3 Ways to Make Your 2021 Weight Loss Transformation a Success

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Losing weight isn’t easy. Most people, in fact, fail at it. If you’ve been unable to make any real traction on your weight loss efforts in previous years, there is no reason why you have to repeat that failure in 2021. In this article, we reveal three foundational steps that can underpin your weight loss success this year.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is having a moment. It has supplanted the Keto Diet as the supreme weight loss transformation method of our day. In fact, intermittent fasting is, in a way, an adaptation of the Keto Diet. When you stop eating, you aren’t taking carbohydrates into the body. This forces the body to use up the glycogen that is stored in the liver and then turn to stored body fat for energy. 

Intermittent fasting has been shown in numerous studies not only to promote fat loss but to also bring about a whole host of additional health benefits including:

• Reducing Insulin Resistance
• Reducing Oxidative Stress
• Boosting Heart Health
• Boosting Brain Health

In order to use up your stored glycogen and tap into your stored fat reserves, you need to fast for between 12-16 hours. We recommend starting with a 16/8 diet two to three times per week. This means that you abstain from eating for 16 out of the 24 hours in the day. You can do this by not eating after dinner and then skipping the following breakfast. 

More Intense Workouts

Most people do not perform their cardio, fat burning workouts with enough intensity to have any appreciable calorie burning effect. Rather than spending 30 minutes doing slow, boring cardio, shorten your workout to 10 minutes but do it with high intensity. A great option is to start training with battle ropes. Rope workouts train the entire body. They also bring on the EPOC (excess post exercise oxygen consumption) effect by which your metabolism is boosted for up to 24 hours after your workout.

Another effective calorie burning cardio workout is to perform Tabata HIIT training on a treadmill. To do this, start with a two minute warm up at a medium pace. When the treadmill timer reaches 1:30 begin upping the speed until at 2:00 you are running at full speed. Continue sprinting for exactly 20 seconds and then throw your legs out to the side of the treadmill running belt. You now have exactly 10 seconds to rest. Now get back on the running belt and do another 20 second sprint. Continue for a total of 8 intervals in this manner. Finish with a two minute slow warm down.

Workouts like these are extremely hard work. But they are a lot shorter than conventional cardio training – and they work!

Get Quality Sleep

Whether people realize it or not, the quality and quantity of their sleep is a key factor in the weight loss equation. A major reason is that, when you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces more of the hunger hormone ghrelin and less of the fullness hormone leptin. Lack of sleep also makes changes to the way the brain reacts. It makes it harder for us to resist hunger cravings and reduces our sense of self control. 

Studies have also shown that people who sleep less tend to consume more calories and, therefore, have a higher body mass index. A lack of sleep has even been connected to low resting metabolic rates. 

In order to avoid these body transformation wrecking consequences of poor sleep, make it your habit to get between 7-9 hours sleep each night.  You should also keep all technology out of the bedroom and maintain a cool, dark and quiet environment.

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