Lose Weight, Keep Weight Off....How?

How does one lose weight, keep the weight off and maintain a healthy body weight? 

Metabolism

Why do leaner people have a higher metabolism than fatter people?   More lean people have more lean muscle.  Muscle burns about  50 times more calories than fat.  So if you want to lose weight, keep the weight off and maintain a healthy body weight gain more lean muscle.  How do we gain lean muscle mass?  Thought you’d never ask…
#1:  Resistance training builds lean muscle and is ESSENTIAL to boosting your metabolism and keeping the weight off for good.
#2:  A study in The Journal Obesity Research found that the best predictors for weight maintenance after weight loss were the following:

• Dietary restraint during weight loss
• High baseline resting metabolic rate (as a result of resistance training)
• Stable body weight, few excessive fluctuations in weight gain/loss
• Low frequency of dieting

#3:   You can’t maintain a healthy weight without consistent effort towards improving your lifestyle. This means healthy eating and resistance training workouts become a part of your lifestyle.  Battling excess weight becomes less of a burden.
Why is lifestyle important?  Being fat is in your jeans!  That may be partially true, however, researchers found that the  “weight regain” in formerly obese persons is a constant without a change in nutrition and exercise. 

So...let’s boost your metabolic rate (which doesn’t occur by spending endless hours doing cardio and following low carbohydrate diets!

5 Tips to Rev Up a Fat Burning Metabolism:
1. More RESISTANCE TRAINING, Less Cardio
Lean muscle doesn’t come about by doing cardio 7 days a week. You need to stress your muscles to develop them. Use your body weight, resistance bands, machines, dumbbells, or any other form of resistance.
2. Eat RAW Food Daily
High amounts of food enzymes found in raw foods allow your body to expend more energy on metabolism and less on digestion.
3. Eat Small Meals Throughout the Day
Keep the fire burning by adding small amounts of wood to it throughout the day. This is more effective than stuffing your face full of food once or twice a day.
4. Drink GREEN TEA
Green tea has been shown to boost metabolism. Researchers believe that antioxidants in green tea can cause the body to burn calories as heat, which increases your caloric burn.
5. Spice Up Your Meals
These herbs and spices are speed up your metabolism: cayenne pepper, jalapeno peppers, ginger, peppermint, and cinnamon – just to name a few

Sip to Slim

Sip Smart: Back Off Sugar

Replace one sugary drink with water or a zero-calorie beverage and you'll save yourself from about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Think about adding lemon, lime, mint or frozen strawberries for flavor and fun.
The liquid sugar in soda appears to bypass the body's normal fullness cues. One study compared an extra 450 calories per day from jelly beans vs. soda. The candy eaters unconsciously ate fewer calories overall, but not so the soda drinkers. They gained 2.5 pounds in four weeks.

Sip Smart: Use a Tall, Thin Glass

Use a tall, skinny glass instead of a short, wide tumbler to cut liquid calories -- and your weight -- without dieting. You'll drink 25%-30% less juice, soda, wine, or any other beverage.
How can this work? Brian Wansink, PhD, says visual cues can trick us into consuming more or less. His tests at Cornell University found all kinds of people poured more into a short, wide glass -- even experienced bartenders.

Sip Smart: Limit Alcohol 

When an occasion includes alcohol order a glass of water along with it.  Sip each drink intermittently with the each other.  Alcohol has more calories per gram (7) than carbohydrates (4) or protein (4). It can also lead you to mindlessly inhale chips, nuts, and other foods you'd normally limit.

Sip Smart: Go for the Green

Drinking green tea may also be a good weight loss strategy. Some studies suggest that it can boost the body's calorie-burning engine temporarily, possibly through the action of phytochemicals called catechins.  You'll get a refreshing drink without tons of calories.