10 Ways to Lose Your Excess Lockdown Pounds

The lockdown has turned many of our active lifestyles into more sedentary ones along with more opportunities for eating whatever we want at home. This will obviously have had an effect on those of us who have been less careful, with excess pounds creeping on and causing our clothes to have a much snugger fit. If you are looking to reverse these effects and lose the lockdownpounds, then here are 10 ways to get you started on a path to a healthier weight.

Strength Training

On your weight loss journey, it is important to implement exercise or some form of movement into your daily routine for the best and quickest results; however, some forms are better at helping you to drop the pounds than others. Strength training is a great way to lose fat without losing muscle which is important in managing your metabolism. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism and the quickerenergy will be burnt once consumed, so it is important to gain muscle mass or at least try not to lose it.

Choose High Antioxidant Foods

When you eat solid foods, ensure that they are rich in antioxidants whichwill increase your metabolism, speed up your weight loss and decrease inflammation in your body. Antioxidant rich foods have benefits that go much further than just weight loss though, since they are full of vitamins and minerals which can lead to prolonged life expectancy and a decreased risk of developing any diseases. Getting more of these powerful foods into your diet might not be as hard as you think, since it is about introducing a variety of fruits and vegetables so that your plate looks like a rainbow.

Incorporate More Movement

Although finding an exercise that you enjoy is a great idea and will be the fastest route to getting you fit and losing extra pounds, you can also look forward to the benefits of movement by simply increasing your daily activity. Examples of this include taking the stairs where possible, rather than a lift, and parking further away from the supermarket to get a few extra steps in before you sit back in your car. Even if you focus on increasing your daily step count, you’ll be reaping the benefits from improved mental health and a much better chance of weight loss than if you didn’t move at all during the day.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is about managing when you eat and setting an amount of time in which nothing should be consumed at all, for example, between 8pm and 12pm the next day. This is proven to be an effective method for losing weight, butit isn’t an easy schedule to follow, especially after enjoying the flexibility of lockdown. You also need to be aware that the calories you consume in an eating window should be from healthy food sources and shouldn’t exceed your target calorie deficit if you want to see real results.

Change Your Diet

Pick a diet that works best for you and maintain consistency with it to see the best results. Try weight loss shakes from Shake That Weight for a delicious alternative to a highly calorific food that digests slowly to prevent you from going hungry and provides you with vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy. Choose from a range of flavours like white chocolate and raspberry and chocolate orange to add variety to your diet and take them with you wherever you go for added convenience.Any diet that you choose needs to leave you with a calorie deficitwhich is created when you consume less food energy than what your body requires, leaving it with no choice but to use stored fat for energy or fuel.While drinking shakes for a meal, you are making it easier for yourself to keep track of your calorie deficit, and thereby motivating you to stay consistent with your diet.

Running

Going for a run is a great way to lose weight and get fit by burning a lots of calories through cardiovascular exercise.Nevertheless, running needs to be paired with a decent dietto show the best results, although not quite as strict as it would need to be without the run. Rewarding yourself with your favourite meal after a run is not a bad idea but just ensure that this habit doesn’t become too regular because you could end up undoing all of your hard work. Another benefit of running is that there really are no barriers to entry so you can start whenever you want and make your own plan, including where to run, who to run with, how long you want to run for and at what pace.

Bedtime

Making sure that you get enough sleep is highly beneficial for weight loss for many reasons proved by scientists, so make sure that you get at least eight hours each night to ensure your best chances at dropping those pounds. This might not have been a challenge during lockdown but as you head back to work it is important to focus on getting to bed at the right time and not putting too much pressure on yourself to wake up early. Sleep is important since people are more likely to reach for unhealthy snacks to fulfil their hunger when tired and are also more likely to make poorer food choices throughout the day, slowing down any weight loss progress.

Tracking Progress

Track your exerciseand food intake every day to hold yourself accountable and understand what is normal for you to achieve a calorie deficit. There are many tracker apps available for helping you with this, or you can do it the old-fashioned way by writing down your meals in a food diary and noting your activity.Furthermore, you could find a friend to do this with you so that you are more likely to stay motivated to continue and can hold each other accountable if you fail to reach your targets.

Increase Your Water Intake

You might have heard before that when you are hungry, it could often be a signal that you need to hydrate yourself. You can either do this with a calorie free glass of water or a juicy, greasy burger, but the latter will not help you towards losing those pounds and is a bad habit to continue. Drinking a glass of water will supress your appetite and can stop you from eating more than your body needs, so make it a habit to drink a glass before every meal. More benefits of drinking water include increased calorie burn, especially when cold, and helping with digestion to remove waste from the body.

Avoid Stress

Unnecessary stress makes it a lot harder to lose weight since your body is only focused on managing thestress, rather than helping you to reach your weight loss goals. Since this stress makes weight loss difficult, it might be worth dealing with that issue before you even begin your journey. This is because even if you are eating a nutritious diet and being active, your body will try and hold onto extra calories for dealing with stress. Try to work on your stress or avoid stressful situations altogether to get a better chance at dropping those lockdown pounds.

Allthe methods mentioned above will help you to shed the excess lockdown pounds, so try one or a combination to achieve your desired results. Remember to be consistent with whichever method you go for and try to not put pressure on yourself to reach your goal too fast.