7 Habits of Highly Effective Weight Loss Programs

1. Eat Breakfast
After sleeping at night your metabolism has slowed down. Eating breakfast gets your metabolism revved up first thing in the morning to help your body start burning fat.

2. Eat Frequently
Plan to eat every 2 -3 hours, whether it’s a full meal or just a healthy snack. The longer you wait between meals, the more likely you are to overeat at your next meal prompting your body to store more body fat

3. Lift Weights
Weight lifting not only builds muscle but also increases your metabolism. Every pound of muscle you build increases your metabolism enough to burn an additional 50 calories per day, so gaining 5 pounds of muscle will help you shed over 25 pounds of fat over the course of a year.

4. Perform Interval Training
Interval training is a great way to burn a ton of calories in a short period of time. It also forces your body to continue to burn more fat in the following hours than you will at a steady state low intensity cardio resulting in faster fat loss.

5. Decrease Caloric Intake
Research has shown that Americans often underestimate how many calories they are consuming each day by as much as 25%. Therefore they think they should be maintaining or losing weight, when they are actually gaining weight. Measure out correct portions at home and eat only half of your oversized meal when eating out.

6. Drink Water
Super sized soft drinks and flavored coffee beverages can have 300 to 700 calories or more. Making the switch to water can lead to a 20 pound weight loss or more over the course of a year and avoiding dehydration lets your body perform to the best of its ability.

7. Set Realist Goals
Realistic weight loss is ½ to 2 pounds a week. Remember you didn’t put the weight on overnight so don’t expect to lose it that quick. Write your goals down and review them every night. Research shows people who write down their goals and review them daily are more successful than those who don’t.