3 Important Things Science Has Proven About Losing Weight
We all know how intimidating diets can be, especially if you’ve lived with extra weight for some time. To make matters worse, most people have an extremely busy schedule that makes the recommended hour of daily exercise required almost impossible to complete.
If you want to know how to lose weight using methods that have actually been proven, we’ve compiled 3 important things that science tells us will cause weight-loss. Some of them are common sense, others, well, even surprised us.
Exercise is great, but your diet is the core of your weight-loss.
The first thing you have to understand is that a “diet” is a noun; it’s not a verb for an action you take when you want to become healthy or lose weight. Losing weight requires a lifestyle change.
All forms of exercise are great for your heart health and overall fitness, but when it all comes down to it, weight loss is a simple equation: calories in – calories out. When you eat more calories than you burn in a day, you’ll gain weight. It’s that simple.
Your body burns calories constantly, even when you’re sleeping. Right now, your body is using energy from your last meal to keep you alive while you read this. When your body runs out of calories supplied from the food you eat, does it shut down completely? Nope. It goes for the stored fat all around your body.
The key is finding the amount of calories your body burns just doing everyday activities, which is also called your “maintenance”. Aim for a caloric deficit and you’ll lose weight. Any surplus of calories above what your body burns for maintenance becomes sugar, and is stored in the form of fat.
Your metabolism may be dead. Here’s how to revive it.
Your body’s metabolism is a series of chemical reactions your body creates in order to keep running. Your actual metabolic rate, which is the speed at which your body breaks down energy to create those chemical reactions, dictates how much energy is burned in a given time.
Your metabolic rate can actually decrease and increase over time, depending on certain conditions. A study conducted by NASA shows that after a couple of days of non-activity, your metabolism stops fluctuating with food intake.
Regular exercise not only fires up your metabolism, but the calories you burn in the process will free up more to eat. Eating often and exercising are key to maintaining a regular metabolism, but you should consult a doctor to make sure there aren’t other factors that may cause a slowdown in your metabolism.
Your weight-loss journey starts in the brain.
More than just motivating yourself and ensuring you remain consistent with your lifestyle change, your brain needs time to adjust to your new habits, which will help you make the right decisions when it’s the most important. Habits you establish over time change the way your brain responds to hunger, which leads to binge eating. A lifestyle change that involves reducing calorie intake, choosing healthy foods, and exercising regularly can change the way your brain interacts with the hormones that tell your body, “hey, it’s time to eat,” and “alright, I think I’m full.”
