1. Recognize that your behavior will change.

Being mindful of the choices you're making is a huge component of losing weight. When you're out with pals at happy hour, for example, you could lose track of how much you're eating or drinking. However, if you take a split second to stand back and realize that truth, you can adjust your trajectory. "Awareness and then preparation for what else I can do," Gagliardi adds, "could provide me with the same advantage as consuming comfort foods."

2. Keep a calorie diary.

The simplest way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you ingest. Because 3,500 calories equal one pound of fat, a weight reduction app—or even just a pen and paper—can help you figure out how many calories you need to eliminate from your diet or burn at the gym to accomplish your objectives. “Burning 500 more calories per day seven days a week would result in 3,500 calories burned in a week and one pound of weight loss,” Gagliardi says.

3. Go for a walk every day.

“Walking is a really decent entrance point for people,” adds Gagliardi, if you don't have an established fitness program. Obese women who walked for 50 to 70 minutes three times a week for 12 weeks dramatically reduced their visceral fat compared to a sedentary control group, according to a small research published in The Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry.

"Even if your starting point is a one-minute walk, if that's more than you've been doing," Gagliardi adds, "there are health advantages to that." One of the most common mistakes individuals make while attempting to lose weight is trying to do too much too fast and being exhausted.

"It's best to start slowly and build your way up than to overdo it and give up," Gagliardi advises. A simple way to start is to commit to taking a 10-minute walk after dinner, and gradually increase the duration as you grow more accustomed to everyday activity.

4. Increase your fiber intake.

Refined carbohydrates and sugar-rich foods don't truly satisfy your appetite, so you end yourself yearning for more. Consume more fibrous meals, such as whole grain breads, cereals, vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, and chia seeds, instead. "They fill you up more," Dr. Cheskin argues, since fiber slows digestion.

According to a 2015 research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, persons who have trouble sticking to a rigid diet might still lose weight by simplifying their weight reduction method by just increasing fiber consumption. According to the most recent US Dietary Guidelines, women should consume at least 25 grams of fiber per day (based on a 2,000-calorie diet).

5. Load up on protein.

There’s a reason everyone harps on about protein: Not only does it help keep you full, but it’s also responsible for healing the small damages generated by strength training in your muscles. This helps them grow larger and stronger while also reducing body fat. Dr. Cheskin recommends getting at least 70 grams of protein throughout the day as a general guideline.

This is particularly crucial before exercising. We're all guilty of hitting the gym hard and then heading straight to Chipotle because we're starving. What's the end result? You consume more calories than you expend, resulting in extra abdominal fat.

Dr. Cheskin recommends eating a snack with at least 12 grams of protein before exercising to avoid feeling hungry afterward. And what if you're still hungry after you're done? According to Dr. Cheskin, the first step is to check in with yourself and make sure you're not dehydrated. After that, take a protein-rich snack with some carbohydrates, such as a protein bar with whole grains.

6. Now it's time to perform some crunches.

Although you can't target fat loss in specific areas, you may focus on increasing lean muscle tissue, which helps you burn fat. "Every movement you make involves literally hundreds of muscles between your shoulders and your hips," adds DiVecchio. "Choosing the appropriate movements is the fastest approach to have a slim midsection."

According to Gagliardi, ab exercises should be done three or four times a week on non-consecutive days with at least 24 hours of recovery in between. Start with easy exercises like crunches, bicycle crunches, and planks throughout those sessions. Even if you only train your cores three or four times a week, Gagliardi recommends engaging your core (tightening your abdominal muscles) throughout every session.

You may conduct a variety of ab workouts in the comfort of your own home. Work your way up to more sophisticated ab workouts like side-to-side med ball slams and weighted Russian twists after you're familiar with an ab regimen, adds DiVecchio.

7. Try to keep your stress to a minimum.

Stress affects every aspect of your body, but how you handle it may make or break your weight-loss objectives. "I believe that the majority of stress's effects are behavioral rather than neurochemical," Dr. Cheskin explains. "It encourages us to eat more since we use food as a stress reliever."


8. Consume fewer alcoholic beverages.

To reduce weight, you just need to consume less calories—but this might be difficult when hunger pangs strike. Is there a good assault strategy? Get rid of the empty calories that aren't helping you achieve your objectives so you can eat more of the things that are. All sugary beverages, such as soda, are included, but alcohol is a huge one.


According to Ansari, alcohol can inhibit weight reduction in a variety of ways, including by stimulating food intake when consumed in large quantities. "Binge drinking can put a strain on the liver. The liver subsequently favors the digestion of alcohol above other nutrients, storing protein, carbohydrates, and fat in the body as fat "Ansari clarifies.Binge drinking is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as consuming five or more drinks in two hours for males and four or more drinks in two hours for women. "In addition, alcoholic beverages are frequently combined with sugary beverages. Drinking more than modest amounts of alcohol may rapidly add up to a lot of calories "she explains.

Drinking regularly, even in little amounts, has also been linked to extra pudge, according to research. According to one 2016 research, not only do the beverages themselves include needless calories, but when you start consuming too much, your inhibition also drops. What's the end result? That late-night piece of pizza will be difficult to refuse. So, if you're going to drink, limit yourself to one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for males. (Order one of these calorie-free alcoholic beverages.)