When it comes to losing weight, women prefer to starve themselves or follow a crash diet. While these may work initially by helping you lose a few pounds, these extreme diets are very harmful for your health in the long run. You might reach your desired weight goal in a few days, but it is almost impossible to maintain that weight. Here are 20 weight loss tips for women.
The key is in sustainability. For women, what you need is a sustainable eating habit that will help you lose weight, positive lifestyle changes and adequate exercises. It’s completely acceptable to go on a crash diet when you need to lose weight for an occasion a few weeks ago, but not if you want to stay healthy and fit at all times.
Most of the women, crash diets and any kind of diets, in general, are followed to lose weight. However, what’s more important is that women also get the important nutrients they need in life, stay fit and have the energy they need to face every day.
If your goal is both sustainable weight loss and a healthy lifestyle, these are 25+ tips for you to achieve your goal.
- Reduce your Portion Size
Whatever we eat every day, our bodies need less than that to sustain. The brain takes a few minutes to register whether we are full, and by the time it gets the “Stop eating” signal, we would have eaten more than what we need. So, reduce your portions and start eating two-thirds of what you used to have for your meals, and your body will get what it needs to sustain.
- Completely Avoid Refined Carbs
Anything that is simple carbohydrates and/or refined carbs need to stay off your plates, i.e. white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc. Anything that takes a long time to digest should be avoided. If you are craving carbohydrates, there are slightly healthier options in whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, pure oats and brown pasta). Other healthy sources of carbohydrates are potatoes and sweet potatoes, legumes, seeds and nuts.
- Get your Share of Proteins
Proteins should be present in every single meal that you take; in fact, your meals should be more than 60% protein, and the rest fiber and carbs. It doesn’t mean that you need to add meat in every meal, because there are lots of healthy protein source out there that should make it into your plates.
90% or leaner ground beef, chicken or turkey breasts (without skin), all kinds of beans and lentils, dairy products, all fish and shellfish, lean pork, tofu and all soy products (unless you are allergic), nuts and butter made from nuts, seeds and eggs are the protein sources that should be present in every single of your meals, in a larger portion than fiber or carbs.
- Stop your Sugar Intake
You shouldn’t just limit or cut back on your sugar intake, but completely stop any kind of consumption for your health. This means all desserts made with refined sugar, sodas and fizzy drinks, fruit juices, concentrated fruit syrups, powdered drinks and energy drinks, sauces and ketchups that have added sugar, sports drinks, chocolate milk and chocolate syrup, ready-mixed ice tea, condensed milk – everything that is not naturally sweet.
If you want to lose weight fast, this is the first rule of healthy eating. Your food should be as natural and sugarless as possible. Drink black coffee without adding sugar, milk or cream in it; when thirsty, drink water and not fruit juice. Sugar has a very clever way to sneak up on your food if you are not careful, so using this weight loss tip will help a ton, You should also always check the label of ingredients when shopping.
- Keep Healthy Snacks Around
Women are prone to snacking more than men; you can see some women continuously nibbling or munching on cookies, chocolate bars or protein bars whenever they are hungry. Now, it is quite all right to snack every now and then, but you need to make sure you have healthy snacks around you.
Seeds and raw nuts, high-fibre fruits like watermelons and apples, beef or turkey jerky, unsweetened Greek yogurt, Cottage cheese slices, celery sticks, fat-free trail mix – these are healthy and low-calorie snacks you can keep around you for all your snacking needs.
- Never Eat After Dark
Finish your meals before it’s dark outside; don’t eat a heavy dinner after 7 PM if you can help it. If you are working late and feel hungry around midnight, allow yourself a snack, but a very simple and healthy one. An apple, a few slices of cottage cheese, turkey jerky or fat-free Greek yogurt are the kind of snacks you should eat late at night, something easily digestible.
- Focus on Vegetables
Beside proteins, vegetables should be dominant ingredients on your plates. When it comes to healthy vegetarian choices, there are a lot of options to choose from, and you can prepare them in a number of ways as well: sauté, grill, mash, boil, steam, stir-fry or roast them, bake them or make them into curries or raw salads.
Black beans, lima beans, peas and artichokes, Brussel’s Sprouts, broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages, cucumbers, watercress, tomatoes and lettuce, and almost all types of leafy greens are high-fiber vegetables that boost your metabolism and help you to lose weight.
- Never Skip Breakfast
Skipping breakfast is quite common for women, especially mothers who have young children to take care of. Amidst getting everyone ready or preparing breakfast for everyone else in the family, women often forget to eat breakfast themselves – a terribly bad health decision.
You should never skip out on breakfast because it will make you eat more for the next few meals, reach towards unhealthy food options and snack unnecessarily. Even if it is just a single serving of Greek yogurt or an apple with a cup of coffee, you need something filling for breakfast. Prepare something as simple as a fruit-and-yogurt smoothie that you can sip while commuting to work or while getting your children ready for the ready.
- Never Eat After Dark
Finish your meals before it’s dark outside; don’t eat a heavy dinner after 7 PM if you can help it. If you are working late and feel hungry around midnight, allow yourself a snack, but a very simple and healthy one. An apple, a few slices of cottage cheese, turkey jerky or fat-free Greek yogurt are the kind of snacks you should eat late at night, something easily digestible.
- Snack on Fruits
Fruits are nature’s best snacks, filled with healthy fiber and mostly water. With the right fruits, you can stuff yourself without gathering many calories.
Apples, watermelons, oranges, guava, avocados, pears, peaches, all kinds of berries, including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, persimmon, etc. are naturally high-fiber fruits
- Don’t Skim on Dairy
Women need extra servings of calcium than men, especially new and expectant mothers and women who had given birth. A woman’s bone structure is different than a man’s, more brittle and easier to deteriorate at an advanced age. From 30 years and onwards, all women need a healthy dose of milk, dairy products and/or calcium supplements.
Although men and women both need calcium, a glass of milk every day is very important for all women. A glass of whole milk can have up to 136 calories in it
However, if you happen to be lactose intolerant or have an allergy to milk, other healthier dairy substitutes are milk made from soy, almond, coconut, oat, macadamia nuts, hemp, quinoa, cashew nut and rice milk. These milk substitutes vary in taste and calorie count, but are nevertheless good for you. If you don’t like the taste of milk, you can add it to your tea or coffee, oatmeal or smoothie for breakfast every day.
- Don’t Eat when you Shouldn’t
Most women have this unique habit of finishing of leftovers, finishing off their children’s food, or eating while cooking, as do some men. It might seem you are only finishing off a few bites, or popping a single potato while cooking, but they might add up to a lot of calories at the end of the day. Even if it means putting the leftovers in your fridge or throwing them out, stop eating when you are supposed to be eating anything.
- Don’t go Shopping on an Empty Stomach
You end up having a heavy lunch or snack or something appropriate when you go shopping on an empty stomach. This is something that happens to everyone, especially women. Whether you are shopping alone or with a friend, shopping for groceries or for clothes, you might automatically feel drawn to a restaurant or a café for a bite. To make sure this doesn’t happen, always leave home after a hearty breakfast or lunch, and carry a water bottle with you.
- Lose one Bad Habit
We all have that one bad habit that contributes to our weight, i.e. always ordering French fries with our food, extra spoonful of sugar in our coffee, sampling products when grocery shopping, eating one candy bar every day, etc. Identify the one (or more) bad habits that you have and put a stop to it. If this was a particularly bad habit, you will immediately start to see positive changes to your weight.
- Find one (or a few) Favorite
If there’s something that you like, find our healthier substitutes of the ingredients and make it often, for yourself and your family. This way, you won’t feel like you’re giving up your favourite meals and think about cheating. If you like cashew nut salad, for example, you can still make it with skinless chicken breasts and roasted cashews, substituting lemon juice for tomato ketchup. This will also help your weekly shopping lists less complicated.
- Don’t be Too Hard on Yourself
It’s hard to follow a diet or eat healthy if you keep on thinking about everything you are going to miss. If you keep on thinking “I’ll never eat cake again” or “I’ll never be able to order a pizza again”, it is very normal to fall off the wagon or cheat on your diet. When the occasion arrives, you are allowed half a slice of pizza or a few spoonfuls of cake, but you must boost your exercise regime at the same time.
- Start Working Out
Of course, this is all useless if you are not physically active or if you are not working out at the same time. Exercise needs to be as an important part of your life as eating healthy. Whether you are someone who never exercise or someone who practically lives at the gym, your life should be a balance between good food and adequate exercise.
If not anything, you should at least try power walking, jogging or running once a day; when trying to lose weight, you need to burn just as many calories as you are consuming every day. When you end up eating more, you need to also increase your exercising time. 45 minutes to an hour every day should be just enough, more if you’ve eaten something you shouldn’t have.
- Try Weight Loss Exercises
For women, some of the most effective weight loss exercises happen to be:
- “Burpees” which require you to do a pushup with your arms, jump back into a standing position, and then immediately return to another pushup, without any break;
- “Squats” which requires you to bend your knees and sit back, keep your balance by extending your arms out in the front, stand up from your sitting position, and then immediately sit back, as if on an invisible chair;
- “Planks” which are similar to doing pushups, but instead of any movement, you need to simply stay still and tighten your glutes and keep your body in a straight line;
- A“dumbbell push”, in which you use two dumbbells in your hands and push them up and down at your sides, for as many times as you can; and
- A“bridge” where you lie on the ground and lift your stomach, hips, buttocks and thighs upwards, bending your knees, while all the pressure falls on to your feet and shoulders;
All of these exercises concentrate on different parts of your body, but they are extremely effective in burning calories and fat, especially around your belly. Try them even if you have never exercised before because, with regular practice, these 5 exercises are not really hard to accomplish.
- Forgive your Small Mistakes
Most certainly, there will be times when you’ve made a few mistakes with your diet – a candy bar when you were feeling particularly down, mistakenly adding refined sugar to your coffee, or having a slice of pizza while hanging out with your friends. If this happens, and it will do try to forgive and forget. A small indiscretion doesn’t mean you have to abandon the whole plan of eating well in the future; just forget the incident and move forward.
- Take it Slow
Crash diets can help you lose significant weight in a few weeks, but they are not good for your health. When you are taking the eat healthy, exercise and track your progress.
- Drink Plenty of Water
Water is the miracle drink you need to keep your body hydrated and healthy. The average female body needs about 2 litres of water
Water has all the necessary nutritional components you need in a drink; with the right amount of water, you won’t need any other kind of drink: fruit juices, sports drink or energy drinks. All you need is a healthy, fresh and clean source of water every day.
- Change your Dining Rules
Change your plates and bowls for smaller ones; use salad plates for your meals and don’t take second helpings. Dump everything on one plate and take your time finishing your food. This will help you keep your portions in check. If possible, leave the dining table with your food, and don’t return for additional helpings.
- Don’t Eat Anything Directly out of a Box/Pack
Whatever you are eating – something healthy, moderately healthy, or completely unhealthy – never do it directly out of a box or a packet. Always pour into a small bowl or plate to control your portions. When you are snacking out of a pack, it’s impossible to keep a track of exactly how much you have eaten. In a bowl or on a plate, you will be at least able to know if you’ve eaten more than you intended. Even when snacking on something as harmless as popcorn, pour into a bowl before starting.
The journey to losing weight is not an easy one, neither is it impossible. You can take the easy way out, starve yourself and lose a few pounds, only to gain them back eventually. Or, you can take the healthier, albeit slower, way to stay healthy and fit, and bring significant improvement to your mind, body and soul. The rules to healthy living won’t just make you thinner, it will change your whole life, for the better!
