How To Lose Weight: Starting With Just A Glass Of Water

To successfully lose weight in a sustainable manner, the approach can make all the difference. Any effective approach begins with taking simple baby steps. Here are 3 tips that will help you lose weight.

Tip #1: Drink a full eight ounce glass of water 20 minutes before each meal.

It's only partly because you trick your body into thinking that it's full. The real trick is in giving your body all the water that it needs. The usual recommendation is at least an 8 oz glasses of water a day. That's WATER - not soft drinks, not coffee. Just pure water. Your body needs water to maintain all its systems and to flush wastes away. When you don't take in enough water, it starts trying to conserve it by retaining water in muscle and fat tissues. Water your body as faithfully as you would a plant, and you'll find that it starts ridding itself of excess water regularly as well. Is it just water weight? Well, yes. But that water weight is weight you don't have to carry around with you as long as you're taking in enough water for your body's needs.

Tip #2: Decrease Your Daily Calories

The most common advice given to anyone who wants to lose weight is to go on a diet. The trouble with dieting is that low calorie diet would throw the body into starvation mode. When this happens, it lowers the body's metabolic rate to cause muscle loss and not fat loss. As soon as the diet has ended, the unwanted fat returns and actually increases due to the lower metabolism.

The best way around is to cut your daily calorie intake instead of opting into a diet. This prevents the body's starvation mechanisms from kicking in. Decrease daily calorie value by a couple of hundred calories per day and no more. This will generate slow weight loss and the majority will be fat loss only. The daily calories should be consumed during the day with small frequent meals.

Tip #3: Eat your fruits and veggies raw.

Aside from the fact that raw fruits and vegetables pack more nutrition per calorie, in many cases you're actually getting LESS calories when you eat your produce raw. Especially if you generally opt for canned fruits or vegetables, there are added preservatives and flavorings that can increase calories substantially. But there's another reason as well: your body works harder to digest raw fruits and vegetables, and that means that it uses more calories in getting all the nutrients out of it. Your body NEEDS the extra roughage present in fruit and vegetables that haven't been cooked and processed to keep it working right.

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