. Yes, effort and hard work. Sorry to ruin your hopes and dreams, but weight loss isn’t as simple as “taking the stairs instead of the elevator.” There is no list with a tip on it that is going to change the fact that you’re going to actually have to eat right and/or workout regularly. Stop looking. There is no such thing.
- **BONUS TIP!** Whatever you do, DON’T EMAIL ME ASKING FOR MORE WEIGHT LOSS TIPS! 🙂 In all seriousness, if you do still have any questions about weight loss, your diet, or your workout, or you just want to have it all put together for you in the way that is proven to work best, I now offer a real solution. I call it The Ultimate Fat Loss & Muscle Building Guide, and in it I give you all of the answers, details and sample diets and workouts you will need to get the best results possible. Learn all about it right here: The Ultimate Fat Loss & Muscle Building Guide