Tuesday 30 January 2018

6 Mistakes You Are Making That Are Keeping You Fat

This article is a copy of the following article.

6 Mistakes You Are Making That Are Keeping You Fat

We often tell ourselves that we are putting our best effort forward when it comes to improving our health and fitness. We go to the gym, we strive to make better decisions when it comes to the food we consume, and we go on “diets” with the aim of losing those unwanted pounds. More often than we actually realize, there are some bad habits we have which completely offset any progress we should be making.

There is nothing more frustrating than spending hours in the gym day after day and not seeing the results that we expect. However, what we have to understand is that part of this problem is our own doing.

There are mistakes which we make, whether knowingly or unknowingly, that serve as a detriment to our fitness goals. That’s why it’s great to take a step back at times and analyze our habits. You could end up discovering exactly what’s keeping you from achieving your desired fitness.

Today, Evolve Daily shares 6 Mistakes You Are Making That Are Keeping You Fat.

1) The lack of consistent exercise

Most people like to work out maybe once or twice a week, but in reality, that is just not going to cut it. In order to maintain a certain level of fitness, an individual must adhere to a consistent workout schedule. Yes, joining the gym is perhaps the first step, but actually putting in the time is next.

Strive to workout at least an hour a day. Just keep your body moving and the blood flowing, and it will really help you get fit. A great way to get in shape is to practice martial arts. Martial arts is an incredible workout. The compound movements involved in performing intricate techniques really stimulate the body’s major and minor muscle groups.

Practice the exhilarating art of Muay Thai. Learn the sweet science of boxing. Master the gentle art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Whichever martial art you choose, it will surely whip you into shape in no time, and it will help you melt that unwanted fat and reach your weight loss goals.

Furthermore, martial arts offers various benefits, like synchronizing the mind, body, and spirit. It teaches the principles of perseverance, respect, honor, and humility — all of which will aid in your quest for supreme fitness. Joining a martial arts class ensures you get your fill of consistent exercise. It is also the most fun you will ever have in a workout.

2) Skipping essential meals throughout the day

Contrary to popular belief, adhering to a safe and effective diet does not mean eating less. Most people think that if they deprive themselves of food, that weight loss will occur. What happens, in reality, is completely different. Depriving the human body of sustenance has adverse effects on the metabolism, and often leads to binge-eating.

When the human body inhibits its ability to metabolize calories, it stores most of the excess calories as fat. In addition, not having enough energy throughout the day results in decreased energy required for exercise.

Don’t skip those essential meals throughout the day. Each meal is important, and yes that includes snacks. So have your fill of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and those lovely snacks in between. But this doesn’t mean you can eat anything and everything. It has to be good, clean calories. Instead of depriving yourself of food, strive to make better food choices.

Rather than opening up a bag of chips, for instance, grab a piece of fruit. Cut your rice intake in half. You can have your fried chicken, if you lay off the crispy skin. It’s really just about making sound decisions and small sacrifices which add up. More importantly, take things one step at a time. Change your lifestyle, and you’ll definitely see the results.

3) Snacking just before dozing off

Song Ka Yeon from the Evolve Fight Team has Black Belts in Judo, Taekwondo, and Hapkido.
One of the most common factors that often keep us fat is our extremely bad habit of snacking before bedtime. How often do we turn the TV on, bowl of ice cream in hand, ready to watch our favorite shows and then after devouring said bowl, fall asleep right in front of the TV? It sounds funny, but it happens to everyone.

However, this sort of thing just throws a huge monkey wrench in our weight loss goals, especially if what we’re snacking on is the incredibly unhealthy kind. Calorie-laden processed snacks which are high in sugar and fat right before bedtime has no place in our diet. Sure, it’s good to treat yourself every once in a while to your favorite junk foods, but try not to gorge on them before falling asleep.

If you’re hungry and you really need something to curb your appetite late at night, grab a banana, bake yourself a sweet potato, or even have a warm glass of milk. Try to eat something that is high in fiber which will actually do good for your digestion, while you sleep. Again, it just boils down to making smart food decisions.

4) Not drinking enough water

ONE Superstar Alex Silva takes a quick water break.
Sometimes when we think we’re hungry, we are really just thirsty. By not being able to properly differentiate hunger from thirst, the mind tricks the body into overeating. When we think we want a cheeseburger, sometimes, we just want to drink some good old-fashioned water.

For the average person, strive to drink at least eight tall glasses of water each day. If you can drink more, do it. Most people are in a constant state of being dehydrated and don’t even realize it.

In the military, soldiers guzzle down one tall glass of water right before each meal. The water in the stomach is heavy and helps satiate hunger so that by the time we do eat our meal, we are more easily satisfied and gain a better feeling of being full.

When we are thirsty, we feel it in our gut, and we mistake it for being hungry, and that’s when our cravings come in. So the next time you feel like ordering a pizza, drink a glass of water instead. You could just be really thirsty.

5) Not getting enough sleep

Cryotherapy helps improve one’s quality of sleep.
Getting enough rest and sleep is essential to health and fitness. In fact, lack of sleep is a known contributor to obesity.

There are many ways that not getting enough sleep contributes to your waistline. For starters, people who lack sleep may be too tired throughout the day to exercise. When we don’t have enough energy to exercise, we decrease the amount of calories we burn in a day and it slows our metabolism.

Secondly, sleep-deprived people tend to eat more calories throughout the day simply because they are awake for longer hours and therefore have more opportunities to eat. It also messes up the balance between key hormones that affect our appetite. People who don’t get enough sleep are hungrier and more likely to go on a binge.

We have a tendency to work long hours each day, and sometimes, this carries over to the time we should be resting. It’s easy to give up rest and sleep for work, but we have to realize that sometimes we have to take care of ourselves too.

6) Drinking your calories

Lastly, we can’t just watch what we eat, we have to watch what we drink too. Oftentimes, we never realize just how many calories we are consuming as liquids. When you take a step back and try to analyze what you are putting into your body, you’ll be shocked at how some of our favorite beverages are secretly contributing to our waistline.

A lot of people love guzzling down sugary, calorie-laden drinks that have no nutritional or health value for us whatsoever. We chug down our sodas and juices, not noticing that this could single-handedly be contributing to our growing waistlines. Even sweetened iced-tea is detrimental to our health.

Sodas and other sweetened drinks are loaded with sugar, perhaps even more than we actually realize. Some of them even contain high amounts of corn syrup, which is used in the farming industry to fatten livestock.

One of the biggest problems with sugary drinks is that the human body doesn’t register that it’s full even after consuming hundreds of calories.

So the next time you’re in need of a refreshing beverage, stick to water. Water has absolutely no calories, causing you no worry. If you’re the type who likes fizzy drinks, then you can try sparkling water, however, be mindful of the amount of sodium in sparkling water because that also causes us to bloat.

Take note of these six big mistakes that could be keeping you fat. Remember, work intelligently so that your efforts don’t go to waste. Make smart decisions when it comes to food and remember to get ample rest.

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