There are many ways to lose weight – some are much more effect than others. When used in combination, the following tips should help you and get you well on your way to your dream body, both inside and out.

Ensuring that you are drinking the recommended 6 – 8 glasses of water every day is essential to losing weight. You will not only hydrate your body which will make your hair, nails, and skin look years younger, but internally you will be helping your body flush out the waste and metabolize fat more effectively. Drinking ice cold water will force your body to warm it before digestion, so you will be burning extra calories as well.

Jump starting your metabolism by eating five small meals per day, roughly 3-4 hours apart. This will force your body to burn calories and you will actually burn more calories in this way as opposed to the “three square meals” theory. Because you are constantly fueling your body, there is no way for you to go into survival mode – which occurs when you exceed 4 hours of not eating – and there is no fat storage process  so everything you eat will be burned off.

One of the fastest ways to lose weight is called “carb cycling”. This is where you cycle or rotate days of the week with low carb, moderate carb, and high carb days. As a general rule, high carb days will be roughly your body weight in carbohydrates x 1.5. For example, if you are 140 pounds, your high carb day will be 140 x 1.5 = 210 grams of carbs. Moderate carb days is roughly your weight x 0.8, ie. 140 lbs x 0.8 =  112 g of carbs. Low carb days is your body weight x 0.5, ie. 140 lbs X 0.5 = 70 g of carbs. This will keep your body guessing and burning as much calories as possible. You will not have created a threshold and it gives you some leeway from traditional dieting. A carb cycling week could look like this:

Proactively change your lifestyle to be more active. If you are a couch potato, try going for 15 – 20 minute power walks to the nearest store or park your car further away from work/mall and power walk to the entrance.   Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Try getting some friends together (or your children) and designate at least one day a week for a bicycling activity. There are many ways to incorporate some cardiovascular activity into your life.

In addition to becoming more active, the best way to burn some fat is to begin a weight training program. You will effectively gain lean muscle, which takes up less space on your body than fat stores, which will help burn off more calories while at rest. This is the ideal way to changing your body to a lean and tight physique.