Best Ways to Lose Weight: Evidence-Based Strategies for Fat Loss

You may already know that eating less and doing more exercise makes you slim. Nevertheless, that’s not all, and there are multiple other factors that contribute to losing fat while building more muscle. It’s a bit tricky without a proper nutritionist and a personal trainer. We have tried to make it simple by explaining some of the best ways to lose weight.

Go into an Affordable Caloric Deficit

As a general rule of thumb, a person must burn more energy than they consume to lose weight. This is called a caloric deficit, and a daily deficit of 300–750 calories is ideal for steady weight loss without losing muscle. You can calculate your maintenance calories using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation or various online tools.

Go into a calorie deficit

From your maintenance calories, cut 300–750 calories (either independently or with a personal trainer’s input). This deficit supports losing 0.5%–1% of body weight per week, a safe and effective rate for long-term results and muscle retention.

More Protein Intake

Beyond muscle growth, protein helps fat loss by maintaining lean tissue and increasing the thermic effect of food. With our extensive experience, we’ve found that taking 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg of body weight each day optimizes these benefits while improving satiety to better manage hunger during weight loss.

Balance your protein evenly between meals to enhance absorption and muscle retention. This method promotes continuous fat burning while preserving lean tissue and improving body composition. These are a few quick sources of protein:

• Eggs
• Chicken
• Tofu
• Fish
• Greek yogurt.

Strength Training

Unlike what people think, strength training is important for both weight loss and muscle gain. That’s because it improves metabolism and the speed of burning body fat. Hence, training 3 to 5 times weekly ensures continuous progress. You should also add compound movements like squats and presses to your workout to get the maximum results.

This makes your body better at burning calories even during the resting period. In addition to that, strength training prevents the common mistake of only focusing on cardio to lose weight.

Hire a Professional Trainer

Training under the guidance of a professional trainer could be your best investment. They create workout plans according to your body composition and are also recommended to individuals with chronic conditions like diabetes or heart issues, as they design routines that minimize risks and improve condition management.

Training with a personal trainer.

Similarly, a personal trainer ensures proper rehabilitation and fat loss even if you are recovering from injuries. For postpartum women, they understand the body’s recovery needs and safely address issues like diastasis recti and weakened pelvic floor muscles. If you are in Dubai, you should definitely give the highly professional and result-oriented personal trainers at Fit4it a try.

Just share all of your contact information and fitness details to get started for a free initial assessment with our fitness experts.

Intermittent Fasting

You probably know intermittent fasting, also called time-restricted eating (TRE), where you eat all meals within a set time, usually 8 hours. Doing this regularly helps you lose weight faster and improves your metabolism. Pick an eating window and keep it the same every day to help your body’s natural circadian rhythm.

High Fiber Diet

In addition to protein, make sure to eat foods packed with fiber. Fiber slows digestion, which helps manage hunger all day long. Soluble fiber is especially effective at reducing cravings and maintaining steady blood sugar. Your goal should be 25-35 grams per day from foods including:

Oats

• Oats
• Lentils
• Chia seeds
• Broccoli
• Berries

Reduce Refined Carbs

Do you have white bread and sugary cereals in your diet? Time to cut them as they mostly have refined carbs in them. Consequently, they increase your blood sugar and then cause it to crash. These changing levels of sugar make you hungrier, which leads to overeating. Plus, they’re stripped of the fiber and nutrients that actually help with fat loss.

Instead of these refined options, you should choose complex carbs like:

• Quinoa
• Sweet potatoes
• Oats
• Brown rice

These options provide slow-releasing energy that reduces cravings and keeps insulin levels stable.

Quality Sleep

Poor sleep causes changes in the production of hunger hormones, like ghrelin and leptin, which increase cravings for sugary and fatty foods. Additionally, when you don’t rest much, it also reduces recovery and increases stress levels. Therefore, aim for 7–8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night in a cool and dark environment.

Get healthy sleep

And no! You don’t need to break it into different schedules. Set a regular sleep schedule at a specific time every night and avoid screens before bedtime.

Limit Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol provides seven calories per gram, but it doesn’t have any nutrients in it. Since it also lowers inhibition, alcohol consumption causes people to overeat. Another reason to avoid it is that it slows fat metabolism because your body prioritizes clearing alcohol before burning fat.

Instead, you should drink more water and avoid any such drinks that cause damage to your liver and lungs. Even if you drink, limit it to 1–2 servings per week and avoid mixing with juices or sodas with high calories.

Do Yoga Consistently

Yoga is an extensive approach that mixes physical movement with mental focus. It is one of the best indirect ways to lose weight as it helps with flexibility and body control. These benefits of yoga also result in more caloric burn and increased mindfulness.

Do Yoga Consistently

Additionally, you can choose yoga poses like Vinyasa, which are dynamic movements that increase heart rate and promote fat loss. On the other hand, Hatha and Restorative Yoga focus on relaxation and stress reduction, which can indirectly support weight loss by lowering cortisol levels. Our experienced Yoga instructor at Fit4it could be the perfect choice to start your weight loss journey with yoga.

Swimming

Swimming is easily one of the best comprehensive exercises for the whole body, as it helps with strength and stamina. In addition to building muscle mass, this cardiovascular exercise burns many calories, which helps in weight loss. Furthermore, we recommend freestyle and butterfly strokes for swimming, since they are more intense and burn more calories.

You can also choose breaststroke and backstroke, which are gentler, but they can still help you lose considerable body fat. Start swimming for 30 minutes a few times a week, and you will start noticing improvements in body composition and endurance. Since swimming also improves lung capacity and cardiovascular health, it is highly recommended for people with above-average fat percentages.

We know that losing weight isn’t just about eating less and moving more, but also making smarter choices every day. From swimming to strength training and better sleep, we’ve explored some of the best ways to lose weight in a balanced way. We hope you try a few of these ideas and build a routine that truly fits your lifestyle and keeps you healthy for the long term.

If you need a little help with motivation and the right direction, our life coach can also help you with tailored advice. The key is to make the right decision for your lifestyle, which will help in the long run for overall health.