How Can I Lose Weight Effectively?

Introduction

Most people who lose weight end up accumulating the weight which they've just lost and in some cases accumulate more than what they've lost. This is a result of several factors including lack of motivation, lack of commitment, negative self beliefs and reverting back to unhealthy habits.

So what should you do to lose weight effectively and keep it off for life? Seek support. Seek support from family, friends, mentors and co-workers as well as professional support from a personal trainer, psychologist or life coach if you could afford it. The combination of support and the right exercise will almost certainly help you to lose weight.

The Science behind losing fat

One pound of fat takes about 3500 calories to burn. You can realistically lose one pound (0.45kg) of fat in a week. I know this may not seem much but in the long run over 12 months you could expect to lose about 52 pounds (23.4kg) of fat. You should also note that not only will you lose fat you'll also build muscle which will definately help you to lose those last few pounds. Many people have experienced that losing those last few pounds is a lot harder than when they first started losing weight. This is a result of consuming too few calories which are desperately needed for the new muscle tissue to use. There's a fine line between consuming too many calories and too few calories. For the first few months of losing weight you need to consume 500 calories less than your daily calorie needs.

You can use this calorie calculator to determine your daily calorie needs. Note that you have to subtract 500 from your daily calorie needs to determine your daily calorie needs to lose weight.

Within the last few months of losing weight you need to consume more calories so that your muscles can burn fat efficiently. This will ensure that those last few pounds you need to lose would be accomplished as easily as when you first started.

The right exercises

When it comes to exercise choosing the right exercises is crucial. You need to use a combination of both cardio and resistance exercises to successfully lose weight. With respect to cardio I would recommend you use High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as opposed to regular medium intensity cardio. HIIT actually increases your resting metabolic rate which means you'll lose fat not only when you exercise but also for a whole 24 hours after you work out. Regular cardio only allows you to burn fat while you exercise.

An example of HIIT: Walk for 2 minutes followed by 30 seconds of sprinting (as fast as you can run). This becomes 1 cycle, complete 3 more for a total of 4 cycles. Every week after that increase by 1 cycle until you reach the 8th week, 8 cycles and 20 minutes long. Once you've reached the 8th week you don't need to increase the number of cycles.

With respect to resistance exercises you could either choose bodyweight exercises or weightlifting or a combination of both. You should choose compound exercises as opposed to isolation exercises since compound exercises involve multiple muscle groups instead of single muscle groups. Compound exercises for the lower body include barbell squats, deadlifts and lunges. For the upper body they include pullups, chinups, pushups, dips, pull-downs and bench presses.

For maximum fat loss results the repetition range should be from 6 to 12 repetitions, the set should range from 2 to 4 sets for each exercise.

With all this information in hand it can be quite daunting to put it into motion. One program I highly recommend which has a comprehensive step-by-step exercise and eating guide is Truth About Abs.