How to Lose Weight Without Even Trying
Shed pounds with ease using these tips
Face it – losing weight can be tough, with plenty of sweat and discipline involved. But there are a few tweaks that diet and fitness experts are savvy to and that can help you lose weight even when you’re not powering through an intense elliptical interval workout or slashing calories to drastic levels.
Use these tips to help shed a few extra pounds to look extra sleek in your new summer bikini.
Keep a food diary
Women can shed pounds without even trying by recording what they eat. Keep a record either on a daily journal or a fitness app. Austin Arnold, an ACE certified personal trainer at FitRated.com, said, “I begin all of my sessions by having my clients record every single thing they eat by either texting it to me, bringing it in a journal to me, or logging it on an app for us to review at every session. I recommend the nutrition that I want them getting, but the realizations my clients have in the first few days are amazing. So much of their unhealthy diet is either habit or convenience and is thus out of mind. Once they begin actually recording and realizing what they put in to their bodies, many of them are surprised, and they instinctively make some positive changes to a healthier life style on their own.”
Bring your lunch to work
Many people don’t realize how many calories they’re consuming in the lunches they eat at work. Danielle Girdano, president of D'fine Sculpting & Nutrition, said “this can cut a dramatic amount of calories and leaves time for a 20-minute walk.”
Take a walk prior to eating
Sure, this is technically trying to lose weight, but in a very minor way. Girdano said taking a brisk 20-minutes walk prior to eating will help stimulate digestion and increase blood flow so that your body better absorbs nutrients. “This is important as nutrient absorption will stimulate feeling full for longer,” she said.
Follow the 80% rule
Helene Byrne, of BeFit-Mom, has an 80% rule that helps a woman lose weight without trying:
- Make 80% of your food choice top quality. This leaves room for a small “fun food.”
- Serve yourself just 80% of what you would normally put on your plate. Get bonus points for eating dinner off of a lunch plate.
- Stop eating when you feel 80% full.
Avoid eating too much protein
Briana Michel, a holistic nutrition coach, said it's important to avoid eating too much protein in one sitting. “We are always being told we need more protein in our diets. While for some people that may be true, the issue comes from eating too much protein in one sitting. If a woman sits down and eats a 6 oz. chicken breast, whatever her body doesn't use of that will turn to glucose and be stored as fat in the body.
Eat for your activity level
Michel said to also eat for the next few hours of your specific life. If you are going to lunch and after lunch you will sit a desk not moving much for the next four hours, then your lunch should be light and lower in calories. If you are priming yourself up for a day doing construction in the heat, that is a very different lunch. Instead of eating the same at
each meal, eat for the activity or lack there of over the subsequent few hours.
More tips to try
Cindy Santa Ana, AADP certified health coach, also shared her list of tips:
The key is to crowd out the “bad” in your diet with whole, more nutritious foods. For example, if you have a bagel for breakfast, try a higher-fiber, whole grain piece of toast spread with nut butter. The protein and fiber keep you fuller longer. Whole eggs are a perfect breakfast.
If you have three cups of coffee per day, try replacing one with herbal tea or green tea.
Switching from artificial sugars to real sugars can also have an effect on your hormones. Artificial sugars actually cause us to gain weight and when you switch to real sugar, honey or real maple syrup, your body recognizes these foods and utilizes them properly. Stevia is a great, plant-based, natural sugar.
Adding more protein to your diet switches your metabolism from being a “sugar-burner” to one of a fat-burner. Try eating half of your desired weight in protein grams per day.
Don't skip meals. Eat three small meals throughout the day, with lots of protein and fiber. Limit snacking to once per day. Nuts and seeds are perfect snacks.
Don't eat three hours before bedtime. Eating late at night raises your body temperature, activates digestion and this is the time your body needs to repair itself.
Eat more vegetables. Slip in some spinach in an omelet, blend up a green smoothie before work, pack a salad with chopped veggies for lunch and make cauliflower rice, steamed veggies and a lean protein for dinner.
Sub sparkling water or fruit-infused water for one soda per day.
Sleep more. Getting adequate sleep can restore hormones like ghrelin and the human growth hormone which naturally cause weight loss.
Tagged in: exercise, diet, weight loss,
