If you are wondering how to lose weight fast at home, the thing is that it can get tricky — especially if you are a woman. Menopause, hormonal ups and downs, childbirth, surgery, medications, and body types can cause sluggish metabolism. Fortunately, you can put your body into fat-burning mode by following certain ways.
This article brings you the 21 best tips for weight loss. Keep reading to know them.
Eat Mindfully
1. Have You Tried Intermittent Fasting?
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No? You must! Intermittent fasting or IF works wonders for women (and men). Alternate feeding and fasting time helps lower your blood sugar, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels (1). It is extremely good for weight loss and maintaining a good metabolic rate. Read more about it here.
Talk to your doctor before trying intermittent fasting if you have diabetes, hypoglycemia, high blood pressure, or any other medical condition.
Note: This diet must always be done under the supervision of your dietitian. If done incorrectly, you may not see the desired results as the actual plan would vary from person to person.
Stylecraze SaysKeeping a food journal helps you stick to your weight loss goals and also makes the process of counting calories easy.
2. Proteins, Fats, And Dietary Fiber – The Best Combo
Consume a combination of all the three food groups every time you have a meal. Here’s why.
Proteins are the building blocks of the human body. From hormones, muscles, enzymes, hair, skin, and nails – everything is made of protein. By consuming adequate amounts of protein (1.2 g – 1.6 g protein per kg body weight), you will enable your body to build lean muscle mass, induce muscle recovery after working out, and increase satiety (2), (3), (4), (5).
Healthy fats are anti-inflammatory. Silent inflammation in your body can cause toxin build-up, resulting in inflammation-induced obesity. Consume fatty fish, omega-3 fatty acids, nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, avocado oil, and ghee (clarified butter) to lower inflammation in your body (6). Check out this 5-day Apple diet.
Veggies, fruits, brown rice, black rice, oats, broken wheat, wheat, quinoa, and millet are good sources of dietary fiber. These help increase satiety, improve digestion, and flush out toxins (7). This, in turn, increases metabolism. Click here for a list of dietary fiber foods you can consume.
3. Drink Enough Water
Not drinking enough water might be one of the reasons you are not losing the unwanted flab. Water helps to hydrate your body and flush out toxins. This, in turn, helps boost metabolism and promotes weight loss.
4. Practice Portion Control
Portion control is key to losing weight without depriving yourself of delicious foods. It essentially means limiting the amount of foods you consume. Controlling your portions can help you shed the pounds like magic.
You can also enjoy high-calorie foods in limited amounts. But you must maintain your total daily calorie intake. If you are supposed to consume 1500 calories per day to lose weight, make sure that you do not cross that limit.
5. Get Low On Sugar And Salt
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Both sugar and salt are killers in high amounts. And guess what? Most of us are guilty of consuming too much sugar and salt in our food.
Excess salt in food causes water retention in the body. If not kept in check, it might cause your blood pressure to shoot up. On the other hand, excess sugar increases sugar levels in your blood, causes insulin resistance, and gets stored as fat in your body.
Avoid adding too much salt and sugar in your food. Also, beware of hidden salt and sugar in potato wafers, fries, fried chicken, pickles, jerky, sausages, soda, cakes, pastries, ice cream, cheese, buttermilk, salted nuts, garlic salt, celery salt, barbeque sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, and chocolate.
6. Artificial Sweeteners? No Way!
If calorie counting was the only thing that mattered for weight loss, you wouldn’t gain weight drinking diet soda. There are numerous scientific studies that discourage you from consuming artificial sugar. Here’s why.
It might cause weight gain and brain tumor (8). There is no conclusive evidence that artificial sweetener has health benefits.
The report also says, “Pregnant and lactating women, children, diabetics, migraine, and epilepsy patients represent the susceptible population to the adverse effects of NNS-containing products and should use these products with utmost caution (9).”
We advise you to avoid consuming artificial sweeteners. Use honey, jaggery, and dark brown sugar instead.
7. Careful With The Sauces And Dressings
Sauces and dressings need special mention. Although the problem is the same – high salt, sugar, food additives, and food preservatives – they need special mention because we do not pay attention.
Salads, fries, roast chicken, nachos, and all things delicious are because of dressings and condiments. If you take a quick look at the food labels, you will be surprised to know the amount of salt and sugar they contain. Look for chemicals like monosodium glutamate, aspartame, sodium sulfite, high fructose corn syrup, sulfur dioxide, potassium bromate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).
8. Limit Alcohol Consumption
Don’t get me wrong. Once in a while, it is perfectly fine. Avoid consuming it every day and/or in excessive amounts. Alcohol gets converted into sugar in the body, which gets stored as fat if you do not burn it by working out.
Alcohol also causes dehydration, thereby slowing down your metabolism. Have a glass of wine if you really feel like it. Avoid frequent heavy drinking.
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9. Detox Once Every Week
Detoxing is not an option anymore. The food habits, quality of food, weekend parties, and other lifestyle choices make detoxing once or twice a week essential.
Go on a juice diet for a day. Make sure you make the juices at home or get cold pressed juice. Do not remove the pulp if you want the dietary fiber. If you have IBS/IBD, strain out the pulp.
Note: Vegetable juices are a better option than fruit juices.
10. Hungry? Do The Broccoli Test
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How often do you feel hungry? If it’s too often, it’s a problem. One simple way to tell whether you are really hungry or not is to do the “broccoli test”. All you have to do is imagine broccoli when you feel you are hungry.
If you do not feel hungry after imagining the broccoli, you are probably not hungry. But if you still feel hungry, you should have a portion controlled meal.
Main Idea – Respect food. Eat when you are hungry. Pay close attention to what you eat.
The next step is to be active. The more active you are, the better your metabolism. Here’s everything you need to know.
Let The Calories Go
11. Brisk Walking
Walking is one of the best exercises, especially because it is easy on your joints and heart. If you are not used to working out, walking is a great place to start.
Walk for at least 15-20 minutes every day for a week. You might walk the dog or take a walk post dinner. After a week, it’s time to amp up your game. Move on to brisk walking.
Set a timer. Walk at a slower pace for a minute and then walk faster for 30 seconds. Initially, your calves might start to cramp soon. Take rest for a few minutes but do not give up.
