It’s easy to view weight loss as this impossible mountain you’re trying to scale. In fairness, traditional and social media have made it seem like a super complex achievement. You’re always bombarded with the latest weight loss trends and diets, making it seem like you need to take drastic measures to lose body fat.
Lean in close for a big secret…it’s nowhere near as hard as everyone makes out.
This might come across as a privileged thing to say, but it’s simple science. If you want to lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit. This means your body uses more energy than it takes in. It sounds complicated, but here are three simple life hacks that’ll make weight loss a breeze:
Walk 10,000 Steps A Day
Walking is one of life’s biggest health hacks. It’s like running, but without the effort or the joint pain. Aim to walk around 10,000 steps a day and you’ll immediately burn an extra 300+ calories. The quicker you walk – and the higher your heart rate – the more calories you’ll burn.
For context, 10,000 steps is around an hour and forty minutes for the average person. A 15-minute walk to and from your house accounts for 30 minutes already. Do that three times a day and you’ve hit the target. Or, get a walk pad to use at home, so you can walk while watching TV or listening to a podcast. It’ll improve your health immeasurably – and you’ll find it easier to lose weight by burning an extra 2,100+ calories per week.
Reduce Your Portion Sizes
Losing weight requires you to be mindful of what you eat. You won’t need to embark on a crazy strict diet; eat whole foods and manage your portion sizes. Loads of people struggle to lose weight as they eat too much at every meal. You’re adding excess calories that don’t need to be there. Reduce your portion sizes slightly, and you can reduce your calorie consumption by a few hundred each day.
Hang on, won’t this make you hungry? Ah, this is where a few ideas will come in handy. Consider medical weight loss with semaglutide to suppress your appetite in the beginning, and then gradually make meals with more protein and fiber. Meals high in protein and fiber will fill you up for longer, so you eat smaller portions and resist the need to snack between meals.
Lift Weights
Cardio will help you lose weight, but lifting weights is a much better approach. Your 10,000 steps a day can count as cardio; weight lifting helps you build muscle, which supercharges your metabolism.
Muscle requires more energy to fuel and maintain than fat, so your body will naturally burn more calories when you have lots of muscle mass. Plus, lifting weights requires lots of effort, so you burn fat with every workout anyway.
Implement these three hacks to your daily routine and you’ll quickly feel like a new person. Your body fat percentage starts to drop while your muscle tone increases. You love what you see in the mirror and you start living a healthier, more sustainable life.
