Junk food is food containing high levels of calories from sugar or fat and has little “nutritional value”. It primarily contains excessive fat, sugar, salt, and calories. Frequent consumption of junk increases the intake of excess fat, simple carbohydrates, and processed sugar.
Junk food cravings are very common. These cravings can become your worst enemy when you are on a Healthy Life/ weight loss journey. Junk food cravings can turn into binges and may increase the risk of weight gain/ Lifestyle Problem.
Here are some helpful tips to help curb your cravings for junk food.
Have small meals in short intervals
Eat regularly and avoid long periods of hunger. Cravings do not arise when the stomach is full. So, avoid skipping meals. The best is to start your day with a healthy breakfast and follow up with a nutritious lunch and dinner. Keep healthy snacks close at hand.
Consume more proteins
High protein diets aids in weight loss. Protein can make to feel full for longer and allow your body to consume lesser calories. Protein-rich foods will leave less space for junk and avoid experiencing cravings. Have a protein-rich meal the first thing in the day for healthy life.
Eat healthy fats
Fats do not make you fat. There are many different types of fats. Out of which, trans fats and saturated fats are considered unhealthy fats. On the contrary, heart-healthy fats help you feel full and reduce cravings.
Stay hydrated
Thirst can also lead to cravings. Drinking a glass of water when you feel like eating junk may suffice the craving, and at the same time, provide other health benefits. If plain water sounds boring, enjoy it by adding a slice of lime, lemon or cucumber.
Related read: Importance of water in our diet
Sleep well
Sleep deprivation tends to increase calories intake. Not getting enough sleep can lead to increased cravings for junk food and weight gain. Lack of sound sleep can lead to poor appetite regulation and cravings. When you have slept adequately, it becomes easier to fight cravings.
Stay away from stress
Stress influences your eating behaviour and can induce junk cravings. People, who are stressed, tend to eat significantly more calories and experience more cravings than non-stressed women/ people.
There are plenty of healthy, whole foods that can satisfy a craving for something sweet or salty. Besides, being aware of your craving and their triggers makes them much easier to avoid. It also makes it a lot easier to eat healthily and lose weight.
Weight gain is usually considered not so positive making people fat or even obese. However, sometimes, gaining weight is equally important for overall health and well-being. When being overweight or fat looks like a universal problem for every one in three individuals, in reality, being too thin can also cause many health-related issues.
Invariable, body fats have a bad reputation and are mostly taken as a problem. But, not all fats are bad. It is important to have fats in your body for it to function smoothly.
Fats are those nutrients which are broken down by the body and are stored as energy in the form of calorie for the body to consume as and when required. This energy is used by the body to function, heal and grow. Therefore, fats are important nutrients that are responsible for the energy supply to the body.
Being underweight increases the risk of age-related muscle wasting and dementia. Thus, it is necessary for underweight or too thin and skinny people to gain weight.
However, it’s not as easy as it looks!
Gaining weight the healthy way is an extremely tough task. This is because the stomach size of a ‘thin’ person is small and increasing appetite is a challenge.
Besides, a thin person with the right appetite would still not be able to gain weight. Also, many a time they end up gaining unhealthy fat, which is even more harmful to the body than being thin.
Therefore, the right way of gaining weight is a daunting task and one of the primary concerns for the skinny ones. The weight needs to spread evenly in the body and not only get accumulated in the abdominal area.
Reasons for being underweight:
- Wrong eating habits
- Long gaps in between meals
- Poor selection of foods
- Improper amount of calorie in and calorie out
- Malabsorption of foods that is being eaten
- Prolonged diseases
- Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa or bulimia
To have optimum weight is important. Moreover, gaining weight the right way is equally important. Gain weight by eating the right nutrition and not by hogging on unhealthy foods. It will save you from being prone to diseases like diabetes or thyroid.
When you indulge in unhealthy eating, you are creating a nutrition deficiency, which can eventually lead to lifestyle diseases.
How to gain weight healthily?
It is very important to understand your body before starting your weight gain or weight loss journey.
- Know the root cause of your problem.
- Know why your body needs to gain weight.
- Consult 8 Fitness Tips wellness expert or nutrition expert to analyse your body.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you are on the journey to healthy weight gain.
Exercise
Exercise and working out is not only for those who want to lose some kilos but it is equally important for those who want to gain some healthy weight to become fit. A mix of cardio, weight training and flexibility enhancing exercises regularly can help gain weight and build some healthy muscle mass.
You can also indulge in some heavy weight lifting workouts like squats, presses, pull-ups, dips etc. which helps in increasing lean body mass. These exercises help in engaging multiple muscles while triggering your hormonal response systems.
Healthy diet
Your body requires the right amount of proteins, fats and carbs. Before you head to the market to stock up on some dietary supplements, which promises weight gain in no time, remember that many of these dietary supplements are full of synthetic nutrients. These may help you gain weight temporarily but ruin your health in the long run. Therefore, consult a health or nutrition expert before consuming anything.
Besides, any supplement will only help when they are consumed as per the requirement of the body. So, it is always advisable to get the right guidance before buying.
Our body needs healthy fats since unhealthy fats will only deplete our health. Include healthy snacks like nuts, dry fruits, fruits, dry snacks like roasted chana in your diet to gain weight healthily. Besides, you can try protein-rich foods, foods rich in fibre for best benefits.
Moreover, it is important to increase the size of your appetite gradually.
Increase protein intake
Protein helps in maintaining a healthy body weight with lean body mass. It is the building block of a human body. If your body starves of proteins, it will never be able to achieve its healthiest best.
Including tofu, paneer, chicken, and vegetables like spinach will help you get through with your daily protein consumption.
Set your weight gain goal for a perfectly toned and curvy body at the right places. Gaining weight around your abdominal area is of no help but a thing to worry and work on. So take help of experts and start your weight gain journey under the right guidance.
Remember, the process can be prolonged. Therefore, it is important to remain patient.
Article at a Glance:
Setting a transformation challenge is a great way to overcome your inactive lifestyle or breathe new life into your fitness regime.
They motivate you to set commitment for yourself by giving a definitive purpose. They help you focus your efforts on your achievable goal.
Body Transformation Challenge is a fantastic way to develop healthy habits which is the most basic requirement for building a stronger and healthier body.
What is Body Transformation Challenge?
Body Transformation Challenge is a commitment you do to yourself to achieve a certain fitness or health goal by tweaking your lifestyle over a set period. You need to set small-term and long-term goals and keep measuring your progress to ensure you are on the right track throughout your journey.
Let’s take an example:
Your goal is to lose excess weight and become fitter.
This is how your Body Transformation Challenge will look like:
I intend to shed 5 kg of my body fat over the next 30 days to achieve the target weight of 50 kg.
For this, I will take in 1200 calories per day and do 3 interval training workouts per week.
To measure my progress, I will record my body fat percentage and body weight every three days.
Tips for Transformation Challenge
When setting up your challenge, there are some key things that you need to consider.
Keep it Achievable
A too difficult challenge can leave you frustrated and you may feel like giving up. Similarly, too easy will not be a real challenge at all.
Here is what 8 Fitness Tips’ experts recommend to help you set realistic goals for weight loss and muscle building challenge.
- Weight loss goal of 0.5 – 1 kg of fat per week
- Muscle building goal of 0.5 lbs muscle per week
Make it Measurable
Transformation Challenges remove uncertainty and keep you focused. Therefore these challenges are so effective. Avoid unclear challenges and keep tracking your progress to stay motivated.
Here are some metrics suggested that you can keep a record of:
- Body Weight
- Body Fat Percentage
- Lean Body Mass
- Body Measurements such as chest, waist, thigh etc.
These metrics are easily measurable and excellent progress indicators. For better motivation, you can combine these metrics with progress pictures for comprehensive and insightful records.
Give Yourself Some Time
The “time” factor is determined by the challenge that you give to yourself. Aim for a longer duration to measure effective progress and shorter duration to stay motivated without getting bored.
As per our expert recommendation, 30 days is a good length of time to see results for most challenges.
Make a planner
Plan your activities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and don’t leave anything to chance. Create a fitness planner that marks your workouts and records other milestones. Set reminders to record these milestones so that you don’t miss your track.
Review your progress
Set-up regular review points where you look at progress and reflect on any changes in your body. We recommend you to review every 5 days for a better reflection of your progress. This will ensure that you don’t find any surprises at the end of your challenge.
This also helps in finding out what is working for you and what’s not! And you can tweak your plan and steer your activity during the challenge.
Stay Social with your Challenge
Your Body Transformation Challenge should not be your solo mission.
8 Fitness Tips’ Body Transformation experts can help you with setting up your goal, track your progress and win your challenge!
If you are convinced that body transformation challenges are powerful drivers for change. We will make it easy to set up, help to keep you focused and accountable and achieve it stipulated time.
Why not try one over the next 30 days and let help you to get on!