Last week, generic Urban Views Weekly told readers five things not to do while in the gym. This week, healing with the help of blackwomenshealth.org, we’ll be giving four essential tips for women to lose weight and keep it off. Blackwomenshealth.com is a website that dedicates its post to helping African American women live healthier lifestyles. The theme to all these steps is simple: self discipline. With discipline, losing weight as well as keeping it off will be a success.
1. Eating Smaller Portions
Instead of filling your plate with more of one food group than the other (i.e. getting more meat than vegetables), be sure to eat smaller but balanced portions of everything. Having too much of one thing is bad, but balancing out all the food groups and making sure your plate is, as blackwomenshealth.com puts it, “colorful” is the way to a better weight-loss program.
2. Halting Late-Night meals
Our bodies are naturally aligned with the day. As it gets darker, we become more tired. That being said, our bodies are burning calories the most in the afternoon and the least at night. So, it’s best to have a big meal during the day than at night because it’ll burn off quicker. If you eat a big meal after 8 p.m., the food has nowhere to go because our bodies aren’t working as fast as they were in the afternoon.
3. Eat to be full, not to be immobile
A lot of people have a problem with this. They go throughout the day not eating breakfast and/or lunch and then at lunch and/or dinner they eat until they can’t function. This step is where discipline really comes in. You have to train yourself to know when you are full. Eating to be immobile makes it harder for the body to lose the weight, and usually people go to sleep after a big meal. This supports the fact that eating sizable portions is healthier.
4. Exercise
This was discussed in last week’s health article. Exercising is very essential to keeping weight off; it’s what helps the body burn the most calories (blackwomenshealth.com). You don’t have to kill yourself, but going out for a mile walk, run or bike ride at least three times a week will help to keep the weight off.
