Intermittent Fasting: 10 Common Mistakes of Newbies (Part 1) A common weight loss approach taken by most obese people is to enter into an intermittent fasting diet plan. Unlike other diets and routines, it gives a window to consuming foods that suit a working professional's timetable and doesn't hamper their energy levels after the first week. Unfortunately, newbies tend to make a few common mistakes during this tight fasting schedule. On the other hand, others have learned about avoiding such mishappenings after going through a rough patch. Regardless of the scenario, anyone entering an intermittent fasting diet plan should avoid such errors at all costs, as they can prove detrimental to health. 3/10 Intermittent Fasting Mistakes (Part 1) 1. Subjecting Yourself to Extremely High or Low Calories Whenever someone enters an intermittent fasting (IF) diet plan, they also go into a calorie deficit plan, which can prove very harmful, as your body has its capacity. Subjecting to two...
5 Ways to Reduce Weight After Christmas, and Other Holidays
Christmas and other holidays bring joy to families through gatherings, food, drinks, conversations, and events. However, many people gain significant weight by consuming high-calorie foods and beverages.Many prominent weight loss geeks suggest drinking green tea or coffee, exercising, water consumption, alcohol cutdown, stress reduction, etc., as a few main ways. However, as an experienced personal trainer and fitness coach for almost a decade, I have five more ways to offer.
These five methods can help overcome the weight loss burden after Christmas, holidays, occasions, events, etc. These include intensive workouts, routine changes, cardio boosting, isometric practices, and lifestyle transformation.
Methods of Losing Weight at Home Without Equipment
The five methods of losing weight at home wouldn’t involve any equipment. It means there is no need for a chin-up bar, tension band, ab roller, etc. These don’t include traditional weight loss methods, as most people have become familiar with them.- Intensive Workouts
Most fitness trainers guide people suffering from obesity, stress, anxiety, etc., through intensive workouts. These involve power yoga, parkour, calisthenics, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), boot camp, circuit training, compound exercises, cross-training, functional fitness, and more.However, beginners might not have familiarity with these terms or the forms of workouts the experienced trainer conducts. There are many ways to develop intensive training. However, it should target muscle groups and fat loss during every session.
A few intensive exercises include chair or wall sit, plank, double-leg mountain climbers, burpees, knee tuck jumps, parkour vaults, etc. To create an intensive workout, mix the most uncomfortable, unpracticed, and challenging exercises in a sequence.
Make sure to do each exercise for at least thirty seconds or reps with at least three to five sets. You can even create a sequence by doing three to five different exercises as one set and then redoing the whole training three to five times.
Advanced-level athletes can refine the sets based on their personal capacity. The visible results will come as soon as the guidelines don’t get manipulated according to individual choices.
Do note that you might have a craving for high-calorie consumption after doing an intensive workout. But it is possible to dissolve it by consuming muesli, warm water, milk, black coffee, and other substitutes that don’t provide high calories and sustain the workout results.
- Routine Changes
A change in routine would significantly decrease weight loss or gain, stress and anxiety levels, belly fat reduction, and overall health. Some of the changes should include incorporating breathing exercises, using a step counter every day, and a decrease in content.Some of the basic breathing exercises include Brahmari, Kapalbhati, Bhastrika, Ujjayi, Nadi Shodhan, and Kapalabhati. Many prominent fitness yogis promote these pranayam exercises as they improve focus, posture, mind control, energy level, and decrease hypertension.
Similarly, installing a step counter app or using a smart device for the same purpose can help to achieve daily cardio activity level. Unfortunately, it would only matter if the calorie count becomes lower than usual.
But, once achieved, the results stick until eating high-calorie food become a habit. Besides this, a decrease in any form of content like books, dailies, videos, movies, TV shows, podcasts, radio, live streams, etc., would prove beneficial.
The sudden reduction in content level would provide more time for relaxing, increase work completion speed, build mindfulness, and help achieve yearly goals. Therefore, the life goals of a person would get easily covered without any side effects.
- Cardio Boosting
Although it is common knowledge that doing cardio can reduce weight. However, as a personal fitness trainer, I have heard people saying that their weight is stuck. At this point, I indulge people in extreme cardio activities.Some of them include taking rounds of a park in lower duration during every session, practicing a sequence of jumps, focused breathing for ten minutes or more, etc. Many people might become skeptical about breathing exercises.
However, practicing focused breathing is a different process altogether. A person requires to put all concentration on inhaling and exhaling his or her breath. Besides this, people that want to lose weight can practice pranayam exercises for a longer duration.
Moreover, I even suggest trainees and clients boost their cardio routine. If they took three rounds of a park, they should start taking four to five rounds. At times, diminishing the rounds can provide shock therapy to the body.
But, it depends on the energy and fitness conditions of a person. Before proceeding with any exercise, make sure that its repercussions don’t affect you in any manner. Furthermore, cardio boosting is possible by decreasing junk food, alcohol, and drugs.
Unfortunately, a specific group of people can’t skip medication. Also, it would have side effects that might alter the overall health. Therefore, in such a scenario, ask the doctor whether you can increase the current duration of skipping, jogging, running, sprinting, etc., for fifteen, thirty, or more minutes.
I recently covered a warmup session of my workout. It covers exercises for basic to advanced level trainers. Some of them include jumping jacks, knee tucks, side movement, front and back movements, shadow boxing, roundhouse kick, etc.
A typical warmup with cardio, stretching, and flexibility exercises can get covered in fifteen to sixty minutes. It should get followed by a thirty-minute workout, and after that, a cool-down session of ten to fifteen minutes. So, getting up early, approximately 4:00 or 5:00 A.M., can cover this routine.
- Isometrics
There are many isometric exercises, such as planks, chair or wall sit, glute raise hold, handstand, static lunge, tree pose, yoga warrior, superman, bodyweight deadlift, etc. A lot of the postures belong to Yoga asanas.Practicing a simple plank hold is one of the most common abs exercises. Most people can perform a perfect plank hold without arching their back, lowering or lifting their legs, and shifting their hands close to each other.
A plank can reduce belly fat, tone obliques, build strength, and boost resistance with a minimum effort of thirty seconds and three reps on alternate days. However, as mentioned before, it requires consistent action on diet control.
A chair sit shouldn’t get confused with a wall sit. The former doesn’t have any assistance, whereas the latter has wall support. Also, a chair sits majorly focuses efforts on building legs, shoulders, and body posture.
Meanwhile, a lot less strength is required from the shoulder and back muscles while performing a wall sit. Similarly, a handstand requires focusing more on the palms, arms, back, and feet stretch. Therefore, each isometric exercise comes with its own set of benefits.
Isometric workouts can boost strength, tolerance, resistance, muscle growth and provide visible results. However, many prominent athletes argue that its effects diminish after reaching a certain point. But in reality, the result of continuously practicing these exercises provide overall health benefits.
- Lifestyle Transformation
Lifestyle transformation isn’t similar to routine changes. A former would involve leaving bad habits like smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc. It also includes focusing energy on positivity, goal achievement, having more realization, and spending time with loved ones.Changing a person’s lifestyle provides lifelong benefits and unprecedented beneficial results. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate them into the lives of fitness enthusiasts. Taking steps before Christmas, the new year, and upcoming holidays or occasions can prove very useful.
For example, during this Christmas, spend more time at home than going outdoors with friends. Also, indulge in bringing happiness by talking, understand, and providing lifelong wisdom to known people.
Besides this, have a meal with a loved one after thanking the energy around you for bringing the required environment around you. A gesture without asking for anything would unknowingly provide a sense of relief to your well being.
Make sure to control alcohol, food, and sweet consumption during the holiday celebration week. Please don’t rely on others to help you out with it after the event and throughout the year. Instead, make sacrificial efforts from your side.
The changes can also begin by concentrating on the right path for a career, business, habits, etc. Therefore, start making deliberate efforts to incorporate these changes every day for the rest of your time on earth.
Tip: Make use of these five tips to lose fat from now onwards and use commonly known tips to reduce weight.
Summary
Besides the most common ways of losing weight, there are five essential methods. These include intensive workouts, routine changes, cardio boosting, isometric, and lifestyle transformation.Follow them every day to obtain the best possible beach body or other fitness goals by the desired time. Do share your crucial feedback and let me know your thoughts on these tips.