Is it possible to lose weight without exercise? Yes, it is! While exercise is essential for keeping your mind and body in good shape, you can still get rid of unwanted weight without going to the gym. If you focus more on the other important key to weight loss – healthy eating – you can still make progress toward your weight loss goals.
The following tips and tricks will reveal how you can drop some pounds If you don’t like to work out often.
1. Add More Fiber to Your Diet
Fiber promotes weight loss. When you eat, you feel fuller. Fiber acts as a natural appetite suppressant.
Also, fiber enhances the growth of healthy gut bacteria. These bacteria help to produce various health-boosting substances including hormones that tell your brain that you are satisfied.
To meet your daily dietary fiber needs and lose weight, you should eat at least 25 grams of fiber daily. You can get a good supply of fiber by eating fruits, vegetables, and grains, such as chia seeds. While we’re here, here’s a handy guide on how to prepare chia seeds.
2. Eat More Protein
An adult needs at least 60 to 70 grams of protein daily. But like fiber, many adults seldom pay attention to the amount of protein they eat.
Eating more protein makes you feel full for a longer time. So, you are more likely to avoid eating unhealthy snack foods. Protein also requires more energy to digest than carbohydrates so your body will burn off more calories while digesting it.
If you eat at least 3 main meals daily, you should aim to add at least 20 to 25 grams of protein to each meal. You can get your daily protein from foods such as chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, yogurt, tree nuts (like walnut, almond, and cashew), and beans.
3. Eat Breakfast Everyday
Unless you are on a keto diet, which involves the use of intermittent fasting, you should eat a good breakfast every day if you want to lose weight. This does not mean that you should eat a lot of junk cereals, white bread, and bacon. Your breakfast should have adequate protein and healthy fat. Protein acts as a digestion inhibitor for weight-boosting carbohydrates.
Eating protein and fat in the morning helps to control your hunger by ensuring that you have a slower flow of sugar into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar level is stable during the day, your desire to consume snacks and go on binge eating will drop. You can eat peanut butter, yogurt, eggs, or white meat like fish, chicken, or turkey with your breakfast.
4. Control Your Food Portions
Portion control is a smart weight loss technique that is easy to master. Start by eating from smaller plates. If you are eating your favorite meal, replace the large plate with a small bowl. Resist the temptation to eat more after you’ve finished the first serving. This will make your brain adapt gradually to eating smaller portions at a time.
When eating out, you can also practice portion control by ordering for healthy foods like salads in small bowls or by eating with your partner from the same plate. Similarly, if you are eating snack foods, eat them from a small dish rather than the package. That way you will control the amount of snack foods that can make you gain unwanted weight.
5. Get Enough High-Quality Sleep
If you are observant, you’d have noticed that when you are feeling dizzy, you tend to consume more food. The reason for this is still being researched by scientists. Some believe that people who don’t have enough sleep produce greater amounts of a hormone called ghrelin, which stimulates appetite.
Unfortunately, a tired brain is less likely to be in control of its impulses. That’s why you will notice that when you are well-rested, you find it easier to control the amount of food you eat. So to lose weight, get at least seven to eight hours of good quality sleep every night.
6. Eat Mindfully
Simply put, eat slowly. When you eat your meals, give your brain enough time to align with your mouth and send a signal that you are satisfied. If you race through the meal, it will be more difficult for your brain to help you control your eating.
Also, when you are eating and you want to lose weight, cut out distractions. When you are distracted by TV or your phone, you won’t eat mindfully and you’ll tend to eat more than you planned. So put maximum concentration into your meal and let your mind help you to control your appetite.
Those are some of the ways to lose weight without focusing on exercise. While exercise is still one of the best ways to develop a good body shape, you can shed many pounds if you improve your eating and sleeping habits.