A weight balance can tell you how much you weigh, but it can’t tell you specifically how much each part of your body weighs. If you don’t have an obvious body weight issue, you may not be able to tell if you have more fat than necessary. Even if you have a healthy weight, your body fat levels might be unhealthy.
If you’re looking to improve your health generally, or if you just want to slim down so you can fit perfectly into that wedding dress, you’re going to face some challenges. But you can break down these challenges and surmount them to see positive results in as little as one month.
How to measure your body fat
First, you need to measure your body fat percentage in order to have a good idea of what you’re working on. You can adopt the basic way of measuring body fat percentage which is the use of tape measure.
Measuring body fat percentage with a tape measure
Basically, any soft tape measure can be used for this procedure.
- Find out your height in inches.
- For men, measure the circumference of your neck and abdomen. For women, measure the circumference of your neck, waist, and hips. Make sure you measure each area at their widest and record your measurement.
- Make sure the tape measure is in contact with your skin but not tight at all so as not to compress your skin.
- Find out your circumference value. For men, subtract your neck value from your abdomen value to get your circumference value. For women, add your waist and hip value, then subtract your neck value from it to get your circumference value.
- Look up your circumference value in a body fat chart, or use the body fat calculator for this.
To ensure accuracy, you need to take the measurements at least twice and average them. You can approximate all your values to the nearest half inch.
Other ways you can measure your body fat percentage include
- Air displacement plethysmography
- Get an MRI or CT scan
- Calipers
- Hydrostatic weight
- Body fat scale, etc.
Now that you know the level of your body fat, you can plan ahead. Talking about how much calories you need to burn, cut from your meal, and how to do that in order to see encouraging results in just 1 month.
Here are some verified tips on how you can lose body fat in 1 month:
1. Drink healthy fluids
Calorie drinks are very common, and people love them. But if you love calorie drinks and you want to burn some fat in one month, then you have to learn to “unlove” calorie drinks. This may be hard for you but if you can do it, you’re going to achieve encouraging results faster than you imagined.
Note that this goes for every other kind of drink that is not healthy; that have a high level of sugar and a low level of nutrients.
Here are some facts from different scientific studies –
- Unhealthy drinks are associated with high risks of belly fat according to scientific studies.
- Calorie free beverages can help you burn more fats through metabolism.
- Drinking at least 500 ml of water before meals help in weight loss and burning of fat.
Switching high-calorie drinks for water or green tea is a sure way of promoting fat burning.
2. Get some more sleep
This may sound counterproductive because most people assume our bodies burn more calories when we’re awake, but facts don’t lie. The more sleep you get per night, the more likely you’re to burn fat. Studies show that there is an association between sleeping and fat burning.
People are different and as such, they need a different amount of sleep per day. Whatever be the case, getting at least a 7-hour sleep per night can help you burn more fat with visible results to prove it in just about one month. Here are some tips that will help you to get amazing sleep.
3. Try to avoid refined carbs
Avoid refined carbs as much as possible. The reason is simple; it will help you burn a lot of fat. Refined carbs can cause an increase in belly fat, spikes in blood sugar levels, and increased hunger.
Trade refined carb meals for a diet high in wholegrain. Whole grains are associated with lower body mass index, lower body weight, and lower waist circumference.
4. Stay as active as possible
This point generally connotes the need to burn calories in any way possible. Walk your dogs more often, leave your car at home every now and then, dance around while doing chores; just do anything that will make you move your body and burn more calories.
Another level to the whole “stay active” thing is the deliberately participate in exercises; especially strength exercises.
In strength training, you’re expected to use your muscles against resistance. This will help you burn more fat and increase strength. The most common type of strength training is weight lifting, and there are different versions of it. Aerobic exercises are a great way of losing weight too. You get better results when you pair strength training and aerobics. This combination is more effective in building muscles and reducing body and belly fat.
5. Follow a high protein diet
One way of watching what you eat if you’re trying to lose weight is to increase the level of your protein intake to the point where it is far more than how much fat and carbs you take.
Why is protein so important?
studies have proven that eating more protein reduces your appetite and burns more fats. Not only that, protein-rich foods are associated with low belly fats, preservation/building of muscles, and a notably reduced level of calorie intake.
There are a lot of other things you can do to lose body fat in one month, but make sure that they are healthy enough before adopting them. A few other things you can do to burn body fat more effectively are
- Do not miss a chance to take coffee
- Add probiotics to your diet
- Increase your level of iron intake, etc.
Combine these tips with good nutrition and active lifestyle at the same time, and you’ll see good results in as little as one month.
