6 HEALTHY WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT THAT WORK

In your quest to lose excess weight, it’s important to also keep your health firmly in mind. So how can you ensure you’re losing weight without harming your health? Start by trying these six healthy ways to lose weight that work:

Keep Count: Counting your calorie intake and paying close attention to portion sizes may not be the most fun thing to do, but if you want to lose weight healthfully it’s essential. If you eat too much, you won’t lose weight. But eating too little is dangerous, too, because it will trigger your body’s starvation response and make losing weight and keeping it off much harder.

Get Moving: Another healthy way to lose weight is increasing your physical activity, which in turn helps preserve muscle and increase your metabolism. Not an exercise nut or natural athlete? That’s okay. There are many ways to add more activity to your day that don’t involve joining a gym or sweating for hours on end. The secret is to find the activities that you like doing enough that they can become a part of your everyday life, as well as adding in extra movement at every opportunity (like parking at the farthest spot in the parking lot instead of the closest.)

Be Mindful: Studies show that people often underestimate how many calories they eat and overestimate how many calories they burn. Starting to write things down is a healthy way to lose weight that works. In fact, studies show that people who do so are not only much more likely to meet their weight loss goal, but also to keep the weight off.

Check In: Many problem eating behaviors are linked to using food to manage difficult emotions like stress, anger, boredom, or disappointment. Make paying closer attention to how you feel one of your healthy ways to lose weight, and soon you’ll be able to spot when something besides hunger is causing a craving.

Make a Plan: Accomplishing a goal almost always includes having a plan, and healthy weight loss is no different. Plotting out when and what you will be eating each day in advance, for example, helps ensure that you won’t be tempted to hit the drive thru because you don’t have anything else to eat or the time to make it. Set yourself up to succeed!

Take Action: Finally, don’t just wish, want, or dream of losing weight. Make today the day you get going to make it happen. The reality is most people know how to lose weight. They’ve likely heard a million times that eating healthy and exercising more are the answers, and that watching TV and eating ice cream are not. The missing piece isn’t information it’s action combined with persistent follow through from start to finish. Plus, a Center for Medical Weight Loss physician can help keep you accountable so you don’t give up along the way.

There they are six healthy ways to lose weight that work. If you follow these principles, you’ll be on your way to losing weight in a healthy way for the long term.