I Lost Over 250 Pounds And These Are 11 Habits That Transformed My Body
Do you have a lot of weight to lose but aren't sure what to do? According to one person who has majorly slimmed down, it all boils down to a few healthy habits. Lacey Baier (@LaceyBaier_) is a Sweet Pea chef and social media influencer who promotes a healthy "cleanish" lifestyle on her YouTube channel. She is also a weight loss warrior who lost over 250 pounds by practicing what she preaches. In a recent viral video she revealed some of her go-to tips, her "personal strategy that I've broken down into 11 steps for fat loss that I've used to lose over 250 pounds," she says.
Try Intermittent Fasting
"First off, I recommend checking out intermittent fasting as an option," Lacey recommends, calling it a "great tool for fat burning" and explaining that it helps her go periods of time without eating. "Then when I am eating, I feel nice and full," she says, noting that in the past she was hungry all the time. "With intermittent fasting, I feel full, I'm burning fat, I'm making a productive plan for how I will have my meals during the day, and it's just an all-around better lifestyle for me. Plus intermittent fasting has been shown in studies to reduce body fat percentage help you lose weight and lower your cholesterol."
Strength Train
Strength training has been a "huge" part of her fat loss journey. "Strength training or weight training is a form of exercise where you're basically training your muscles to get stronger and stronger. So that means you're not only burning more energy and more fat while you're strength training," she says. "Studies have actually shown that strength training continues to burn extra fat even at rest after your workout for a whole 24 hours afterwards. It's awesome. If you're tired of just doing cardio and you feel like you're running and running and running and you're never losing that weight, check out strength training."
Increase Your NEAT
Increasing your daily movement or your NEAT is also a really important factor. She makes sure to get her steps in and stay "as active as I can every day," she says, explaining that NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. If your body is inactive, it will "just store the fat that you're eating," she says, "versus if you're walking a few miles in a day or getting 10K steps in a day, it's going to have to keep that ready to go and it's going to burn that energy throughout the day with a higher metabolism."
Track Your Macros
"Next, tracking your macros is really helpful for understanding how much you're consuming and breaking down what types of foods you're eating and the percentages of fat, protein and carbs in your daily life and how those make up your total calories," she says. You have to look at more than just the calories and also focus on "the quality of the food, the nutrients you're getting or what your body actually needs to burn the fat and to give you energy to burn more fat in the day."
Reduce Your Refined Carb Intake
Next, "try reducing your refined carb intake," she encourages. "So refined carbs are found in packaged foods, they're found in highly processed foods, sugary snacks and foods that are meant to stay on the shelf for a long time." She suggests "paying attention to the foods you're eating if it has a lot of refined sugars in it, a lot of refined carbs in enriched flour and all purpose flours instead of whole wheat and whole grains" because they all get "stored as visceral fat in your body and it gets stored for later and in a lot of amounts of it, and that's what's going to lead to that extra belly fat, especially if you're not burning it off in a day."
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Increase Your Daily Fiber Intake
"Increasing your daily fiber intake is a huge help in both weight loss and fat loss as well," says Lacey. "Not only does eating more fiber in your diet make you feel fuller and help you with your digestion, but it also helps you to reduce overall excess fat as well, and that's because fiber filled foods like avocados, quinoa can help you burn fat."
Drink Caffeine
"Drinking caffeine can be really helpful for burning fat," she adds. This can be coffee, green tea, or even chocolate. "Having caffeine is a great way to help your body increase your metabolism, increase your fat burning potential, and keep you more active and alert as well. Plus, caffeine increases your epinephrine levels, which will help with fat burning because that hormone will actually send signals to your fat tissues to start breaking down the fat so that you have more energy in your blood system to keep your body moving."
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Eat More Healthy Fats
Eating healthy fats "might sound counterintuitive, but eating more healthy fat will help you lose body fat as well," explains Lacey. "Foods that contain healthy fats are things like almonds and walnuts, full fat dairy like full fat, Greek yogurt, full fat, cottage cheese, and fatty fish like salmon.These are all really good, high good fat foods," she says. "Plus, eating high-fat foods that are good for you will also slow down your digestion, which will help you feel fuller longer. So overall, incorporating those into your daily lifestyle will give you the good fats that your body needs for those essential fats. It will make you feel fuller, so you're not snacking as much. You don't need to eat as much, so you can lower your calorie count. Plus, healthy fats are delicious, so our body enjoys eating them. So the more you have of those in a good amount of your total diet, the happier you'll be with your diet."
Drink Apple Cider Vinegar
"Drinking apple cider vinegar is also a great option for fat loss," she continues. "Drinking apple cider vinegar increases your fat burning and your metabolism. Both things are very helpful for total fat loss. Not only that, but if you're diluting it into water, having that daily water and staying hydrated each day is also going to help reduce your body fat. Just one to two tablespoons a day, whether it's in a large glass of water or throughout the day, incorporated into salad dressings and marinades is all unique."
Get Enough Sleep
"Getting adequate sleep is huge for fat burning," she continues. "Focus on having a good nighttime routine, reducing your caffeine levels before you go to sleep and just making sleep a priority," she says. "It will have a huge effect on your fat burning potential." She cites studies that show "just getting an hour more of sleep a night, so seven hours versus six hours in a night, showed that the participants in the study lost more body fat percentage over the trial of the study than those who didn't." And, sleep deprivation has negative health benefits. "It's going to decrease your metabolism, so your body will feel a lot more sluggish. It's not going to burn as much energy, and it can also increase certain hormones that make you feel hungry so that your body gets more energy from food, and it's just, it's a completely out of whack system if you're not getting enough sleep."
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Get Enough Protein
"Getting enough protein is also very important," she says of her final tip. "Having more protein in your diet is so important for fat loss," she says, noting that it helps your muscles grow and helps burn fat, "especially in your abdomen, which is where a lot of people have that excess body fat because of that visceral fat." And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.
