Looking to shed some excess weight that’s piled up over the last few months or years? If so, the best approach is to simple apply some smart tips that will help you make some minor changes that you can easily stick with over time.

One of the biggest mistakes that some people make when seeking their weight loss goals is doing a complete overhaul. If you try and change everything about what you’re doing, nothing is going to stick. For most people, it’s simply too much to handle and within a week or two, they’re back to their old ways again.

Instead, try any one (or more) of these seven tips for losing weight and you’ll quickly be seeing progress without feeling like you’re overly restricting yourself.

Get A Pedometer

The first great way to see faster success? Get a pedometer. Wearing a pedometer as you go about your day can help you gain much greater clarity with regards to how much you are actually moving.

Set a goal – say 5000 steps and if you haven’t reached it by day’s end, it’s time to get up and move more.

Remember that every bit of activity you do helps and adds up over time.

Sleep More

Sleeping is key for weight loss success. While this may seem like an odd tip to help shed pounds, don’t underestimate it. If you aren’t sleeping enough, you’ll be more prone to storing excess body fat, especially in the abdominal region and you’ll also be less likely to get those vital exercise sessions in.

8-9 hours of sleep per night is your prescription, so make sure that you aren’t burning the midnight oil.

Ditch Processed Foods

If there’s one chance that you could make with your dietary efforts, clearing out all processed foods would be it. These foods provide very little nutritional value and worse, just spike blood glucose levels, setting you up for a crash a short while later.

This in turn just makes you want to eat more food – usually processed food. It’s a very bad cycle to get on and one that will make fat loss feel impossible.

Your diet should include foods that are in their most natural state possible. This will not only help with hunger control, but also ensure that you’re getting the proper amount of nutrition in.

Eat Protein With Each Meal

The next vital point that you need to know when it comes to nutrition is that protein must be consumed with each and every meal and snack that you eat.

Lack of protein is only going to drive up hunger levels, increase your risk of lean muscle mass loss (and a slower metabolism because of it!), as well as make you more prone to blood glucose high’s and lows. That in turn can mean a greater likelihood that you begin to gain excess body fat.

You should aim to have 10-15 grams of protein with each snack you eat and another 20-30 grams with each main meal.

Hit these targets and you should have no problem meeting your daily quota.

Do 20 Minutes Of Strength Training 3 Times Per Week

On the exercise side of things, it’s critical to get strength training. Strength training is not only going to help you burn fat while you do it, but it’ll also elevate your metabolic rate so that you continue to burn fat for up to 48 hours post session.

This means great overall fat burning all week long. Plus, strength training can help you gain muscle definition in all the places you want it, ensuring that you look not only thinner, but fitter as well.

Use Hypnosis

Hypnosis can be a very powerful tool to help improve the speed of fat burning taking place as well. It can help you combat emotional eating as well as tap into levels of motivation to keep up your workout and nutrition plan like you’ve never seen before.

If you feel like physically you can do everything you need to but mentally you’re struggling to stick with it, hypnosis could really make a difference for you.

Change Your Self-Talk

Finally, also take some time to look at how you’re talking to yourself throughout the day. Are you constantly talking down to yourself? If you’re not looking at the good in your efforts and what you currently have, you could be doing great harm to your overall self-esteem.

This in turn could prevent you from trying as hard as you should be, reducing the chances that you go on to see the success you desire.

It’s important that you work on forging a positive relationship with yourself and showing self-love, even if you aren’t currently at your goal weight. This will go a long way towards ensuring that you’re feeling positive and ready to tackle your program.

So there you have seven tips to help you get started on the path to success. Weight loss doesn’t need to be difficult provided you have a smart approach and commit to giving maximum effort.