No time for the gym?
Let’s face it: for some people, losing weight is tough…
Millions of us worldwide fall off diet programs every day.
And the majority are simply too tired or too busy to exercise.
So what’s the answer?
Well here’s the good news: you don’t have to diet and exercise to lose weight.
Try these 31 lazy ways to lose weight fast instead.
Here’s what to do:
1. Use Hunger Busting Strategies.
Hunger is perhaps the main reason why you can’t stick to a diet plan.That’s natural…but avoidable:
Either you’re cutting calories too much…or lacking foods that make you feel full.
Rather, focus your eating around foods that break down and digest slowly.
Any types of meat, healthy fats and fibrous carbs are the best choice.
But remember: whilst calories from fat can quickly add up, small amounts can have mind-blowing results for hunger control.
2. Diet Twice a Week
In a study, female participants were asked to follow a low-carb diet for 3 months.They were told to diet only on two days every week.
The results were astounding!
Compared to their non-dieting counterparts…they had lost nine pounds!
Other participants who consumed just 1,500 calories every day were able to replicate the results, if they continued their diet for the entire week.
Here’s the reason:
This type of dieting is effective because you can afford to control your cravings for just two days as opposed to a fully-fledged 7-day long diet.
Diet for two days and eat in moderation in the next five days and you will start to lose weight.
3. Write Down What You Eat For One Week and You Will Lose Weight
Studies reveal that keeping a food diary means you’ll eat around 15% less food.I maintain a food journal every day and can attest to these findings.
Here’s why it works:
Logging your eating and drinking habits exposes you to what you’re eating which makes you more mindful.
No more sneaking in that cookie or soda that ‘doesn’t count’.
Furthermore, pay particular attention during the weekend, when alcohol and ‘treating yourself’ can quickly add up!
4. Adopt Eating Rituals
Shockingly, when we enjoy our food more…our body digests it better and faster!Thus, you can enhance mindful eating further, by adopting an eating ritual.
Eating a meal this way involves focusing on the meal and nothing else.
This means your PC, tablet, laptop, phone etc. will have to wait until you are done.
Enjoy every morsel you eat and the food will become more pleasurable.
When you feel relaxed and your cravings are satisfied, there’s less chance of overeating.
5. Overestimate Your Daily Calories
Even if you don’t count calories, it’s still a good idea to always assume you’re eating more than you think you are.And if you’re following a calorie controlled diet and still not losing weight, chances are you’re underestimating.
Add a further 10 percent to your guestimate and you may be surprised.
6. Dial Down the Intensity of Your Workouts
Yes, you read that right.Overtraining and insufficient recovery time can flood your system with a tide of cortisol.
This stress hormone wreaks havoc on your system – destroying fat-burning muscle and shuttling fat straight to your belly.
So how can you exercise and avoid this problem?
One simple solution which removes all the guesswork is to wear a fitness tracker.
Now: let’s assume you’re strength training.
Aim for 85% – 90% of your maximum heart rate while lifting and 60% – 70% while you’re resting between sets.
7. Set Short Term Goals and Write Them Down
Better yet, pin them on the ‘fridge door, pantry or cupboard door – or behind wherever lurks the biggest temptation.Think about what you want to accomplish in just one week.
Yes, it can be beneficial to dream about your ideal body in a year’s time, but only in tandem with achievable short-term goals.
Otherwise you risk losing sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.
8. Toast Your Bread
Another surprising piece of research shows that when you toast bread, you can minimize the effect it has on your blood sugar.Mainstream experts might tell you that the bread you consume is directly stored in your body as fat.
However, this study showed that toasted bread has a lower glycaemic index, which is why it doesn’t cause your blood sugar to spike the way untoasted bread would have.
Another smart tip is to freeze your white bread before you toast it.
This achieves two things:
- The bread stays fresh for longer, so you won’t have to keep spending that much on it.
- Eating bread this way will release just half the amount of glucose into your blood as compared to before. It’s believed that freezing changes the structure of the starch molecules in the bread.
9. Avoid White Carbs
Swap out the likes of white rice and white bread with whole-grain breads and brown rice.One Harvard study discovered that participants who ate two portions of whole grains each day, were 49% less likely to be overweight than eating white carbs.
10. Try This Juice
This magical weight loss juice contains raw honey (4 tsp), water (2 cups), and cinnamon (2 tsp).Here’s how you make it:
Boil the water and then add the cinnamon to it.
Allow the spice to steep in by covering the pot and turning the heat off.
When the water has cooled down and become lukewarm, stir in the honey.
If you don’t let the water cool down before adding honey, the heat will denature the enzymes that are active in it.
Divide it into four parts and consume one part before you go to bed at night.
Then, refrigerate the rest and drink another part in the morning.
Continue this way until you have to make a new batch.
Want to double the calorie burning powers?
Drink the juice on an empty stomach.
11. Slash Your Gym Time
We’ve already agreed how toning down your workout intensity can help.But why stop there?
Cutting your gym time will increase your results even further.
Sounds too good to be true right?
Yet a study from the University of Copenhagen revealed that participants who exercised for 30 minutes lost around 35% more weight compared to the 60 minute control group.
The researchers believe that working out for an hour means you’re more likely to end up slumming it for the rest of the day rather than remaining active.
What’s more, longer workouts give you a psychological reason to reward yourself with a post-workout binge.
12. Eat Protein
Experts have long extoled the benefits of eating protein to lose weight fast.This one study showed that when participants were provided with a diet that contained 15% protein, they consumed 12 per cent less calories as composed to those who had 10 per cent protein in their diet.
The researchers concluded that since our appetites for protein are so strong, we tend to consume more calories in a protein deprived state.
Additionally, if you consume more protein, then you will feel full for longer…which means you’re unlikely to cheat on a diet or between meals.
Best of all, diets that are high in protein also have a low glycemic index, which means you’ll be able to eat until you are full without gaining as much weight.
13. Add Bulk to Your Meals With Veggies
Did you know that you can eat twice as much by using a 1:1 ratio of carb-heavy foods with veggies.Let me explain:
Rather than melting cheese over your pasta, you can eat twice as much for the same amount of calories by swapping out the cheese for vegetables.
Opt for broccoli, carrots, egg plant (aubergine), leeks, cabbage, tomatoes. It’s all good. You really can’t miss.
14. Get Plenty of Sleep
Cravings for all things gooey and fried, skyrockets if you’re sleep deprived, according to a study from the University of Colorado.Researchers agreed that lack of sleep disrupts neural pathways, leading to poor nutritional decisions.
Remember the stress hormone cortisol?
Sleep deprived individuals show elevated levels of this fat-storing hormone.
Two good reasons if ever you needed more, to hit the snooze button.
15. Drink Less Coffee
The problem with our most loved beverage, coffee, is that it can trigger a cycle that keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep.And it gets worse:
This cycle goes on endlessly, and soon you aren’t able to work or focus until you have had a cup of it multiple times a day.
When you drink coffee, you get less sleep, which means when you wake up the next morning, you drink coffee to stay up. See the pattern?
So, how do you go about it?
Gradually…so you don’t lose your head!
If you’re used to having 3 cups of coffee daily, then start by decreasing it to two for one week. The next week go down to one and then none by the third week.
16. Lose the Sweetness
The sugary items in your life work the same way, and adding sugar to your daily java is an even worse idea!Then, before you realize, you’re pairing your sweet latte with a plate of cookies.
If you must indulge, opt for a piece of dark chocolate.
17. Get an Online Weight Loss Buddy
Keeping yourself accountable by telling your family and friends is a great way to stick to your weight loss goals.Astonishingly though…anonymity works even better!
According to a study conducted by the University of Vermont, online weight-loss buddies kept their weight off better than their non-digital counterparts who met face-to-face.
18. Intermittent Fasting
Let’s be clear:Intermittent fasting (IF) is not about starving yourself.
It’s also very different to a conventional diet that restricts the foods you can eat.
Rather, IF dictates when you can eat rather than what you can eat.
In this way, it’s more of an eating plan, than a diet.
I practice IF over the weekend and eat only between midday and 8.00pm that evening. And the effects are truly mind-blowing.
19. Eat Water Rich Foods
Filling up on water before a meal is a well-known weight loss hack.But you’ll double your results by eating water rich foods instead
Why?
Because your body processes hunger and thirst via different mechanisms.
The brain senses fullness from water when it’s ingested as a component of food much more keenly than straight up H2O.
Try eating:
- Soups
- Salads
- Melon
- Zucchini (courgette)
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
20. Strength Train Twice a Week
Muscle is your body’s natural fat burner.And adding strength training to your workout will have a staggering impact on your weight loss.
You’ll turbo-charge your metabolism and burn more calories…even at rest!
Why?
Because muscle burns more calories than fat. More precisely, a pound of muscle burns around 50 calories a day – over 5 times more than fat.
But here’s the kicker:
If you can add an additional 10 pounds of muscle to your frame, then your metabolic rate soars by an extra 500 calories a day!
21. Stop Saying, ‘I Can’t’…Replace With, ‘I Don’t’
None of us like to feel deprived.And by telling yourself that you ‘can’t’ eat something will only reinforce that feeling.
Rather, try saying ‘I Don’t’ when faced with temptation e.g. ‘I don’t eat cakes’.
The subtle psychological shift this word induces puts YOU back in control.
You’re the one making the decision…rather than having it made for you.
22. Stop Drinking Your Calories
The average American gains an extra 250 calories a day from needless consumption of soft drinks.To put that in perspective, that’s a whopping weight gain of 25 pounds a year!
And as we’ve already discussed, drinks simply don’t trigger satiety the way food does.
So ditch the orange juice and soda and opt for a piece of fruit or simply water.
23. Control Your Portions
If you are watching your weight, then portion size matters!Studies indicate that we tend to eat everything on our plate. Even though we’d feel equally as full eating less!
Therefore, stick to the right portions no matter which meal of the day you are having.
And if you are having something that comes out of a bag, then measure the portion beforehand.
Similarly, a smaller plate will make you feel fuller much earlier than a bigger one would even if you eat the same amount of food both times (See Below).
And if you’re out and about…order the smallest possible portions.
24. Avoid All Food That Lists Fructose, Corn Syrup of Sugar in the First Four Ingredients
Ever read the list of ingredients on your favorite prepared food packaging?Much of what we eat nowadays in not actual food: it’s a list of ingredients…some of which are highly dubious.
And among the worst offenders are sugar, fructose and corn syrup.
Avoid them like the plague.
Try and eat as close as possible to single ingredient foods or wholefoods.
Good examples include:
- Wild salmon
- Organic meats
- Free range eggs
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Fruits
- vegetables
- Herbal teas
- Healthy oils such as olive oil
25. Eat the Majority of Your Meals at Home
Not surprisingly, most of us eat more when we dine out.Furthermore, restaurants add tons of hidden fats and salt to make their food taste better, potentially doubling our calorie intake.
Worse still, research published in the Journal of Physiological Behavior revealed that we eat more when we’re in company and surrounded by others.
Be mindful of these facts next time you dine out.
26. Eat With a Companion
Conversely, eating with your better half can have an immediate effect on the amount you eat.Put your fork down between bites and talk to each other about your day.
Sip water regularly.
Chew your food and eat slowly.
As a general rule, it takes your brain up to 20 minutes to register what’s in your stomach.Â
So give it plenty of time to catch up.
27. Swap Sedentary Habits for Walking
These would include watching television or surfing the net.You needn’t go on a total media fast…sacrificing just 30 minutes of Netflix or Facebook can have a huge impact on your weight.
Even if you don’t add walking, studies show a direct correlation between the amount of TV we watch and the amount of food we eat.Â
By simply watching less television, you’ll eat less overall!
Same goes for snacking while you watch your favorite shows.
Studies conclude that people who graze in front of the box tend to eat much more calories overall.
28. Exercise…But Don’t Exercise
When is exercise not exercise?When it’s something you love doing.
Keen gardener? Car fanatic? House proud?
At least once a week, scrub, clean, tidy and wash for a good 30 minutes.
But here’s the key:
Whilst you may enjoy your labor of love…you must still perceive it as exercise.
In a study, hotel maids were asked to think of their cleaning duties as a valid form of exercise.
Those who did, lost a considerable amount more weight.
29. Make Your Social Outings Active
Arrange outings with family and friends so you burn more calories without even knowing.Stumped for ideas?
Here’s a few to get you started:
- Hire a row boat
- Visit a museum or art gallery
- Spend the day sightseeing on foot
- Walk around your favorite shopping mall
- Social sports such as tennis, golf and bowling
- Indoor rock climbing and trampoline centers
30. Use Smaller Plates
Ever noticed how plates and glasses are getting larger?Using a smaller plate may seem like a spurious way to lose weight.
However, this strategy is every bit as legitimate as the all the above points.
In fact, using a smaller plate to lose weight is backed by science.
Research from Cornell University found that downsizing from a 12-inch plate to a 10-inch plate resulted in a 22% decrease in calories.
The illusion created by the smaller plate tricks your mind into eating less without you even realizing it!
How does this translate to real life results?
Well, assuming you’re eating 2,000 calories a day, this one simple strategy would result in a loss of one pound every 8 days.
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