10 Tips to Lose Weight Naturally

Obesity, and other related diseases, is becoming a worldwide epidemic and while everyone wants to be slim and healthy, there are many bad habits we have to kick. For example, eating less to no junk food and increase our physical activity. However, despite knowing all these, there are supplements marketed to resolve weight issues quickly, and we also have those crazy diet fads.

Let’s forget about those and look at some natural ways that have been proven by science, to lose the extra weight naturally.

Chew slowly

 

When we’re busy, we tend to chow down our food quickly and our brain doesn’t have time to receive the signal from our stomachs that we’ve eaten enough. As a result, we may eat more than we really require. As such, when you chew your food slowly, you may find yourself eating less than before and by chewing your food properly, you are grinding whatever you eat fully and this helps with the digestive process. Moreover, you’ll better enjoy the flavours of your food! Thus, it’s time to practice mindful eating!

Drink more water

 

As we know, most of our body consists of water and a healthy body requires 6-8 litres of water per day. This is to help with detoxification and blood circulation. Drinking more plain water can boost metabolism by 20-30% for the next 2 hours. It also helps you to reduce sugar, sodium and saturated fat intake and other studies have also shown that people who drink more water tend to burn more calories than those who drank less. That said, do not drink excessively either. Simply drink whenever you feel thirsty or if you tend to ignore thirst signals, then set a reminder to drink every half hour or so.

Drink green tea and coffee

 

Quality coffee has a large number of antioxidants, which have numerous benefits. Studies show that coffee can boost metabolism and the fat burning process by up to 29%, this is done by the caffeine present in coffee.

If coffee is not your drink of choice, then go ahead and drink more green tea. Similar to coffee, green tea helps in the fat burning process due to the caffeine present as well as the antioxidant known as catechins. Moreover, green tea can also aid digestion – perfect for those days when you feel a little bloated or ate a bit too much oily foods.

Consume less sugar

As per our multiple articles on sugar, it is needless to add that to lose weight, it is best to cut back on sweets and other sugary delights. If you still have a sweet tooth, check out our article on sugar alternatives to find which one best suits your dietary requirements. If you need help to kick your sugar addiction, click here for some handy tips.

Eat less carbohydrate

 

While we don’t recommend cutting out carbohydrates totally, what we advise is to switch to unrefined forms of carbs as refined carbs such as white flour and white rice has shown to cause blood sugar levels to spike up rapidly. Moreover, complex carbohydrates such as brown rice tend to have more fibre, which helps to make you feel fuller over a longer period of time.  And in terms of portion, the best amount of carbs to eat per meal would be a fist-sized.

Eat more protein

One of the weirdest myths about protein is that it causes weight gain or high cholesterol. Perhaps so if you do not exercise and eat copious amounts of protein. However, most of us are so used to the traditional food pyramid that we believe that we should be consuming less protein and more carbohydrates on a daily basis. In actual fact, it is all about proper portion sizing. Using one’s hands again, the correct amount of protein a person should eat per meal should be about one palm-size – regardless of your source (meat or plant-based). This protein is necessary to help you build muscles when you exercise, which in turn will help you burn more fats. Simple science, really.

Eat more fruit and vegetables

 

We automatically think about cutting calories when we’re trying to lose weight but why not think about it this way: cut back on the junk but eat more fruit and vegetables!

Fruit and vegetables are high in fibre, vitamins and minerals – all the good stuff that we know we need. The fibre fills you up but are fewer in calories per weight when compared to carbohydrates or protein. As such, aim to have half of your plate full of veggies for every meal. If you like to snack in between meals, then pack some fruit or nuts to the office so that you can load up on something healthier than that potato chip.

Beat your food addiction

This is the hardest – fighting bad food habits. Especially if you love fast food and fast food companies know this. Sugar, oil and salt are what we humans love to consume and we get addicted to these flavours. But we all know that fried and oily foods are empty calories that do nothing but increase our waistlines and slows down our metabolism. The first week is the hardest but once you’ve started eating clean for at least a week, you’ll realise that the fried chicken that you used to love is really like crack to an addict. You’ll stop craving for it once you’ve gone “cold turkey” and you will finally see some weight loss.

Don’t Diet

Stop thinking about losing weight as going on a diet where you’re miserable and cutting down on calories. If you mindlessly follow diet fads, it will not make you slimmer but possibly physically weaker because your body is not getting enough nutrients. As mentioned in all our previous articles, the biggest problem with following diet plans is that it is not sustainable over the long term.

Instead, change your mindset to one where you’re simply eating healthily for your body. This will help you both mentally and physically. If you need guidance on portion sizing as well as an exercise plan, join programmes such as our 60 Day Metabolic Tune Up programme where there are coaches and a community to help you on your health journey.


Photos: Shutterstock, Pixabay and Unsplash

 

EAMART

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