When you look in the mirror, are you proud of what you see? Or would you like to make a change for the better? Many people are unhappy with their physique, but dupe themselves into thinking that they cannot really do anything to change. It doesn’t matter whether you want to lose 10kg or 100kg, if you have the willpower to do it, you can achieve it.

Start running.

The easiest exercise you can start doing to lose your body fat is running. By running at an intense pace, you can actually burn 10 to 15 calories per minute. The longer you can run at an intense pace, the more body fat you will lose. You can use the treadmill, however you can also use other cardio equipment to burn fat if you are unable to run.

Start lifting resistance weights.

Start lifting resistance weights to stimulate muscle growth, which will also tone the muscles, condition the body and help with reducing body fat. Aim to do repetitions of 15 for three sets.

Write down a specific goal and place it on a wall.

Before you do anything, make sure you write down the goal that you want to achieve. This could mean that you want to have the physique of a cover girl by the summertime or it could be that you want to lose 5kg in 3 months. Whatever your goal is, write it on a piece of paper and put it on a wall or a door where you will see it everyday.

Next, you need to make a promise that you will take three action steps everyday towards achieving your goal. So in the case of fat loss, this could mean doing the 20 minute run in the morning, a 20 minute run at night and sticking to your fat loss diet.

The goals that you set and commit to will allow you to get the physique that you desire.

Commit to maintaining a calorie deficit lifestyle.

The calorie deficit lifestyle will allow you to design a routine that will see you lose body fat without even thinking about it. Women usually need to consume fewer than 2000 calories a day to maintain a good calorie deficit diet. Aiming for 1500-1600 calories a day is realistic and should allow you to lose up to 2kg of fat a month, if you are strict with your diet.

Cut out sugar from your diet.

People consume sugar without giving it a second thought. One teaspoon of sugar contains 16 calories. If you are doing running exercises, you would need to do one to two minutes of running to burn off those extra calories.

It’s important to pay attention to the amount of sugar that’s in the food and drinks that you consume, so that you don’t secretly add body fat unknowingly.

To give you an idea.

• A 368g soft drink will give you 138 calories.
• A Mars chocolate bar that is 58g contains 260 calories.
• A coffee with milk and sugar will contain 30 calories.
• Tea with sugar and milk contains 49 calories.

For every 10 calories that you consume, you will need to spend another 1 minute running.

Increase the protein portions in your meals.

It’s easy for people to feel peckish throughout the day. This causes people to snack on unhealthy foods such as biscuits and doughnuts. One of the ways to overcome this is by serving larger protein portions in your meal. These are usually more difficult for the stomach to digest and it won’t leave you feeling hungry.

You can eat heavy protein items such as chicken, beef or fish. If you prefer to have a vegetarian option, you can opt for lentils or nuts. (Source)

Substitute your starchy carbohydrates with natural fats or green vegetables.

Most of us are used to eating bread, cakes, potatoes, rice and pasta as a part of our daily diet. The problem is that we often consume more than we need. Unless we plan to participate in vigorous exercise activities, we don’t really need to consume these foods. And if so, we can consume them in smaller portions.

For example, one bowl of steamed rice will account for 206 calories. Whereas a bowl of pasta and cheese will account for 244 calories.

Instead, try to substitute starchy items with things like Greek yoghurt, which contains 59 calories per serving or one cup of zucchini, which has 29 calories.

Start implementing these 7 simple steps and I promise you that you will see drastic changes to your physique over the next three months.