Many desire to lose weight, and exercising may just be too much to bear. Thankfully, this isn’t the only way you can stay within healthy weight limits. Here are 17 things that can also help you shed some of that extra, unnecessary fat.
Portion Control
Safe portion control involves using small-portion servings for high-calorie foods. One hack to reduce your portion size is to use small plates for every meal you take. With this, you aren’t forced to eat more than you should, and you also consume less food in a way that’s less intense than fasting.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is when you pick specific times during the day or during the week that you’re allowed to eat. You either give yourself an eight-hour window per day to eat or eat normally for five days and fast for two days during the week (5:2 diet plan). Controlling your food intake can help you lose up to 11 pounds over ten weeks.
Drinking Water
Consuming large amounts of water helps you lose weight in a plethora of ways. You feel fuller and don’t eat as much (or as often), and you increase your metabolism by giving your body enough fuel to burn fat continuously. When you also make water the only liquid you take, you also avoid building up calories from beverages, smoothies, and yogurt, to name a few.
Sleeping
As surprising as it may sound, getting a good night’s rest is one of the most effective ways to lose calories. Here, the amount of calories you lose every night of sleep depends on your weight. For instance, Healthline says a person who weighs 125 pounds burns 38 calories per hour, while a person who weighs 185 pounds burns 56 calories per hour of sleep.
Eating Slowly
Slowly chewing your food comes with so many benefits over swallowing it up fast. You don’t just enjoy your food better and improve your digestion; you also feel full faster, and may even get tired chewing overall. The culmination of these helps you maintain and lose weight safely.
Don’t Distract Yourself While Eating
Attentive eating, as PubMed-published research calls it, can help you reduce your food intake both in the short and long term. The paper explains that it’s all about knowing how much food you’re taking at the moment, the memory of which subconsciously helps you against increased food intake later on.
Eat More Protein
By releasing hormones like ghrelin, protein has a way to trick your brain into thinking you’re full. Adding a lot of protein, like chicken and Greek yogurt, to your meals makes you feel full faster and also keeps you full for longer. This eventually reduces your daily calorie intake.
Consume More Fiber
Just like protein, foods with fibrous content can help you eat more slowly, stay full, and reduce your calorie intake. Here, you want to give more attention to legumes and oats, as well as fruits like apples and raspberries. Carrots, broccoli, seeds, and nuts are also great sources of fiber to lose weight.
Eat Home-Cooked Meals
Home-cooked food comes with fewer calories, sugar, and carbohydrates than a lot of the things you buy from fast food restaurants and stores. If you want to get the most from them, cook and eat meals like chicken and peas, mashed potatoes with veggies, and salad pasta.
Cut Down on Your Sugar Intake
The overconsumption of sugar, even if it’s from natural sources like honey, is a common cause of unhealthy weight gain. WebMD shares that reducing the amount of sugar you take daily does more than just lower your calories and cholesterol levels. You also have lower triglycerides, a type of fat that causes heart disease and stroke in high quantities.
Add Probiotics to Your Diet
Alongside their antibacterial benefits, probiotics from foods like Greek yogurt and pickles can help you lose weight. As Forbes reports on a review of 27 studies, “ 23 of those studies found that probiotics had a positive impact, which led researchers to conclude that probiotics do have the potential to help those with overweight or obesity lose weight.”
Look for Stress Relievers
If you find yourself eating too much, then you may be caught up in a bit of “emotional eating” due to negative feelings like anger, fear, and sadness. Engaging in yoga, meditating, getting active with hobbies, and going into social spaces are some ways you can get some stress off you.
Increase Vitamin D Intake
A PubMed study reveals that there are links between low vitamin D levels, low physical activity, and obesity. Although mushrooms, egg yolks, cheese, and beef liver may contain some amount of vitamin D, the best for you are found in fatty fish and fish liver oils, as Harvard SPH shares.
Eat Non-Starchy Vegetables
Non-starchy vegetables like carrots, cauliflowers, and eggplants have low-calorie content that you can have your fill with without worrying about gaining weight. They’re also low-carb options with vitamins, minerals, and healthy fibers that are great for diabetic individuals.
Limit Alcohol Intake
Alcohol doesn’t just make you feel hungrier when you start eating, as McGill University shares. It is also high in kilojoules, which can stop your body from burning fat. But this isn’t even all. Alcohol can also make you desire salty and greasy foods that are high in toxic fats.
Avoid Processed Foods
Refined, processed foods usually come with high amounts of calories that contribute to weight gain. You can avoid the worst of them by checking food labels for saturated fat, sodium, and sugar, or by avoiding pre-packaged snacks all together. Removing processed foods from your diet can help you lose two pounds of weight after two weeks.
Try Weight Loss Products
As a last resort, you can use weight-loss products as supplements to your current diet. These are typically stimulating pills made from fiber, caffeine, herbs, and vitamins that are specifically used to increase metabolism or burn fat in your body.
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