Fighting to lose weight is an impossible battle to win. But you already know that.

Instead of fighting to achieve short-term weight-loss goals, put your energy into lifelong missions.

Short-term Goals vs Lifelong Goals

Short-term goals:  “Lose 20 pounds before summer”, “fit into that dress for the wedding”.

These battles are very hard to win. You’ll drain out all your will power and commit to so many sacrifices that one of two things will happen: 

1. After a few months you fail, get your weight back, plus the heavy weight of frustration.
   
2. You achieve your goal, enjoy the summer or the wedding and after you get your weight back, you lose all your confidence.

Lifelong Goals: A good looking and healthy body all year.

That’s a lifelong process. Focus on personal development and healthy habits to improve your well-being step by step.

Easy and achievable steps.

It’s Not About Sacrificing

I’ve tried to quit smoking several times and it never lasted longer than 3 months. It was too hard: too many sacrifices and not enough will power.

Even if I could quit for longer than 3 months, what was the point if I would eventually fail again?

For more than 10 years I thought that I didn’t have enough will power to quit smoking. I stopped trying, but my smoking habit was causing my health to deteriorate day by day.

It’s About Choosing

One day everything changed. I found a different purpose: I didn’t want to be a smoker for all my life and I didn’t want to continue smoking against my will. Cigarettes couldn’t control my life: I decided that I would never smoke again.

Instead of specific goals I set a new personal achievement. Instead of focusing on sacrifices to achieve my goals, I decided to change my habits and quit smoking. 

I made a decision that day: I choose a life without smoking. 

You can’t sacrifice something that you don’t want in your life.

That same day I started cold turkey. It was hard, but my focus was on: I don’t want to smoke again. 

From that day until today, it has been 3 years and I’ve never smoked a cigarette again. More about how I quit smoking here.

From Sacrifices to Life Choices

Fighting for “lose 20 pounds before summer” or “get into that dress for the wedding” are lost battles. You’ll eventually fail and feel miserable. If you win, it will certainly be temporary, as you will soon get your weight back and feel miserable again.

Sacrifices make us feel horrible. Sacrificing to achieve something doesn’t last longer because no one can sacrifice something for a long period of time.

On the contrary: Choosing fruit over donuts for breakfast is taking action, is a step towards our life long goal, and is empowering. 

Sacrifices feel like we’re losing out on the good stuff of life.

Life Choices: Give us the power to set a course for our life.

I wasn’t sacrificing cigarettes; I chose to not smoke again.

Cigarettes aren’t in control of my life anymore, I’m leading now.

I’m not sacrificing donuts, instead I’m choosing fruit salad for breakfast because it gives me more energy, and no bloated sensation, so I feel much better.

Cravings and desires will not control my life. I choose the food that will give me the results I’m looking for.  Donuts taste good, but having donuts will not allow me to achieve the body and the wellbeing I desire.

Think Big and Start Small

Thinking big: Instead of aiming for those 20 pounds off for summer, go for: I want to look great all year around, or, I would like to have more energy every day, or, I don’t want to make more food sacrifices.

Take a moment, set your goal, and find your lifelong achievement. 

I’m passionate  about writing but I don’t aim to write a book, or write for a magazine. Of course I would love to accomplish that, but instead I aim to improve my writing every day. If I do that, one day I will eventually publish my first book or publish an article in a magazine.

Improving my writing is my Thinking Big long-term goal that will last as long as I live. Every writer can always improve her/his writing.

On the other hand, writing a book is a small goal. Everybody can write a book, the same way everybody can lose 20 pounds. Much more fulfilling is becoming a better writer and keeping your body healthy and feeling good about it.  

Starting Small: To improve my writing I don’t have to make sacrifices, instead I have to start with small and doable actions: writing every day, reading books and magazines daily, so as a consequence of those actions, my writing will improve and I will eventually get invited to publish in magazines or publish a book.

Easy and Doable steps: 

Walking/Jogging: If you’re not doing any exercise, start with daily 15 minute walks. If you already do some jogging, do a daily quick jog 3 times a week. Make it fun: take some music with you, an audio book or your favorite podcast. Walking guide here and a running guide here.

Meditation: Creating new habits brings some struggle and some resistance to change. Meditation is proven to be very helpful to reduce anxiety and to reduce the cluttering of emotions in our head. I use an app called Headspace. It’s totally free and you can find it here.

Get rid of processed food at home: When we choose to get a healthier life and a life without fighting for weight loss, we commit to avoiding trash-fast-processed food. As much as our cravings dislike this idea, we are now behind the wheel of ourselves and we know this trash food will not help us at all to achieve our goal. A home free of trash food is a home free of temptations. 

Home cooking: In preparing our own food we get to pick fresh ingredients and avoid bad stuff like added sugar and too much salt. Home cooking strengthens family bonds and gathers friends together.  Experiment with new recipes or make a batch on the weekend and freeze it for the rest of the week. I’ve shared more than 250 recipes here.

Journaling: Quit smoking, become a better writer, improve our health and get the body we want. All these life-goals share a common solution: personal development. By improving ourselves we can make better choices that will help us to achieve our goals. Journaling is a great way to understand our emotions, fears, hidden ghosts and monsters in the basement of our head. By journaling we can get rid of all that mixed pile of paper and clear our head. Journaling is very liberating.

Choose Home Food: Restaurants make food so we can indulge ourselves, but it doesn’t necessarily improve our health. Invest time in preparing your own food and have as much home food in a week as you can. Start with preparing your breakfast or dinner. Once a week I always have a dinner out to enjoy food that I don’t make at home.

Reduce Added Sugar: In the last 30 years the Food Industry has been adding more and more sugar to food because studies have shown how we easily get addicted to sugar and how much our brain loves sweet food. Added sugar is the number one cause of obesity. Quitting sugar is as hard as quitting smoking, but by far the hardest step is taking the decision to stop consuming high-sugar foods and drinks. 

I’ve created a 20 No-Sugar Days challenge to help you get rid of added sugar. 

Quitting added sugar is by far the most effective step to lose weight, regain energy, reduce headaches and get rid of that bloated sensation. 

Check the 20 No-Sugar Days challenge. It’s 100% Free.

Simple Actions Repeated Become Habits

These are simple and doable steps that anybody can do. Don’t start all of them at the same time. Always go for actions that you can repeat daily or 2 or 3 times a week.

These steps are not a formula to lose weight or a new diet. These are simple actions that will improve your wellbeing and help you achieve your life goals.

Habits: The Key To Achieving Lifelong Goals

Only the actions you repeat will become habits. Science says it takes 30 days for actions to become habits. Start small, and incorporate actions that are doable. 

It’s not about genius, talent or intelligence – habits are the key to success.

Results may take time to show, but if you’re persistent and patient, you’ll get them.

How To Start?

1.Set your lifelong purpose:

I would like to have a better looking body, get rid of extra weight, become a better writer, stop food bingeing. Remember, it’s not about losing 20 pounds before summer or writing a book; it’s a life decision. Pick yours and make it for life.

2. Once you have your purpose take the decision to start:

Take the decision to start. There’s no way back. You might get off track, but your direction will never change. You will always know the direction to sail. 

3. Strengths you need: patience and persistence

Forget genius, talent, intelligence, IQ and slow metabolism. All you need is patience and persistence. You can’t change genius, talent or intelligence but you can always improve patience and persistence by simply continuing your new habits.

Patience: As much effort as you put into these and other habits, the results don’t happen overnight. Take the steps and be patient about the results.

Persistence: There will be tough days when walking, journaling or eating healthy is the last thing you want to do, but be persistent. It is better to walk for 10 minutes that not to do any walking.

Once you have the habits, push it a little bit further. Instead of writing one page a day, go for 2 pages. Push forward your walking from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Persistence is always more important than intensity.

Conclusion

The problem is not lack of willpower: We will never have enough willpower to handle daily sacrifices.

Make choices instead of sacrifices: Sacrifices make us feel horrible, with no self-esteem and a feeling of losing all the good stuff in life. Making choices is empowering and give us a direction, so we know where we are going.

Think Big: Set lifelong achievements instead of short-term goals: Decide what you want in your life, set your course and sail in that direction. 

Start small – easy and doable steps: Walking/jogging, cooking your own food, avoiding added sugar, journaling, meditation, reading. Start with one and include it in your daily routines.

From actions to habits – It takes 30 days for to actions become habits. Invest your time and energy to create and stick with your new healthy habits.

The solution is habits: As you continue taking actions, results will show up.

Before starting – Set your lifelong goal; take the decision to start; be persistent and patient; and the results will show up. 

Persistence and patience: The two most important qualities you will need. Work on them.

Thanks for reading. I always like to know about your comments, questions, likes and dislikes. Please enter your comments/thoughts in the section below.

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This might sound simple, but it was actually quite time-consuming. It was also easy to forget to write in your journal, and the information you could record was pretty limited. 

Because I’m a bit of a hoarder, I still have most my old training diaries and every now and then I dig them out and read them. Half the time I can’t tell what it was I was recording! They must have made sense when I wrote them, but now they don’t mean a thing. 

That’s why fitness trackers are so useful, and why I’m such a big fan. Fitness trackers do all the hard work for you and they don’t forget to record your workouts. Also, using apps, you can easily compare one workout to another to see how you are progressing. This is very motivating and shows you how far you have come. 

What to Look for in a Fitness Tracker 

There are lots of different fitness trackers to choose from, and that can make deciding which one to buy quite difficult. After all, you want the best tool for the job, and don’t want to buy one that doesn’t do what you want. 

Because of that, make sure you consider these points before buying a fitness tracker. Don’t worry though, I’ve also reviewed the best fitness trackers on the market to help you choose the right one for you. More on that later.  

1. Distance tracker – most fitness trackers count steps, but some use GPS to calculate distance too. If you are just walking for health, a step counter is probably enough, but if you are a serious walker or runner, a tracker with GPS may be more useful. GPS trackers can also measure the distance you have swum or cycled, handy if you do more than just running and walking. 

2. Calorie tracker – if you are exercising for weight loss, a calorie counting function may be useful. However, it’s important to understand that even the best calorie counters are not 100% accurate, and there is more to losing weight than eating less and moving more. 

3. Heart rate monitor – some fitness trackers double as heart rate monitors. That can be useful if you want to make sure you are exercising at exactly the right level of intensity. Some use a chest strap while others monitor your pulse at your wrist. The chest strap type is more accurate. 

4. Sleep tracker – sleep is an important consideration for health. Some activity trackers monitor the length and quality of your sleep. If you know you are a bad sleeper, this feature could be useful and help you to break unhealthy, sleep-related habits. 

5. Display clarity and size – do need glasses to read small print? Do you wear your glasses when you exercise? Make sure you consider the size and clarity of the display if you have trouble reading small print or prefer to exercise without wearing glasses. Some models have big, simple displays, while others are quite small and cluttered. 

6. Waterproof – most fitness trackers are water resistant, but if you want to use yours for swimming, you’ll need to check it’s fully waterproof. Some fitness trackers are specifically designed for swimming and can even count the number of laps you swim. 

7. Connectivity – most fitness trackers work with an app, so you can download and store your workout information for easy comparison. This is much easier if it can be done wirelessly. If you want to be able to do this, make sure your fitness tracker is compatible with your preferred device i.e. smartphone, tablet, desktop computer etc. 

8. Battery life – most fitness trackers are rechargeable, but the battery life varies from one model to the next. The last thing you want to have to do is charge your tracker every time you use it, of for it to run out of power part way through your workout. Make sure the battery life is sufficient for your needs. 

9. Design – some fitness trackers are small and neat, while others are big and chunky. Do you want something that looks elegant and even can double as a normal watch? Or do you want something you will only wear for exercise, and don’t really care how it looks? 

10. Don’t forget the app – most activity trackers are designed to be used with a specific app. Some users prefer to use third party apps instead. Can you use your preferred app with your fitness tracker? Or do you have to use the app that comes with the tracker? Make sure that you can use the app you like best otherwise you may end up not getting the most from your tracker. 

Best Fitness Trackers 

Now you know what to look for in a fitness tracker, here are some of the best around, grouped according to their features and target users. 

Best fitness tracker for under $100

Fitness trackers used to be super-expensive, but technological advancement and mass production means that you can now get a good tracker for less than $100. That’s great news because fitness trackers are really useful and almost everyone can benefit from using one. 

It’s also good to know that a lower price doesn’t automatically mean you have to make do with fewer features. In fact, some of the newer, cheaper models have the same features as their more expensive counterparts. 

Here are three of the best budget fitness trackers under $100 around. 

Best fitness tracker with heart rate monitor 

To get the most from your workouts, you need to work at the right level of intensity. For things like walking, running, and swimming, that means checking your heart rate. You could take your pulse manually at your wrist or neck but that’s not always easy or practical. 

To make it easier to exercise at the right level, some fitness trackers have built-in sensors that take your pulse for you. They will then measure your heart rate in real time, warning you if you are exercising too hard or not hard enough. It’s like having a fitness coach on your wrist. 

To help you choose the best product for you, check out my article Best fitness tracker with heart rate monitor.  

Best waterproof fitness tracker 

Most fitness trackers are sweat resistant, but that doesn’t mean they will survive full immersion in water. If you swim for fitness, or just like to keep your watch on when you wash up, shower, or have a bath, you really should buy a waterproof fitness tracker. 

Waterproof fitness trackers are sealed so that no water can get in – even if they are fully immersed in deep water. Some are even designed specifically for swimmers and swimming workouts. That’s good news if you enjoy swimming as well as or instead of running and walking. 

Find out which model is right for you in my article Best waterproof fitness tracker.  

Best fitness tracker for kids

Kids need to be more active if they are to stay healthy and avoid gaining weight. After all, overweight kids are a common problem all around the world. That’s why it’s a good thing that some manufacturers have produced fitness trackers especially for kids. 

The best fitness trackers for kids turn exercise into a game. Some even reward them with messages and badge icons when they reach their daily activity goals, which are set by the parents. 

If you want your kid to be more active, using a fitness tracker for kids will help. Check out my article Best fitness tracker for kids to discover the right model for you.  

Best heart rate monitors with chest strap 

While a lot of fitness trackers will measure your heart rate, they do so by taking your pulse at your wrist. This is not always the most exact measurement. If you want EKG accuracy, you need a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. These dedicated devices aren’t fitness trackers but can help make sure your workouts are pitched at the right level for your fitness goals. 

Easy to use and made for dedicated exercisers, check out my article Best heart rate monitors with chest strap to find the best product for you. 

Which Kind of Fitness Tracker is Best for Me? 

If you are a serious exerciser who wants to make sure they are exercising hard enough but not too hard, you should consider buying a fitness tracker with heart rate monitor or a heart rate monitor with chest strap. Both options will ensure that your workouts are as effective and productive as possible. 

If you want to wear your fitness tracker 24/7 or think that you might want to use it for swimming, you’ll need a waterproof fitness tracker. Some are even designed specifically for swimming workouts. 

If you aren’t sure if you even need a fitness tracker, you won’t want to spend a lot of money on something you might not enjoy using. If that sounds like you, you should buy a budget fitness tracker for under $100. I’m willing to bet that after using one for a few weeks you’ll become a big fan. 

If you want to help you kids be more active, teaching them the importance of exercise and health from an early age, fitness trackers for kids are your best bet. You could buy an adult fitness tracker, but these junior versions are designed specifically for kids and are a much better option. 

Questions and answers 

I hope I’ve answered most your questions already but, in case I’ve missed anything, here are the most common questions I get asked about fitness trackers.  

1. What is a fitness tracker? 

A fitness tracker is a wearable piece of technology that monitors your movements. They are a lot like sports watches and you can wear one all the time without looking out of place. They display and record a variety of information, depending to the model you have bought, including time, date, number of steps, calories burnt, and distance walked or run. 

2. What features can you expect from a fitness tracker? 

The exact number of features depends on the model and how much you are prepared to pay but they include: 

• Steps taken (pedometer) 
• Distance 
• Time
• Total exercise time 
• Stopwatch 
• Timer 
• Calories
• Heart rate in real time
• Average heart rate 
• Maximum heart rate 
• Minimum heart rate 
• Time spent in correct heart rate zone 
• Recovery time after exercise 
• Fitness tests  
• Sleep monitor 

3. What should you consider when buying a fitness tracker?

Make sure your intended purchase does everything that you want it to do. For example, if you want to wear your fitness tracker for swimming, make sure you get a waterproof model. Also check that it has good reviews, and that other users have said that they enjoy using it before you buy. Also consider things like ease of use, warranty, and your budget. Remember though, more expensive doesn’t always mean a better product. 

4. How do fitness trackers measure your heart rate? 

Many fitness trackers monitor your heart rate at your wrist. That’s quite accurate but not 100%. If the strap and sensor move, the reading will be affected. The reading is then displayed on your tracker. If you want a more exact reading, consider getting a heart rate monitor with chest strap. These use EKG technology to accurately detect the electrical pulse that happens every time your heart beats. 

5. How do fitness trackers count steps? 

Budget fitness trackers have built-in sensors called accelerometers that detect movement when you walk or run. Some can differentiate between incidental movements and “real” exercise such as running and walking. Others use GPS (global positioning system) to track your movements via satellite. These are much more accurate but tend to be more expensive too. 

6. Should I get a GPS running watch, a fitness tracker, or a smartwatch?

The answer to this question really depends on your budget and your specific tracking needs. A GPS running watch will accurately track and measure your running or walking routes, mapping you as you go. This means you can compare your workouts and track your progress. 

Most fitness trackers are designed for general use and will monitor your daily activity levels 24/7 – often including your sleep. Fitness trackers are often the cheapest option. 

Smartwatches are like mini-computers onto which you can download a variety of fitness apps including pedometers, fitness trackers, and even GPS mapping. They do pretty much everything but, because they have so many other functions, they may be harder to use during exercise. They can also be expensive. 

7. How accurate are fitness trackers? 

The answer to that question depends on several factors including the make and model, whether they have GPS, and how they are used. Some are very accurate whereas others offer an estimate of things like calories burned and distance covered. If accuracy is important to you, make sure you look at the product specs and reviews before buying. 

8. How do fitness trackers measure sleep? How exactly are they?

Fitness trackers measure sleep by monitoring your movements. They assume that, if you aren’t moving, you must be sleeping. They make the assumption that the less you move, the deeper your sleep must be. Some will also measure your heart rate, comparing your nighttime reading to your heart rate in the daytime. Your heart rate should be lower when you sleep. 

The only way to properly measure sleep is to use electrodes to measure brain activity, so activity trackers are not 100% accurate. Some people even find the idea of sleep monitoring keeps them awake! Fitness trackers that monitor sleep can provide useful information about sleep but should not be considered to be foolproof.  

9. Do fitness trackers work for yoga, HIIT, swimming, walking, running etc. 

Some do, and some don’t. It all depends on which functions are on offer. Some fitness trackers only monitor steps and are best for running and walking. Others, like the Moov More measure all types of movements. If you only want to track walking and running, almost any fitness tracker will work. But, if your workouts are more varied, you’ll need a more advanced product. 

10. Is buying a fitness tracker a good idea? 

Yes! A lot of people exercise but don’t know if they are doing enough. A fitness tracker will reveal if you are active enough, and help you track your exercise from one day to the next to make sure you aren’t being overly sedentary. 

Most users also find that they can use their tracker to set daily and weekly exercise goals and that can be very motivating. Many of the other features found on fitness trackers (such as heart rate and sleep monitor) mean that using a tracker enhances many aspects of health and fitness. 

11. Can I use a fitness tracker without a computer or smartphone? 

Most fitness trackers are designed to be used alongside an app. This makes collecting and reviewing date much easier. That doesn’t mean you have to use an app – most fitness trackers also save the details of your workouts, so you can view them on the device itself. This does mean you’ll have to make do with a small screen. To get the most out of your fitness tracker, using it in conjunction with a smartphone, tablet, or computer is best, but with some models this is not essential. 

12. Do fitness trackers need batteries?

Most fitness trackers are rechargeable. You simply plug them into a USB-type adapter and they’re good for several days or even weeks of use. Some fitness trackers offer contactless charging via a charging mat. 

The battery life depends on the size and quality of the fitted battery and how long and how often you use your fitness tracker. Battery usage is often listed in the technical specifications. If you want a tracker that doesn’t need charging all the time, make sure you select a product with a long battery life. 

Heart rate monitors with chest straps usually need batteries for the chest strap. However, those batteries are very long lasting and cheap and easy to replace. 

That’s why I was excited to try these Caesar egg salad lettuce wraps. They’re as easy to make and eat as a regular sandwich but are free from gluten and very low in carbs too. 

Because they are made with eggs, these wraps contain lots of filling protein, so you won’t get hungry an hour or two after eating. That’s good news if, like me, you often get hit by the munchies in the afternoon. 

Bored of bread? Want something that’s easier to eat than a salad? Try these grab and go Caesar egg salad lettuce wraps. They’re easy to make and delicious too. 

Preparation time – 5 minutes 

Cooking time – 12 minutes 

Number of servings – 4

Ingredients 

• 6 large eggs 
• 3 tablespoons Caesar salad dressing
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 
• ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated 
• 4 large romaine lettuce leaves 
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste 

Instructions 

1. Boil the eggs for 10-12 minutes. Run under cold water too cool. Once cooled, remove the shells and mash the eggs with the Caesar salad dressing and the mayonnaise 

2. Spoon the egg mixture evenly into the middle of the lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan cheese and season to taste with pepper 

3. Roll the lettuce leaves to make wraps. Serve immediately or seal in cellophane or aluminum foil for later 

Recipe and picture source – peaceloveandlowcarb.com

More Recipes

Homemade meals is the most important step to lose weight and have a balanced diet. Start today and find out your next meal on my favorite recipes here.

Whatever is bothering you, don’t feel bad about it, you’re not alone, and we are here to help you out.

In the past, I have really struggled with binging on candy and high sugar food. I was addicted. But, today, I have managed to quit most of the added sugar that used to be in my diet, but my journey is not over yet.

Food temptations are always around, and every day I have to remind myself to choose the long-term happiness of eating healthily instead of the few moments of instant pleasure you get from junk food.

What we eat greatly defines our mood, weight, and energy levels.

So, if you are looking to lose some weight, improve your mood, or wake up with more energy, you’ve landed in the right place.

Invest a few minutes of your time and, by the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what, when and how much you should eat.

Note: At the end of this article I will also share my current nutrition and exercise formula. 

Let’s start!

The three most important rules to lose weight, improve your mood, and get more energy are:

• 1st – At all costs, avoid high-sugar processed foods and drinks (candy, breakfast cereals, sport energy drinks, soft drinks, packaged fruit juices)
• 2nd – Eat real food
• 3rd – Eat less than you’re currently eating

1st – Avoid Junk and Processed Food

Very high in sugar, and contains no fiber and no nutrition value, processed food is designed to give you instant pleasure and create addiction. 

Processed and junk foods are very fattening due to their high levels of added sugar. Added sugar makes you fat (I explain how in this video) and makes you addicted. I explain all of this in my video Why added sugar is everywhere.

High sugar drinks are one of the worst things that the food industry makes, delivering the biggest profits for them and the biggest problems for those who drink them every day. Avoid soft drinks, packaged fruit juices, sports drinks, and soda at all costs.

This is by far the most important step in order to lose weight, increase energy and improve your mood: avoid or greatly reduce your consumption of junk, processed, and high sugar foods and drinks. 

Before moving on to the next step, start by eliminating as much junk food as you can from your diet.

2nd – Eat Real Food

Real food is what grows on trees, in the ground, runs on the land, swims in the seas, or flies in the air. Fruit, vegetables, legumes, meat, poultry, and fish.

Buy fresh organic food whenever you can and prepare your own meals so that you know exactly what you are eating.

It’s easier and faster to buy ready-made food but you’ll feel and look much better if you invest a little extra time in making your own meals.  

I’ve shared a ton of healthy recipes in the recipes section here, but don’t worry; I’ll help you choose the best recipes to get you started.  

Avoid or reduce dairy products like cow’s milk and cheese. Trust me, you’ll feel better, lighter and you’ll lose weight too.

3rd Step – Eat Less Than You’re Currently Eating

Once you’ve achieved the other two steps, it’s time to start gradually reducing your calorie intake.

If you’re looking to lose some weight, chances are that you’re eating more calories than your body is burning.

But before we reduce our calorie intake, we first need to know how much we are eating.

If this sounds like a boring task, that’s because it is! However, technology helps make it quicker and easier.

There’s an app called MyFitnessPal that is totally free. With it, you can add up all the food you eat and it will automatically calculate, or estimate, the number of calories you’ve consumed. You can download the app here for iPhone and here for Android.

Remember: Add everything, from the few peanuts you ate to that Mars Bar or that half a glass of coke. When I first started using this app I forget to add most of my snacks as I thought “it’s just a few calories – it won’t matter” but those little snacks add up to much more than you expect. So, add everything you eat, even those small snacks. And don’t forget any calorie-containing beverages too. 

After a few days you’ll have a clear idea of how much food and how many calories you are eating. 

After that, reduce your calorie intake by just a small amount – about 100-200 per day. 

Be patient and take it slow; it takes time to train your stomach and your appetite to get used to eating 200 calories less than normal. Once you’re comfortable, reduce your intake a little bit more. It’s not easy, and it takes time and discipline, but it’s not impossible and you’ll soon start to lose weight. 

Eat Balanced Meals: Carbs, Protein and Fats

Every meal should contain the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fats.

At dinnertime, we should eat meals that are low in carbs and that contain protein for a better night sleep and less fat production and storage.

Carbs have a bad reputation, and so too do fats, and so everybody is eating crazy amounts of protein.

There are good carbs and bad carbs, protein can come from plants or from animals, and there are good and bad fats too.

That’s why it is so important to take some time and understand carbs, protein and fats.

Carbs

Carbohydrate plays a vital role in our diet, but not all carbs are good for us.

Good Carbs: Vegetables, fruits, legumes, potatoes, green noodles, salads

Bad Carbs: Potato chips, soft drinks, candy and chocolate, soda, breakfast cereals, white rice/pasta/bread 

Let’s make it simple and easy to understand:

Good carbs are those foods that come from a tree or from the ground: Vegetables, fruits, legumes, potatoes, and green noodles. 

Bad Carbs are those foods that come in a package and that have been through many different processes before arriving in your supermarket. Fiber is removed, sugar is added, and the ingredients list is longer than the product’s name.

Good Carbs Examples (with recipes)

Oatmeal: Perfect for breakfast, cheap and easy to prepare. Oatmeal recipes here

Fruit: Mixed with oatmeal or have a fruit salad for breakfast. Always have your fruit 30 minutes before your main meal. 

Broccoli: Steamed, broccoli makes a perfect side dish. Recipes here.

Quinoa: Goes great with salads or oven-baked vegetables. All my quinoa recipes here.

Zucchini: Recipes here

Spinach: Spinach recipes here

For a deeper understanding of Carbs, I recommend you to check my guide What Are Carbs? A Beginner’s Carbs Guide.

Protein

Protein is one of the primary building blocks of your body. It’s very important for repairing and building muscle.

In nature, plants produce protein from amino acids. Animals eat plants, so they store protein in their muscles. 

We can get protein both from plants or from meat.  

In the last few years, I’ve been leaning more towards plant protein as most of the meat available in supermarkets is from animals that spend all their lives stressed in small cages, having high amounts of antibiotics pumped into them, and with very bad hygiene. 

In the last decade, a number of studies have revealed problems of a high meat diet.

Plant-based protein sources: 

• Legumes (lupin, lentils, green peas, soy, red, black, and yellow beans, fava beans, chickpeas)
• Spirulina
• Chia seeds
• Broccoli
• Quinoa
• Leafy greens
• Hemp seeds
• Tofu, tempeh, and edamame
• Almonds
• Oats

Animal Protein Sources

• Eggs
• Chicken
• Milk
• Cheese
• Beef
• Fish (tuna and salmon)
• Pork
• Lamb

Fiber Alert: Remember that meat, eggs and dairy don’t contain any fiber, so you should always include vegetables in your meals to add some. In contrast, all plant-based proteins contain fiber. 

Fiber is very important for digestive health. It helps clean your gut and prevent constipation where food rots in your intestine causing bacteria and parasites to flourish. You can learn more about the important role and benefits of fiber in my article Not Enough Fiber in Modern Diets

Fats

Just like we have good and bad carbs, not all fats are created equal. 

Fats have a bad reputation because, in the past, fats were thought to be stored as body fat. That’s not true. In fact, that’s what happens with sugar. All the excess sugar we eat is stored as fat in our body.

Fats are just as important as carbs and protein for our body, but we need to know what fats we should eat and which ones we should avoid.

We can get fats from plants or from animals and again, plant-based fat is more heathy than fat from animal sources

These are my simple Five Rules about Fats:

• No milk, cheese, butter or any dairy (I do have free range eggs)
• Have seeds and nuts
• Use extra-virgin olive oil for salads and for cooking instead of margarine, cooking oils, or butter
• Have wild fish and free-range meat
• Don’t abuse red meats (lamb, beef and pork)

You can learn in detail how to choose healthy fats in my article How to Choose Healthy Fats

You can also learn why Not All Fats Are Created Equally here

How Much to Eat

We all have different energy needs. Some of us work in front of a computer every day but do intense workouts. Others spend their days walking and constantly exercising. It’s impossible to have a set number of calories that is right for everyone. 

But we all know how much food we should have in one meal. We know the difference between being full and binging.

Eat slowly, use your teeth to chew the food into small pieces to help digestion, and remember to breathe. If you eat too fast, you will probably eat more than you should.

Preparing your meals in advance, when you’re not hungry, also helps to set the amount you know that’s enough for your lunch or dinner.

When you finish eating, if you still feel hungry, wait five minutes. In most cases, you are just tempted to binge and, after five minutes, that feeling should disappear. 

It’s also important to remember that your stomach can take a few minutes to tell your brain it’s full. Waiting a few minutes before eating more gives your stomach chance to let your brain know it doesn’t really need any more food. 

The Real Foods

Vegetables: High in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, vegetables help to make you feel full and cleanses your gut. Steam your vegetables to preserve the vitamins.

Fruit: High in sugar and fiber, these are the healthiest carbs you can eat so I have some fruit every morning. Fruit contains sugar, but it’s also very high in fiber which makes sugar absorption slower and causes a smaller insulin spike. This is the big difference from processed foods with added sugar. Learn more about the different of natural vs added sugar here.

Red Meat: An important source of protein and fat but remember that meat, eggs, dairy and fish, do not contain any fiber. Always have your veggies. These days most of the meat we eat is produced using high amounts of hormones and antibiotics, fed with corn, and very little is produced free-range. For that reason I never eat red meat more than once a week.

Eggs and Fish: Free range eggs are a good source of protein, and wild fish provides good source of fat and omega-3 fatty acids. 

Dairy, Butter and Milk: Avoid as much as you can. 

Healthy Fats, Nuts and Seeds: Extra-virgin olive oil, avocados, coconuts, nuts, and seeds are a very good sources of healthy fats in your diet.

What We Should Avoid Eating:

Processed food: Everything that comes in a package, a bottle, or any kind of plastic wrap.

Junk and Fast Food: Everything that comes from a drive-through. 

Refined Carbs: Highly processed food with high amounts of added sugar, including breakfast cereals, commercial granola, ice-cream, liquid carbs (soda, soft drinks), chocolates, candy bars, energy bars…all the crazy high sugar stuff that is so easy to binge on over and over again.

Why Junk Food Makes You Fat?

Most junk/processed food is very high in sugar. You don’t have to trust my word; just check the food label (learn how to read food labels). When we eat too much sugar, our body converts the excess into fat.

Watch this quick animation video where I explain how this happens

Avoid Snacking

When we eat, the beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin. As we have seen in the video before (you’ve watched the video, right?) insulin removes the excess sugar from our blood. 

Now, some foods raise insulin more than others. That’s because some foods are “sweeter” than others (learn more about the Glycemic Index here). A Mars candy bar contains much more added sugar than one mango, even though a mango is pretty sweet. 

Mangos contains fiber which makes sugar absorption much slower, so the sugar goes into the blood stream more slowly and steadily. A chocolate bar contains much more sugar and no fiber, so the sugar floods our blood stream very fast. The pancreas has to start producing as much insulin as it can to remove the excess sugar as quickly as possible.

After we eat, insulin is produced, and while we have insulin in our blood, we are always storing fat. 

That’s why if you take insulin in the form of pills you will gain weight. It’s as simple as that.

The natural way to keep insulin production to zero is not to eat. That’s why it’s very important to allow four hours between meals.

This means no snacking between meals, otherwise your pancreas will be constantly producing insulin, and that insulin will be producing and storing fat all the time. You don’t want to be a fat producing and storing machine.

Allow your body to digest all the food you have eaten and let insulin levels drop to start burning stored fat for energy.

Carbs timing: Before or After Workout

If you exercise, have your carbs an hour or so before or after the your workout. This way the carbs are used for energy and are not stored as fat.

You can learn more about when to eat carbs in my article Carb Timing and Exercise

Ways to reduce calories

• More veggie noodles (how to make veggie noodles here) instead of white pasta or white rice

• Light dinners: soups (recipes here) or salads (recipes here)

• Oatmeal for breakfast: It makes you feel fuller for longer due to the fiber and protein. Oatmeal Recipes here

• Whole foods instead of fast/processed foods

My Nutrition & Exercise Formula

This is my personal nutrition and exercise formula. It’s probably not the best formula out there as there’s always room for improvement, but this is by far the one that’s given me the best results in terms of energy, mood and mental focus. 

• No processed junk or fast food: If it has more than four ingredients on the package I don’t eat it
• No dairy, cow’s milk or cheese: I have almond milk instead
• Try to avoid white bread and white pasta (I have it around twice a week)
• Most of my meals are prepared at home from fresh ingredients 
• I do my best (as my budget allows) to buy organic fruit and vegetables
• No more than two meals a week of red meat
• Only cage-free meat and eggs
• Only wild fish
• No alcohol abuse. I don’t go for spirits, but I love an occasional glass of white wine in the summer and red wine in the winter
• Exercise at least twice a week, and I do my best to walk at least 15 minutes per day

Just as we don’t gain belly fat overnight, we also cannot get rid of it overnight either.

By the end of this article, you’ll have all the tools you need to lose belly fat once and for all! 

You’ll need to choose your long-term health and happiness over instant food pleasures that, in the long run, will only make you feel miserable.

It’s up to you. Only you can make these decisions. I can only show you the way.

But first, there’s some quick information. 

“Knowledge is the key to success” by Marie F. (Thanks to Marie for your inspiring email – one of our Days to Fitness family subscribers). 

1. Why Do We Get Fat?

When we eat more food (energy) than we use, all the excess is converted into and stored as fat. This process is made possible by a famous hormone and key player called insulin.

As we continue to eat more energy than we use, insulin continues to convert the excess into fat. 

It’s hard to overeat whole foods, but it’s quite easy to binge on junk “food”. Big food companies design “food” (it’s not really food) to give you pleasure, get you addicted and make you always want to eat more.

I’ve shared a quick video explaining why sugar makes us fat, and why added sugar is everywhere. You can watch it here.

Yes, some “foods” (it’s processed food) are more fattening than others. Avoiding high sugar foods and drinks it’s THE most important step you can take to lose belly fat. I will cover that soon.

2. Why We Get Belly Fat

Women accumulate more fat on their thighs and butt, while men tend to accumulate fat on their stomachs.

The reason behind this is due to hormones (testosterone and estrogen). 

It’s not possible to burn fat only from your belly. Those 100 abs crunches a day-type workouts do not work. We have to lose fat from our entire bodies, and gradually we will start to get a flatter stomach.

We all have fat around our body, but the fat is not equally distributed. Instead, it accumulates on the butt, thighs and belly.

To reduce our body fat percentage, we have to lose weight, so our fat layer gets thinner.

Sorry, I have to say it again: In the same way, we don’t gain weight overnight, we can’t lose weight overnight either. Crash diets do not work, and nor do intense but unsuitable workouts. 

But, don’t give up yet; there’s a way and a solution.

The steps you need to take to lose belly fat 

I recommend that you start with easy, sustainable actions as only you know how much effort and sacrifice you can handle to maintain consistency. Consistency is the most important skill here. 

It doesn’t matter if you drastically reduce calories and do a lot of exercises today, but then eat 10,000 calories of ice-cream tomorrow. That will not work. Instead, do a little bit every day and you’ll find your journey much more enjoyable.

The following steps are ordered by importance, but you can do several steps at the same time. You can eat less to reduce the number of calories and meditate to reduce your stress. 

What I find hard is to go all-in in the beginning. For example, reducing calories, changing diet and doing a lot of exercise from the very beginning. The result is usually the same: frustration, quit, and all hope is lost.

Instead, go easy on yourself, embrace small changes, and get motivated by the benefits.  

1. Get to know how much you eat daily
2. Avoid or reduce high sugar foods and drinks 
3. Reduce or, even better, quit processed, junk, and fast food
4. Diet – prepare your own food
5. Avoid food binging
6. Reduce your calorie intake
7. Easy but effective exercise
8. Reduce stress
9. Improve sleep quality time

1. Get to know how much you eat daily

Do you have any idea how many calories do you eat per day? I thought I did but, oh boy, I was wrong…

You probably have a very clear idea of how much you eat per day, but do you really know? When I started to track my daily calorie intake, I was shocked. I thought that I was under 2000 calories per day, but I was in fact eating around 3000.

I’m not really in favor of counting calories, because not all calories are created equal, and focusing only on calories is not a solution for weight loss. I’ve in fact written two articles explaining that: Stop Counting Calories and The Calorie Fallacy. 

But today, I’m asking you to do exactly the opposite: Track your calories. Why? So, you have an idea of how much you’re eating in terms of food and how many calories.

The reason: The chances are that, if you have belly fat to lose, you’re eating more calories than you burn.

When we eat more than we need, our body stores the excess as fat, and this fat accumulates on the belly. 

Continually snacking (even if they are healthy snacks) will turn your body into a fat producing and storing machine.

Use the app MyFitnessPal (free to download and free to use) to discover how much you are really eating per day.

Use the app on your phone and record every single food you eat. It’s a little bit tedious, but it doesn’t take much time, and by the end of the day you’ll have a good idea of how many calories you eat in one day.

MyFitnessPal will ask you to create an account (it’s free and no credit card is needed). It will also ask you what your weight goal is; go ahead do it. Don’t focus on your calorie limit for the day. The idea here is to simply learn how much you’re eating per day. 

MyFitnessPal already has most of the foods we eat on its huge database which makes using the app quick and easy.

Once you know how many calories you eat per day, you can do one more thing: start reducing your intake just a little bit. Define your limits and don’t go crazy, otherwise, you will find it too hard to maintain. Just reduce your calorie intake a little bit. 

Just one less beer, soda, chocolate bar, or candy per day will make a difference.

Here we are just tackling food quantity by eating less. What about food quality? That’s our next step.

2. Avoid High Sugar foods/drinks

When we eat too much sugar, our body converts the excess into fat. We should not eat more than nine teaspoons per day but, in America, we eat around 25 teaspoons. That’s a lot of added-sugar being converted into fat. 

If you’re not familiar with the BIG FAT problem of added-sugar, I recommend you watch my quick animated video Why Added Sugar Makes You Fat (there’s also a text version) and Why Added Sugar is Everywhere (there’s also a text version). 

High sugar foods and drinks to avoid, or at least reduce, include: 

• Breakfast cereals
• Packaged fruit juices and soda
• Soft drinks (there is nothing soft about them; they’re all high in sugar)
• Sports energy drinks
• Candies
• Ice cream, cakes, cookies, and other sweet treats 
• Sweetened yogurt
• Flavored milk
• Salad dressings
• Commercial sauces (ketchup, barbecue, tomato)
• Vitamin Water
• Flavored green tea and coffee
• Ready to eat soups
• Granola bars
• Commercial granola
• Iced tea

Alternatives

Drink water instead of soda and high sugar beverages. Flavor it with lemon juice if you want to. 

Drink coffee and tea, but don’t add sugar (white, brown, agave…it’s all the same).

Enjoy the occasional glass of wine or beer instead drinking beer or wine every day.

Avoid commercial fruit juices and smoothies as they are loaded with sugar. 

There is no magic here: There is no substitute for high sugar foods and beverages. The solution here is to avoid them, or at least reduce your intake.

3. Reduce or Quit Processed, Junk, and Fast Food

Because they are high in sugar and fat, you should avoid fast, processed and packaged “food” like your life depends of it. These “foods” are by far the most fattening thing you can eat. 

Today, in America, and in most of the rest of the world too, people eat a high sugar diet. That’s because the big food companies have found that adding sugar and removing fiber makes you eat more without feeling full. In return, you gain weight and become addicted to junk food.

Note: If you’d prefer to watch a quick animation video, click here to open a new window and watch Why Added Sugar is Everywhere.

Sounds too crazy? It is, but it’s also the truth. Fiber plays a very important role in cleaning your gut and it takes a lot of time to digest. Because of this, fiber quickly makes you feel full. But, if you remove the fiber, digestion is quicker, and you don’t feel full. This soon leads to overeating. This is good news for the food companies, but a terrible deal for you because you constantly feel hungry.

On top of that, there’s sugar. Sugar makes you feel so good that your brain loves it. Once you get used to eating a lot of sugar, you’ll start to feel unhappy and depressed if you don’t get it regularly. Sugar is very addictive, especially as we’ve been eating it since we were toddlers.

Food companies purposely make food to comfort you, that gives instant pleasures that pass quickly, and that makes you crave for more.

Whole Foods provide all the energy you need while filling you up. Packaged foods give you instant pleasure, too many calories, no real energy, and a ton of problems for your future health.

Alternatives

Make-your-own is the solution: 

• Make your own dips & spreads: Ketchup (recipe here), mayonnaise (recipe here), hummus (recipe here), tapenade (recipe here), guacamole (recipe here)
• Prepare your own cookies (Cinnamon star cookies recipe here)
• Prepare your own treats (recipes here) and sweets (recipe here). These recipes still contain sugar, but they are all much better than any commercial dessert or treat
• Even better, prepare your own low-sugar desserts (a lot of recipes here), or go a step further and try this no-added-sugar but still tasty vegan, milk-free, sugar-free, no-bake treats (2 video recipes here and here)
• Prepare your own breakfast, instead of breakfast cereals and granola
• Prepare and take your own meals to work instead of buying from junk/fast food restaurants 
• Prepare your own dinner (recipes here)
• Or have a light and filling soup for dinner (soup recipes here)

Have you ever wondered why, as teenagers, we could eat lots of high sugar and junk food and yet most of us never had much belly fat? 

I’ve shared an article explaining why, after our 30s, we start slowly putting on weight especially on our belly, and why is so hard to get rid of it. You can find the article here.

4. Balanced Diet – Prepare your own food

It doesn’t matter how much you exercise if your diet contains lots of high sugar food, junk food, liquid carbs (soda, spirits, wine, beer, and soft drinks) and you’re constantly eating snacks.

Contrary to what a lot of people say, snacking between meals will not help you to lose weight. 

Snacking between meals makes easier to gain more weight, especially when you eat processed junk food. There are efficient ways to reduce calories, which I will talk about in the Reduce your calorie intake section, but first, let’s look at the most important step of all – diet.

Diet is 70% of the weight loss and burning belly fat equation. 

Balanced Diet

Meals should contain protein, vegetables, good carbs, and good fats. But most people have stopped preparing their own food, and have forgotten how we should balance our meals.

Important things to remember:

• Add (more) vegetables to your diet

Vegetables are high in fiber, and that makes you feel fuller for longer. They are also high in nutrients and low in calories.

If you don’t have many veggies in your diet, today is a good day to start. A big salad for lunch (but avoid commercial dressings) is a nice and fresh way to begin.

Veggies are boring? I thought the same a few years ago. Easy and delicious recipes with veggies are available here.

• Better breakfast

I don’t know what you had for breakfast today, but most people have commercial cereals, granola, white bread, pancakes, flavored yogurts, and/or packaged fruit juices. These are all refined carbs that are also high sugar foods. Most of the refined carbs we eat are converted into fat, and that fat sits on our belly. Because of this, avoiding refined carbs is a priority.

• Choose Good Carbs over Bad Carbs

Avoid refined carbs and go for good carbs such as fruit, oatmeal, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and veggie noodles instead. Check the article 

Good carbs vs. Bad carbs for Weight Loss to discover some alternatives to bad carbs.

When you exercise or workout, you want to have your high carb meals right before and right after your intense activity. More about carb timing explained at Carb Timing and Exercise.

• Get your protein: Meat, fish or from veggies. Don’t abuse red meats (lamb, beef, pork) and make sure you also eat white meats (chicken, turkey). 

Make sure all your meals contain some type of protein. This will help to satiate your hunger and fill you up for longer, reducing the chances of snacking between meals. 

• Healthy Fats: We need fats, but not all fats are equal. Go for extra virgin olive oil, avocados, and nuts. I especially like to use these on my salads to make them tastier and more filling without using commercial salad dressings which are high in added sugar. Learn more about How to Choose Healthy Fats and why Not All Fats Are Created Equally

Prepare your own meals 

There are good restaurants out there, but most of the food we eat should come from our kitchen, where we know exactly what ingredients are used. 

I’ve organized all our recipes here  into 

• Types (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

• Occasions (Christmas, Thanksgiving)
• Dish Types (Smoothies, Meal Replacement Shakes, Soups, Dips & Spreads, Protein Bars)
• Diets and choices (Sugar-free, 21 Day Fix, Slow Cooker, Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Paleo, Superfoods, Low-carb, Raw)
• By Kitchen Tools (Food Processor, Immersion Blender, Blender, Slow Cooker)

5. Avoid Food Binging

Binging is when you eat more than you know you should – often because of things like sadness, boredom, or anger. We also call this emotional eating. Binging usually involves eating a huge number of calories in one sitting, and those extra calories usually come from sugar and unhealthy fat. 

To prevent binging:

• Don’t look for comfort in food: Think about when you binge and what emotions are you trying to hide or to deal with. Fix the problem and you won’t want to binge
• Processed food is designed to be consumed in large quantities, so avoid it like the plague to reduce the chances of binging
• When you feel like binging, journal your feelings, listen to some music, or go for a walk. Let that binging moment pass without getting attached to it
• Get rid of processed/junk food from your home: Reduce temptation at home and make it a healthy eating sanctuary
• Have 2 or 3 complete meals per day with no snacks in-between: constant eating will make you continually think about food
• When cravings strike, do some meditation, exercise or drink some water (how to deal with sugar cravings)

6. Reduce your calorie intake

After avoiding high sugar foods and junk/fast food, it’s time to start to eat a little less. 

I don’t know how much you are eating per day, but you do since you started tracking your calorie intake.

To make things easy and sustainable, I suggest you reduce your calorie intake by only 100 or 200 calories per day. It’s not much but it’s a start. We are looking for consistency. Once you’re comfortable, you can reduce your intake a little bit more.

Ways to reduce your calorie intake

• Intermittent Fasting: I’ve been skipping breakfast for more than a year and it helped me lose weight (my one-year intermittent fasting story here and how to lose weight with intermittent fasting here). 
• Smaller meals: Yes, you will not feel as full as before, but give it time and your stomach will get used to the idea. Lighter meals are easier to digest and leave more energy available to perform other tasks like concentration, mental focus, and memory.
• Eat just 2 or 3 meals a day: No snacking in between, and don’t have extra portions or desserts. Forget about food and focus on other things instead. 

Try these steps, experiment, and find out which ones work best for you. Come up with your own formula but go easy on yourself to ensure whatever you do is sustainable. 

As you reduce your calorie intake, your cravings and food temptations will be more amplified than ever. 

Allow yourself time to deal with your cravings. Let the cravings pass and understand that “ feeling hungry” is usually nothing more than a passing craving.

Cravings can be very unsettling because food is directly connected to our emotions. Because of this, when we change our food habits and give up or cut down on high sugar and process/junk food, we get cravings that try to convince us to go on a food binge. 

Give yourself time to get used to your new diet, and only then slowly reduce your food intake.

7. Exercise

All those crunches and sit-ups will make your abs stronger but are not the key to a flatter, thinner stomach. 

Remember; the goal is to accumulate less fat and make your existing fat layer thinner. 

Changing your diet and slightly reducing your calorie intake will help you accumulate less fat, and exercise will help us to burn stored energy (glycogen and fat) to make our existing fat layer thinner.

Add some exercise to your routine. I don’t know how much exercise you currently do, and how much you are able to fit in depends on your routine. However, adding exercise to your lifestyle will make losing belly fat much easier. 

What Exercise can I do?

• Walking: Start with a walking around your neighborhood or go to a park. A walking plan will help you to integrate walking into your routine and achieve the best results. Find the plan in our article Walking Guide for Beginners here.
• Home Workout Routines, No Equipment Needed: Try this effective 5-minute home exercise routine. Check our video 5 Minutes Home Workout Routine to Lose Belly Fat
• Running: Running will help you to burn a lot of energy in a short amount of time. We have created a plan on how to start and increase your running. Check our Running Guide for Beginners here.

Exercise is not just good for burning fat, it can also help us in many other ways. Regular exercise will reduce stress and improve our sleep quality time which are two very important factors that will lower your chances of overeating and accumulating fat. I will explain this more in the next sections. 

8. Reduce Stress

As we enter adult life, our days become more complicated and stressful. Having a job, dealing with our boss and colleagues, relationships, paying the mortgage, having kids – all of these responsibilities are accompanied by lots of emotions and daily challenges that we didn’t have when we were younger. That being said, studies show that even teenagers are getting more and more stressed.

When we are stressed, a hormone called cortisol is released and long-term cortisol produces increased levels of insulin which makes our bodies produce and store more fat. More about that in the article Why Stress Make Us Fat. 

These are the most common ways that Americans try to manage their stress: 

• Listen to music
• Exercise: Walk, run or workout
• Meditation
• Yoga

I would like to add some other strategies that I personally use to lower my stress levels…

• Sports: Running (running guide here), home workout routines ( check our youtube channel), walking (walking guide here). 
• Reading: I prefer non-fiction books. 
• Meditation: During the last month I’ve been using an app called Headspace. It’s free and very easy to use. Use it to help you meditate anywhere. 
• Listen to books: When my eyes are tired, listening to a fiction book while lying in bed helps to forget my tasks and problems, allowing me to lose myself in the book’s story.
• Journaling: Writing down my problems, worries, tasks and my in-the-moment thoughts helps to reduce my brain activity and improves my sleep time. 

None of these “tools” are better than any other. What matters is what works best for you. The only way to find out is to experiment for several days, see which options reduce your stress levels the most, and then keep using the ones that were most effective.  

None of the above “tools” will work immediately. We have been living with constant stress for years, or even decades, so don’t expect to get rid of it on the first day. 

That being said, I was happily surprised by how quickly I started to see results. It’s all about the mindset, and changing the way we look at tasks, problems, worries, frustration, hunger, and life in general. It’s all about how we deal with life.

Try one of the above “tools”. Take action, be patient and allow yourself to “look” at all the thoughts that go on in your head without getting tangled. Be a watcher of your thoughts and emotions and not a participant. Don’t try to solve or avoid them; just “look” at them like you watch people walking in the streets.

9. Improve Sleep Quality Time

When we sleep well, our morning energy levels are higher, our mood is better, and we can face problems and daily tasks in a much more positive and efficient way. 

When we sleep badly, we are easily irritated, more tired, more negative, we are easily depressed, and tend to collapse – mentally and physically. This situation makes us more prone to seeking comfort in food, alcohol, sex, or other kinds of addictions.

Sleep tips:

1. Stick to a sleep routine: Pick a bedtime and wake-up time and, whatever happens, be consistent. No excuses; go to bed and wake up at the same time and no hitting the snooze button! Try to maintain your sleep routine during the weekends as well as the working week.
2. Relaxing bedtime ritual: There was a time when I used to suffer from insomnia. To fix this problem I developed a bedtime ritual. When I go to bed, I spend a few minutes counting my breaths. I count “one” when I breathe in, and “two” when I breathe out.  If a thought pops into my mind and I forget to count, I just start again. This ritual “forces” my mind to focus on counting instead of the different thoughts that would otherwise keep me awake.
3. Avoid naps: If you have problems falling asleep, afternoon naps can be a trap that creates a vicious and never-ending cycle.
4. Exercise: Working out is a very helpful way to reduce stress, get you tired, and get you ready to sleep like a baby. Running, walking or home workout routines are all good options.
5. A good mattress and pillow: Comfort makes a huge difference to how well you will sleep. If you’re not comfortable, you’ll have a hard time falling asleep. Yes, good mattresses are expensive. but it’s a health investment that lasts for years. This was one of the biggest and best steps in my fight against insomnia. It’s a very worthwhile investment.
6. Avoid using your smartphone in bed: The lights and colors will wake you up. Media pictures, text conversations, and newsfeeds can trigger curiosity and stimulate your brain which is the last thing you want if you are trying to go to sleep. 

My Daily Formula

I don’t like to “sell” or recommend formulas because there is no single solution that will work for everyone. This is my formula and a like it because it works for me and, most importantly, I do it because I enjoy it. I love all the following steps. 

They are not sacrifices, but they are not also “amazing” moments. Life can’t be amazing all the time. They are just simple but consistent steps that have been giving me good results in terms of weight control, boosting concentration and energy, and have helped me to reduce junk food binging.

Wake up around 7 a.m. – Do a set of exercises (push-ups or sometimes complete set of exercises like in this video, this and also this) to help me wake up and shake off any sleepiness. 

Have a shower – While showering, I remind and repeat to myself all the good things I have in my life (more about that in this post).

Recently added to my morning routine: Meditate for 10 Minutes – I started using an app called Headspace about a month ago; it’s free to download and to use. I sit comfortably, plug my headphones and start my daily 10-minute meditation session. I only do ten minutes to make it sure it’s a habit I can do every day.

I skip breakfast: I do intermittent fasting almost every day (more about that here and how Intermittent Fasting helps me to burn fat here). I’ve been doing it for more than a year and it’s really helped me to lose fat and weight very easily. (I cheat once in a while but never more than twice a week).

I prepare breakfast for my girlfriend – As she wakes up, I really enjoy making her a healthy breakfast. I usually blend unsweetened almond milk and fruit to make a refreshing, delicious smoothie. (My smoothie recipes here and the blender I use and why here). I don’t eat breakfast, but I really enjoy preparing breakfast for my girlfriend.

I start work: I usually work at home.

12 p.m. My “breakfast”: This is when I break my fast. I have ripe seasonal fruit (local if possible) chopped into pieces, or sometimes I make a green juice using a slow vertical cold juicer. 

1 p.m. Lunch-time: I love to have a simple raw salad for lunch, seasoned with a nice dose (30 ml) of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and vinegar. Sometimes I prepare a simple miso soup (barley miso, chive springs, and a small piece of kombu seaweed). My lunch is always very light, so I don’t feel sleepy in the afternoon. 

3 p.m. Sugar cravings after lunch: If those kick in, a couple of dried figs usually do the trick (dried figs are very common in Portugal). Or I might eat some nuts and pumpkin seeds. Other times I prepare raw vegan carrot cake with no added sugar (video recipe here) or a raw vegan no added sugar brownie (video recipe here).  

7 p.m. Running, walking or badminton time: I play badminton three times a week, and on the other days I go running or walking. They are nice ways to burn some energy and free my mind from troubles, emotions, and problems.

8 or 9 p.m. Dinner: Sometimes I go out with my girlfriend or friends and have dinner out. Sometimes I eat more than I know I should but that’s why Intermittent fasting helps so I can burn any extra energy from the dinner the day before. If I stay at home (like I did today) I normally have soup and some fruit. 

11 p.m. Time for bed: I grab a book (right now I’m reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. You can find out more about this book at Amazon.com). I usually fall asleep by about 11.50 p.m.

These are the steps you will need to take if you want to lose that extra layer of belly fat. It’s not a one-size-fits-all formula, but a set of actions that I suggest you try so you can come up with your own personalized formula. Experimenting is the key. Good luck for your journey.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Let me explain why, after our 30s, we start to slowly put on weight specifically on our bellies, and why it is so hard (but never impossible) to lose it.

1. We need less energy, but we tend to eat more and move less so more fat is created and we gain more weight
2. Less physical activity
3. Food binging for comfort
4. Constant high-stress levels that lead to high insulin levels (creating more fat) 
5. Sleep deprivation makes us feel tired which leads to more hunger signals, fewer satiety signals, and a higher desire to binge on junk food.

Now you know the reasons, let’s look at each one in more detail… 

1. We Need Less Energy, But We Eat More… 

This will a quick explanation I promise! As a baby, birthweight usually doubles in the first few months, and our body needs a lot of energy to build organs, bones, and body tissue. Because of all this, not much energy is left over so very little fat is created.

As toddlers, we continue to grow, and we don’t care about food. All we want is do is play, run, and do as many different activities as possible. Our parents complain that we can’t stop for a minute, won’t sit still to eat, and we burn crazy amounts of energy every single day.

As a teenager, the growth continues and our organs, bones and other tissues are still growing. In females, growth in height usually stops at 16, while in men it usually stops at around 22. We get all this energy from food. We may eat some junk food and some high sugar foods, but we don’t live for the food we eat. We do a lot of physical activity, some of us played sports, and we all hung out with our friends in and out of school.

Things start to change when we finish school/college and we get a job. We start to spend most of the day seated, driving instead of walking or cycling to get around. Social physical activities are replaced with hanging out in bars and drinking, or at restaurants eating and bingeing on food and booze. 

In our 30s we reach our physical peak and our body switches to maintenance mode; no more growing bones and organs to support, plus less physical activity and more eating and drinking. Our bodies need less energy, but that’s when we use food as a way to comfort us. 

Also, our stress levels usually increase during this time, meaning more cortisol (the stress hormone) is produced which leads to more insulin. Studies have shown that continued high levels of stress lead to high insulin levels, so more fat is produced, and we gain more weight.

Our bodies needs less energy and yet we often end up eating more, drinking more, and moving less. We store much more energy than we burn. We produce more fat and almost burn no glycogen. This constant eating trend leads to continuously high levels of insulin, and while we have insulin in our blood, we cannot burn glycogen or fat. 

Solution

First: Track your calories to know how much you’re eating in one day. I use an app called MyFitnessPal. It’s easy and quick to add the different foods we eat during a day. It’s not the most exciting thing to do, but it doesn’t take much time and, by the end of the day, you’ll have a good idea of how many calories you eat.

Second: Reduce your daily calorie intake. Don’t go too crazy; just eat a little less and slowly and steadily increase your calorie restriction. 

2. No Physical Activity

Sedentary life doesn’t allow your body to burn off any excess calories, so what we eat is more likely to be stored as fat.

After your 30s…

Driving to work and from work home. Seated at your desk all day

Social life is generally centered around eating or drinking, or binging on both.

“No time” for working out, walking or running.

No time for home cooking so grab-n-go processed high sugar foods make up most of our daily meals. 

Celebrations are always around the table and involve eating and drinking – usually to excess. 

But there’s still hope and it’s all about us. We have to be accountable for our decisions and only we can decide to change our fate.

Solution

Burn some stored energy. Do some walking (walking guide here), or some running (running guide here) or some home workouts (video to watch here)

Exercise is a great way to burn off extra energy so glycogen levels are depleted and then refilled instead of fat being generated.

3. Food Binging

Getting older means more responsibilities, and that means more worrying, often resulting in frustrations and disillusionment. As life gets tougher, we tend to look for comfort in food, alcohol, cigarettes, and other unhealthy substances.  

We know these things don’t fix the problem, but we end up doing them over and over again anyway because, in the short-term, they make us feel better. 

Because of this we start to develop addictions, and one of the most common addictions is food. We binge constantly to get a few seconds of pleasure that allows us to forget all our problems, worries and emotions. We get a glimpse of happiness that lasts only a moment and then, once it’s gone, we eat again, and again.

As much as we don’t like to admit it, we have all been there and we will all end-up binging again unless we address the cause of our problems – and that is usually stress. 

Solution

First: Get rid of all the junk and processed food at home. 

Second: Choose feeling better in the long run over the instant pleasure of junk food that is usually followed by tremendous guilt and feeling unwell. 

Third: Understand the difference between hunger and cravings. When we are hungry we would happily eat something like five raw carrots. With cravings, you only want that specific food, like ice-cream, cookies etc. and you don’t feel like eating carrots.

4. Constant High-Stress Levels Leads To High Insulin Levels (more fat is created) 

When we’re stressed, our bodies get ready to run or fight. Some functions are shut down so we can focus more on other tasks. Glucose is released so we have enough energy to fuel running or fighting. 

So, stress doesn’t seem to be really a problem, and it isn’t. The problem is continuously high levels of stress. 

When you are stressed, glucose is released so our blood sugar levels increase. We are continually stressed, and our body is constantly releasing energy (glucose) all the time but we are not burning it. 

As glucose levels raise in our blood, insulin is produced to remove the excess. Insulin turns glucose into fat and then stores it. If you would like to know more about stress, check my in-depth article How Stress is Making Us Fat.

Solution

We need to relax, though that’s easier to say that to actually do, right?

• Meditation: I recently started using Headspace in my morning routine and it’s helped me to not only relax but also to gets me ready for the day. You can download and use it for free. You can choose from 3, 5 or 10-minute meditation sessions. It’s important to add this step to your daily routine otherwise you’ll forget or skip it.
• Exercise: Running (guide here), walking (guide here), home workouts (video here): Exercise helps you stop worrying and reduces your brain activity. It also helps you sleep longer and more deeply.
• Reading: Pick up a book or a magazine you like. This will force you to focus on other things rather than your day-to-day problems and the stuff you have to deal with.
• Writing or journaling: You don’t need to be a writer or write anything beautiful. The process of transferring your thoughts, ideas and emotions from your head to the paper is very relaxing. It gives you perspective and helps to take pressure from your shoulders. Your pen is your friend; use it to make your life easier.
• Listen to music: Don’t multi-task, just listen to music. Pick music you like, stop and listen to the music without doing anything else. Music is inspiring and relaxing. Take a breath and enjoy it. 

4. 5. Sleep deprivation When we don’t get enough sleep, or we don’t sleep properly, we get tired, easily irritated, impatient, and anxious.  

Food gives us energy, but sleep is the other half of the story. Without a good night’s sleep, we don’t have enough energy to get through what is already a long, tiring, and stressful day.

When we are tired we tend to binge on junk food. That’s not just my personal experience, numerous studies have also proven it. Studies show that when we don’t have enough rest we tend to eat more. 

A study published in Nature.com shows that sleep-deprived people ate around 385 more calories than their typical daily intake. Study participants craved high fat, high sugar, and processed food. 

As we don’t feel good, we try to fix our discomfort with food. Our body calls for energy and we take another bite. It doesn’t matter how much we eat, we continually feel fatigued. We eat more food, but what we really need is a good night’s sleep.

Another study showed that sleep deprivation causes a higher consumption of high-calorie food.

Scientific American writes “Past studies have established that the stress of sleep deprivation puts the autonomic nervous system on alert, leading to increases in the hunger hormone ghrelin and decreases in the satiety hormone leptin”. Meaning that more hunger signals and less satiety signals are produced. This hormone imbalance is the perfect combination for weight gain.

Solution

Sleeping routine: Go to bed at the same time every night. 

Avoid naps: Power naps can be very handy to give you some energy, but if you’re not  sleeping properly at night, napping will probably not help. 

Create a nighttime routine: Grab a book before bedtime, listen to some music, write about whatever is on your mind. These things will quieten your mind and slow your thoughts so that your brain activity decreases and you can relax, getting you ready to go to sleep.

Exercise: Again, exercise helps to tire your muscle and give your brain a break from taxing mental tasks and worry. It’s the perfect way to take a break from daily tasks, problems, and upsets. You’ll also sleep better. Just avoid strenuous exercise too close to bedtime as it can be overstimulating. 

Good mattress and pillow: This is a sleep changer. My sleeping has changed totally, from insomnia to straight eight hours of good sleep per night. Yes, both of these items are expensive, but see it as an investment in your health. Plus, you will use it every day. If your bed is uncomfortable, you’ll never get a good night’s sleep. 

Avoid using your smartphone or tablet in bed: Smartphones and tablets emit light, colors and movement that can be stimulating rather than calming. We also get so excited by all the flashy colors and pictures that we quickly wake-up instead of going to sleep. 

A Quick note before we finish

Losing weight in your 30s will take time and discipline, but it can be done. We can only achieve our goals when we make some big lifestyle changes. 

Choose long-term happiness instead of instant food pleasures.

Choose to enjoy a book, writing, or listening to music over food binging.

Focus on your goals and avoid the temptations of instant gratification and immediate pleasure.

Doing these things will be harder than eating junk food or watching TV, and they won’t produce such a big spike of instant pleasure, but it’s a growing and steady state of happiness that delivers blissful moments every single day.

Experience, fail, and try again. Once the benefits start to kick in, you will get all the motivation you need to keep on going through the hard days.

How Can We Burn Belly Fat?

1. Low insulin levels: to allow burning fat
2. Burn energy: First glycogen is burned and only then do we start to burn fat
3. Diet: Prepare your own food, avoid junk food
4. Reduce stress
5. Improve sleep quality and duration 

Note: If you prefer to watch a video explaining how added sugar makes you fat, click here and a new window will open. You can watch the video and come back to this page afterward. 

Glucose comes from the Greek word for “sweet”. Some foods are sweeter than others, and some foods contain more sugar (glucose) than others. 

The glucose is absorbed into our bloodstream. The sweeter (and higher in sugar) the food we eat higher is, the higher the levels of sugar in our blood will be.

Glycogen

When you eat carbohydrates, the carbs are converted into glucose and used for instant energy. If there is any left over, this excess of “sweet” (glucose) is then converted into glycogen. Glycogen is just glucose and water bound together into a single molecule. 

Glycogen is stored in the liver and in the muscles. Glycogen is stored energy for later use. Your muscles use it during exercise and liver glycogen is released if blood glucose levels start to fall, such as if you miss breakfast. 

It’s estimated that our glycogen storage capacity is around two thousand calories – 400 in your liver and the rest in your muscles. 

Fat

Once our glycogen stores are full, which doesn’t take long as our storage capacity is small, (around 2000 calories) we start storing unused glucose as fat. 

If we continue to eat more carbs than we need, with no physical activity, we continue to generate more fat so that excess energy can be stored.

High sugar foods – Refined Carbs

• Breakfast cereals
• Packaged fruit juices and soda
• Soft drinks (nothing soft about them, they’re high in sugar)
• Sports energy drinks
• Candy
• Flavored yogurt
• Flavored milk and sweetened non-dairy milks e.g. almond milk, soya milk etc. 
• Salad dressings
• Commercial sauces (ketchup, barbecue, tomato)
• Vitamin Water
• Flavored green tea and coffee
• Ready to eat soups
• Granola bars
• Commercial granola
• Iced tea and iced coffee drinks 

When you check the food label on any of the previously listed processed foods or drinks, you will see that they all contain high quantities of sugar. 

The American Heart Association recommends that adults consume no more than nine teaspoons of sugar per day. In America, most adult men consume 25 teaspoons of sugar per day, and most women consume about the same. That’s a whole lot of sugar. 

But, besides these obvious high sugar foods (learn how to read food labels here) there are other not-so-obvious-foods that also cause insulin spikes that can result in fat production and storage.

To help you identify which foods raise high blood sugar levels the most, you can use the  Glycemic Index, GI for short.

Glycemic Index ranks foods from 0 to 100. The higher the number, the higher food will increase your blood glucose levels. 

Examples:

• Apple (raw) 36
• Orange (raw) 43
• Kidney beans 24
• Popcorn 65
• White Bread 75
• White Rice (boiled) 73
• Sucrose (table sugar) 65

As you can see, there are Low GI Foods (55 or less), Medium GI foods (56-69), and High GI foods (70 or more). 

The fruit and whole wheat have a low glycemic index, causing only a small increase in blood sugar. 

As foods become more processed, the GI gets higher, like couscous and popcorn.

All processed food has a high glycemic index, because processed food contains very little fiber and is very high in sugar (sucrose, fructose, glucose).

High GI foods are more likely to end up being converted to fat as they flood  dyour blood with lots of glucose at the same time. They are broken down very quickly and that spells trouble for your insulin levels and your fat stores. 

After the sugar spike we then have a sugar crash to deal with and that causes cravings, feelings of hunger, and can cause our mood to worsen – we need another hit of sugar to feel happy again. 

To avoid high sugar levels in our blood, which would lead to death, our pancreas produces a hormone called insulin to remove all the excess sugar (glucose) from our blood. 

That’s why after eating, our insulin levels spike. The insulin enters our bloodstream and removes all the excess “sweet” (glucose).

Insulin not only lowers blood glucose and helps to store glucose as glycogen, it also prevents fat burning too. 

High sugar and high GI foods cause higher insulin levels because more insulin is needed to remove the sugar excess from the blood. Continuously high levels of insulin can lead to insulin resistance, which is the number one cause of type 2 diabetes. Avoiding high sugar and high GI foods and beverages is the best way to avoid weight gain and prevent type 2 diabetes. 

The High Sugar Diet Problem 

Processed foods are high in calories and contain too much sugar (glucose) so more fat is created.

High doses of sugar mean that more insulin is required to remove all the sweet (glucose) from the blood. And since our glycogen stores are soon full, that excess sugar is converted into and stored as fat to remove it from the blood.

Why Added Sugar is Everywhere, a quick animation video explaining the hidden formula of Food Companies to make more money. Click here to watch the video (a new window will open)

Today in American, and all over the world, we are living on a high sugar diet. Added sugar is the number one cause of obesity and many metabolic chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, Chronic High Blood Pressure, heart disease, and even dementia. I’ve published an article about the dangers of added-sugar here Worldwide Sugar is Killing us.

Ditching, or at least reducing the consumption of added-sugar has to be a priority for all of us.

I’ve created a simple challenge to help you break your sugar addiction, and you can find it here: Welcome to 20 No-Sugar Days Diet

Top 5 Causes of Stress in America (according to the American Psychological Association)

• Job Pressure: Work overload, co-worker tensions
• Money: Loss of job, medical expenses
• Health: Chronic illness, health crisis
• Relationships: Loneliness, divorce, arguments with friends
• Poor Nutrition: Refined carbs (high in added sugar), junk/processed food, caffeine
• Media Overload: Instagram, Facebook constantly showing us amazing moments while we do “tedious” work tasks
• Sleep Deprivation: Too much stress means too much brain activity, so we’re unable to relax and sleep properly
• Violence/Crime: Especially in urban areas
• These are the most common causes of stress, but there are lots more and every year the list gets longer. 

Our lives and environments are becoming more and more stressful, with more work and family tasks to do in less time, but with the added pressure of trying to avoid compromising quality. We are asked to do better and more in less time, and often with fewer resources. 

Subsequently, we have less time and energy for our friends and family, we put our dreams on hold, and this all leads to frustration which causes anxiety and stressful thoughts.

In stressful situations, our adrenal glands release cortisol, the stress hormone. 

Cortisol prepares our body for action by:

• Increasing blood glucose and diverting glucose to the muscles for energy.
• Diverting blood away from your internal organs to your muscles. 
• Switching to survival mode: Growth, digestion and other long-term metabolic activities are temporarily restricted. 

At a first glance, it looks like cortisol could help you to burn more energy and lose weight, and it does, but only in the short-term.

Prolonged high levels of stress lead to continuously high cortisol levels which raise blood sugar (glucose) levels and trigger a spike in insulin production.

Short-term elevated cortisol levels help to burn more energy, but prolonged high levels of cortisol will lead to increased insulin levels. More insulin means more fat storage. The very opposite of what we want. 

Too much stress during the day can also lead to too much stress at night – especially when it’s time to sleep. Increased brain activity during the night causes poor quality sleep and we may also sleepless. This means we wake up feeling tired and with very low energy levels.

A good night’s sleep is not just about how long we sleep, but the quality of that sleep too. Have you ever woken up after a night of sleep feeling more tired than when you went to bed? If the answer is yes, you experienced too much stress at night for yourself.  

Anxiety, worrying, planning, frustration, and thinking about all the tasks we haven’t yet finished means we are often unable to shut down or quiet our thoughts. Instead of calming down, our brains stay in high gear with lots of thoughts running around at the same time. 

We fall asleep but we are too stressed to have the good night’s sleep we need to recharge our batteries and get ready for next day.

When we are tired we tend to binge on junk food. That’s not just my personal experience;  studies have proven it too. It’s been shown that when we don’t get enough rest, we tend to eat more. A study published in Nature.com revealed that sleep-deprived people ate around 385 calories more than usual. Study participants craved high fat, high sugar, and processed foods. 

Another study showed that sleep deprivation causes a higher consumption of high-calorie food.

Scientific American writes “Past studies have established that the stress of sleep deprivation puts the autonomic nervous system on alert, leading to increases in the hunger hormone ghrelin and decreases in the satiety hormone leptin”. This means more hunger signals and fewer satiety signals. This hormone unbalance makes the perfect combination for weight gain.

Ways to Reduce Stress

These are the most common ways that Americans manage their stress: 

• Listen to music
• Exercise: Walk, run or hit the gym
• Meditation
• Yoga

I would like to add the methods I personally find best for reducing my stress levels:

• Sports: Running (our running guide here), home workout routines (a 5-minute workout you can do at home without equipment video here), and walking (our walking guide here)
• Reading: I prefer non-fiction books
• Meditation: During the last month I have been using the Headspace app. It’s free and very easy to use. You can use it to help you meditate anywhere.
• Listen to books: When my eyes are tired, listening to a fiction book while lying in bed helps me to forget my tasks and problems and allows me to be absorbed and distracted by the book’s story.
• Journaling: Writing down my problems, worries, tasks and my in-the-moment thoughts helps me to reduce my brain activity and also improves my sleep time.
• Reduce caffeine: Too much caffeine can make you irritable and tense, increasing your stress levels. Too much caffeine also increases cortisol production. 

Before you go…

Beyond weight loss, reducing stress must be a priority as we are living in evermore stressful times, and stress is the leading cause of many different diseases. It can make you feel depressed and constantly tired, and also affect your relationships and even your job. Reducing stress is one of the most important things you can do for your mental and physical health. 

36 young healthy men were selected. For the first three months, they got a standard diet of 3200 calories per day. Over the next six months, calories were restricted to 1570. However, calories were adjusted to reach a target weight loss of 24 percent, around 2.5 pounds (1.1 kilograms) per week. Some men were given less than 1000 calories per day.

They also walked 22 miles per week as exercise. 

With such calorie restriction, the men experienced profound physical and psychological changes

• Cold sensation, even on a sunny summer day
• Strength dropped 21 percent 
• Heart rate slowed considerably 
• Body temperature dropped to an average of 95.8 F
• Physical endurance dropped by half
• Blood pressure dropped 
• The men become extremely tired and dizzy
• They lost hair

Psychologically they were devastated, showing a lack of interest in everything except for food.

Some man hoarded cookbooks and utensils. They were constantly hungry and thinking about food, unable to concentrate or dedicate to any mental task.

What was happening?

The men were eating and burning around 3000 calories a day. Then, suddenly, calories were reduced to 1500 per day, less in some cases. All body functions that needed energy experienced an immediate 30 to 40 percent reduction.

Body temperature dropped to an average of 95.8 F: Calories are needed to heat the body, so fewer calories lowered the body temperature.  e

Heart rate slowed considerably: Calories are needed for the heart to pump blood. Less calories available means a slower heart rate. 

Physical endurance dropped by half: Calories are needing to move the body. With fewer calories available movement was reduced, resulting in weakness during physical activity.

Unable to concentrate or dedicate to any mental task: Our brains needs calories to function. Fewer calories were available so cognition was reduced.

Hair loss: Calories are needed to grow hair. Less calories meant that lost hair was not being replaced

This is the way our body reacts to less available energy. Energy and air are critical for our body to function, and without either of them we will die. 

If we reduce calorie intake our body adapts to the available energy, because if we continue to use the same amount as before we would soon would burn our stored energy (fat) than protein stores (muscle), and then we would die.

If we consume 1500 calories per day, the body adapts to burn only 1500 (or a little less for a safe margin), so we achieve a balance and we don’t need to use our stored energy (fat).

Our body gets into economy mode and uses less energy for each function, reducing the energy output.

You feel lousy, cold, and tired but you survive; that’s the most important thing. 

The men in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment should have lost 78 pounds (35 kilograms), but they only lost 37 pounds (16.8 kilograms). As the body adapts to the available calorie intake, the only way to lose more weight was with a more severe calorie restriction.

What happened after?

Once calorie intake was restored to normal values, they regained weight quickly and, in only 12 weeks, their weight was higher than prior to the experiment. 

Reduced muscle mass and a slower metabolism meant that the extra calories they were now consuming were more readily converted to fat. Also, as a preventative measure, their recently-starved bodies were primed for energy storage and they did so very effectively. 

How Calorie Reduction Works?

Let’s say a man or a woman normally eats 2000 calorie per day. Following their doctor’s orders, they adopt a low-fat, portion-controlled, calorie-restricted diet, reducing the daily calorie intake to 1500 calories, 500 fewer calories than before.

Their body starts to adapt, and the total used energy also drops to 1500 calories. First symptoms: they feel lousy, cold, tired, hungry, irritable, and depressed, but they continue the sacrifices to achieve their weight loss goals.

In the beginning weight loss is fast, but as their body adapts to the calorie restriction, calorie expenditure decreases to match the 1500 calories per day and bodyweight plateaus. They continue to make the necessary sacrifices, following the diet as prescribed, but one year later things haven’t improved. Bodyweight starts to slowly increase, even though they continue to follow the diet.

Tired of feeling so lousy the diet is abandoned and our dieter goes back to eating 2000 calories per day. Since their metabolism has slowed to output 1500 calories per day, all the extra calories will be stored as fat, so her weight quickly increases.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

Accused of lacking willpower, our dieter feels like a failure after so many sacrifices.

The truth is that it’s not really failure. What happened is the expected, natural outcome during severe calorie restriction.  Calorie restriction doesn’t work in the long term for weight loss. 

Energy Expenditure

Imagine that you’re running a coal-fired power plant. Every day to generate energy for the city you receive and burn 2000 tons of coal. You also have a warehouse to store some coal, just in case you need it.

One day, you only get 1500 tons. Should you continue to burn 2000 tons of coal every day? If we did, we would quickly run out of energy and the city would go into total shut down, and we certainly get fired for doing a lousy job.

nA better choice would be to only burn 1500 tons, or maybe a little less to keep a safe margin. Probably some lights would go off but there wouldn’t be a massive blackout, and we would keep our job. As long as we continue to get only 1500 tons of coal we continue to burn only 1500 tons.

Less Calories Less Energy Used

The assumption of fewer calories produces more weight loss is simply not true. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment and other experiments have shown how our bodies adapt and find a balance between calories in and calories out.

You lose weight with calorie restriction in the first few months, but as soon as you finish the diet you will regain all the weight you have lost. In the process, you feel tired, lousy and depressed.

The Weight Loss Fallacy: Eating Less Move More

Dietician, Governments, and Doctors, have been screaming “Eat Less, Move More” as the way to lose weight. But it’s simply not true; it doesn’t work like that.

Losing weight triggers two important responses:

-Reduced total energy expenditure

-Hormonal signals amplify the efforts to acquire more food

Our body adapts to the available energy input and it uses hormones to amplify hunger signals. That’s why the subjects of the Minnesota experiment became so obsessed with food that they started to build kitchen-related tools and all their thoughts were how to get food.

The same thing happens when we are full after eating; our body silences our hunger hormones.

The Sustainable Solution for Weight Loss

There is not a single solution that will work for all of us. Instead, we must find our own solution. The one that works for us. 

In my recent article, I explain why diets don’t work and all diets are doomed to fail.  You can find it here.

There are proven steps that will help you to lose weight or avoid weight gain. Examples include things like avoiding high sugar beverages, processed or junk food, taking daily walks, skipping breakfast, eating low-carb meals, reducing alcohol consumption, and ditching refined sugar from your diet.

In our newsletter, I share these and other tips about what you can do to lose weight and improve your well-being. There’s no magic formula, but there are steps and strategies that work instead. It’s a journey we all share but we all have our own path to follow.

I’ve recently shared how I’ve lost weight and have been able to keep my exact same weight without restricting my food choices or reducing my calories. Again, this has been working for me for more than one year, but maybe is not something sustainable for you. Learning and experimenting is always the best way. You can find my article here.

I’m here to help you to find the direction for your next step.

Subscribe to our Newsletter and receive one email every Sunday with weight loss tips and tricks to boost your well-being. It’s free and you can unsubscribe anytime you want.

Sources

The Obesity Codebook, available at Amazon.com.

The Minnesota starvation experiment

Contrary to what doctors, food companies and the media say, it is not your fault.

It has nothing to do with a lack of willpower or any other kind of failure. We feel hungry, cold, tired, and depressed. These are all real measurable physical effects of calorie restriction.

Calorie Restriction

 There are mainly two categories of calorie restriction: 

15% Moderate Calorie Restriction – This is where we slightly reduce our daily food intake. There are studies showing the benefits of how eating what we need is better than overeating. In a well-balanced meal, 15% calorie restriction basically means not overeating. Most of us eat more food than we need. 

It takes some time to get used to this but 15% calorie restriction provides your body with all the calories it needs and eliminates the excess that would otherwise cause weight gain.  More about this in our article “Eat less Live Longer” 

50% Severe Calorie Restriction – This is a huge restriction which results in quick weight loss but makes us feel cold, tired, depressed, and unfocused. These are the most popular diets and the biggest failures in terms of weight loss. 

This kind of diet works very well in terms of weight loss, but only for the first few months. Then weight loss hits a plateau, and those lousy, cold and tiring sensations continue. Eventually, anyone following this type of diet will give up, gaining back all the weight they lost in just a month or two.

2000 calories – This is the standard recommendation for how many calories a normal adult should eat. It’s kind of a magic number.  This number cannot be the same for all of us, but it’s only a reference of what an average adult needs per day. Some of us need fewer calories, and some of need more. 

Another quick note: Not all calories are equal and the calories from a bunch of fruit doesn’t have the same effect on our body as a Wendy’s burger and fries, or a bowl of Special K granola loaded with refined sugar.

Why Calorie Restriction Diets Don’t work 

I’ve found a very good analogy in the book “The Obesity Code” to explain how our body manages energy expenditure. 

Imagine that you work in a power station that produces all the energy for a city. To produce all the energy the city needs, the power station must burn 2000 tons of coal. 

Every day a truck carrying 2000 tons of coal arrives, sometimes a little more.

The most intelligent thing to do is to store the extra coal in case one day there’s a problem with the coal distribution. You slowly build a coal savings stash.

Then, one day, you only get 1500 tons. If you continue to burn 2000 tons you would quickly burn all the extra stash that took you so much time to create, using all your savings. Without these savings, you could run out of coal and the city would go on a total blackout, and you’d be fired.

A smarter choice would be to use only the 1500 tons. Sure, some parts of the city might experience some energy shortages but, in general, the city would be all powered up and functioning properly. You would keep your job and keep your coal savings intact.

Once you start getting the 2000 coal again, you would probably build up more savings and burn more coal.

Slowly you would start burning the 2000 tons.

This illustrates how our body works. We use the energy we consume, while we try to store energy to be on the safe side. Once we reduce our calorie intake, our body adapts to use less energy. 

We feel tired, cold, and depressed because our body reduces some activities in order to use less energy. It adapts to the available energy without using our stored energy (fat).

Studies have shown that this works both ways – calorie restriction AND calorie surplus. 

When you increase the number of calories consumed, people gain more weight during the first few months but, once the body adapts, it starts to burn the energy available and the body slowly bodyweight stabilizes.

Besides the increase or decrease of body functions to balance energy usage, our body also uses hormonal signals to amplify or reduce hunger signals.

When we drastically reduce calorie intake (50%) our hunger hormones signals are amplified and we’re constantly thinking about food. When we eat more than we need (50% more) our hunger hormones are so silent that we hardly think about taking another bite of food.

These’s not just common sense. The effects of calorie restriction have been widely studied. The biggest starvation experiment was ever done on humans, The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, revealed exactly how this happens. Learn more about this experiment here.

But why do we lose weight during the few first months of a diet? 

Say we have 2000 calories per day (the magic number of calories that every adult should have per day). 

Your body probably burns all 2000 of those calories.

One day you reduce your intake to 1000 calories. It takes time for your body to adapt, so in the beginning, it continues to use 2000 calories per day. It makes up this calorie shortfall by burning fat, and you lose weight. 

As you continue your diet, your body starts to slowly reduce some activities to reduce the energy expenditure. Less heat, so you feel cold, less brain activity, so you feel unfocused, less energy for metabolism, so you feel tired, lousy and depressed. 

You’ve lost some weight but, one day, your body weight hits a plateau. As you feel tired, lousy and depressed, you continue your diet with huge sacrifices but no rewards. Your weight is stuck because you are burning the same amount of energy you’re eating.

This has been proven by one of the biggest starvation experiments ever done on humans, The Minnesota Starvation Experiment. 36 young people were given too much food (3200 calories) and others got too few (800 calories). 

In short, what happened was that in the beginning, one group gained weight and the other lost weight as expected, but not as much as you might think. 

After the experiment, once the diet finished, both groups went back to the exact same weight as before the experiment. This is what happens to all of us when we start any calorie restriction diet. You can read more details of the experiment in my other article “The Minnesota Starvation Experiment.”

Why is it so hard to burn fat?

Contrary to popular belief, when we reduce our calorie intake our body adapts to use less energy. This means it burns less fat, and not more when we eat less. 

Food and air are critical for us. When we reduce the amount of food we eat, our body cleverly adapts to use the same amount of energy we consume.

We have energy stores, glycogen in the liver and fat under the skin, but our body always prefers to leave those stores untouched. Why? Because we can never predict how much food we will have tomorrow.

In the past: Food was not always so abundant, and there were times of feasting and famine. The body stored as much energy as possible during feasting times and used the stored energy whenever food was short. 

Today: Food is abundant. In fact, we are constantly being bombarded with food advertising and you can pretty much eat everywhere 24/7. There are no famines, but our body doesn’t know that. It continues to store as much energy as possible, just in case that one day there is no food and it will still have energy to use. 

Scientifically:  Every time we eat, insulin is produced by the pancreas to remove the excess sugar from our blood. Insulin removes the excess of sugar and it stores it as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Once that storage is full (there is a very limited capacity) it starts to generate fat and stores it under the skin. 

As we continue to eat, more fat is generated and stored. Once we stop eating, a few hours are needed for insulin levels to drop. Only then will we start to use our stored genergy; first glycogen is used and once depleted (12h with exercise activity or 24h with no intense activity) the body starts to burn stored fat. 

This is why avoiding snacks allow insulin levels to drop so the body can burn glycogen. Intense exercise or Fasting are the only ways to burn stored fat.

Our body always finds a balance between calories in and calories out, so it can avoid burning fat as it’s our emergency energy store.

Why are other diets doomed to fail?

There are other diets besides Calorie Restriction. We have the Ketogenic diet, the Low-Fat diet, the High-Fat Low Carb diet, the Portion Control diet, etc. 

All these diets have two things in common – they severely reduce your food intake, and they only work for a month or two. 

Most of us start a diet to lose weight, but we don’t plan to follow that diet for the rest of our lives. Mostly, it’s only to lose that extra weight and then continue to eat healthily, maintaining tour goal weight thereafter. But it never works out like that, and we, and everybody around us tend to blame ourselves for the failure.

It’s not a failure, it’s natural.

All these different types of diet have the same things in common: calorie or food restriction. We are constantly restricted in what we can eat and how much we can eat. We continue the sacrifice while we see the results, but all the while are going against our will. We are only driven by the results. 

Once the results are not what want, we lose hope, we don’t see the point of continuing, and all the sacrifices leave us feeling miserable, and so we give up. 

Then, when we go back to our previously unhealthy diets or eating too many calories, we regain the weight we have just worked so hard to lose. 

Why is Hard to Lose Weight?

Losing weight triggers two important responses:

-Total energy expenditure, as we have seen earlier

-Hormonal signals to amplify hunger and motivate us to get more food

As we start to lose weight our hunger hormones amplify their signals to get more food, we feel hungrier and more obsessed with food. 

What is the solution? No More Diets!

We are all different. We have different food habits, different daily routines, and live in different parts of the world. Because of this, there can be no “one size fits all” diet for successful weight loss. 

Because of this, I have found the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to avoid diets and instead experiment with different approaches to find the best sustainable solution for weight loss for you. Habits that last a lifetime are better than any unsustainable, short-term diet. 

Good habits that work include: 

No More Sodas

Sodas and other high sugar beverages are loaded with refined fructose, added sugar, or artificial sweeteners.

Refined fructose is the cause of fatty non-alcoholic liver disease because fructose, just like alcohol, is only processed by the liver. 

High consumption of added sugar is converted into fat in our body, making us fatter and sicker. You can learn more in my video explaining this process in detail.

Artificial sweeteners do not contain calories, and diet drinks like diet soda are popular because they don’t contain added sugar or refined fructose, and they are very low in calories. 

What most people don’t know is that artificial sweeteners are highly addictive, just like sugar, and they can raise insulin levels, causing insulin resistance and fat gain. Some artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, are even linked with cancer.

Avoid Added Sugar

Sugar is the source of energy of every cell in our body, but we need very little sugar in our diet. Too much sugar in our blood makes us sick, so our body must quickly remove the excess sugar from our blood. That’s insulin’s job.

Fruit provides all the sugar we need, but fruit contains fiber to make sugar absorption slower and avoid raising blood sugar too high or too fast. This means insulin can do its job slowly and steadily.

Refined carbs like bread, breakfast cereals, sodas, chocolates, candy, processed food, junk food, and most of the food available in supermarkets contain refined sugar without any fiber. 

As we eat junk food without any fiber, our blood sugar levels spike so high that our body must produce ha a large amount of insulin to remove all the sugar from our blood. 

As we continually eat loads of sugar every day, our pancreas continually produces more and more insulin. This can cause insulin resistance and we start to develop type 2diabetes. Watch my video Why Added Sugar is Everywhere and learn who’s profiting from it.

Added sugar is the number one cause of obesity and overweight in the world. Avoiding added-sugars is the most simple and efficient step to lose weight. Simply avoiding added sugar or artificial sweeteners will help you lose weight easily. You can check out the 20 No-Sugar Days Challenge to get motivated and ditch sugar from your diet today.

Eating Less

I’m not saying you should dramatically reduce the amount of food you eat. Instead, I’m talking about eating only what you need. We all know when we are full, and when we want more food just for the taste of it.

Eating what we need is what we have been doing for centuries, but during the last 40 years, we have been binging on food like never before.

We use food to suppress emotions, we use food to reduce anxiety, we use food to deal with frustration, we use food to celebrate, we use food to deal with isolation. After all, food has a big impact on our brain and our emotions. 

We all know this and yet we continually eat more than we need. The result: we get fatter, sicker, and we don’t feel any better. We just feel worst and perpetuate these unhealthy eating habits every single day.

We need food every day, we depend on food to live every day, but that doesn’t mean we need to eat all day. 

Enjoy your meals, eat as much as you need, but using food to deal with our emotions only makes us feel worse than before.

Eating more is not the solution. In fact, that’s exactly the problem. Eat less to enjoy a better, longer life.

Fasting

Instead of a severe food reduction to lose weight, I prefer to skip my breakfast and extend my nighttime fast until noon. I’ve been doing this for a year and I’ve lost weight. More importantly, I’ve maintained my weight loss without having to make any food sacrifices. 

We all fast during the night, but, after we wake up, if we extend our fasting period it allows our body to continue burning that extra energy we have stored in our liver in the form of glycogen. 

If we extend our fast for 24 hours we start burning fat without doing any kind of exercise. It may sound crazy, but it’s all natural, healthy and proven by different studies from today and from centuries ago. Fasting is a well-known medicine, not only for weight loss but for healing too. You can learn more about fasting in my article here. 

No Snacking

The food companies introduced snacking to sell us more food. 

40 years ago, there was no such thing as snacks between meals.

Today: some doctors recommend two snacks a day. How can having three meals and two snacks a day will help you to lose weight or feel better? Most people are already eating too much! 

The solution to weight loss is not eating more.

We must take time between meals for our bodies to use the calories we have just consumed in the previous meal. This gives us time to burn the excess before we start eating again.

Feasting then fasting. After lunch, leave it at least 4- 5 hours before your next meal. Snacking will not help you to eat less in the next meal. it will only make your body store more energy and generate more fat.

This is scientifically explained by insulin levels. When we eat, insulin is produced. Insulin removes the excess of sugar from our blood and stores it as fat under our skin. We can only burn stored fat when our insulin levels drop, and no more insulin is running through our veins. It’s only then that we start to burn the stored energy. 

If we snack and continue to eat, our insulin levels are always high and new fat is always being generated and stored under our skin. In short: we continue to gain weight.

We need to give our digestion a break to allow our bodies to burn the excess energy and stop producing even more fat.

Reduce Alcohol

Beer and spiritsl are especially high in sugar, making us feel bloated. 

A glass of wine occasionally is not really a problem. The problem is continued and daily drinking. 

Give it a try: avoid or reduce alcohol for seven days to see how it effects on your mood, energy, and that bloated sensation.

Walking

Walking is very underrated by many people. I suppose a lot of people only look at how many calories this type of exercise burns. Walking might not burn many calories, but you can do it every day. 

That’s much better than one hard workout a week – even if that workout burns a lot more calories. And walking is definitely better than no workout at all! 

Daily walking is so simple, cheap and very effective for burning extra energy accumulated in our liver (glycogen) and for burning fat.

One of the best things about walking is that you can do it every day without getting too tired or spending too much time. A pair of good walking shoes and you’re ready for some walking.

Sources

The Obesity Codebook, available at Amazon.com

“The Minnesota Starvation experiment source here 

Video – Why Added Sugar Is Everywhere

Video – Why Added Sugar Makes You Fat

Video – Leptin & Insulin Resistance Balancing Tips w/ Jason Fung, MD Dr. Fung