Top Ten tips to help aid with weight loss
1. Drinking more water
Drinking water has many benefits, such as keeping an individual hydrated, regulating body temperature, and many others. However, drinking more water can help with losing fat. The main reason why people can't lose fat is that they are constantly feeling hungry. However, just because one is hungry doesn't mean one needs to eat food. Water can help suppress appetite, which can result in eating less food. It can also help fill up your stomach, allowing you to be full without food.
2. Eating slower and smaller portions
Slowing down when you eat can help when losing fat. When we are hungry, our stomach signals to our brain to inform us that we need food. Once our stomach receives enough food, it sends another signal to inform the brain that it is full. When someone eats quickly, it doesn't give enough time for the stomach to send the signal that indicates that they are full. This results in eating more food than we should. Eating slowly allows the stomach to send the signal to the brain that it is full without overeating. Having smaller portions can also help with overeating. When given a bigger meal, people tend to eat more rather than with smaller portions, where they would eat slower and enjoy the meal.
3. Being more active
Becoming more active sounds simple enough, but many individuals don't do it. Especially after covid, many have a sedentary lifestyle and work from home. As a result of this, they have accumulated weight through the result of becoming inactive and plenty of snacking. Being more active doesn't necessarily have to be a full-on sprint, but it can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or walking around your house. Even though it is a small effort, it will add up over time.
4. Skipping meals
Skipping meals is a common habit when people are trying to lose weight. "If I don't eat anything, I will lose weight." This is true to somewhat of a degree; however, it won't give the desired result. You may lose much fat, but you also may lose much muscle as a result of the body breaking it down for energy when not eating for extended periods of time. Even though skipping breakfast may help reduce a person's intake of calories, people tend to eat much more around lunch and dinner time.
5. Eat more fiber
Including more fiber in one's diet is beneficial not only for losing weight but also for health entirely. A majority of people don't have much fiber as a result of most of the foods that they eat being entirely processed with no fiber at all. The main benefits of it are to help maintain bowel health and lower cholesterol levels but also to help with weight loss as a result of it making a person full since it takes the body a long time to digest it. Adding more fiber to your diet can help with overeating and overall aid with weight loss.
6. Eat more fruits and vegetables
Including more fruits and vegetables in one's diet can help one lose weight. These foods not only contain essential nutrients but are also low in calories. However, it is best to eat whole foods instead of packaged or, even worse, juices. When fruits and vegetables are packaged, they are known for having additives that may raise the calorie content of these foods. Juicing fruits and vegetables is even worse since it is easy to put sugar or other additives to make them taste good
7. Reduce junk food
To lose weight, reducing or removing junk food from their diet is highly recommended. This is because junk food is often highly processed with many calories and no nutritional value. However, the biggest mistake people make when cutting foods like these out is that they quit cold turkey, last for a couple of weeks, then get back onto it since they are always craving it. My biggest recommendation is to replace junk food with healthier and more enjoyable options slowly. An example could be regular soda for a diet soda, ice cream with greek yogurt and fruit; the possibilities are endless.
8. Eat slower
Can eating slowly really help with losing weight? It can! When we are hungry, our stomach signals to the brain that we need to eat. When we eat enough food, our stomach sends another signal to the brain that it is complete. Consuming food too quickly can result in overeating because the brain can delay the signals of being full. When eating slowly, it allows us to eat less.
9. Record what you eat
Recording what we eat may sound annoying; however, it can be beneficial. When eating food, we tend not to think about what we have eaten, and being asked about we may not remember what we ate. However, recording our food shows us what we are eating throughout the day and makes us conscious of what we are eating. This can help us see how many calories we are intaking, which can be helpful to see how many calories we need to reduce to lose weight.
10. Cut down on alcohol consumption
Surely Alcohol can't be that bad to lose weight? However, that is further from the truth. To lose weight, we must heavily reduce or remove alcohol from our diets. Alcholol only has 7 calories per gram which don't sound that bad until you realize one shot of vodka has over 100 calories. It may not seem like much, but who drinks one shot of vodka. Those calories will add up. Other alcoholic beverages, such as beer, can have up to 150 calories per bottle. Drinking alcohol can negatively impact sleep quality, leading individuals to gain weight. A couple of solutions with alcohol are to reduce it by drinking lighter versions of it or by drinking a bottle of water with your alcohol to drink less