You want to improve your chances of maintaining your weight. There are certain aspects of your life that you will need to take into consideration for this. Changes can have a positive or negative effect on our weight management. Some changes will lead us to be obese, while others will help us to lose it and stick within a healthy BMI.
The changes aren’t all physical. Weight management has a psychological and emotional effect.
With all that in mind, it’s time to look at seven common lifestyle changes that can affect our weight management goals. By knowing about them, you can watch out for negative elements and make sure you lose weight and keep it off in the long term.
Exercise Does More than Burn Calories
Let’s start with one of the most obvious lifestyle change. Opting for more exercise will help you lose weight. Exercise accounts for around 20% of weight loss programs, helping us lose and maintain our weight. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, it does far more for the body as a whole.
When you exercise, you build muscle. Not only are you losing weight, but you’re toning up. Sure, you can end up losing less on the scales, but you lose more body fat. With more muscle, your metabolism needs to take calories from the fat to burn off enough needed, especially when you’re creating a calorie deficit with your diet.
Plus, muscle burns more calories. When you gain it, you encourage your metabolism to work faster and harder. That means you give that metabolism a boost every single day, without actively exercising seven days a week! One round of strength training can make the metabolism work harder for up to 48 hours afterward.
There’s no need to join a gym or start taking up a fitness class if you don’t want. Start by making small changes to move more throughout the day. Walk for an extra five minutes with the dogs or walk that 1-mile journey instead of taking the car. Consider taking the stairs instead of the elevator and don’t forget about jumping or squatting during the commercial breaks when watching TV.
These little things will soon add up. Not doing them will offer your body and health no favors. You’re more likely to gain weight, especially around your middle. Improve your life by making little changes first and then build up to the bigger ones.
