When you meet someone with a perfectly chiseled body, you probably think, “wow, the gym does miracles,” right? While you’re not entirely wrong, it’s not always about the gym when it comes to staying fit and losing weight.
Sometimes it can be as simple as your dietary plans and your lifestyle. Weight loss programs don’t always have to hurt for you to see their results. Minor tweaks in your lifestyle may just be enough to do the trick. Keep reading to find out the fastest way to lose weight for men.
Up Your Protein Intake
Adding proteins to your diet can prove to help reduce your appetite and burn more fat. Studies indicate that high-quality proteins may lower the risks of you developing abdominal fat . So if you’ve been concerned about how to lose belly fat fast and safely, fear not. Adding protein-rich foods to your diet can help you achieve this.
Another weight loss benefit that comes with the consumption of proteins is that they preserve muscle mass and metabolism during weight loss . What that means is that you don’t have to worry about seeing your muscle mass disappear due to losing weight.
Also, protein-rich foods increase your satiety while decreasing your overall calorie intake. These are factors that will significantly aid your weight loss process . Taking more proteins is also a particularly good weight loss option for men over 50. Men are prone to developing sarcopenia after the age of 50 .
Increasing your protein intake can offset this condition while helping you drop the extra calories . However, it is always important to consult with your doctor or dietitian first before adopting this diet. So, is increased protein intake the fastest way to lose weight for men over 50? It may not be the first in the list of effective weight loss methods, but it definitely is important to consider.
Protein-rich foods you can include in your diet include lean meat, seafood, eggs, beans and legumes, soy-based and dairy products.
Strive To Get More Quality Sleep
It’s interesting that how you sleep can help you lose weight, right? The secret is all in the quality and quantity of sleep that you get. Here’s how that happens: Your body is constantly working even when you’re resting. Energy is needed to sustain crucial activities in your body like blood circulation and breathing.
So your body burns calories even when you’re asleep. However, how well it does that is entirely dependent on your quality and quantity of sleep. The sleep cycle occurs in two main stages- REM and N-REm- with the highest number of calories burned in REM. Simply put, the more cycles you go through in a night, the more calories your burn- hence the importance of quantity.
Also, the fewer interruptions you get when sleeping, the better you’ll pass through the cycles, torching more calories. That makes quality important. Multiple studies have cemented these effects of the quality and quantity of sleep regarding weight loss. Seven hours of sleep is associated with maximum benefits in regard to weight loss (
You should, therefore, always try to get a healthy sleep cycle. To do that, have a regular sleep schedule, limit caffeine intake and minimize the use of electronics before bed. Healthy sleeping patterns combined with a good diet and exercise can help you lose weight in no time.
Give Strength Training A Try
Well, we did say weight loss doesn’t always have to hurt. However, sometimes it may be a necessary evil to achieve the ultimate goal. Whether it is the fastest way to lose weight for men or not can be debated. However, what we know is that it is one of the safest ways to lose weight.
Strength training is a workout routine that involves contracting your muscles against some resistance. Mostly, it involves lifting weights to gain muscles over time. Remember, the more muscles you have, the more calories you can burn. So, you’ll be gaining muscles while shedding off unhealthy fats.
Research has shown that strength training has multiple health benefits, especially in burning excess fats. This study showed the effectiveness of a 12-week strength training paired with aerobic exercise at reducing body and belly fat. This was in comparison to when the participants did aerobic exercises alone .
In another study, 78 people were subjected to strength training. This exercise significantly reduced the levels of visceral fat in their bodies. Visceral fats are the riskiest type of fats that are usually found around organs in your belly .
Also, resistance training helps preserve fat-free mass, which increases the number of calories you burn at rest (20). According to this review, 10 weeks of resistance training increases calories burnt at rest by 7% while reducing fat weight by 1.8kg . Lifting weights, use of gym equipment, and body-weight exercises are some ways that can get you started on strength training.
Working out alone may not be enough. You need to work out using the right weight-loss program. So what is the best workout program to lose weight fast and safely? Strength training and HIIT exercises are among the best weight-loss programs out there. It’s about time you tried them out, don’t you think?
Watch What You Drink
Calories are not only found in food but can also be found in most drinks with added sugars. For instance, sugar-sweetened soft drinks like sodas have lots of calories with little to no nutritional value. Replacing these beverages with healthier options can greatly aid your quest to shed off some weight.
Alcohol is also another drink that you need to stay away from if you’re looking to lose weight. They also have a high-calorie content and are known to lower your inhibitions, which will likely make you overeat . These studies show that alcohol and sugar-sweetened drinks may increase the risk of you developing abdominal fat .
Minimizing the consumption of these beverages will ultimately reduce your calorie intake while keeping your waistline in check. As an alternative, you should opt for calorie- and sugar-free drinks like green tea or water.
