What's Holding You Back in Your Weight-Loss Program

Weight-loss programs are a $60 billion annual industry. The number is believable because over 70% of America’s population is overweight and the global percentage goes over 40% according to World Health Organization. The obese population has doubled between 1980 and 2014.

To ‘cure’ obesity, every country in the world has organizations that create diet plans, food charts, fitness regimes, work-out plans and intensity rules, etc. - the main reason for obesity is just one. When a human body can’t find the balance between calories consumed and calories burned, it either makes you underweight or overweight and both are equally bad. This is why experts create weight-loss programs to guide people and to direct them in a direction where they can lose weight.

Here, we’ll talk about the basics and how the little things in your life could be adding to your failure in losing weight. By following them, you’ll be helping your weight-loss program by making sure you don’t regain the lost weight.

Fix your sleep schedule

Fixing your sleep schedule should be your top priority. Getting proper sleep is crucial in preventing many diseases while helping you lose weight. Try to get 6-7 hours of sleep every 24 hours. If you are not getting enough sleep you’ll feel drained the entire day and you are more likely to avoid gym or workout because you are not getting sleep. You are also going to buy beverages and junk food to keep you awake through the day. So try getting enough sleep that it makes you active in the day.

Adjust to shorter workouts in your day

If you feel like you don’t have enough time to fit your workout in your day, you should go for shorter workouts. Stretch in the morning and go for a quick jog before or after your lunch, and fit in a quick cardio regime before or after dinner and you’ll be good to go.

Focus on workouts during travel

When traveling, most people tend to get off-track and that can have a bad impact on their fitness schedule, but it doesn’t have to. Make sure that traveling doesn’t derail your workout routine. Take a jump rope with you when you travel, it can easily enhance your cardio routine wherever you go. You can even use it in your hotel room.

Switch it up

Variety is important. If you keep the same routine all the time it will bore you and you could lose interest. More importantly, it will lose its  effectiveness - your muscles will actually respond less to the same workouts day in and day out. So add variety to your fitness program. Studies show that people tend to stick to workouts if they don’t get bored.

Lose the alcohol

Changing your drinking habits will change your weight-loss plan drastically. If you replace soda and alcohol with water, unsweetened iced tea, kombucha or fresh juices it will help you in immensely. You will be getting nutrients instead of calories and high amounts of sugar.

Add chocolate to your diet

Yes, you read that correctly. The trick here is to actually switch the chocolate in your diet. You love chocolate because it tastes great. That is the cocoa. Switch to dark chocolate. It will enhance your taste in chocolates while keeping your sugar intake low. Milk chocolate contains much more sugar than dark chocloate, so avoid it whenver possible.

Listen to good music

Music is a major enhancer when it comes to exercise and that is exactly why most gyms have a killer playlist that adds to your motivation and energy. Listening to upbeat music can help your workout and it will help you pass the time.

Lose the stress

Stress makes you fat. Really, it does. So try to relax rather than thinking too much about everything. The best things that you can do if you have stress issues is that you can either go for yoga or meditate or channel your stress in a gym with a nice pair of gym gloves that will help you train harder and lift more. The best way to lose stress is working out. It will channel out the negative energy, leaving your mind fresh and happy.

Partner up

Partnering up with a workout partner and exercising together can serve to motivate you to train harder while giving you a chance to make your workout even more enjoyable. It will also help keep you both accountable to each other. You can find workout groups online and via social media.

HIIT it

High Intensity Interval Training is the new IT when it comes to fitness workouts. More and more people have started this type of exercise because it is effective and produces faster results.  It intensifies your cardio and then gives you an ‘interval’ or rest time which helps your body recover and then you begin again. Every time you start a new routine it gets more intense and burns more calories than before.

Keep a journal

Keeping notes on what you did every week is a great thing. It helps you track your workouts and your calories. In this way, you’re able to know exactly what your strong and weak points are. This little change will help you a great deal when you are aiming to shed weight and gain muscle.

Eat healthy fats

Fats don’t actually make you fat, despite the name. Saturated fats do. So you need to find healthy sources of fat that help you with your nutritional needs and not make you feel deprived and hungry. Avocado, nuts, cheese, fish, extra virgin olive oil are all examples of healthy foods that provide you with healthy, necessary fat.