So, you have started going on morning walks, evening walks, joined a gym, drinking copious amounts of herbal tea every single day, have tried every superfood out there, and not to forget, only eating stuff that’s labeled “low fat,” but all your efforts seem to be going in vain – the number on the weighing scale is not budging even after taking so many measures that people out there said would help you get lean. But hold on, are you doing these 14 things that are absolutely must in order to shed extra pounds?
1. Creating a Calorie Deficit By Following a Good Weight Loss Diet: Exercising without tracking calories and not being in a calorie deficit would not lead to weight loss. Calorie deficit means that you’re taking in less calories than you burn, and it can be easily achieved by following the Rati Beauty diet. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
2. Clear out Obesogens From your Home: Obesogens are compounds that cause weight gain and most of them have nothing to do with calories. Unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle are largely blamed for weight gain and obesity; however, unknown to many, there are factors called as “obesogens” all around us, particularly lurking around in our homes, that disrupt endocrine activities, hamper hormonal function (mostly those that regulate weight), and encourage the body to store fat. These obesogens are also chemicals that interfere with the normal functioning of hormones and damage the body’s natural weight-control mechanisms. They also trigger creation of new fat cells as well as increase the storage capacity of existing fat cells. If you haven’t seen any progress in weight loss despite exercising and sticking to dieting routine strictly, blame it all on “obesogens.” The outcome is usually lowered metabolism, thyroid malfunction, insulin resistance, and heightened inflammation – in all cases – where the body starts to store fat and slowly builds up weight, which is difficult to lose even with proper diet and exercise. House dust, phthalates, triclosan are some common obesogens that are lurking around in your home, so make sure your house is free of these obesogens.
3. Practicing Portion Control: As we have mentioned earlier, portion control is essential to get into a calorie deficit, and to lose weight. Without proper portion control, you might be consuming more calories than your daily requirement, making it difficult for the body to burn extra fat. Want to know how to portion control? Read about “10 Tips to Portion Control Food for Weight Loss” here.
4. Substituting Refined Food with Whole Grains: Eliminating refined food products such as white bread, cakes, biscuits, etc., with whole grains (brown bread, millets, brown rice, etc.) that would not only be low in calories, the fiber content would keep you full for longer, so that you would not indulge in overeating later on.
5. Getting Good Quality Sleep: We would say, sleep tight for at least 7 hours each night because research says that people who sleep for 5 hours or less have been shown to gain significant belly fat. Ouch!
6. Given up Sedentary Lifestyle: Walking for 30 minutes on the treadmill or going for a morning walk, and then spending rest of the day glued on the couch or at the work desk will not help you burn significant fat. You need to completely get out of the sedentary lifestyle because “sitting is the new smoking,” – putting one at a higher risk to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and of course obesity. Also, lipase, a major enzyme which breaks down fat, switches off after prolonged periods of sitting. So, get up from your work desk every half an hour and try to be as active as possible through the day, in order to get lean quickly.
7. Have you Tried These Food Combinations? Regular exercise, healthy eating, following the correct type of a diet, will definitely help you get lean, but to boost your efforts, you can also try certain food combinations that accelerate your weight loss process. For example, you can combine apple slices with peanut butter and have it as a snack instead of reaching out for a bag of potato chips. Peanut butter would supply you a good dose of healthy fats, protein and apple on the other hand is a powerhouse of nutrients, containing antioxidants, fiber, vitamin A, C, potassium, and even iron. Here are “11 Power Food Combos To Speed Up Weight Loss.”
8. Shop with this Grocery List: The next time you are out at the supermarket with weight loss on your mind, shop with this “List of 99 Grocery Items that any Dietician Would Approve.”
9. Sticking to Meal and Snack Timings: It’s extremely important to adhere and follow meal and snack timings when trying to lose weight to avoid frequent snacking and mindless grazing. Regularizing meal timings helps the whole weight loss process a great deal.
10. Drinking Enough Water: When the body is dehydrated, various chemical reactions including the fat-burning process slow down, and that’s why it’s important to drink at least 2 liters or a minimum of 8 glasses of water each day so that all the processes inside the body run smoothly. We often replace plain water with calorie-rich fruit juices or soda, and instead of hydrating the body, they often create surplus calories which get converted and stored as fat inside cells. Most importantly, our body cannot properly differentiate between hunger and thirst signals, we tend to confuse “thirst” for hunger, and turn to food to curb hunger pangs, adding unnecessary calories that are hard to burn off at the end of the day. That’s why, stay hydrated always! Also, keep a bottle handy at all times and keep refilling it through the day.
11. Try To Control Stress: Chronic stress has been strongly linked with obesity and increase in belly fat. That’s because the stress hormone “cortisol” encourages storage of fat around the waist area and triggers cravings for unhealthy food as well. Read about “10 Tried and Tested Ways to Relieve Stress.”
12. Avoid Emotional Eating: Stress eating or emotional eating is a situation where one eats to feel good and pleasant, to cope up with trauma, to relieve stress, rather than to satisfy hunger. The food that emotional eaters choose are usually high-fat, high sugar, calorie-rich food full of transfat and other toxic ingredients, and they term it as “comfort food.” These comfort foods not only lead to weight gain, they lead to buildup of belly fat as well. To counter stress eating, eat only when you are hungry, not when you are bored or under stress, or to find comfort. Detach food from emotions to get rid of stress eating and to prevent weight gain.
13. Eating without Distractions: One of the prerequisites of mindful eating – eat without any distractions, which means switch off the TV, keep away the phone, and eat in peace so that once the satiety hormone kicks in, you can keep away the fork and spoon to avoid consuming extra calories.
14. Try These Ways To Keep Metabolism Robust: Metabolism can be considered as the fire that burns calories and many factors (wrong diet, physical inactivity, stress) can all douse that fire. It’s important to rev up metabolism to burn more calories. Read about “21 Tricks to Boost your Metabolism” in this post.
These tips would help you lose weight successfully and without much effort.
“21 Tricks to Boost your Metabolism.”
8 Ways to Stop Eating After Dinner
9 Mindful Eating Hacks to Eat Right and Lose Weight
Source: Makeupandbeauty
