How to lose 5kg this month

Are you struggling to lose weight? It's a challenge for many people. Find out how to lose 5 kilograms this month with these helpful tips.
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Feeling your best is something everybody deserves to feel. We are extremely passionate about helping busy mums nurture their bodies, and for many people, this can look like getting in shape and loosing weight.

We’re extremely proud to have helped busy mums looking to lose weight, OVER 3 million kg. in fact! 

Mum-of-five, Hannah Pech is one such mum, who has achieved the AMAZING results below. Well done Hannah!

Read Hannah’s inspiring story and tips here. 

Hannah-Pech-38kg-weight-loss-before-after

Sustainable weight loss

At The Healthy Mummy, we believe in sustainable weight loss. No matter how much you have to lose, making healthy lifestyle changes where you are not hungry all the time and feel deprived is much more likely to lead to a successful outcome. Short-term diets and crash dieting, which leads to rapid weight loss, don’t work. If anything, they can lead to weight gain. You may have initial success, but you are much more likely to pile the weight back on and thus begins a cycle of yoyo dieting which just isn’t healthy.

The 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge isn’t just about consuming fewer calories and cutting out food groups. It’s a weight loss plan involving healthy eating and exercise and sets a realistic goal of losing weight around 4-6 kilos a month which is achievable and sustainable.

Plus we’ve put together 10 tips and tricks which when used with The 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge will help crank up your weight loss to get you fast results.

Tips on how to lose 5kg

Sometimes, it can be easy to feel down if you only lose 500g – but that actually makes a bigger difference than you may realise.

Check out the below picture of what 500g actually looks like  (and if you haven’t lost weight get advice here on what could be going on) 

500g

How The Healthy Mummy can help YOU

With over 13 years of experience of guiding, supporting and motivating mums to achieve their health and weight loss goals, we are confident that we can help you, too.

One of the most important factors in losing weight is setting GOALS and being PREPARED and The Healthy Mummy app gives you all the tools you need to get started and stay on track.

All of our experience has helped us develop the most user friendly, customisable and comprehensive healthy weight loss program with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

So how do you do this? We’ll tell you how…

Here are 10 ways to lose 5kg:

1. Watch your portion control 

Portion-Plate

Portion control is one of the most important factors in weight loss, weight maintenance and weight gain, especially when you are trying to lose weight.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommends that you eat from a variety different food groups each to get a range of vitamins and nutrients to support your health.

Fruits and vegetables

Guidelines recommend that you eat at least 5 or more portions of fruits and vegetables every day, but the optimum is at least 2 portions of fruit and 4 portions of vegetables. A portion of fruits and veggies is generally considered to be a large handful of the raw fruit or vegetable.

  • Whole grains/carbohydrates

Each meal should include a portion of carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain carbohydrates to keep you fuller for longer and to improve digestive health. 4 portions of wholegrain carbohydrates are recommended per day – but if you eat a potato, this should be taken as a carbohydrate portion rather than a vegetable portion.

A standard portion of potato should be the size of a computer mouse (225g), a portion of spaghetti pasta should be less than 1.5cm in diameter, a portion of shaped pasta should be a small heaped handful (40g dry) and a portion (150g) of cooked rice should be, when packed together, around the size of a small tin of tuna.

  • Protein/dairy

Protein and dairy are a key part of any diet – they improve general health and they can boost weight loss. Portions of protein (1-2 a day) should always be around the size of your palm. Protein in the form of meat, like chicken, beef, game or pork should be trimmed of all visible fat. A portion of tofu should be the size of your palm, and a portion of beans should be a small heaped handful.

Dairy portions should be kept fairly small, as they tend to contain more fat – a portion of milk should be a small glass of 250ml, a portion of yoghurt should be a small 50g-100g pot and a portion of cheese should be matchbox-sized (28g). Cheese should be eaten less frequently than milk and yoghurt as it contains more fat.

  • Fat

It might surprise you, but guidelines recommend that you eat three portions of heart healthy fats each day – maximum serving should be 1 tbsp. of heart healthy fat, such as extra-virgin olive oil. These fats improve the health of your skin, hair and nails, and they also boost the health of your internal systems and your eyes.

2. Move more

For some people, a daily walk and some weekly strength training are enough to see great results.

For others, you might need to get more of a sweat on to see the benefit. Try alternating your walks with jogging or a light run. Increase your strength training as this helps to build muscle which means you will burn more calories even from your daily movements.

Need a bit more structure? Then the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge has daily exercise plans and videos to fall – all on our convenient App.

3. Ditch processed foods

Close-up image of different types of bread and paste products

Cut out processed food and things like white bread, rice and pasta and have wholegrain and wholemeal versions instead which are high in fibre and vitamins.

4. Include metabolism-boosting foods in your diet

boosting food

Get your insides to do all the work. Fire up your metabolism and the calories will burn themselves. Read our top picks for metabolism-boosting foods here.

5. Get support

Try chatting to a friend or another mum who has lost weight. Pick their brain and see if they have any insight for you about anything you are missing or not doing.

Jump onto the Healthy Mummy Facebook group and be inspired by the mums, advice and stories on the page.

6. Meal prep

meal prep 1

If you are looking for a more structured plan to follow, then try our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge (which is breastfeeding friendly but is also suitable for all mums whether you are breastfeeding or not).

It helps you get prepared and encourages you to meal prep – meal preparation equals healthy eating. 

The Challenge offers you over 6,000 recipes, customisable meal plans and over 350 exercises and it is made for BUSY mums.

Here are 7 great tips to get organised with meal prep.

7. Stay focused

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One day at a time is all we can do. Don’t let a bad day turn into a bad week. So if you have a slip-up, dust yourself off and remember that tomorrow is another day closer to your goal!

8. Increase protein and fibre

Ten High Protein Snacks During Pregnancy

Ensure that you are eating enough protein in your meals and snacks. This helps you to feel fuller for longer and gets your metabolism firing. Think nuts, LSA, boiled eggs, poached chicken, natural peanut butter, tofu.

We have thousands of protein and fibre-rich and family-friendly recipes on our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.  

9. Avoid sugar

Close-up of granulated sugar in spoon and sugar pile on wooden
Source: iStock

Reducing your added sugar intake is one of the FASTEST ways to lose tummy fat, reduce calories, increase energy, improve your skin and lose excess kilos.

Sugar is hidden EVERYWHERE. Here are ten simple food swaps to help reduce your sugar intake.

10. Workout with weights

Working out with weights helps you to build lean muscle mass which burns calories even while you are resting. Training with weights assists in shaping, toning and creating a leaner body. Weights training in conjunction with cardio workouts will help you to reach your fitness and weight loss goals faster. GOOD NEWS – our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge has full weights workouts!

These weight based exercises are made up of individual or unilateral movements which help with creating even muscle toning and shaping your body on both sides. These types of exercises improve your postural alignment and stronger muscles help you stand up straight to assist in preventing back pain.

The benefits of weight training are:

  • Tones your body
  • Builds lean muscle mass which in turn burns body fat
  • You only need to perform short workouts to achieve results
  • Builds strength to improve bone density
  • Strength training releases endorphins to increase your mood and happiness
  • Improves sleep and in turn gives you more energy during the day

 Get back to basics

And here are some really useful links and resources to help you focus and get back to basics for fast results

  1. Work out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)  so you know how many calories your own individual body needs. As you lose weight your calories need to decrease so it is important to re-calculate and adjust accordingly. Use our BMR calculator.
  2. Along with your BMR, know your BMI (Body Mass Index). This is one measure used to estimate your total amount of body fat.  It is a useful tool as it gives you a starting point as well as goals for the future. Your BMR and BMI  are closely related – the higher the BMI, the higher the BMR tends to be. Check our interactive BMI and BMR calculators.
  3. Snacking is essential for energy levels and for boosting your metabolism – see our healthy snack recipes.
  4. Are the scales not giving you the results you want – see what could be happening here
  5. While we don’t generally advocate strict calorie counting as it can be stressful and exhausting to monitor everything you eat, it’s important to understand the role calories play in weight loss.  Find out How Many Calories You Need every Day to Lose Weight.

Check out the Kylie’s amazing results!

Check out Kylie’s story here

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