Have a hard time losing weight? Want to get learner and keep the pounds off? Then it’s time to change your approach to diet and exercise!

Weight loss isn’t all about calories in versus calories out. It also depends on your overall health, hormonal balance, exercise habits, and metabolism. Plus, certain lifestyle factors, such as stress and sleep deprivation, can stall your progress and make it harder to stay fit.

Fad diets are not an option. They actually slow down your metabolism, affect lean mass, and raise cortisol levels. Your body enters the fight-or-flight mode and begins to store fat for energy. Cortisol, the stress hormone, increases hunger and cravings while causing muscle loss. The same happens when you spend hours in the gym or engage in endless cardio workouts.

The good is that you don’t need any of these things to lose those pesky pounds. Your success lies in small lifestyle changes.

Why Most Weight Loss Methods Fail

Believe it or not, over 95 percent of diets fail. They’re either too restrictive or unsustainable in the long run. Plus, strict dieting puts your body into starvation mode, causing weight gain, fatigue, and metabolic damage. The faster you lose weight, the sooner you’ll gain it back.

Strenuous workouts aren’t better either. Exercise puts stress on your system. This triggers cortisol spikes and affects your hormone levels. Overtraining can lead to muscle loss, metabolic slowdown, hormonal imbalances, and increased injury risk.

Just think about it. If these weight loss methods worked, obesity wouldn’t a global concern. After all, millions of people exercise day in and day out, skip meals, and take diet pills. Yet, they’re overweight or obese.

Additionally, most people have unrealistic goals. It took you months or even years to gain those extra pounds. No matter how hard you try, you can’t get leaner overnight. Sure, you might drop a few pounds in the first week or so, but you’ll gain them back soon after.

Maintaining a healthy weight requires lifestyle changes. The whole point is to commit to good nutrition and exercise on long term. An occasional treat won’t cause any harm as long as you don’t make a habit out of it.

Ready to get in shape and drop those pesky pounds forever? Here are five tips for healthy weight loss:

Follow the 80/20 Rule

Have you ever heard about the 80/20 rule? It states that as long as you eat clean and stick to your workouts 80 percent of the time, you’ll achieve your goals. Use the remaining 20 percent to indulge in your favorite snacks or have a cheat meal.

Nobody eats clean 24/7. Pro athletes and fitness models, for example, have weekly cheat meals or cheat days. This keeps them motivated and helps them stay on track with their diet.

If you eat healthy most of the time, one bad meal won’t make any difference. Plus, you’re more likely to stick to your diet when you know that soon you’ll be able to have a treat.

This applies to exercise too. If you work out five times a week, skipping one workout once every few weeks won’t stall your progress.

Clean Up Your Diet

Next, take the steps needed to clean up your diet and ditch the junk. Cut back on sugar, starches, white flour, fast food, deli meats, cookies, cake, potato chips, and other goodies. Don’t forget about soda and commercial fruit juices, which are loaded with sugar.

These foods have little or no nutritional value. On top of that, they’re packed with additives and hormone-disrupting chemicals that affect your health and metabolic rate.

Whole, natural foods should be your priority. Make sure your meals are based on fish, lean meat, leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Low-fat dairy is a good choice too, but you’ll be better without it.

Avoid any foods that contain more than three or four ingredients. Whole, minimally processed foods don’t even need a label. Think about oranges or apples, for instance. Junk foods, on the other hand, boast dozens of ingredients that you can’t even pronounce.

Watch Out for Hidden Sugars

Sugar is a sneaky ingredient. It comes in lots of different forms, from maltose and fructose to dextrose. In fact, there are over 56 different names for sugar, including:

• Sucrose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Agave nectar
• Maple syrup
• Coconut sugar
• Brown sugar
• Molasses
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Glucose
• Treacle sugar
• Ethyl maltol
• Dextrin

These harmful ingredients are found in thousands of so-called healthy foods, including diet products. For instance, sugar-free chocolate often contains fructose, which is nothing but sugar in disguise. That’s why it’s important to check food labels for hidden sugars and other fattening ingredients.

Boost Your Protein Intake

When it comes to fat loss, protein should come first on your list. This macronutrient revs up your metabolism, suppresses appetite, and maintains lean mass.

In clinical trials, dieters who ate a high-protein breakfast experienced a reduction in the levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Other studies have found that high-protein diets can increase energy expenditure by 80 to 100 calories per day.

Additionally, protein supports muscle growth and repair, which is particularly beneficial when you’re trying to lose weight. More muscle equals a faster metabolism and increased fat loss.

To reap the benefits, eat protein at every meal. Poultry, tuna, salmon, mackerel, turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, nuts, and pumpkin seeds are all an excellent choice.

HIIT the Gym

Do you hate cardio or simply don’t have time for it? This may come up as a surprise, but you don’t need cardio to lose weight. Actually, there’s a better way to torch fat and ignite your metabolism.

HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, takes just 10-15 minutes and burns massive calories. All you need to do is to alternate between short, intense bursts of exercise and rest periods or low-intensity exercise.

For instance, you can walk at a slow pace for 30 seconds, sprint for another 30 seconds, and repeat. Do it for 10 minutes three or four times a week. For best results, finish your weight training workouts with HIIT.

As you see, weight loss doesn’t require skipping meals or exercising for hours. All it takes is some discipline and willpower. Clean up your diet, fill up on protein, and train smart. Remember to get plenty of rest so your body can recover from stress and keep its hormones in balance.