I’m a fitness coach — here are my 3 easy ways to lose weight before summer
Drop it like it’s hot outside.
Jenna Rizzo, a women’s weight loss coach from Georgia, is sharing three “easy steps” to shedding pounds before summer — gamify your activity, follow the “one-scoop rule,” and get at least seven hours of sleep a night.
“Over the years, I’ve learned the worst thing that you can do is try to go [from] zero to 100 overnight,” Rizzo said in a popular TikTok last month.
“So here are three things you can start doing today that will get you results without having to change everything about your life.”
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Gamify your activity
“Now, you never have to spend hours in the gym, but you should get your body moving — and a way I like to do this with my clients is setting up a challenge for yourself,” Rizzo said.
“This could be a step challenge or hitting at least 30 minutes of exercise every day and you incentivize yourself with a reward or a prize,” she continued.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults each week participate in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, and spend two or more days engaging in activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).
“It is quite clear from numerous large-scale, well-conducted epidemiological studies that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days lowers the risk of premature death and many diseases, such as stroke, heart attack, Type 2 diabetes and many types of cancer,” Ulf Ekelund, a professor specializing in physical activity epidemiology at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, told The New York Times in 2022.
Rizzo says if you hit your challenge of exercising at least 30 minutes for four consecutive days, for example, you should “reward yourself with, like, a pedicure or a bubble bath or something that entices you.”
Follow the ‘one-scoop rule’
Rizzo advises adding a scoop of fruits or vegetables to meals instead of trying to drastically overhaul your diet overnight.
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“A little psychology [is] sprinkled in there,” Rizzo explained. “Over time, this will compound and help you make healthier decisions for your meals in the future.”
The American Heart Association recommends eating four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables every day.
Get at least seven hours of sleep
Seven hours of sleep should be the nightly goal for adults, studies have shown, but many Americans aren’t meeting that mark.
“Sleep is important for a ton of reasons, but lack of sleep can cause a really big disruption in your hormones, which can cause mood swings, crazy cravings, things like that,” Rizzo noted.
“So getting a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night is going to increase your body’s natural ability to burn fat.”
