If you've plateaued in your weight loss plan.
1. Kick-start fat loss with the essential calorie deficit
Regardless of what food you choose to eat – the law of 'thermodynamics' means that to lose weight you must create a calorie deficit. In simple terms – eat less calories than your body burns each day. If you calculate your calorie needs, you can then start to shed those pounds. While it's important to be good on a daily basis, you can also zigzag calories – such as a calorie deficit of 400 on Monday but eating at a maintenance level on Tuesday (and so on through the week).
2. Learn how to graze for weight loss
Many people find they get the best results by grazing on 5-6 small meals and snacks per day. This is actually an easy goal if you are using protein shakes, for example;
Meal 1 Bowl of healthy cereal
Meal 2 Protein Shake with apple
Meal 3 Jacket potato with tuna salad
Meal 4 Protein Shake
Meal 5 Chicken breast with basmati rice and roast veg
Meal 6 Protein meal bar
See how easy it is to split your calories and stay in control? Eating protein with your meals also helps to satisfy cravings for junk and excess eating later in the day.
3. Lift dumbbells … slowly
More muscle equals mega metabolism boost. Strength training can help you trim major fat, research reveals—and doing super-slow (versus normal speed) reps increases strength by 50%. Plus, using dumbbells activates more muscle fibers than using machines, explains Gregory Haff, PhD, an associate professor in the exercise physiology department at West Virginia University.
4. Pop some vitamin D
Taking this vitamin daily may help you drop pounds. A study at the University of Minnesota found that people who started a weight-loss program with higher levels of D lost more than those who weren't getting enough of the nutrient. Other research suggested that vitamin D appears to boost the effectiveness of leptin, a hormone that signals the brain that you're full. Because it's difficult to get D from food, Shalamar Sibley, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the university, says you may need to take a vitamin D3 supplement. Many experts now recommend 1,000 international units every day.
5. Speed up, slow down
Alternating bouts of high-intensity and low-intensity cardio has been shown to torch pounds.
6. Put on weight (literally)
Wearing a weighted vest (about 10% of your body weight) while walking can boost your calorie burn by 8%.
7. Download Rihanna, not Brahms
Listening to up-tempo songs actually makes you run faster and harder than listening to slower-paced music, British scientists say.
8. Guzzle green tea—or coffee
Downing five 5-ounce cups of green tea a day boosts metabolism, says Lyssie Lakatos, RD, author of Fire Up Your Metabolism. Two cups of coffee will also do the trick, one study shows.