How to Lose 30lbs Checklist

When you get in a rut and consistently make bad choices that impact your overall health, adding 30 pounds of body fat can accumulate real fast. It’s a significant amount of additional weight, that will impact your daily life. Things that come to mind include having less energy, constantly tired, moving slower, and your clothes not fitting well.

Some people can carry it better than others and may not be as visible. Nonetheless, it’s a problem that should be addressed before it gets any further out of hand. Make the right changes? You can turn the ship around and start seeing and feeling legit differences from the get go.

However, you need to remember, that it ultimately is a lifestyle change. It should not be a yo-yo style model you follow, where you lose weight for a while and then put it back on again. Once you lose the weight, it should be your goal to maintain. Let's now take a look at the checklist to help you shed those extra pounds.

Check for Underlying Issues

You might have some underlying health issues going on that contributed to the weight gain. One factor that comes to mind, is finding out where your hormone levels are at.

Hormones such as insulin, testosterone and estrogen play vital roles in the body, and it's important to know where there are at. Low hormone levels can be caused by poor life choices, so starting off with knowing where your hormones are at is good for establishing your baseline figures.

After implementing changes, it’s a good idea to get your hormone levels tested again. Higher levels indicate that what you are doing is working and you that you need to keep doing what you're doing!

It’s also a good idea to check for any food intolerances that you may have, especially if you constantly feel bloated after eating. You may need to stay away from certain ingredients or foods. If you know what these are, you can make better decisions on what to eat.

Weekly Meal Prep

Planing your meals for the week ahead has many benefits. You are eating healthy, tracking cals, even saving money! Too many people get caught up with life and work that they rarely meal prep for the week ahead. They think it takes too much time and is boring.

Eating out daily is expensive and generally not ideal for counting cals. Also, it makes it easier to choose less healthy options. The justification is something like, I can only run out for 10 minutes, I’ll go close by, I don’t have time to go for something healthier. These choices add up over time. Especially if you are seated most of the day.

Get into good habits with meal prep, cook up a storm on a Sunday, and layout your meals for the week ahead. Buy in bulk, make healthier choices, save some money. You roughly will know how many cals you are getting from your meals also, which is critical.

The target is to stay around your cal maintenance, maybe even a slight surplus initially due to the physical activity. Needs to be monitored as you progress. How you break down your macro ratios is up to you. Remember that a high protein diet works both for building muscle and burning fat. Anywhere from .7 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight is a great range to work in.

Everything in Moderation

Limit cheat meals and alcohol. These are 2 main offenders. Even overdoing working out can cause problems! Basically, when you overdo anything, there can be some nasty side effects.

Sure, you can have cheat meals and enjoy them, but don’t let them turn into cheat days! Excess intake of processed foods can start undoing all the good work when this is the case. It’s a morale booster when you know you have earned your cheat meal.

Same with alcohol, don’t let 1 or 2 drinks turn into 5 or 6!

Easy to get sucked in, and it can be a slippery slope. Excess alcohol makes you tired, unmotivated, and performance will drop. It can set you back, and you end up eating more processed foods and working out less. Not a good combo!

Working Out is a Non-Negotiable

Straight up, you must lift weights 2 or 3 times per week. Building muscle helps to burn more fat, as burning cals helps muscle maintain. If there is no muscle to maintain, you are missing out on serious cal burning potential.

Muscle burns cals 24 hours a day, it doesn’t stop!

Building muscle also shapes the body, and you build muscle by lifting weights. You know, that much desired “toned” look? Well, it’s basically muscle in the absence of fat.

A combination of getting stronger and building muscle are 2 factors that need to be considered when designing programmes, and it’s the same for both males and females. They work hand in hand for optimal results.

On top of the workouts, you can sprinkle in cardio. A mix of low and high intensity sessions is an option. Remember that you can do a lot more low intensity work, as it’s not as demanding on the body in comparison with high intensity cardio sessions. However, both are effective options and add true value.

Track Progress Regularly

Tracking progress is a must, it gives you clues as to what is working, and where you need to make adjustments. You can be certain that you will have to tweak processes along the way. Eating more or less, for example, whatever the case may be.

Options for tracking progression include:

• Weighing yourself weekly at the same time
• Measure body fat percentage
• Tape measures
• How your clothes fit
• Weekly pictures
• How you feel

Take note of these as they are all significant indicators. If you don’t make adjustments, you are slowing down progress!

Be Patient

It’s not an overnight process, and it will take some time. That’s not to say that you can’t have results immediately, at the very least, eating and training right will make you feel better and give you more energy.

It’s not about losing the weight as quickly as possible, it’s about putting in place long term solutions. It doesn’t stop after the 30lbs comes off, it needs to be maintained.

Losing the right weight and building muscle will shape your body. You see, when people just restrict on cals and do excessive cardio, they slow down their metabolism, lose both fat and muscle and will get to a place where they have a loose appearance, not very athletic. A smaller version of their current selves. Not an ideal scenario!

Summary

Losing 30 pounds requires a game plan. Reality is that it is enough added weight to start making your life uncomfortable, and should be addressed before it goes any further. Why let your current standard of life be impacted? Make the necessary changes today.

You can put processes in place that will start working immediately, like feeling better at the very least. But stick to the process, make adjustments where necessary, be patient. Remember that it doesn’t stop when you drop the 30lbs, the key is to then maintain. Change your lifestyle, and you can most certainly change your body!