The moment it occurred to me that I need to start losing weight was when I was in the dressing room of my favorite clothing store. I was so excited to try out a pair of jeans I’ve been eyeing for months. So I hurriedly grab one of my size, ran to the dressing room, but only to find myself struggling to wiggle into beautiful skinny jeans.
It was then I realized that I’m starting to need a larger pair. I really had to voice out my frustration and said to myself that I need to seriously start losing weight. The dressing room has been the place that serves up to be a blunt reality check to me!
So I went home and researched for the best natural weight loss I could try, then I learned that there are still so many reasons why I need to act quickly in my weight loss journey, and believe me, this does involved your skinny jeans fitting you perfectly.
If you have been carrying a bit of excess weight, you should know that getting a healthy weight is worth it for plenty of reasons. Keep on reading below for the few convincing ones why it’s time you stop ignoring those extra kilos.
Why You Should Start Losing Weight Now!
1. Your Elbows And Knees Will Be Thanking You
Have you ever heard of osteoarthritis? I’m sure you do! This is a deteriorating joint disease where you will be losing your cartilage and slowly destroy the bones in your joints.
I know you might not think much about osteoarthritis since it is very common to any aged individual that you’re starting to think that it’s just normal; probably your grandma has been twitching from her annoying arthritis.
However, a study has shown that you will much more likely get osteoarthritis if you are suffering from excess weight. When heavy patients were compared to the light ones, the heavy group has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in one knee six times more than the light individuals and there are 18 times more you’ll get the said condition on your both knees.
This is because heavier people are putting some serious strain on their joints, especially on their knees which could lead to the joints to degrade over time. Also, when the body is creating too much body fat, excess fat tissue and inflammation will also be present.
2. You Will Have Lower Chance Of Cancer
Since body fat will produce estrogen, a hormone that is linked to cancer, a study has revealed that women that are obese are at risk of endometrial cancer four times more and are at higher risk for breast cancer.
Also, researchers have found that leptin, which is a hormone related with weight gain, can enhance the production of both normal as well as cancerous breast cells.
3. You Will Have Lower Chance Of Developing Dementia
People with excess weight, especially those that have large bellies during their midlife, are more at risk of developing dementia and this is 260% chance I’m talking. The bigger belly you get, the great the risk you have as your abdominal fat produces inflammatory factors and other hormones.
Furthermore, researchers have found out that anyone that has fastest arms during their 40’s was 59% more possible to develop dementia in their later life.
4. You Will Sleep Better
According to researchers, weight loss can positively affect sleep. Their study has shown that adults who are obese and tried losing 5% or more of their overall weight have reported gaining more and improved sleep after six months of losing weight.
In their study, it shows that those participants who lost at little as 5% of their bodyweight had gotten about 22 minutes of additional sleep every night. On the other hand, people who lost less than 5% of their bodyweight made only about a minute of additional of sleep.
This is because the more your body fat is, the more you will likely develop sleep apnea. Sleep apnea means you stop breathing over and over while you sleep, which can be bad. 50% of obese adults are reported to be suffering from this sleep condition.
Take note that sleep is a most important regulator of your metabolism. Getting a bad sleep will negatively impact your metabolic health. This means inflammation will increase and will have a higher risk of various chronic disease.
5. You Will Have Clearer Skin
Extra weight appears to be related to the various changes of our skin, which is the largest organ of our body. Though it is quite not clear how getting obese is playing a significant role in skin infections and blemishes, but one research has shown losing weight can make your condition of psoriasis better.
A study conducted in the year 2013 showed that adults who are obese and suffering from psoriasis noticed developments in the severe condition of their skin after following low-calorie diet within eight weeks and losing weight.
6. Your Heart Will Be Thanking You
The bigger your body gets, the more you will be at risk from suffering a heart attack earlier in life; for the most obese adults, you are at risk of getting heart attack 12 years sooner.
People who are overweight are more likely to develop diabetes and have high cholesterol
7. You Will Feel Less Depressed
There’s a significant link between depression and obesity. According to a recent study of 4,600 women that ages between 40 and 65, roughly 6.5% of them had a normal BMI or body mass index are suffering from depression while the disorder affected more than 25% of those with higher BMIs.
Researchers have said that obese adults are 25% more at risk of developing mood disorders. According to them, the stigma of being obese alone, as well as limited physical activity, are the main contributors to being depressed
There are still so much more reasons why you should start losing weight now, but most of all, losing weight will improve your self-esteem. Losing weight when you are obese can have very helpful effects on your mood. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that your appearance should determine your life. What I mean is that getting closer to a healthy weight will most likely make you feel better inside and out.
But it is never too late yet, I have here five of the best natural weight loss that I highly recommend and has to help me with my weight loss journey. I’ll be very happy to share them with you. So keep on reading and find out which one will suit your lifestyle the best.
The Best Natural Weight Loss You Can Try
1.The 2 Week Diet
On top of my list is the 2 Week Diet. It is for me the best natural weight loss and it has helped me a lot in my weight loss journey; no wonder why it has been the most talked about in various health forums and all over the social media sites.
What’s incredible about this diet plan is that it has been backed with science and you will meet a lot of people testifying how it works for them. But what really is the 2 Week Diet?
Well, the 2 Week Diet plan is created by Brian Flatt who has read 500 or even more medical studies and studied various diet plans to produce what most health enthusiasts think as the best diet plans ever created.
He limited the diet into just two weeks since he believes that as time goes by, only a small number of people are capable of dedicating themselves to a diet for a period of time if they don’t see any drastic results. So he designed an eating plan that can burn fat quickly up to 16 pounds as fast as two weeks. Unlike other diets that may take four or five months to achieve this loss.
What Makes You Think This Diet Plan Is Effective?
What’s great about Brian Flatt is that he gives so much detail and plenty of scientific proof explaining why this approach will work.
For instance, he has discussed Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. BMR is the number of calories that your body is capable of burning daily, just to sustain your daily life. So no matter what you are doing, either you are just sitting on your couch, watching your favorite TV show on Netflix, you will still be burning calories.
With the 2 Week Diet plan, you will learn the methods of calculating your BMR and help you be aware if you are already eating far too much calories. This is what most people get wrong, they eat in a smaller amount and spend much time working out to lose weight. However, this will not be effective enough since you are not considering your BMR.
How Does 2 Week Diet Works?
Brian Flatt said that most of us find it difficult to lose weight because of the following reasons:
- We always receive bad information
- We are suffering from cellular inflammation which is one of the main reasons why we develop other diseases. Whenever we eat foods that are not healthy, they will eventually break down the natural defenses of our body and trigger inflammation. As a result, our body will be storing more fat without burning it as quickly as it should.
- You are exercising more at the same time eating less. Losing weight doesn’t necessarily require counting weight. What you should do is get rid of the bad calories and at the same time increase your good calories.
- You don’t have an easy-to-follow plan customized alone for you.
So what Brian Flatt did is tackle these problems by breaking down the plan into four systems:
1.The Launch Handbook. This is composed of important information on how you should be burning the most stubborn body fat.
2.The Diet Handbook. This is where you will learn what you must eat when is the best time to eat and the amount of food you should eat according to your unique needs.
3.The Activity Handbook. In this handbook, you will learn practical workout routines that will double the results even if you are someone who has limited time for working out. All you will ever need is just 15 to 30 minutes every day to accomplish this exercise plan.
4.The Motivation Handbook. What’s great about this handbook is that it provides you science-proven methods to help you gain control and focus. In this way, you will be able to keep yourself motivated and overcome any mental obstacle that comes your way.
Benefits Of 2 Week Diet
- You don’t need to take any supplement or medication.
- It is easy to follow. You don’t have to worry as the diet plan comes with enough information and guidance.
- Good reviews. When you search through a number of independent websites, all you will see are good reviews and plenty of success stories.
- You will have a customizable diet plan based on your body. Since there’s no diet that will fit everyone, the 2 Week Diet Plan will be based on your body fat percentage.
- The author is credible. Brian Flatt has so much experience and expertise under his belt. He is not only a best-selling author but also weight loss consultant, a certified personal trainer and sports nutritionist.
2. Venus Factor
Here’s another natural weight loss method that I highly recommend. I can’t express enough how this program has helped me lose weight and made me feel healthy. Venus Factor has been created by John Barban, a Human Biology and Nutrition degree holder of the Univesity of Guelph in Canada. He worked in Pietray and Sports Supplement Industry where he has researched and developed sports and weight loss supplements.
I like how unique this weight loss program is, which you will need to complete for 12 weeks and as a result, of course, a body that is in the right shape. It is actually designed for women according to our specific needs such as rebalancing the body hormones that control the weight gain and metabolism.
Benefits Of Venus Factor
In addition to helping every woman to lose weight and at the same time prevent accumulation of fat forever, here are some more advantages of this diet plan.
Venus Factor provides exercise program
Venus factor comes with a comprehensive workout strategy. What’s great is that the instructions are easy to follow even if you are someone who doesn’t know anything about exercise. You will see the workouts in form of graphics, pictures, and videos.
Venus Factor comes with an exceptional support system
With this diet plan, your doubt will not go unanswered for days. You will be now confident that you will get a response within hours. Furthermore, if you think the program is not suitable for you, you can avail the 60-day money-back guarantee and get your cash back, no questions asked.
3. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular natural weight loss methods today in the world of health and fitness. It is an eating pattern where you create a cycle between the periods you eat and fast. There are no specific foods that you should eat and not eat, but what matter is what time should you eat.
There are various ways on how you can do intermittent fasting. Read on below for some of the most popular methods:
The 16/8 Method
This method can be done by fasting daily for about 14 to 16 hours while only allotting around 8 to 10 hours as your “eating window”; you can fit in two, three or more meals on your eating window. This means skipping your breakfast or simply not eating anything after dinner.
For instance, if you had eaten your last meal at 9 PM, then you should not be eating anything until it gets 1 PM the next day; you will be basically fasting for 16 hours in between your meals.
If you’re someone who gets hungry when you wake up and enjoys sumptuous breakfast, then this method can be difficult for you at the start. However, there are so many people I know who skips breakfast so they technically eat this way. Just make sure that you are eating nutritious foods while you’re on your eating window and drink plenty of water during the fast to help you minimize your hunger levels. Take note that this method won’t be effective if you eat plenty of junk food or too many calories.
The 16/18 method has been popularized by Martin Berkhan, a fitness expert. It has also been known to be the Leangains Protocol.
The 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 Diet is also referred to as the Fast Diet where you can eat normally within the five days of the week and restricting your calories to about 500 to 600 on the remaining two days. For instance, you can eat normally without calorie restriction on all days except for Saturdays and
Wednesdays, where you can eat two small amount of calories per meal.
Women are recommended to eat 500 calories while men can eat 600 calories during the fast days.
Eat-Stop-Eat
This is another popular method of intermittent fasting where you do a 24-hour of fasting, either once or twice every week. For instance, after eating your dinner on Saturday at 6 PM, don’t eat anything until dinner on Sunday at 6 PM to complete a 24-hour fasting. Then you have to repeat these steps once or twice a week.
Fasting from breakfast to breakfast the next day or lunch to the next day’s lunch is also possible; the result will just be the same. Make sure you drink plenty of water during fasting so you could control your hunger and eat normally during your eating periods
Alternate-Day Fasting
Alternate-Day Fasting involves fasting every other day. However, this method is not beginner-friendly. You will feel very unpleasant and might even find it difficult to sustain as you go to bed very hungry several times a week.
But if you really to try this method, you can start by restricting 500 calories during your fasting days. Fully fasting for the entire day three times a week can be really extreme.
All of these methods above are really effective, but which one suits best will likely depend on every individual. I personally like the 16/8 method since it is for me the easiest and simplest diet to stick around. It is actually just how I eat naturally since I don’t normally feel hungry in the morning and I don’t feel the need to eat until it is already 1 PM. Then I just make sure have my last meal between 6 PM and 9 PM.
Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
In addition to helping you lose weight and belly fat, Intermittent Fasting also claims to come with health benefits. These are the most popular ones.
Intermittent Fasting Can Reduce Your Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes
We know how incredibly rampant Type 2 diabetes since the recent decades. It happens when your sugar levels are high in the aspect of insulin resistance. This means everything that can minimize insulin resistance will help your body lower your blood sugar levels and prevent you from getting type 2 diabetes.
Fortunately, intermittent fasting has proven to be helpful for insulin resistance and makes an impressive drop of blood sugar levels.
Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Minimize Oxidative Stress As Well As Body Inflammation
Oxidative stress is one of the major reasons why we quickly age and suffer from several chronic diseases. This is because it is associated with unstable molecules that are referred to as free radicals, which eventually reacts with other significant molecules and impair them.
Studies show a quite interesting result on how intermittent fasting has been improving the body’s capability to resist oxidative stress.
Intermittent Is Helpful To Your Heart Health
It’s quite scary how heart disease is becoming today’s biggest killer in the world. Fortunately, intermittent fasting has been showing improvement in a number of various risk factors like blood pressure, blood triglycerides, blood sugar levels and LDL cholesterol.
Though most of this was based on animal studies and effects on human heart needs to be studied further before any recommendations can be made.
4. The Ketogenic Diet
This diet plan involves is low-carbohydrates intake and high-fat diet that comes with several health benefits. In fact, there are more than 20 studies that show this type of diet can help you lose weight and have a much-improved health. It may even have benefits against epilepsy, cancer, diabetes as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
But what really ketogenic diet is? Well, this diet is a way of eating that promotes the state of “ketosis” in your body. Ketosis is a normal metabolic process that only happens when your body does not have enough glucose to be used as energy so it rather burns stored fats. This means you will be able to burn unwanted fat since you are forcing your body to rely on fat for energy, instead of carbohydrates.
This can only happen when you have the following macronutrient ratios:
There are actually a number of ways to bring yourself in ketosis state, check out below of the most common variants of a ketogenic diet.
1. Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD)
Standard Ketogenic Diet is the most common type of the ketogenic diet. What makes it famous is its very simple rule: you only eat the least possible amount of carbs all the time. It only requires about 20 to 50 grams of net carbs daily; the exact amount will depend on the needs of the individual.
SKD is the best Ketogenic Diet method for the vast majority of people.
2. Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD)
This is a traditional approach to the ketogenic diet. In this method, you will be required to eat carbs right before you start working out, probably 30 to 60 minutes before you start hitting the gym. I recommend you only choose to eat carbs that are digestible like ones with high Glycemic Index to prevent upset stomach.
Avoid foods that are high in fructose too and opt for glucose-based foods. Fructose would reload liver glycogen rather than muscle glycogen, and this is something we want to happen when we are on a ketogenic diet.
The purpose of this approach is to effectively use and completely burn the carbs you have consumed before working out so you won’t be disrupting your state of ketosis for too long. Then you can have low in fat and high protein meals after as your post-workout meal. Don’t eat foods high in fat after you had your workout as it may impair your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and for your muscles to recover.
3. Cyclic Ketogenic Diet (CKD)
Cyclic Ketogenic Diet involves alternating days of ketogenic dieting with days of consuming foods that are high in carbs which are referred to as carb-loading.
Normally, a carb-loading phase is done 24 to 48 hours and requires about 450 to 600 grams of carbs, while only needs 50 grams of carbs daily during the first phase. CKD is very common to most athletes and bodybuilders to maximize fat loss at the same time building lean mass; so I’m not recommending this to a majority of people.
Take note that both TKD and CKD are not suitable for most people. If you are an active individual, this doesn’t mean you will need to do carb backloading at all times. It will depend on your preference as well as the type of workouts you do.
Benefits Of Ketogenic Diet
Studies have shown that if you undergo a low-carb diet, you will lose more weight quickly compared to people on low fat-diets and are actively restricting calories. This is because low-carb diets will help you eliminate your body’s excess water. Once you’re in ketosis, your insulin levels will reduce than your kidney will begin shedding extra sodium that will lead to rapid weight loss.
But there’s more to this weight-loss benefit, these are some of the most popular ones.
A ketogenic diet has great appetite control support. What’s great about ketogenic diet is that it can really reduce appetite even if you are restricting yourself from calories. This is because of the fat-rich foods are satiating in nature.
The ketogenic diet also has great energy support. I know this comes to be surprising. How come a certain diet can support your energy levels? Well, this is because of fat, including the ketones being produced by fat, are readily available as your source for fuel. Once your body goes into a state of ketosis and is fat-adapted, you will find yourself easily going for hours without certain foods and not coming up short of energy.
The ketogenic diet can help you reduce your triglycerides. Triglycerides are fat molecules; the more you have them in your blood, the higher your risk of heart disease. Fortunately, cutting carbs will help you reduce blood triglycerides in a very dramatic way. Unlike low-fat diets that tend to increase triglycerides in several cases.
Final Thought
So with the proper mindset and the best natural weight loss program, I’m sure your journey of losing that annoying fats and excess weight will be achieved quickly and easily.
I highly recommend the 2 Week Diet and Venus Factor since they are both great in fat loss system over a relatively short time. Both are also very easy to follow since the instructions are very systematic. And most of all, you can customize them according to your specific needs.
So, have you tried any of these weight loss programs? Tell me about your experience by leaving your comments below. I would love to hear from you.
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