Throughout my years helping thousands of clients lose literal tons of fat, I have received many questions about how I managed to stay lean & lose my baby weight just months after giving birth to my now one year old daughter. So here are the highlights:
- Drink more water. A lot more, actually. . You may have heard that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day. I’d second that advice, so long as you use 16-oz glasses/bottles. That’s right, I advise that you should drink about 1 gallon (128 oz) of calorie-free fluids daily to stay well-hydrated. Quite often when your body sends signals that it is thirsty, your brain will misinterpret this thirst as hunger. Drink 16-oz of water when you first think you are getting hungry between meals and wait 30 minutes to see if you are truly hungry. Having extra hydration is especially important when you are using an appetite suppressant (such as phentermine or Adipex) as a tool to aid in weight loss.
- Don’t snack, have real meals instead. This is important when the goal is fat loss. Since you are on a calorie-restricted diet and are allowed ~1,200 calories a day, you need to have real meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at planned times.
- Keep your meal times consistent. If you must have 3 meals a day, have designated time (usually a 1 hour window) that you will eat. If you miss this time frame, you must wait until the next meal.
- Delay breakfast for as long as possible. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat. Evening times may be the worst time for snacking, so if you are still under your calorie goal by dinner, you can enjoy your dinner a bit more 😉
- Calorie in < calorie out. By eating a calorie deficit diet, the majority of healthy individuals WILL lose weight. That includes you.
- You cannot out-exercise what you eat. Well, you probably can but you don’t want to. Spending 2 hours in the gym will most likely not make up for the “cheat meal” from last night. A large amount of time is required to burn off even a paltry 100 calories, you don’t even want to imagine how long it’ll take to burn off that Tall Mocha Frappaccino from Starbucks.
- Track calories for consistent weight loss results. I have used ALL of the apps out there, from Myfitnesspal to Lose It! to Fat Secret and many other ones. My favorite is MyPlate Calorie Counter from Livestrong. You will obtain excellent results if you track calories daily for each meal. The constant reminder of what you put into you body really makes it easy to make difficult choices when you are tempted by your favorite snacks.
- Abs are made in the kitchen. Really!
- You do not have to exercise to lose weight. Ok, I may have already said this but it bears repeating. Exercise isn’t NECESSARY to lose fat, but exercising will help reduce stress, tone your muscles and help shape your body, while making it easier to keep your weight loss progress for the long term.
Thank you for reading. And good luck in your journey to feeling better and improving your health!
