18 Proven Weight Loss Tips to Start Using Right Now

People that successfully lose weight do two things very well:

First, they identify the weight loss tips that can actually get results.

Second, they put 100% of their energy into consistently putting those tips into action.

So, you’re probably wondering:

“How do I find weight loss tips that actually work?”

Well, today I’m going to make it easy for you.

All you need to do is carve out a few minutes of your day and implement any one of the super simple weight loss tips below.

You ready?

Let’s do this.

Weight Loss Tip #1: Harness The Secret Power of Protein

Anybody who has ever gotten in shape knows how important protein is.

But whenever you hear it being talked about, it’s usually in the context of recovery and muscle building. Here’s the secret though:

Protein is also incredibly important if you want to lose weight.

A study carried out by Johns Hopkins University in 2005 found that when roughly a quarter of your calories come from protein, the instances of high blood pressure, LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol, and triglycerides (fat found in the blood stream) are all reduced when compared to a traditional higher-carb diet.

Other research finds that diets rich in protein can help prevent obesity and osteoporosis.

So what’s going on?

High-protein foods are difficult to digest, metabolize, and use, which means your body has to burn additional calories just to digest them.

They also take longer to leave your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer amount of time. In a study published in Nutrition Metabolism, dieters who increased their protein intake to 30 percent of their diet ate nearly 450 fewer calories a day and lost about 11 pounds without employing any other dietary measures.

And if, like most successful dieters, you’re burning calories as well as counting them, protein is doubly essential for making sure you lose fat, not muscle. Your body uses the amino acids in protein to build lean muscle, which not only makes you stronger, but also means that you’ll burn more calories even when you’re not active.

If losing weight while preserving muscle is your goal, use this table to know how much protein you should aim to eat each day:

Bodyweight in LB	Bodyweight in KG	Target Protein Intake in Grams
120	55	120
140	64	140
160	73	160
180	82	180
200	91	200
220	100	220
240	109	240

#2: Eat Slowly To Stay Fuller For Longer

Eating too quickly is something that I am definitely guilty of.

Whenever I have a delicious meal in front of me it takes all of my willpower to slow down and chew.

But, as it turns out, mindful eating – paying attention to the food that’s going into your mouth – might be one of the best and most under-utilized weight loss tips out there.

Research suggests people who eat slowly tend to consume fewer calories and stay fuller longer than those who eat quickly. And according to another study, the quicker we eat, the less time we give our bodies to register fullness.

Eating quickly negatively affects a gut hormone responsible for signaling that you have had enough. As a result, we end up eating way more than we would have otherwise, which leads to excess body fat storage or weight gain.

On the flip side, eating at a slower pace increases the response of hormones that make you feel full, called peptide and glucagon-like peptide.

Next time you sit down for a meal, use these strategies to slow yourself down:

• Portion: With less food in front of you, the chances of over-eating are reduced, even if you race through the meal.
• Drink: Take sips of water throughout the meal to naturally help slow your fork action.
• Chew: Pace yourself by chewing until your food is a mush.
• Focus: Put down your phone and close your computer for just 20 minutes while eating. This may be all it takes for your body to recognize its hunger-fighting hormones are kicking in.

Weight Loss Tip #3: Don’t Drink Your Calories

Whenever somebody tells me that they want to lose weight, this is the first tip I give them.

Why?

Because it’s such a simple way of making a big difference.

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that sugary drinks like soda increase the risk of obesity, while also increasing the risk of serious health conditions like diabetes, heart disease and gout.

On average, a can of regular cola contains about 135 calories. If you drink three cans a day, you’re getting roughly 405 daily calories from soft drinks. And even if you only have one can a day, it still adds up to additional weight gain over time.

Plus, soda is completely devoid of any essential vitamins or minerals – all it contributes to your diet is sugar, and those calories are much better spent on foods with higher nutritional value. You would much better off replacing soda and other sugary drinks with water, tea and coffee.

That said, if you’re having difficulty cutting soda out of your diet, there is evidence to suggest that diet soda could help.

One study that lasted 6 months found that diet soda is an effective substitution for regular soda and had no significant differences in health or weight loss relative to water. I’m not saying that diet soda is good for you, but there is surprisingly little evidence to suggest that it is detrimental to your health or causes weight gain.

Diet soda only becomes an issue when people under-estimate their overall intake of calories. When they think about saving on the calories from their soda, they end up over-eating, and thus gain weight. That’s something to be aware of if you’re going to include diet drinks in your diet.

#4: Do Metabolic Resistance Training to Burn Additional Calories for up to 38 Hours

‘Resistance training’ refers to any type of exercise that involves using muscular force against (you guessed it) some form of resistance.

The resistance can be a heavy object, your own bodyweight, elastic resistance from bands, or resistance from machines that involve pulleys or hydraulics. The heavy object could be a kettlebell, dumbbell, barbell, log, rock, another person — anything that has mass!

The ‘metabolic’ part of the name refers to performing resistance training at a high intensity.

I’ve written extensively about the benefits of metabolic resistance training (MRT) over cardio for fat loss here but, to cut a long story short, this type of exercise is the best, most intense strategy for building muscle, torching fat, and improving overall physical fitness… all at the same time.

Here are 3 reasons that MRT is so effective:

1. It burns a huge amount of calories at the time of doing it. As a percentage, we burn more calories from fat when we train in the ‘fat burning zone’, but when we train at high intensities (short rest periods, full-body exercises) we burn more calories overall. So, while the percentage of calories coming from fat is slightly lower, because the overall amount of calories is so much higher, we actually burn more calories from fat at high intensities.
2. It creates an afterburn effect. The ‘afterburn’ effect, measured as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), is the amount of energy expended while your body returns to its normal, resting state after a workout. After a high intensity workout, you will burn additional calories for up to 38 hours afterwards.
3. It builds muscle… which means you burn more calories day-to-day. Your body uses energy (calories) to constantly break down and remake all tissues in the body, including muscle. Muscle is special because you can make more of it, which means to some extent you can control the amount of calories you burn at rest. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you’re not exercising.

It beats traditional, steady-state cardio (like jogging, or spending hours on the eliptical) hands down.

And that’s exactly why it’s the main type of workout we do in Bodyweight365.

To start a free-trial now and get a program tailored to you, click here.

#5: Hack Your Home To Beat Cravings

Ever find yourself sitting in front of the TV late at night craving a snack?

You’re not alone. Far from it.

In a study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston researchers found that regardless of the time subjects woke up or when they’d had their last meal, their desire for sweet, salty, and starchy foods peaked around 8pm, as did their feelings of hunger.

Instead of battling those cravings head-on, filling your kitchen with healthy snacks and keeping tempting treats hidden is a surprisingly effective way of avoiding cravings.

Simply seeing or smelling food has been shown to stimulate cravings, increase hunger, and boost our prospective portion size, which together can increase our motivation to consume snacks (especially junk food). Fighting our natural response to food is exhausting, especially if the snacks in question are within arm’s reach.

The solution, as one study has shown, is as simple as creating distance between us and tempting treats.

Filling your kitchen with healthy food makes it easier to control snack attacks while enabling you to satiate your hunger with a lighter option.

If you’re worried that stocking up on healthy food will be too expensive, here’s a guide I wrote to help you eat healthily on a budget.

Weight Loss Tip #6: Find A Friend To Double Your Chances of Successfully Losing Weight

I think you’ll agree with me when I say:

None of this is easy.

Exercising first thing in the morning, or late at night after a long day isn’t easy. Going out and buying the ingredients for a healthy meal when you’ve got ready meals in the fridge isn’t easy. Staying on a single path instead of switching to the latest fad isn’t easy.

Having someone there to pick you up when you fall or, better yet, keep you from falling is often the difference between succeeding or failing to lose weight.

Change happens in dedicated communities.

Think about it:

AA, the Marine Corps, book clubs, and training partners are all examples of people coming together in order to support and hold each other to a new, higher standard.

Support like this can come from almost anywhere. Some examples include:

• Social media: Researchers in London recently analyzed 12 studies involving nearly 1,900 people in the US, Europe, East Asia, and Australia, and found that social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can help bolster weight loss.
• A personal trainer: While they can’t be with you 24/7, they can be the voice in your head telling you to succeed.
• Your friends: Members of MyFitnessPal who share their food diary with friends lose twice as much weight as users who don’t share.

Change is a daily battle. But it’s not a battle you have to fight alone.

If you’d like to join hundreds of people just like you, who are getting fitter and stronger with daily bodyweight workouts, click here. 

#7: Shed Water Weight

Everybody knows water is important.

It makes up close to 70% of our body, and our organs contain an even higher percentage. The liver, for example, is nearly 95% water.

Water shuttles nutrients throughout our body and helps rid us of toxins. It helps to assimilate water-soluble vitamins, and it regulates our body temperature. Water lubricates joints, helps with digestion, and promotes healthy skin. It plays a role in every chemical reaction within our cells.

There are countless health benefits to drinking water, and this includes weight loss.

During World War II, Dr Ancel Keys conducted an experiment that involved 36 men willingly submitting themselves to a semi-starvation diet of about 1,500 calories per day for 6 months.

At the start of the experiment, weight loss steadily progressed. Men lost about 2 lbs per week, every week. Eventually, however, it became erratic. Weight would remain stagnant for weeks with a dramatic increase in water retention, and then a “burst” of weight loss would occur as water was rapidly expelled.

Water retention isn’t just some trivial issue of vanity unique to the fitness crowd. It’s a well documented phenomenon that occurs during calorie restriction.

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix:

To get rid of retained water, you need to… wait for it… drink more water! And that’s not all, there is also evidence to suggest that water boosts fat metabolism.

So how much water should you drink?

Surprisingly, there isn’t a scientific consensus about how much water you should drink.

The only thing everyone can agree on is that you should drink when you are thirsty, and the majority or your urinations should be clear.

#8: Track How Many Calories You Eat

This is the most important tip on this list…

…because, the fact is, if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.

And the only way of finding out how many calories your body needs is to track your food intake, and make adjustments from there.

Calorie calculators only give you a very rough estimate of how many calories you should be eating. They cannot account for individual differences that affect the amount of calories your body needs.

But, without a diary, you can only make a guess at how many calories you are consuming. And, in case you were wondering, people tend to underestimate the amount of calories in their food by 20-34%.

So, if you sign up with MyFitnessPal (my favorite way of keeping a food diary), plug in your stats, and are told to eat 2000 calories a day, this is your baseline. Yes, it’s a rough estimate, but a starting point nonetheless. From there, you shoot for 2000 calories each day. If, after a week, you have gained weight then you know 2000 calories is too much. If you’ve lost weight you know you’re on the right track.

The act of tracking food intake also serves as a reminder of what you are trying to achieve.

It’s through regular and deliberate efforts that new habits are formed, and any behavior that helps you to keep your goals and intentions at the forefront of your mind is a good one.

#9: You Don’t Have To Stop Drinking Alcohol

Yep, you read that correctly.

Let’s be clear: alcohol isn’t healthy. That’s not what I’m saying.

But if you’re smart about it, you can still lose weight while consuming alcohol.

That’s great news for our social lives. I always say that there is absolutely no point in having an amazing physique if you’re missing out on parties, meals out, vacations or any other social events.

Being smart with your drinking at these events can often be the difference between losing weight and undoing a week of hard work.

Next time you find yourself on the sauce, here are the steps you need to take to minimize weight gain:

1. Minimize fat intake on the day you go drinking. Drinking alcohol triggers a series of processes that inhibits fat burning throughout the body. As a result, most of the fatty acids in your blood are stored. To minimize fat storage we need to avoid fatty foods when we drink.
2. Consume lots of (lean) protein and vegetables before you start drinking. These foods decrease the absorption rate and increases the elimination rate of alcohol. The percentage of bioavailable alcohol that actually reaches your blood drops to around 70% for most meals.
   
3. Try sticking to spirits and wine. Spirits have about a 100 calories per drink, wine has 125 and beer has 150. If you have 6 bottles of beer on a night out, that’s almost 1000 additional calories that day. Drink your spirits neat or with a mixer like diet soda or soda water – not as a cocktail (high in sugar and calories).
4. Beware of the alcohol munchies! Alcohol isn’t filling. In fact, it can even increase your appetite. Consume fewer calories in the day so you have some left in your budget for a post-session meal, or prepare a high-protein meal to eat when you get home.
   

Weight Loss Tip #10: Use Carb Cycling to Stay on Track Without Cutting out the Foods you Love

Carb cycling is typically seen as a more ‘advanced’ fat loss technique.

That’s because, physiologically, it becomes more advantageous when you are leaner.

But, from a psychological standpoint, I think it’s one of most useful tricks out there – no matter where you are on your weight loss journey.

The reality is that most people love carbs.

Cutting them out of your diet is difficult, and it’s where people often come unstuck when they’re trying to lose weight. Carbs are everywhere, and constantly trying to avoid them can be not only exhausting, but downright miserable.

Carb cycling allows you to keep carbs in your diet while ensuring that you are still on track to reach your goals, and it couldn’t be easier. There are only two simple rules you need to follow:

• Rule 1: On the days that you do a bodyweight workout or lift weights, eat starchy carbs (see tip #14) and fruit along with protein, vegetables, and healthy fats.
• Rule 2: On the days that you’re either off from the gym or are doing some kind of cardio, don’t eat any starchy carbs, but continue to eat protein, vegetables, healthy fats and a limited amount of fruit.

Here’s an example of how your week might look:

Monday	Full-Body Workout	High-Carb
Tuesday	Rest Day	Low-Carb
Wednesday	Full-Body Workout	High-Carb
Thursday	Rest Day	Low-Carb
Friday	Full-Body Workout	High-Carb
Saturday	Rest Day	Low-Carb
Sunday	Rest Day	Low-Carb

Pretty simple isn’t it?

It works because you are supplying your body with the nutrients and energy it needs on workout days, and creating a calorific deficit on non-workout days.

#11: Eat Your Greens

Your mum was right:

You need to eat your veggies.

Vegetables are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals while being low in calories. That means you can get the vitamins and minerals that are essential to the improvement and maintenance of good health without gaining weight.

Vegetables also contain anti-oxidants called phytochemicals. They suppress cancer development, protect our cell’s DNA and stimulate enzymes that help our body fight disease.

Not only are they extremely good for you, but vegetables can also have a profound effect on your ability to lose weight.

Vegetables contain fiber, which is only found in plant foods. In addition to lowering your risk of heart disease, keeping your digestive system running smoothly, and helping to control your blood sugar levels, fiber also makes you feel fuller for longer.

That’s incredibly powerful when you’re trying to lose weight. Substituting vegetables for higher-calorie foods will keep you healthy and your cravings at bay.

On a side note: there is a distinction to be drawn between fruit and vegetables. Fruit is still incredibly healthy, but is also high in sugar (which can hamper weight loss). They should still play a part in your diet, but vegetables are even more beneficial.

A good rule of thumb is to try to fill your plate with as many different colors as possible, but just in case you were wondering which vegetables are the healthiest, here are the top 10 (according to the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index):

1. Mustard/Collard Greens
2. Kale
3. Swiss Chard
4. Watercress
5. Bok Choy
6. Chinese Cabbage
7. Spinach
8. Arugula
9. Green leaf Lettuce
10. Chicory

Weight Loss Tip #12: Sleep More To Optimize Your Hormones

As Arianna Huffington points out in the video below, we live in a time where people take pride in sleep-deprivation. It’s a way of saying “look how busy I am”.

Adequate sleep can make you more successful at work because you will be more productive in the hours that you are awake, and you will make better decisions.

Not only that, sleep reduces stress, helps us recover from workouts, prevents depression, and can also help shave off some pounds because sleep loss is linked to changes in appetite and the metabolism of glucose (sugar in the blood).

Long story short:

Numerous studies have shown that sufficient sleep is associated with reduced weight gain (1, 2).

In the modern world getting a good night’s shut-eye can be difficult. But there are some steps you can take to make it much easier:

• Set aside enough time to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
• Don’t consume caffeine, cigarettes, and other stimulants (such as decongestants) late in the day. Many people (myself included) find that any caffeine after noon is a problem.
• Don’t drink alcohol in the evening. It sedates you at first, but then screws up your sleep rhythm, leading to worse sleep.
• Keep a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at roughly the same time.
• Exercise regularly, but not too close to bedtime. Save the tough, adrenaline-pumping workouts for earlier in the day.
• Actively address relaxation. Turn of your computer, TV, cell phones, and any other devices with a screen at least an hour before bed.

#13: Set Yourself up for Success by Cooking & Preparing Your Own Food

As explained in tip #5, you’re going to eat what you have access to.

It’s as simple as that.

You can have all the willpower in the world, but when you get home from a long day at work and all you have in are ready-meals, that’s what you’re going to eat.

Likewise, you’re going to eat whatever is on your desk at work. And when you’re out and about, you’re going to eat whatever you can get your hands on.

In short:

If you’re not preparing your meals in advance, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

For some reason, the idea of preparing food in advance fills people with dread. Maybe that’s because they think that it’s all they will be doing every evening for the rest of their lives.

But done right, you only have to do it once or twice a week. And the more you do it, the easier it gets.

1. Whenever you cook something, cook it in bulk. When you cook something, have all four burners going at the same time. I usually set aside some time every Sunday to do this.
2. Then, all you need to do is portion it all (according to your energy requirements each day) in Tupperware so it’s ready to go.
3. Put the meals that will last for the next two or three days in the refrigerator. Put everything that is left over in the freezer.

Setting yourself up to successfully lose weight really is that simple.

Weight Loss Tip #14: Avoid Refined Carbohydrates To Keep Your Blood-Sugar On The Level

I usually try to avoid telling people to avoid a particular food group. I don’t think being overly restrictive is a sensible way of dieting because it’s difficult to sustain over the long haul.

BUT, if you want to lose weight quickly, avoiding refined carbohydrates is one of the most effective things you can do.

Refined carbohydrates include sucrose, or table sugar, high fructose corn syrup and any foods containing these ingredients. Examples include soda pop, processed syrups, jellies, preserves, pastries and desserts.

Refining foods gives them a longer shelf-life, but the process strips foods of their vitamins and minerals. Not only that, but refined carbs are rapidly digested and absorbed, and they tend to elevate your blood sugar levels very quickly.

Why does that matter?

A spike in blood sugar triggers a series of processes that result in increased fat storage:

When compared to unrefined carbohydrates, refined carbs raise your blood-sugar much quicker. In this regard, regular consumption of refined carbohydrates will increase your risk of increased fat-storage and even type 2 diabetes.

So what sort of carbs should you be eating?

Not all carbs are bad.

In fact, unrefined carbs don’t cause the same spike in blood sugar. They contain plenty of nutrients, fiber, and should play a part in your diet. They are particularly important if you exercise regularly.

Examples of unrefined sources of carbohydrates include: potato, quinoa, rice, and vegetables.

#15: Take Control of Stress

Stress kept our ancient ancestors alive.

Fighting predators and fleeing from danger requires enormous amounts of energy. Stress provided them with this energy by triggering a ‘fight or flight’ response which releases a cascade of hormones that raise the amount of sugar and fat in the blood.

Thankfully, in the 21st century we don’t have to deal with the same threats as our ancestors.

Yet our body’s response to stress is unchanged; whether you are being chased by a pack of wolves, fighting a wild boar, under a severe deadline at work, facing financial uncertainty, or stuck in traffic, your body will react in the same way.

Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles mean that we’re almost always stressed. This is especially bad for fat loss.

When we are subject to constant and continuous stress the amount of cortisol (one of the major stress hormones) shoots up. This affects our hunger and makes us crave foods high in sugar and fat.

And that’s not the only problem.

When there are high amounts of sugar in the bloodstream the body compensates by releasing insulin (which you may remember from tip #14). Whereas cortisol on its own will burn both fat and muscle for energy, the addition of insulin means that muscle is much more likely to be burned instead.

The combination of cortisol and insulin also increases fat storage in the belly.

So what can we do about it?

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep each night. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you are creating an unfavorable stress response and inhibiting your natural release of the anti-stress hormone HGH.
• Exercise with intensity. To counteract the negative effects of stress, you must produce an adequate release of HGH and testosterone. The best way of doing this is short, intense workouts that involve resistance training (see tip #4)
  
• Find stress relief practices that work for you. Stress management techniques are endless and can vary per individual. Options such as mediation, deep breathing, yoga, guided imagery, and behavioral distraction can all work. Dedicate a few minutes to this every day.
  

Weight Loss Tip #16: Get a Boost From Tea and Coffee

You probably don’t need me to convince you to drink more tea and coffee.

The average American drinks 3.1 cups of coffee a day, and tea is now the most popular beverage in the world (after water, of course).

And it’s all because of one little ingredient…

Caffeine.

Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world and occurs naturally among several plants such as coffee bean, kola nut, tea leaf, and cacao seed. Before they are brewed, tea leaves contain more caffeine than coffee beans. Prepared, however, tea is diluted and the average cup contains half as much caffeine as coffee.

Caffeine is incredibly well-researched and has many performance-enhancing benefits including improved sprinting performance, a reduction in perceived effort, and improved power output in exercises like squat and bench press.

It can also help you burn fat. But there’s a catch.

We build up a tolerance to caffeine incredibly quickly, which dulls the fat-burning effect.

It’s worth noting that fat-burning effects unique to tea (most notably green tea) are also dependent on your tolerance to caffeine. So if you’re consuming caffeine habitually, catechins won’t have any significant effect.

One solution is to cycle your caffeine consumption. You could have a few days off, then a few days on. Or even cycle it week to week.

But for me, the main thing is that tea and coffee are a great replacement for soda and other sweetened beverages. They taste good and are both associated with important health benefits like an overall decreased risk of cancer, and reduced risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

If you’re going to drink tea and coffee daily, as opposed to cycling it, research suggests that benefits are seen with 1-3 cups of coffee or 3-4 cups of tea per day.

#17: Cheat on Your Diet by Flipping the 80/20 Rule on its Head

In 1906 the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

Soon people started to notice that this distribution occurs extremely frequently, and it became known as the 80/20 rule (or Pareto Principle).

To use the 80/20 rule for business, you focus on the 20 percent of your customers who are giving you 80 percent of your sales. To use the 80/20 rule to manage your time, you focus on the 20 percent of the things you do that really make a difference. In other words, your highest-valued activities.

But when it comes to your health, you have to focus on the 80 percent instead.

The breakdown is simple: 80 percent of the time you focus on eating clean, healthy foods, and 20 percent of the time you have the freedom to indulge as you please.

Weight loss is the culmination of your habits and your daily decisions, not short-term fads or gimmicks. The 80/20 rule is about moderation over the long-haul by giving you the freedom to indulge some of the time:

Yes, you can have that dessert. No, you can’t have dessert after every meal. Yes, you should exercise most days. No, you don’t have to beat yourself up if you skip a day.

The 80/20 rule is used by top coaches, athletes, and even supermodels like Miranda Kerr. Here’s what she had to say about it:

“Food is my friend, and consistency is the key. I believe that everything in moderation is best.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Weight Loss Tip #18: Don’t Let The Scale Define Your Success

Whenever somebody tells me that they want to lose weight, they usually say something like:

“I’m going to lose 50 pounds,”

or

“If I can just get down to 200, I’ll be happy.”

While there are certainly benefits to setting tangible goals, picking an arbitrary number and letting the weighing scale define your success can send you on an unnecessary roller coaster of emotions.

Here’s why:

The scale doesn’t give you the whole story. It can tell you what your total body weight is, but it can’t account for how much fat you’ve lost and how much muscle you’ve gained.

Both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training can build muscle and reduce fat, which means that the number on the scale can stay the same even though you are losing fat.

And because muscle has a much greater density (it takes up less volume than an equal mass of fat), it’s possible to get visibly slimmer without a significant drop in weight.

Moreover, your weight constantly fluctuates. Depending on what you’ve recently eaten, how much water you’ve drunk, the amount of sodium in your food, the clothing you are wearing, the time of day you weigh yourself, your scale weight can vary massively.

All of this is to say that the scale can be misleading.

It’s not completely without its uses, however.

It can be an important tool when trying to work out if you’re eating the right amount of calories. Weighing yourself at the same time with a week in between will tell you whether you are eating too much or too little (assuming you’re tracking your food intake – see tip #8).

And if you’re just getting started, making some changes to your lifestyle can yield big results, and seeing the scale go down can help you build momentum. But generally speaking, it becomes less and less important as you get closer to your goals.

Instead set goals you are in control of. Things like:

• Doing 15 consecutive push-ups.
• To run a half marathon on a certain date.
• To do your first unassisted pull-up.

With your mind focused on strength or endurance, you won’t have to worry so much about the scale.  If you can only do 5 push-ups now but next month you can do 15, then you definitely got stronger, and you will have almost definitely lost fat along the way.

Here’s The Next Step…

Right now, you might be feeling pretty overwhelmed.

And that’s OK.

This post was crammed with information.

So here’s what I suggest:

Pick one tip. Just one, whichever makes the most sense to you and feels like it will be easiest to implement.

Now stick to it, every day, for 3 weeks. If you’re successful you can then implement another tip.

Don’t make the mistake of taking on too much, too soon. That’s the number one