Maintain Your Weight Loss With These 5 Effective Ways

The end goal of any weight loss journey is to shed a couple of pounds and keep that weight off for the long term. Unfortunately, not everybody is successful in maintaining their weight loss. In fact, a 1999 study estimated that only 20% of overweight Americans are successful at losing at least 10% of their body weight and maintaining this weight loss for at least a year.

Losing weight is surely not an easy feat, but keeping it off long-term is where many tend to struggle the most. The reason behind this hurdle all boils down to your biology: your brain and body are hard-wired to regain lost weight! After you’ve lost weight, not only will your metabolism slows down, but your body will also burn fewer calories compared to the start of your journey. Compounded with convenient lifestyle choices, it makes it all too easy to put the pounds back.

Before you conclude that your efforts are all for nought, know that not all is lost! There are numerous scientifically proven methods that can help you keep the weight off. All it boils down to is consistency. Here are 5 lifestyle choices to incorporate in your weight loss journey.

1. Exercise regularly

Exercise plays a crucial role in not only weight loss, but also weight maintenance. In fact, it becomes the most important factor when trying to maintain weight loss. Physical activity helps to prevent metabolic slowdown.

Studies have shown that those who are successful in weight maintenance exercise more than the average person. You’ll want to clock in more than 200 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. You can start with walking for 60 minutes a day, 6 times a week. If you wish to do more vigorous activities, you can afford to shorten it to 35 to 45 minutes a day. This amount of activity can be daunting to many, so you can always start slow before increasing your physical activity levels when you’re ready.

2.Incorporate “modified foods” to your diet

No matter how many superfoods or carb-free foods you include in your diet, there is no shortcut when it comes to maintaining your weight loss. What does help to keep those pounds off is to instil consistent eating habits. Besides watching your intake, consider swapping your regular ingredients with “modified foods” containing less sugar, fat, or processed carbs. Eating such foods will satiate your hunger without eating excessive calories and fat.

Of course, by replacing your regular foods with these “modified” ones, it also means that you’re working with a more limited diet of ‘safe foods’ that you have to eat over and over again. Whilst it may be boring, it is no doubt effective at reducing the number of calories, fat grams and sugar that you would have otherwise included in your diet, rendering your efforts moot.

3.Stay hydrated

Drinking water helps boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and acts as an appetite suppressant. Thus, it stands to reason that you’ll want to ensure that you drink enough during your weight loss and weight management journey. Always strive to drink 250ml of plain water 8 times a day. If you sweat a lot or exercises regularly, you’ll want to increase your intake accordingly.

4.Get enough sleep

Getting sufficient sleep has a significant impact on weight control. In fact, sleep deprivation is one of the culprits of weight gain in adults! Inadequate sleep has been found to trigger decreased levels of leptin and increased levels of ghrelin, which will increase your hunger and appetite. To make things worse, those with insufficient sleep are unlikely to spend time making healthy food choices and work out, opting for something more convenient. Find ways to adjust your schedule and sleeping habits, and strive to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night for optimal weight control.

5. Manage stress

Controlling your stress levels is imperative to weight control. High level of stress promotes increased production of cortisol, the “stress hormone”. As a response to a spike in cortisol, your body will also produce more insulin. This will cause your blood sugar to drop, and you’ll end up craving sugary and fatty foods.

To better manage your stress levels, you can consider incorporating meditation and breathing exercise in your morning routine. Regular exercise is another excellent approach that’s effective at keeping your cortisol levels down.

You can also maintain your weight by opting for our TCM slimming treatment in Singapore. Here at Slim Couture, we’ve adopted Traditional Chinese Medicine practices to help you slim down easily and safely. Reach out to us and start your weight loss journey today!

The Trouble With Diet Pills: 3 Reasons To Not Consume Them

For those with a strong desire to lose or maintain their weight, diet pills may seem like the magical answer for all their weight-related problems. After all, these supplements often carry extravagant promises about losing weight despite not being backed up by clinical research. Contrary to their claims, these drugs may hold potential hidden dangers that may very well affect your overall health for the worse.

In spite of it all, the demand for these products continues to grow, propagating eating disorder amongst individuals. Unfortunately, the ignorance and blatant dismissal of such adverse health effects are the reasons for its growth. To understand why you shouldn’t include diet pills in your weight loss journey, here are 3 reasons why.

1. They provide false expectations

One of the most prominent issues with weight loss pills is the false and unrealistic expectations these supplements often feed their consumers. They promise much more they can deliver and hide behind clauses as they do so. Their claims to lose weight within a short time is often unfounded, and also unsafe.

Unfortunately, many of these diet supplements are endorsed by several celebrities and social media stars, propagating their influence even further. The worse part: since the Internet and social media are too vast to be monitored, the influence may reach even to those who are impressionable.

When you fail to attain the results you desire and expect, this might demotivate you and might even make your self-esteem plummet to the ground. If not checked, it will develop into a vicious cycle that may be hard to break in the long run. Instead, speak to a professional about a weight management programme that’s both effective and safe.

2. They won’t change your lifestyle

Most diet pills work by appetite suppression or increasing your heart rate, they aren’t able going to be able to maintain your weight in the long run. After all, you can’t possibly suppress your appetite forever lest your body takes the brunt of your dietary decision. Moreover, if you’re under the impression that a single pill will do the work for you, you’re less likely to check your food labels or exercise.

If you wish to be successful in the long term, you’ll need to incorporate significant lifestyle changes in your journey. Weight management means adopting a healthier lifestyle by exercising regularly and eating clean. Simply consuming a pill periodically will not give you your dream results.

3. You might experience adverse side effects 

All living things exist through the conversion of matter into energy. This process relies on a cocktail of enzymes that activates biochemical reactions to unlock the energy stored within food. When you’re relying on diet pills, what they’re essentially doing is toggling your internal switches to activate these biochemical results and pass it off as weight loss. There are two ways they do this: appetite suppression and the blocking of food absorption.

The majority of diet supplements claim you can lose body fat by simply suppressing your appetite. This is done by activating specific hormones that will trigger your body’s sympathetic response system, otherwise known as fight-or-flight reaction. In this state, your body will be too alert to even register hunger and the like. Naturally, your appetite disappears. However, constantly activating this state will only make your body hyper-active for long periods of times, no matter the event. This may cause your heart to overexert itself, and reduce the efficacy of your body’s neurotransmitters such that your brain no longer can regulate stress nor enter the rest-and-repair stage to repair your cells and tissues. Prolonged use elevates the risk of several ailments, including dementia, depression and stroke, amongst many others.

Certain diet pills also carry fat blockers that’ll inhibit certain enzymes from lowering your body’s nutrient absorption, such that you will 1/3rd of the fats that enter your stomach will be left unprocessed. The body will then flush it out, resulting in an upset stomach and uncontrollable diarrhoea. And since you don’t wish to go through diarrhoea, you’ll naturally avoid fatty meals.

Other side effects of such pills that were reported also include headaches, mood swings and constipation. Additionally, diet pills often contain anti-anxiety drugs, amphetamines and antidepressants that are not only a dangerous mix but are also highly addictive.

Don’t put your body through all the unsafe side-effects, and engage in healthy waste management practices. Opt for a well-balanced diet and regular exercise. These practices work together with your natural biological systems, rather than working against it.

Alternatively, you can also lose weight safely and effectively with our TCM slimming treatments. Here at Slim Couture, we’ve adopted Traditional Chinese Medicine slimming methods that will simultaneously boost your health as it helps you lose weight. Attain your desired results with us today!

5 Small Lifestyle Habits To Help You Lose Weight Easily

Many times, people think that a successful journey to weight loss requires you to take up extreme measures such as dieting or excessive exercise. Whilst such methods may bear results in the first few weeks, these results wouldn’t last. Even worse, such extreme methods will make a mess out of your physiology and it’ll only backfire – either through more weight gain or ailments.

Fortunately, extreme methods aren’t the only way to go about reaching your goals (nor are they encouraged). If you wish to partake in sustainable and healthy weight loss that offers long-lasting and safe results, start by incorporating small lifestyle changes! These small changes will accumulate over time and you can revel in excellent weight loss results!

So instead of torturing your body by following crash diets which are bound to fail over time, try these 5 small lifestyle tips for weight loss and be healthier overall.

1. Eat slowly

You may be wondering: what is the connection between eating slowly and weight loss? Surprisingly, the speed in which you choose to eat with will influence your weight gain. Eating slowly actually helps to increase the levels of gut hormones which are responsible for feeling full. It usually will take 20 minutes before your brain can register that your body is full, giving your body signals to decrease appetite. This will naturally help you reduce your calorie intake, which will slowly accumulate into significant weight loss.

2. Drink water all the time

More often than not, many mistake dehydration for hunger. This will lead to snacking and eating, when all your body really wants is to be hydrated. If you’re not a fan of regular ole plain water, you can simply add fresh fruits such as lemon, blueberries or cucumber to give it a subtle flavour.

3. Focus on eating 

In this day and age, our friends and family aren’t the only ones to accompany us when we eat. We also have media entertainment such as Netflix shows, Youtube videos and the like to keep us visually occupied as we eat.

However, this act of multitasking can unwittingly prompt you to eat more. As we’ve previously mentioned, the brain takes 20 minutes to start sending out “I’m full” signals to turn off your appetite. When you’re processing other stimulation, your brain won’t process the amount of food you’re eating and will take longer to send out the same signals. This may lead to overeating. Apart from letting you consume more subconsciously, distracted eating also compels you to eat more than required later in the day.

4. Get sufficient sleep

Indeed, clocking sufficient sleep every night and keeping to a great sleep schedule can be extremely tough, but it’s a simple way to encourage and promote weight loss. Sleep keeps your appetite hormones in check. Without an adequate amount of sleep, these hormone levels will become unbalanced, leading to increased hunger and appetite. As such, you should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every night.

5. Start a food journal

Keeping a food journal, whilst simple in concept, can wield surprisingly excellent benefits! Not only will you have a better understanding of the things you eat on a daily, but you will also subconsciously be more intentional with the things that you put in your mouth. Jotting down a detailed list of your daily dietary habits will help you identify any bad ones for necessary tweaking. Track both your food and beverage intake, and see if you’re unwittingly taking in additional calories!

Remember, weight loss is a marathon and not a sprint.

The 5 small lifestyle changes above can lead to significant results, but above everything, keep in mind that losing weight healthily involves trial and error. So, learn to be good to your body and go easy on it!

To supplement your lifestyle changes, you can opt for our TCM slimming treatment! Effective and safe, we’ve successfully incorporated Traditional Chinese Medicine in our weight loss treatment so that you not only can revel in a successful weight loss, but also in health as well! Start your weight loss journey with us!

5 Ways To Boost Your Levels Of Motivation To Lose Weight

Going on a weight loss journey can take a toll on your motivation; it’s an arduous journey that is full of its ups and downs. Results unfortunately, don’t come as quick as you wish it would. If you find yourself losing motivation as you slog your way trying to shed off those pounds, it’s only understandable.

Whilst it’s only natural, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to continuously be in the slumps. By employing the right mentality and methodology, losing weight can be fun and most importantly, effective. Motivation is an aspect you can touch on to help you on your journey, and we have gathered 5 helpful ways to motivate yourself to lose weight successfully.

1. Remember why you want to lose weight

If you find yourself losing motivation, clearly define your goals and always remember why you want to lose weight in the first place. By writing your reasons down, the chances of you staying committed and motivated to attain your weight loss goals are much higher.

Your reasons could be to boost your self-confidence, shun health issues or fitting nicely into clothes. Regardless of your reasons, pen them down and look through them daily when you’re tempted to stray away from your goals. Never letting anything deter you from achieving them!

2. Set realistic expectations

Whilst it’s good to aim high, but setting unachievable goals can lead to negative feelings of disappointment and frustration, causing you to give up. On the other hand, having realistic and small goals will give you the much-needed dopamine hit, making you feel feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment once you’ve met these goals. Such positive feelings will in turn, boost your levels of motivation.

3. Stick to a long term plan that fits your lifestyle

Pick a weight loss plan you can stick to, and avoid the ones that are not sustainable and back-breaking in the long run. For instance, not only are crash diets ineffective in helping you lose weight, but it also rewires your metabolism and body composition, making you gain more weight in the future!

Thus, do not simply follow strict and quick-fix diets that claim to work miraculously. Instead, you’d want to customise your own weight loss plan and tailor it to best suit your lifestyle. Some examples of beneficial dietary habits include consuming more vegetables and fruits, reducing unhealthy foods such as high-sodium process foods, ingredients with high fat content and the like.

4. Have a weight loss journal

It’s pivotal to self-monitor when it comes to weight loss success and motivation. You can do so by keeping a food journal, jotting down everything you consume, from your meals to the small piece of candy.

You may also use this to track your emotions and moods in your journal, as this is a fantastic way to help you identify particular triggers for overeating. This then allows you to hold accountability, pushing you to find healthier options to cope. You can also use available websites or applications to help you track as well.

5. Celebrate each success

Losing weight is undoubtedly challenging, celebrate all your small and big successes to motivate yourself continually. Give yourself credit when you accomplish a goal, and you can even share your accomplishments with your close friends and families, and on community pages to get support. When you feel proud of yourself, your levels of motivation will significantly increase. On top of that, you can reward yourself to further boost your motivation!

Conclusion

It’s easy to lose motivation when it comes to losing weight, but these 5 useful tips above will ensure that your weight loss journey will be a successful one. For an even more impressive weight loss experience, you can try our TCM slimming in Singapore to get rid of your unwanted fats. At Slim Couture, we take pride in helping our clients reach their goal, and revel in their newfound confidence.