In today’s world, obesity in America has become as normal as chubbiness once was, and it’s no wonder… seeing as everything that surrounds us in modern society stacks the odds against our health and our dreams of getting in shape.

In America the typical diet is filled with fast food, sugary drinks, packaged meals, refined grains/carbs, loads of bad sticky fats, and everything is processed.

You can hardly blame people for over indulging in these things, as they are highly convenient, over-the-top delicious, socially normal, overwhelmingly outnumbering, suspiciously cheap to buy, and worst off all… disguised as a non-threatening friend.

I myself used to be addicted to junk food and unhealthy eating, which led to me gaining 80 pounds in 8 years.

For such a long time people didn’t understand the obesity problem in America. It goes as far back as when white flour came out, and it became cool and normal to remove the good, slow-digesting, nutritious bran layer of grains.

All of our food began to be stripped of all that was good, and companies began to add ingredients that are designed for complete profit, with little regard to health impact or good nutrition content.

The high-calorie, low-nutrient content of the normal modern diet means gaining lots of weight, yet never feeling full. People don’t overeat on such a large scale just because food is so delicious… overeating is a symptom of consuming food that is poor in quality and missing essential nutrition.

Your belly gets fuller and fuller but it’s never enough to truly satisfy because the valuable nutrition content of unhealthy packaged foods is minimal.

But we all know that our diet content and eating habits (paired with sedentary lifestyle) are the major culprits of the rising obesity rate in America (and for that matter all around the world)… the question has now become, how to we reverse this damage we have done to our bodies, and return to a fit and healthy body?

That is what this article is all about. I’m not here to simply talk about how bad things are or even to try and fix the world… I simply want to tell you how to rise above it all, start eating healthy, and lose lots of weight without starving yourself or following a fad diet.

I am going to tell you exactly how you can transform yourself with healthy eating, and exercise too.

Since this article immediately follows the 6-part Discovering your “why” series, which is centered on motivation… it’s time to get down to business and get deep into the “how” of weight loss.

I have gathered many of the most important tools and concepts that are scattered throughout The Shape Within website here for you, so that you can internalize the most powerful information, and use this article as a springboard to launch you into your healthy weight loss transformation.

I have included LOTS of research for you in this article not just to backup my claims, but because seeing for yourself can serve as its own incredible source of motivation… giving you the confidence you need to take action and make healthy improvements consistently.

I also highly support this research myself, having shared the same experiences and observations in my own weight loss journey.

I don’t know about you, but before I started losing weight, even though I “knew” that eating healthy would make me lose weight, I didn’t understand it / believe in it enough to actually take action with confidence.

With all of the fad diets and bad information out there it can be confusing and hard to wrap your head around how healthy weight loss works, but if you stick around I’d like to break it down for you so that you can have a strong fundamental understanding of how it works, and also a solid plan for beginning your journey.

I typically like to focus mostly on what you SHOULD do to lose weight, but in this article I will also discuss a bit more than usual what DOESN’T work, since I still see lots of people not embracing the concept of healthy eating… even though it seems America is finally starting to believe in the power of natural solutions for weight loss.

I’ll also tell you why some weight loss methods are no good at all, and why many fad diets actually work for some people, but don’t necessarily get to the root of a long-term solution that can work for everyone.

Diets, the good and the bad

What comes to mind when you hear the word, “diet”?

People have grown very sour and towards the word “diet”… and with the way the word has been used for decades now, for most people the word often brings to mind enduring hunger and calorie/nutrient restriction for a certain amount of time.

In reality there is nothing inherently bad about a “diet.”

I myself am very literal, and tend to use it as it is defined:

“The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”

There are good diets and bad ones.

There are healthy diets and unhealthy diets… there are restrictive diets, and there are diets like mine that focus on healthy eating and abundance.

The problem in the past with “dieting” was that there were so many unhealthy and ineffective weight loss methods that focused on restrictions, instead of healthy foods.

Calories are an important part of weight loss, but I’ll show you why counting them isn’t so important, and why simply focusing on food quality will yield easier, faster, and more attractive results than focusing on calorie cutting alone.

So many fad diets like to focus on either cutting out a single nutrient, or eating a single nutrient in excess. These are overly simplistic ways of thinking about a healthy diet and do often yield results as they indirectly lead some people to eating better foods… but the key is a BALANCE of HEALTHY carbs, fats, and proteins. A healthy diet filled with natural, whole foods with a balance of nutrients is the absolute best way to lose weight sustainably, and even rapidly.

Which diets work and which don’t?

Cutting carbs and sugar

Removing junk foods is a great thing to do for weight loss, but it’s important that this not be the only focus.

What’s more important is to focus on what kinds of (healthy) foods you are ADDING to your diet… and things like soda, candy, and fast food will naturally begin to fall out of your life.

When you remove sugar from your diet you need something healthy to replace it with or you’ll just get hungry.

Eating more and more healthy foods means having less and less room for junk food, both in your stomach and in your thoughts.

Keto

The Keto diet is a mixed bag of methods and experiences.

Keto can actually be very good for people who are smart about it, and do not take the concept of eating fat and go over-the-top with it.

This is the problem I have with the Keto diet… is that it’s popularity revolves around over-simplicity.

I get it. I have been there looking for that one little thing I could change… that one thing that would make all the difference in the world. I have been there searching for easy solutions. But the answer to weight loss isn’t as simple as eating more fat and less carbs/grains.

Carbs are the new thing that we are mad at in the dieting world in America, where previously we were mad at fat in the 90’s, which wasn’t well-founded either.

The enemy isn’t any one of the macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats) which by definition are “substances required in large amounts for organisms/humans to survive”…. nor are any one of these nutrients the answer.

There are very beneficial reasons to adjust the ratios of these nutrients in comparison with one another, which is why the Keto diet can be good for some people when used right, but the absolute most important thing is a balance of QUALITY nutrients. (See below for research backing this up.)

Keto can be great because it often leads people to eating more natural foods as a result of seeking healthy fats… but fat is only a piece of the picture when it comes to adopting a balanced diet of natural, healthy foods.

Paleo

I don’t have anything against this diet, but not much to say about it either. Another catchy idea that came and went…

Paleo is another spin off of the entire concept of healthy eating… and it’s actually pretty effective but restricts grains, beans, and legumes even though there is not any good evidence to support this.

Granted people who follow Paleo will usually recognize that refined grains and whole natural grains are very different, but the diet still tends to steer clear of all grains.

Again, carbs are not the enemy, unhealthy carbs are.

Counting Calories

I have tried the counting calories game, and I always lost in the long run.

When I was in high school I lost weight by restricting calories, and lost all of my muscle, was always hungry, gained all the weight back, and found that hunger was the wrong way of losing weight.

Calorie deficits are important for weight loss, but focusing on calories alone leads to hunger, stress, and results that can’t compare with healthy eating.

Below I will show you how eating MORE healthy food will naturally put you into a hunger-free calorie deficit.

Pills and supplements

I have not personally taken any weight loss pills or supplements, but I can personally tell you that you do not need them, and that they do not get at the root of the issue… which is what you are eating on a normal basis.

There may even be some ones out there that work, but what would happen if you lost weight and then stopped taking them?

All-natural weight loss with good old-fashioned healthy foods tops the charts in effectiveness, speed, and ease.

I lost 80 pounds without any pills/supplements, and you can too!

Points systems

Points systems can be good if you use them right, but they don’t teach healthy eating at it’s core, they often are not sustainable, and can still lead to hunger when you keep eating the same old unhealthy stuff but limit your points.

Weight loss systems that work on points can be good or bad, depending on how you use them.

If you think of them as a way of making sure you don’t overeat, and do not improve your diet content and simply try to endure hunger, than the system becomes no better than calorie restriction which as you read above is not healthy or effective as a long-term solution.

However if you use the points system to improve your diet, and notice that the healthy foods are less points… therefore allowing you to eat more food and still remain in your targeted range of points, then you would be using it in a very effective way.

You see… it all comes back to healthy food having more nutrients and less calories for the same volume.

Exercising without a healthy diet

Exercise is one of the main pillars of healthy and hunger-free weight loss.

For some, exercise alone can even become sustainable, but if you exercise without changing your diet, you limit the results that you can experience along your journey, and are always ready to gain the weight back with an unhealthy diet working against you.

Exercise should be considered essential, but it should NOT be considered to replace healthy eating.

Healthy eating

Everyone’s always saying how healthy diet is the most important aspect of weight loss, and that’s true… but when people say “important”, I think it’s good to mention that they mean “most effective”.

Who doesn’t like getting the best results for their efforts!? That’s exactly what you get when you focus improving the quality of foods that you eat for weight loss.

So what’s the best “diet” you can find?

It’s called good old-fashioned healthy eating. It doesn’t sound very sexy, but it sure will make you look sexy!

The combination of healthy dieting and exercise is the absolute best way to lose weight. But building both of these habits takes hard work.

When I started losing weight I started with healthy food first, and then added exercise shortly after. I gradually built these habits so that I would have enough time to get used to the healthy changes, and make sure that I would be able to sustain them.

Later I’ll tell you just how powerful this combination of diet and exercise can be.

A surplus of bad information makes losing weight hard

From advertising, to social pressures and norms, to our very surroundings at every turn… nearly every location and situation leads us directly to unhealthy, unnatural food and sedentary habits.

Whether or not you consider yourself a “victim” of society’s unhealthy ways, what many people have been a victim of in the past is bad information, which possibly did just as much harm for our health as a collective, than the food itself did.

When the idea of cutting fat out of out diets was pushed, obesity skyrocketed.

Remember when the shelves of grocery stores filled with foods proclaiming, “low-fat, sugar-free, reduced calories”?

Don’t feel bad if you got fooled like I did.

Many of us bought into cheap tricks that didn’t make a difference… and that sometimes made our weight situation worse, since many of the those products added other chemicals to counterbalance the taste.

What was advertised as being healthy was actually less nutritious and more unnatural than the normal version.

Have you ever searched the internet for weight loss advice, only to find nothing legit or that makes sense… only to give up feeling frustrated and a bit helpless?

This is how I felt for years when I was searching desperately for helpful advice, or even a full-blown weight loss system.

But once you know what is most important to focus on and what will “move the needle” the most in your fat loss progress, you can look past all of the cheap advice and have the confidence you need to finally start making changes.

Simplifying the whole thing

So how do you condense all of the most important information?

The core concepts that you need to know and follow, are few, but very powerful.

#1 Eat more healthy, natural foods.

Many people already have a great idea of what these foods are, but there are two things you need for absolute confidence, which I will provide below… you’ll need an understanding of how healthy eating causes weight loss, and some direct assurance of exactly what kinds of foods are considered healthy weight loss choices.

Remember that drinking water is a very important part of a healthy diet.

#2 Add exercise into your routine when you have developed a steady habit of eating healthy foods every day.

Below I will tell you which types of exercise are most effective, and discuss the difference between using healthy eating and exercise as stand-alone methods, and using the combination of the two. We’ll also see what the research says on the subject!

#3 Your mindset will determine how successfully you change your eating and exercise habits.

Weight loss success isn’t just a matter of knowing what to do and then making an instant change. It takes time to change your habits and your mental/emotional associations with food.

This is why I teach people to focus on adding healthy foods into their diet at a pace that they can maintain consistently. One of the common ways that I see people struggling with weight loss even when they are doing all the right things… is trying to make changes too fast.

As a matter of fact most people are determined to completely adopt a healthy diet overnight, but for most people this doesn’t work.

Most of the people that you hear about who successfully lost weight and kept it off, made changes gradually.

HOW healthy foods make you lose weight

Do you know how weight loss actually works, especially with concern to healthy eating?

If not, take a minute to get a basic understanding, so you can take complete control over your healthy decisions.

One of the things that finally made things “click” for me in my previous struggles to lose weight, was understanding how eating healthy food actually causes weight loss.

“Fat burning foods” can be misunderstood to mean that certain foods contain some quality/nutrient that directly removes or burns fat from the body, but this is not actually how things work.

Healthy weight loss foods are simply highly nourishing foods that allow you to be full and satisfied, while not consuming excess calories, or chemicals that spike insulin.

So, food doesn’t burn fat, your body does.

Your body is always at the ready to return to its healthy and fit state, if only you provide it the natural conditions it needs to do so.

More importantly, why this is an important clarification to mention is because when you fundamentally understand how food affects your body, and therefore your weight… you won’t always have to wonder which exact foods burn fat and which do not. You’ll be able to intuitively make healthy food selections in any situation.

Once you have an understanding of healthy weight loss, you hold all of the power for yourself on your weight loss journey. Making healthy decisions and selections becomes intuitive, and therefore easier.

Wouldn’t it be nice if weight loss felt like a very natural and simple concept, rather than a black mystery box filled with puzzles pieces, and lots of rumors?

I’m going to break it down for you here.

Once you know how what you consume affects your weight, you can call bullshit on some of the fad diets or otherwise realize how they are just a piece of the puzzle that was oversimplified and super popularized.

Consuming fewer calories than you burn, is at the core of how every diet works… both good and bad.

But it’s HOW you achieve a calorie deficit that determines how healthy your diet is, how easy it will be, and how sustainable it will become for the long run.

Here is how it works:

The chart below is a representation of how eating healthy food causes weight loss.

How unhealthy food makes you gain weight

When you consume unhealthy foods, you intake lots of calories and insulin spiking chemicals (more on insulin below), but very few valuable nutrients that satisfy.

This means that as you eat throughout the day you very quickly enter fat STORAGE mode, where you are consuming more calories than you are burning.

This also means that to lose weight without improving your diet, you’ll be hungry (hence why calorie cutting without improving your diet content leads to hunger, stress, losing muscle, and giving up.

How healthy food makes you lose weight

However when you consume healthy, natural foods… you intake very few calories in comparison to unhealthy, bad foods, yet you consume far more satisfying nutrients.

Whole foods also digest slowly and do not spike your insulin levels, (with a few exceptions like white potatoes which still have the awesome weight loss quality of being high in nutrients and low in calories.)

This means that as you eat more and more healthy food, you quickly become full and satisfied while still remaining in fat BURNING mode (a calorie deficit).

This is how you can lose lots of weight by eating MORE.

Unhealthy food vs Healthy Food Visual Comparison:

(This is not real data, only a representation of how your body responds to different foods with concern to fat storage and burning… to help you understand the concept of losing weight by eating healthy)

#1- The red line represents junk food, and shows how when you eat more and more, the calories and insulin spiking chemicals rapidly increase, where the nutrients increase very little.

This means that when you eat unhealthy foods it makes it easy to enter fat storage mode, hard to be satisfied, and furthermore it means that being in a calorie deficit with an unhealthy diet means you will be very hungry.

#2- The green line represents healthy, natural foods, and shows how when you eat more and more, the nutrients increase very rapidly, where the calories and insulin spiking chemical are very minimal.

This means that when you eat healthy foods it remain in fat burning mode while feeling full and satisfied.

What’s insulin got to do with weight loss?

Although the amount of calories that you burn vs consume each day does determine whether you’ll store or burn fat, insulin is also a very important factor in weight control.

As a matter of fact there are lots of hormones that control fat loss/gain, but insulin is a big factor.

Don’t concern yourself too deeply with trying to figure out exactly how hormones interact with the body, unless you are one of the scientists currently trying to figure it out. What you need to know is the general concept, so that you can understand from another important angle why healthy food is so amazing for weight loss, and why unhealthy food is just the opposite.

#1- When you eat anything, whether healthy or not, your body responds by releasing insulin to store the energy (can go to fat or muscle).

#2- Just like calories… when insulin is high fat is stored, and when insulin is low fat is burned.

#3- The key difference, is that healthy foods keep your insulin levels low, in comparison to unhealthy foods.

The overall point is that not only are unhealthy foods high in calories, but they also spike insulin unnecessarily high, which further promotes the storage of fat, and further hinders any loss of fat.

Conversely… not only are healthy foods low in calories, but they also give long lasting energy without spiking insulin… which further promotes the burning of fat, and further hinders the storage of fat.

So BOTH calorie content AND insulin response are important. But healthy natural foods, whole foods specifically, take care of both of these qualities at the same time.

This content was originally written on TheShapeWithin.com

Healthy additions with no restrictions

The beauty of focusing on what you are adding into your diet, rather than always worrying about everything that you shouldn’t be eating…. is that when you start filling your belly with healthy foods, the good food begins to naturally replace some of the unhealthy foods that you normally eat.

ADDING healthy foods to your diet helps you lose weight both on a physical and mental level.

#1 Physical- Healthy food takes up room in your belly, physically filling the volume of space that could otherwise be occupied by high-calorie foods if you hadn’t eaten healthily.

#2 Physical- Eating healthy and natural foods will satisfy your body on a nutritional level, not just for volume of food… which will further replace your cravings for unhealthy foods.

#3 Mental- Focusing on what you CAN have prevents you from constantly struggling with the thought of trying to QUIT. Rather than going through the difficulty of trying to completely and actively stop eating the things that you like, you gradually push them out of your life by directing your willpower towards pure improvement and health.

#4 Mental- When you discover the healthy foods and meals that you actually enjoy, the you begin to actually crave the foods that are helping you lose weight. Where I used to crave snack cakes, I now often find that I crave things like peanuts and bananas.

WHICH foods make you lose weight

The list of healthy weight loss foods goes on and on, which is a great thing as it provides a lifetime of variety to choose from… but it can seem intimidating when you are just starting a healthy diet and wondering what to eat.

But don’t worry, it’s not about remembering a certain list of foods that make you lose weight and which don’t. It’s about understanding the concept itself, and from there you’ll know how to choose foods intuitively.

A quick note on the importance of drinking water

Although the focus of this section will be on food, remember that water is a HUGE part of a healthy diet, since drinking enough plain water will replace both unhealthy foods AND drinks.

Satisfying your thirst in a healthy way is just as important as satisfying your hunger in a healthy way, and so increasing your plain water intake will replace some sugary drinks without you even having to think about cutting back.

Not only does water physically fill room in your belly and quench your thirst… but it is also essential for the fat burning process on a cellular level, and helps you extract nutrients from the food that you have consumed.

Drink a minimum of 1/2 gallon of water every day, and that alone will work wonders on your weight loss results.

Whole Foods

Simply put, whole foods are the types of foods you should eat to lose weight.

Eating a variety of whole foods provide a healthy balance of the macronutrients that your body needs (carbs, fats, protein)… and instead of restricting these much needed nutrients, you simply eat the natural, unprocessed versions of them as nature intended.

Whole food is food that is still in it’s unmodified, unprocessed form, basically as it was when it grew and was harvested.

Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, brown rice, oatmeal, and (lean) unprocessed meats are examples of whole foods that you can eat more of to lose weight.

You can lose lots of weight without having to be hungry, by simply eating more of these foods, and replacing high-calorie unhealthy foods with them.

If you want to read more about the foods that I ate to lose weight, compared to the ones I used to eat that made me gain weight, read this article about my diet transformation.

Or if you want to get started with a super easy to follow but also super effective weight loss plan based on whole foods, try the 8-Week Weight Loss Challenge! You’ll have the power and simplicity of focusing on gradually adding the healthiest foods into your diet, with the freedom to still eat the normal things that you like.

But here are some popular, healthy whole foods that you can start eating right away to begin your transformation:

Vegetables

Veggies are perhaps the most amazing weight loss foods that there are, due to how incredibly nutritious they are and how super low-calorie they are at the same time.

Great and popular vegetables that I like for my healthy weight loss diet are broccoli and kale, but I am a picky eater and still getting used to vegetables and so ultimately it is recommended to eat a variety of colors in veggies, such as peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, and other leafy greens like lettuce and spinach.

Fruits

Fruits that I like to eat for weight loss are apples, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, and mango.

Yes fruits are carbs… but they digest slowly and give lots of satisfying nutrients.

Fruits are one of the foods that are almost too good to be true because of how tasty and healthy they are.

One of the best things about fruit is that you can eat them to curb your cravings for sweet junk foods.

Whole Grains and Beans

Whole grains like brown rice and non-instant oats, as well as beans and legumes are good sources of fiber and also have a decent amount of protein.

Foods like brown rice are also low in calories and slow-digesting, and will fill your belly with long-lasting energy that keeps your calories count for the day low.

See the research in the section below which shows that eating WHOLE grains is inversely related to weight gain (i.e. makes you lose weight)

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are filled with healthy unsaturated fats, that not only do not make you gain weight like was previously thought in America, but unsaturated fats have been shown to actually promote weight loss.

Dry-roasted/ unsalted peanuts, almonds, hemp seeds, chia and flax seeds… these are all great sources of good clean energy that will help you lose weight.

Nuts and seeds are a bit higher in calories as compared to the other types of healthy foods, so they should be eaten in moderation as even though they are healthy and have a minimal effect on insulin… the calories still add up quick with fats.

That being said, it’s all relative when it comes to comparing foods, and if you compare eating a 1,000 calorie fast food sandwich with eating a couple handfuls of peanuts totaling a few hundred calories, it’s no contest.

White meat, fish, and sometimes lean red

White meat like chicken and turkey are great sources of protein that do not contain a lot of saturated animal fat.

Fish (wild caught salmon) is perhaps the best choice for healthy meats, as the fat that it contains is unsaturated and super healthy for you.

Unprocessed, lean red meat is also an okay choice when cooked healthily and eaten in moderation.

Eating whole foods will reduce your daily calorie consumption, increase your beneficial nutrient intake, and lower your insulin levels all at the same time, which means easily slipping into a calorie deficit without hunger and being able to easily lose weight.

Nutrient BALANCE is key

A healthy body needs a balance of nutrients. Where some diets will focus on restricting a certain macronutrient (carbohydrate, fat, protein) or otherwise focus on eating lots of a certain nutrient.. the QUALITY of the food source is what matter for weight control.

After having read exactly how this works in the above sections, you may already intuitively understand why this is true, due to how natural, unprocessed, whole foods are slow-digesting and low in calorie despite being highly satisfying…

However I wanted to show you that research also supports this, so you can finally have the confidence to simplify the way you think about losing weight and simply focus on food quality.

Study #1 on how whole grains affect weight:

Weight gain was inversely associated with the intake of high-fiber, whole-grain foods but positively related to the intake of refined-grain foods, which indicated the importance of distinguishing whole-grain products from refined-grain products to aid in weight control.

Study #2 on how whole grains affect weight:

The increased consumption of whole grains was inversely related to weight gain, and the associations persisted after changes in added bran or fiber intakes were accounted for. This suggests that additional components in whole grains may contribute to favorable metabolic alterations that may reduce long-term weight gain.

Study on how varying macronutrient ratios affect weight loss:

Reduced-calorie diets result in clinically meaningful weight loss regardless of which macronutrients they emphasize

So rather than stressing over which nutrient is better to eat more of or cut out of your diet, you can enjoy the simplicity of focusing on eating natural, whole foods!

How does exercise fit in?

Although healthy eating is the most important and impacting habit to build, exercise should also be considered an essential for reaching your weight loss goals.

Exercising multiple times per week addresses the process of losing weight on an entirely different level, that will open up the opportunity to drastically increase your rate of fat loss, as well as improve your overall end result.

You shouldn’t feel the need to pressure yourself by starting a new healthy diet AND exercise routine at the same exact time… but after you get comfortable with eating healthy on a consistent basis, you should add exercise into your weight loss efforts.

The most successful transformation stories you hear about in daily life and in reading research, are those who both ate a healthy diet and exercised.

It doesn’t take an hour per day!

Dedicate to exercising 3 times per week, for 15 minutes.

That’s all? That’s really all it takes. Lots of people think that it takes so much exercise to make any difference at all because they don’t give the results time to add up.

It’s all about consistency, so find a routine that you enjoy and that doesn’t burn you out, so that you want to do it again multiple times per week.

It is important however to pick an effective method of exercise if you want to get great results while spending a short amount of time exercising throughout the week.

Jogging burns your lungs and legs more than it burns calories. Long sessions of cardio are a famous first choice for anyone who starts exercising with weight loss in mind, but there are more effective and less grueling ways of burning fat.

Weight lifting is one of the most effective, fun, and under-utilized methods exercise for weight loss. Most people only think of weight lifting as a way to build muscle, but the fat burning benefits of lifting weights are amazing.

For that matter resistance training in general (anything that exhausts/ breaks own your muscles) will give the same benefit, although lifting actual weights seems to be the easiest way to work your muscles without over-exhaustion of your heart and lungs.

However, other examples of resistance training would be doing bodyweight exercises, and using resistance bands, so long as the movement is effectively working your muscles.

That being said, even though I like to use resistance training more often… a balance of healthy cardio exercise is still important to have, and so when I do cardio, I make my workout intense.

It has been proven that intense exercise brings your fat burning results to a whole new level. This can be applied to bodyweight exercises, weight lifting, jogging, and cycling alike.

That being said, all this talk about “most effective” method is meaningless unless it’s an exercise that you enjoy, and fits your body type.

So above all, pick the type of exercise that you like and do it with consistency. If you actually like jogging, then GREAT! Don’t avoid it just because it’s not the optimal choice.

If you are carrying around lots of extra weight and find walking to be an enjoyable exercise, simply walking can be one of the best ways to exercise for weight loss that there are. There are tons of people who walked away 100’s of pounds.

Lifting weights is the perfect weight loss workout for obese people

Weight lifting is absolutely incredible for weight loss, for both men and women, and for anyone of any body size.

However, lifting weight is particularly perfect for obese people.

You can lift weights while you are sitting or laying down, meaning that it can be done even if standing or walking hurts your knees.

You can get amazing fat burning results from lifting weights, even if you can’t sustain long periods of cardio which is true of anyone/everyone who would like to lose weight.

Studies show that resistance training not only burns calories DURING your workout, but when performed at a high intensity weight training can actually raise your metabolism for an extended period AFTER your workout. Not just for hours, but for days.

I personally really enjoy lifting weights not just for the fat loss and muscle building benefits, but also because it FEELS good, and sometimes it’s actually fun depending on the lift. Sometimes I do choose to train cardio only, but most of the time I prefer to receive my cardio through weight lifting or bodyweight exercises, so that I am working my muscles and my heart at the same time.

Here is research that was put together from a compilation of many studies that compare the effectiveness of resistance training, vs endurance (cardio) training.

(This same research compares diet vs exercise vs both, which I will discuss in the next section)

Key terms for the quoted studies below:

ET = Endurance Training (Aerobic/Cardio)
RT = Resistance Training (Anaerobic… such as weight training)
REE = Resting Energy Expenditure

Additionally, when exercise is utilized at appropriate intensities (i.e. higher levels) both ET and RT provides an effective stimulus to alter TNF-α, CRP, leptin and adiponectin levels that all indicate a reduction in the risk for cardiovascular disease and improved metabolic flexibility for the adult who is overfat. With RT producing a greater level of effectiveness for altering these measures…

…and thus indicates that RT should be more readily recommended as an appropriate treatment option to adults who are overfat than what has been recommended currently.

For those who self-select toward ET, it appears that ET is more effective when performed at high intensity (e.g., ≥70% VO2max, or HRmax) steady-state method or as an interval training style.

Here is what a different study concludes about the effectiveness of resistance training on weight loss.

Furthermore, it has been shown that RT preferentially mobilizes the visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue in the abdominal region…

As such, RT is recommended in the management of obesity and metabolic disorders.

This study shows the “after-burn” effect that resistance training/ weight lifting can induce when performed at higher intensities… meaning that working your muscles can raise your metabolism for an extended period after your workout.

(REE = Resting energy expenditure)

Resistance exercise does not alter circulating leptin concentration but does increase REE and adiponectin in an intensity-dependent manner for as long as 48 and 24 h, respectively, in overweight elderly individuals. It appears that resistance exercise may represent an effective approach for weight management and metabolic control in overweight elderly individuals.

In summary, these varying studies all suggest that resistance training should be recommended for weight control in obese individuals.

The research that compares resistance and endurance training, which was compiled from many studies, shows that resistance training was more effective than endurance training…. BUT as I mentioned above, when choosing cardio/endurance exercises it is most effective to make your session an intense one.

Last but not least, was the study showing how intense resistance training can increase your resting energy expenditure (metabolism) for up to 2 days.

The powerful combination of healthy diet and exercise

There are several ways that exercising AND healthy eating helps you lose weight faster.

#1- It is easier to get into a bigger calorie deficit when you combine exercise and healthy eating.

You drain your muscles of their stored energy which results in the energy you consume being more efficiently directed throughout your body for usable energy rather than fat, you burn calories directly and instantly during your workout… and with the right type of workout you can actually increase your metabolism for an extended period (more on this below).

#2- When you exercise while you are losing weight, you will retain much more of your muscle, or under the right conditions you can even build muscle while losing weight, as opposed to losing your muscle along with your fat.

In addition to making sure that you are eating healthy rather than starving yourself… exercising while you lose weight will make a big difference on how your body is shaped over time. Keep your muscle!

#3- Healthy eating and exercise complement each other in a powerful way, so that they intensify the results you see from each… meaning that the results are not just additive, but slightly multiplicative. Healthy food fuels your exercise results, and exercise amplifies your healthy dieting results.

Taken from the same research of compiled studies that I mentioned earlier in the section about weight lifting, see what the conclusion of this study also said about the effectiveness of combining exercise with healthy dieting for weight loss.

Mixed in with it, you’ll find even more support for resistance training although that’s not what this section is focused on… I decided to highlight it for you.

Terms for research below:

FFM = Fat free mass
RT = Resistance Training
ET = Endurance Training

With analysis showing that there is a necessity to include exercise in combination with diet effectively elicit changes in body composition and biomarkers of metabolic issues. More importantly, the combination, resistance training (RT) was more effective than endurance training (ET)…

Most importantly is that protocols utilizing exercise were more effective than those that employed just a hypocaloric diet. With the combination of diet with exercise (especially RT) being more effective than diet or diet with ET in reduction of body mass and fat mass while retaining of FFM following treatment.

…some may select away from exercise altogether, which based on overall effectiveness should be discouraged but if utilized as a stand alone intervention, diets can be effective if hypocaloric and comprised of a higher percentage of total caloric intake from protein.

In summary, this research which was compiled from many studies, observed that although dieting could be used by itself as a method to lose weight, the combination of diet and exercise was much more effective.

Furthermore, it showed that when considering this combination, resistance training was more effective than endurance training.

Maintaining your weight gets easier over time

There is a common fear and perception that even if you successfully lose weight, that there is an extremely low chance you’ll be able to keep it off.

Somewhere along the way someone started an unfortunate rumor that 95% of people who lose weight, gain it back. A simple statement like this can be highly discouraging, but I am here to tell you that #1 it is not true, and #2 even if it were you would be able to learn the right method and mindset to side step that horrible statistic.

This rumor is just one more of the wrong pieces of information we receive, that makes weight loss harder.

Much of this perception comes from people who have successfully lost weight in an unhealthy or unsustainable way, such as counting calories without focus on diet quality and going hungry, or other fad diets that restrict essential nutrients or employ extreme or insignificant methods that don’t address the main issue at its core… which is #1 healthy diet, and #2 exercise.

It turns out that a much higher percentage of people who lose weight, successfully keep it off.

Here are two studies from the National Weight Control Registry, that discuss ACTUAL findings on long-term weight loss maintenance.

Study 1

There is a general perception that almost no one succeeds in long-term maintenance of weight loss. However, research has shown that approximately 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least 1 y. The National Weight Control Registry provides information about the strategies used by successful weight loss maintainers to achieve and maintain long-term weight loss. National Weight Control Registry members have lost an average of 33 kg and maintained the loss for more than 5 y.

Study 2

The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest study of individuals successful at long-term maintenance of weight loss. Despite extensive histories of overweight, the 629 women and 155 men in the registry lost an average of 30 kg and maintained a required minimum weight loss of 13.6 kg for 5 y.

A little over one-half of the sample lost weight through formal programs; the remainder lost weight on their own. Both groups reported having used both diet and exercise to lose weight and nearly 77% of the sample reported that a triggering event had preceded their successful weight loss...

…Surprisingly, 42% of the sample reported that maintaining their weight loss was less difficult than losing weight.

Nearly all registry members indicated that weight loss led to improvements in their level of energy, physical mobility, general mood, self-confidence, and physical health.

So research shows that about 20% of people who lose weight, keep it off, which is WAY better than the “95% regain claim”.

The NWCR studied nearly 800 people who lost weight both on formal program and on their own, and who kept it off for 5 years.

Nearly half of these weight loss successes said that maintaining weight was not as hard as losing it in the first place. With that I have to agree completely! If you lose weight the healthy way by eating good nutritious foods and exercising, the routine that causes you to lose weight becomes a habit, and an enjoyable part of your everyday lifestyle.

Another piece that really caught my eye in the study quoted above, is that way over half of people said that their success was preceded/caused by a triggering event. This just shows how important it is to have a strong sense of WHY you want to lose weight, and to develop a deep source of motivation that gives meaning to every healthy decision that you make.

The absolute best thing i my opinion, is that NEARLY ALL of the NWCR members claimed to FEEL better after losing weight in a variety of amazing ways, which is what it’s all about right?

Here is yet another study showing that weight maintenance gets easier over time, when people reported that over time less effort was required to maintain their weight:

Studies of health-related behaviors, including weight loss, have shown that risk of relapse decreases over time, although reasons for this relationship are unclear…

…Subjects who had maintained weight losses longer used fewer weight maintenance strategies and reported that less effort was required to diet and maintain weight and that less attention was required to maintain weight.

You may be relieved to learn that when you lose weight the healthy way, by eating healthy foods (and exercising regularly for even better results), the habits that you need to succeed become a normal part of your lifestyle with time, and often well before you have reached your goal weight.

In time you become very comfortable with the healthy changes that you make, you get used to cooking at home, you find more and more healthy foods you like, and you discover the exercises that you truly enjoy.

The key to doing this gracefully and without too much stress, is to focus on the good things you are adding into your diet, instead of what you are giving up.

This simple shift in focus helps on a physical and mental level at the same time, as the healthy foods literally replace the junk food physically, by filling the space in your belly and satisfying your hunger/cravings with great nutrients… and also on a mental level by not struggling with the constant thought of giving up all the things you love.

Focusing on healthy additions allows you to adopt an abundance mentality for weight loss rather than restrictive, where you simply need to progressively do MORE.

More healthy food, more exercise, more weight lost, pure and simple.

So instead of being “on a diet, the key to long-term weight loss is to permanently adopt a lifestyle filled with healthy habits.

The stories and advice of famous bloggers

Want to hear about weight loss success stories from other bloggers who lost weight the healthy way?

Here are 4 of my favorite weight loss bloggers who share amazing advice from their journey, that gets right to the core of what is most important for you to know when going through your own journey. I have selected a quote and a super helpful article from each, and also included a link to their about page so you can read more about their story.

If you want to discover even more weight loss blogs you will like, you can find The Shape Within and the 4 awesome bloggers below, as well as many more blogs, on the “Top 100 Weight Loss Blogs” list on Feedspot!

Top 100 Weight Loss Blogs

Jon Gabriel

Jon Gabriel has an amazing weight loss story, and an amazing way of teaching others to lose weight. Jon shows people how to lose weight by visualizing their success, making gradual changes, and focusing on adding MORE healthy foods into your diet, rather than restriction.

Jon lost over 220 pounds, and has helped lots of people around the world transform themselves too.

Here is a quote that I like from Jon’s journey, which shows how you can simply focus on ADDING healthy foods into your diet, and that you can do it gradually:

“You can be eating until your heart’s content, but as long as you’re starving on a nutritional basis your body is going to stay hungry to get those specific nutrients.

…so what I did was decided I could eat whatever I want, but I would make sure that everyday I would add certain foods to my diet.”

Or check out his video on building healthy, positive habits.

Andie Mitchell

Andie Mitchell is a very inspiring blogger and has a deeply motivating weight loss story. She shares her advice and experiences with weight loss and overcoming binge eating, so that other people can achieve healthy weight loss without struggle.

Andie lost 135 pounds, and teaches how important balance is, and how you don’t have to be perfect to lose weight and keep it off!

Here is a quote that I like from Andie’s journey, which captures how amazing it is when your “diet” becomes an enjoyable way of living:

“When I lost weight, I started cooking, remaking the foods I had always loved in lighter, more wholesome ways, and slowly, I started to feel like I was transitioning from a diet to a life.”

Or read her awesome article on how you can still live your life an indulge every now and then, while still working towards your weight loss goals, “Eating Healthy Most of the Time is Good Enough“.

Tim from ShrinkinGuy Fitness

ShrinkinGuy Fitness is an awesome weight loss blog that helps people lose weight the healthy way, with excellent advice that gets right down to what is most important to focus on.

Tim lost 76 pounds by eating healthy and exercising, and shares what he learned on his journey with others so they can find success too!

Here is a quote that I like from Tim’s journey… which simply expresses the notion that you do not need to starve to lose weight… and that they key to weight loss is healthy eating and exercise:

“And no, I didn’t starve myself or do any crazy or weird diets. Yes, it was primarily eating better and exercising.”

Or read this in-depth article on what it takes to succeed with weight loss, “5 Proven Keys to Weight Loss Success“.

Jen from The Fit Housewife

The Fit Housewife is a blog that shares a message that I really like. Jen teaches “intuitive eating” which helps you eat healthy and lose weight in a natural and stress-free way, without having to count and measure.

Jen lost 90 pounds, and has an inspiring story about happily gaining 20 pounds back after discovering the healthy way of controlling her weight.

Here is a quote that I like from Jen’s journey, which shows that you don’t have to have a restrictive mindset to lose weight, or to be perfect, or to deprive yourself of the things that you like to be a healthy eater:

“After doing a lot of research, I am finally changing my “diet” mentality.

I no longer have a list of foods that are off limits. I choose to eat the foods that make me feel good, whether that’s some roasted veggies or a piece of decadent chocolate cake.”

Or read her very awesome and eye-opening article that helps you find balance in your life with intuitive eating, “Your Guide to Get Started with Intuitive Eating“.

What it really takes to change your habits

#1- Let go of perfectionism, and embrace consistency

#2- Stop stressing over restriction, and adopt an abundance mentality. Eat MORE healthy food, exercise MORE, and lose MORE weight.

#3- Believe in yourself, and your ability to change.

#4- Envision the future you, connect your mind with the one thing you want from weight loss more than anything, and let it becomes your unbreakable source of motivation.

#5- Give yourself time to develop new habits, and room to enjoy your healthy lifestyle. Make changes in steps that you can stick with and confidently build upon.

#6- Decide to start working towards your dreams and goals today!

Once you have nailed down the right method for losing weight, it comes down to a question of whether you will have the motivation and willpower to follow throughout with it.

If you are ready to ready to start eating healthy and losing weight, I personally invite you to try the 8-Week Weight Loss Challenge. It’s a program that I made specifically for people who have lots of weight to lose and want a system that will help them build permanent healthy habits that carry on beyond the challenge.

The healthy eating plan and the exercise plan gradually builds step by step, at a pace that will allow you to stick with the healthy additions to your diet, so that you can consistently work towards your goals and finally make your dream of losing weight come true!

All you’ll need to do to succeed with the challenge, is the focus on eating MORE healthy foods, and the rest will take care of itself.

There are no foods that you specifically cannot eat, since you can eat what you want after you have eaten all of your healthy whole foods in each day. Sign up below to get your FREE download or read more about the challenge here!

If you want to read more about losing LOTS of weight, for a bit of light reading check out my weight loss tips specifically for obese people.

If you want to read a much more in-depth piece on losing a lot of weight, check out my 70+ page guide to losing 100 pounds. It has everything you need to know about healthy weight loss, and goes into great detail about things like motivation and mindsets.