It’s not easy losing weight once you reach 200lbs and above.

Men and women of all ages struggle with it.

The internet is saturated with articles about losing weight, but it’s still a huge problem for a lot of people.

Why?

But before we get into details of some of the best proven methods of getting well below 200 lbs, let’s first talk about what is perhaps the biggest problem that most people trying to lose weight have.

Quitting when things get hard

Everyone feels it, the urge to just give up, after all, you are not the first to gain weight.

“The world is full of fat people,” they tell themselves.

But everyone is not the same.

Most people will brag about how easy it was for them to lose weight, but when you try using their method nothing changes or worse, you gain instead of losing.

You need to understand that losing weight doesn’t work the same for everyone.

Accept yourself.

It’ll be incredibly easy for anyone to break your spirit if you don’t work on your self-esteem and accept who you are.

It’ll take time – just like everything else good in life, it won’t happen overnight.

The easy way is rarely the healthy way.

Now that I have you in the right mindset let’s look at 5 ways to lose weight if you weigh 200 lbs or more.

1. Eat healthy foods

Stay away from pizza and hamburgers if you want to lose weight.

Also, not all fruits and vegetables are good for you.

Here are some tips to help you eat healthy.

• Be careful when it comes to carbs

First, you need to know what carbs are good for you and which aren’t because this will determine whether it’s helping or damaging you.

There are two types of carbs: Dietary fiber and sugars.

Your body needs fiber to effectively digest and process the foods we eat but sugars, on the other hand, you should try to avoid like a plague.

Your body converts and stores sugars into fat.

If a food, for example, has high sugars and low dietary fiber, then that’s not good for you.

Low carbs food will not only be effective in losing weight, but they are also good for your health.

Here is a list of low carbs food for your diet.

· Vegetables – Spinach, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.

· Fruits – blueberries, apples, pears, oranges, strawberries

· Nuts and seeds – sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, etc

• Proteins

You should only eat unprocessed meat.

Processed meat is any meat that has been preserved by salting, canning, curing, smoking, and drying.

The meat you eat should always be fresh.

If you want to preserve the meat then deep freeze it.

Processed meat is associated with a lot of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and bowel and stomach cancer.

After you have switched over to low carbs diet your body will need another source of energy and this is where proteins come in.

Your body will switch over to effectively burn stored fats in your body, as long as you keep a low carb diet.

Here comes the tricky part.

Eating too many proteins will force your body to convert the excess to glucose and will be stored as fat.

However, eating too little will cause you to lose muscle mass.

Always maintain a moderate intake of proteins to avoid the dangers of both extremes.

2. Work on your emotions

It’s important to understand that we all have an emotional attachment to food that begins at childhood and this attachment need to be taken care of.

Feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress will make you look towards food as a source of consolation even when you are on a weight loss program.

3. Hormones are the main culprit, not calories

When it comes to gaining weight most people put most of the blame on calories and carbs and fail to realize it’s the hormones that deserve most of the blame.

For example, the hormone leptin is supposed to let your brain know that you are full and regulate body weight, but it can sometimes work against you.

For most people who are 200lbs and above it’s quite probable that your body has developed leptin resistance.

This is caused by high levels of leptin produced by fat cells that your brain just learns to ignore them.

When leptin signals fail to work, your brain encourages intake of more food and reduces energy expenditure because it thinks you are starving.

Here are some tips on how you can fix your hormones and lose weight:

Hormone – balancing diet – Eat foods that are high in fiber, good fats and low on sugars will help in balancing your hormones.

Stop drinking – alcohol causes hormone imbalance by limiting the functions of the liver and kidney.

Bulk up on vitamins and fiber – vitamin C, Magnesium Citrate, flax seeds, and high fiber foods will help in regulating your hormones.

4. Exercise the right way

You can run, jump, lift weight and visit gyms everywhere but it would still not make a difference in your weight.

At 200 lbs and above there are exercises that will cause more harm than good to your body like joint pains.

Get yourself a fitness expert to help you determine what activities are best for you at your current weight.

5. Drink lots of water

Water is what makes up most of our bodies.

And drinking at least 10 glasses of water a day will help you reduce weight.

Water is 100% calories free and it helps in suppressing cravings and appetite as well as burning calories.

A study was done on overweight children and it found a 25% increase in resting energy expenditure (calories burn) after drinking cold water.

Drinking water before a meal is also a great way to reduce appetite.

Love and support

Embarking on a weight loss journey alone is the worst thing you can do.

You need your friends and family when things get hard, and believe me, they will.

They are a crucial part of your weight loss success because trying to lose weight with no emotional support is really difficult to do.