H3: 4 Weight Loss Tips for Men

Let's face it. Weight loss can be difficult but using these 4 tips can help you take small steps towards weight loss success.

Make the Most of your Muscles: One of the greatest ways to speed up your metabolism is to increase your muscle mass. Consider this: 1 lb of fat burns about 2-3 calories/hour versus 1 lb of muscle burns about 7-10 calories/hour. Imagine if you gained 2 lbs of muscle... in a 24 hour time span, you could burn up to 480 MORE calories/day (simply by existing) than you did before. As a man, you have a huge advantage in using this strategy to your benefit. Due to your testosterone levels, it is much easier to put on muscle mass at a quicker rate than women.

BEST PRACTICES:

Give each muscle group 48 hours of rest before working that same group again. (If you work your upper body on Monday wait until Wednesday before you work it again. Work your lower body or core on Tuesday, instead.)

Lift your Legs: Typically, we men like to work our upper bodies. We like to do the bench press and the bicep curl, be proud of our strength and call it a day. There is nothing wrong with doing those exercises. The problem is when we neglect strength training in the rest of our body, specifically the LOWER body. BIG MISTAKE. Especially, if your goal is to increase your metabolism and lose weight. Your legs contain the LARGEST muscle groups in the entire body. Therefore, the quickest way to increase your metabolism is to increase the muscle mass in your legs. Make lower body strength training a priority in your strength training routine. Don't discontinue the other exercises that you enjoy more, but schedule in some time for the lower body.

BEST PRACTICES:

Improve Your Posture: Poor posture typically leads to tight muscles and joint pain. Research from the Yale School of Medicine has correlated back pain with overeating. The correlation shows that those with chronic back pain are less likely to feel full from snacking than those without back pain. While it is still unclear why this is, the correlation is still there. The most well accepted theory right now is that the pleasure one gets from overeating helps the body to cope with the pain. If this is true for just back pain, imagine what might happen when other joint pain is added on top of that. Not only that, but research demonstrates that improved posture leads to improved mood and confidence. Those who feel better and more confident are more likely to take care of themselves, wouldn’t you agree?

BEST PRACTICES:

Improving your posture means strengthening your core (abdominals and glutes) and working on flexibility.

Flexibility allows for greater range of motion at each joint as well as reduced joint pain.

Change up your Routine: It is not uncommon for men to reach a plateau in their weight loss journey before reaching their goal weight. Maybe this is happening to you right now and you are confused because you are working your butt off! Men tend to find something that they are good at and stick with it. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great quality to have. Please continue to build on your strengths to help you progress forward. Having said that, it may not be productive to do the same workouts all the time. The better you get at a workout, the more efficient your body gets at doing it. What do I mean by that? I mean that the workout that has been working so well up until now might not work as well, if you do it regularly. From a skill performance standpoint, this is great! But from a weight loss standpoint, this could slow you down.

BEST PRACTICES:

Example: If you are someone who goes for long enjoyable bike rides often, your change-up options might be:

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