Guide : How to Lose Weight without Going on a Diet

Here is a quick and interesting fact – In 2018, over 100 million Americans were struggling with their body weight. They’re either overweight or obese. A lot of these people have tried to stick to a conventional weight loss program, which included dieting and exercising, but they gave up after a very short unproductive period of time.

Does this mean they will never be able to burn those calories and lose weight? Not at all. Experts believe that it is possible to burn those calories and lose weight without going on a diet. Adopting two or more of the following simple and painless strategies can help you lose weight without going on a diet.

1. Drink water regularly

Have you ever noticed that you tend to eat less if you drink water before a meal? Water may be “just water”, but it has a filling effect that leaves you less hungry and helps you lose weight. According to an experiment carried out by medical experts, participants who drank water before a meal lost more weight over a period of 3 months compared to those who did not.

Other reasons why drinking water may help you lose weight are

• It helps to remove waste from the body. Dehydration can cause constipation, indigestions, diarrhea, and other health complications that make it hard to burn calories effectively.
• It causes increased calorie burning by increasing energy expenditure in the body.
• Replacing high-calorie drinks with water is an effective way to cut down on calories.

2. Take your breakfast every day

If you think skipping meals, especially breakfasts will help you lose weight, then you have to think again. Cutting calories should not be a “ride or die” affair. It does require some determination, sacrifice, and persistence though, but you have to be real. Do not starve yourself trying to lose weight. Skipping breakfast will only make you want to eat a lot more than usual during the day. Many nutritionists believe that eating certain foods can turn up the heat on your metabolism and burn more fats in your body than usual.

Also, taking your breakfast every day helps to

• Kickstart your metabolism after the night rest and fast
• Set your tone and mood for the day – energized, motivated, and ready to take on the world. With this tone and mood, your productivity is increased, and you tend to burn more calories
• Curb your cravings for junk foods, which are not advisable for anyone trying to lose weight

3. Eat more protein

You must have heard this before; anyone trying to lose weight should cut down on fats/carbs and eat more protein. Protein-rich foods contain fewer calories, increase the feeling of fullness, and helps you stay full for longer. A study shows that increasing protein intake will help you eat fewer calories per day and lose weight without intentionally restricting any foods.

Here are other interesting facts about protein –

• It requires more energy for digestion compared to other kinds of meals.
• Your body cannot burn and use fat as energy if it does not have an adequate supply of either carbohydrate or protein. Since it’s advised to cut down on carbs, the best option, in this case, will be protein.
• Eating more protein helps your body to decrease hunger hormones, boost metabolism, and boost several satiety hormones.

4. Include more vegetables and fibers

This is definitely one of the easy weight loss tips that almost everyone swears by. Fiber-rich foods are somewhat like proteins. Fiber-rich foods increase fullness and reduce food intake; thereby helping you feel full for longer.

Vegetables and fibers help you

• reduce body inflammation, make weight control easier, and reduce appetite. The viscous soluble fibers in the high-fiber foods form a jelly substance. This substance, which covers the guts, slows down the process of stomach emptying. This is in no way detrimental to the digestive cycle, but a natural mechanism that helps one feel fuller for longer.
• increase the time of digestion and hence reduces the appetite to eat more.
• maintain a healthy digestive system by helping to ensure that foods are properly broken down into soluble portions for the body to use, and then passed out as waste products.

5. Eat dinner before 7 pm

It is usually very difficult to lose weight effectively if you don’t make a conscious commitment to eat dinner early, at least before 7 PM. Some people even go the extra mile and take their dinner way before 7 PM. As a matter of fact, the earlier the better. The timing of your meals has more impact on our metabolism than you think.

• One very obvious effect of eating dinner late at night is piling on extra pounds, especially around your belly. It will get you looking like “Winnie the Pooh”.
• According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), eating late at night can result in indigestion, which can interfere with sleep. And if you don’t get a good night rest, your tone and mood the very next day will not be so productive. This means you’ll not be active enough to burn a good number of calories for the day.
• In order to avoid eating late at night, you can brush your teeth, or sip on a herbal tea to satisfy your late night hunger.

6. Reduce your food portions

Eating a smaller portion of food is one of the easiest methods of losing weight; obviously. This does not mean you’re going on a diet. All you have to do is keep reducing the portion of food you take per meal until you’ve achieved your goal. This might be an uphill task for some people, but not to worry. Here are some tips that can help you reduce your food portion without feeling hungry.

• Always start your meals with a glass of water. This will naturally make you less likely to overeat
• Eat more vegetables, proteins, and fibers. There are low-calorie foods that will give you the effect of being filled up without adding more pounds.
• Here’s a tricky one; work for your food. Go for foods that require shelling, individual unwrapping, peeling, or some other form of work. This will help slow you down and cause you to eat less.

And there you have it. 6 very effective tips to help you lose weight without going on a diet. In as much as these tips are stress-free, it is important that you take them seriously if you really want to shed some pounds. Make them part of your lifestyle, and you’ll see visible results in a matter of months.