Weight loss is one of the hardest and most desired things among youngsters today. Seeing the growing urge to lose weight, many fitness centers and agencies come up with workout and diet plans daily, which gets overwhelming at times. If you have ever tried one, you know what we mean. Along with its benefits, there are a lot of myths involved in this industry, which, in a way, misleads people seeking weight loss. They are said to adapt things that are quite crazy with least or no evidence behind them.
We, in this blog, have got you some of the tested and best ways to lose weight that can be effective if followed dedicatedly.
20 Best Ways to Lose Weight
1. Drink plenty of water
You might have heard people advising to drink more water, especially before meals, to reduce weight. Well, this one is 100% tested! Drinking sufficient water boosts your metabolism by around 25-30%over 1-1.5 hours, which ultimately helps you burn off extra calories.
As per verified studies, drinking 17 ounces (half a liter) of water half-an-hour before every meal helped people eat lesser calories, losing over 44% weight as compared to people who don’t practice this process.
2. Include eggs in your breakfast
Try including whole eggs for breakfast as along with its wonderful health benefits, it helps you lose weight. By replacing a grain-based breakfast with whole eggs, you will be consuming fewer calories for the following 36 hours. You also lose body fat and weight.
If you are a pure vegetarian, you can include a high-protein element in your daily breakfast.
3. Drink black coffee
Sadly, coffee has been demonized for long now, but quality coffee is replete in antioxidants that offer several health benefits, one of them is helping you maintain a balanced weight. The caffeine content in coffee is believed to increase your metabolism by 3-11% and boosts fat burning up to 29%.
Make sure you don’t add a lot of sugar to your coffee, as it can negate all the benefits. If your taste favors, try having a cup of black coffee every day or at least on alternate days.
4. Drink Green Tea
Green tea is considered the best of all the beverages you can consume for weight loss. Even though it contains some amount of caffeine, green tea is full of beneficial antioxidants that increase fat burning. Studies inferred mixed evidence, but most of them showed green tea is good for losing weight.
5. Get into intermittent fasting
With several types of diet plans suggested by fitness experts, intermittent fasting is the most famous eating pattern, which includes maintaining a cycle between the periods of eating and fasting. Most short-term studies report that intermittent fasting is a beneficial way of weight loss as it restricts calorie intake continuously.
Moreover, it can also reduce muscle mass loss, particularly related to low-calorie diets. However, for stronger claims, more studies and research are needed to be done.
6. Start taking a Glucomannan Supplement
Glucomannan is a fiber associated with weight loss in various studies by experts. It is a type of fiber that absorbs water and stays in your gut for longer, keeping you full, so you consume fewer calories. As per studies, people including glucomannan supplement lose more weight than the ones who don’t.
7. Cut down added sugar
In a modern diet, added sugar is considered the worst element, but most of us consume it knowingly and unknowingly. According to proven research, consuming high-fructose corn syrup and sugar is one of the reasons behind obesity and some health issues such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
If you are looking forward to losing weight, cut down your added sugar intake. Never skip reading the labels on packaged foods (if possible, avoid packaged foods altogether). Even some of the health foods also contain added sugar ingredients.
8. Reduce consumption of refined carbs
If you do not know, refined carbohydrates have grains and sugar that lack their nutritious and fibrous parts. Some of the examples of refined carbs are pasta and white bread.
In several studies, it is reported that refined carbs can cause your blood sugar levels to increase faster, leading to cravings, hunger, and more food intake just after a few hours. Refined carbohydrates are strongly related to obesity.
If you eat carbs, ensure they have their natural fiber intact.
9. Go on a Keto diet
Also known as the low-carb diet, a ketogenic diet is a commitment you make to have the complete benefits of restricting the number of carbs in your daily diet. A low-carb diet not only helps you lose weight 2-3 times what you would reduce going on a low-fat diet but improves your health as well.
10. Use smaller plates for meals
This might sound funny to you, but several reports suggest that people automatically reduced their calorie-intake by replacing their regular eating plates with a smaller one. However, it won’t affect everyone the same way. People who are overweight can see the maximum changes in their weight.
11. Count your calories or start portion control
Counting your daily calorie intake and or just eating less (portion control) is proven to be very useful for weight loss. In a few studies, maintaining a food diary or clicking photos of your food can help in losing weight. How? It draws your attention to what you are eating and how it affects your health.
12. Keep healthy snacks for those untimed cravings
Keeping healthy food around prevents you from eating anything unhealthy when you get those pangs of hunger. Snacks such as blue carrots, whole fruits, nuts, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, etc. are suggested to be the best picks when looking for easy to carry and easy-to-prepare snacks.
13. Add probiotic supplements to your diet
Consuming probiotic supplements with Lactobacillus subfamily bacteria is proven to minimize the fat mass in your body. But remember, it doesn’t apply to all the Lactobacillus species. In some studies, L. acidophilus is linked with weight gain.
14. Eat spicy foods
You might not know, but chili peppers have a spicy compound called capsaicin that boosts metabolism and controls your appetite to some extent. However, once you get accustomed to its effects, its long-term effectiveness gets limited. So, plan your diet likewise.
15. Start doing aerobics
Aerobic exercise or cardio is one of the best workouts for weight loss. It burns calories, improves your mental and physical health. Adapting aerobics as a daily exercise helps to lose the belly fat, which is the unhealthy fat, causing metabolic disease. It builds up around your organs.
16. Lift weights
You might think dieting is the most effective way of losing weight, but excessive dieting can have some of the worst side-effects you can never imagine. It causes a metabolic slowdown and muscle loss, which is often referred to as starvation mode.
To prevent getting into the starvation mode, include some kind of resistant exercises like weight lifting. According to expert studies, lifting weight helps to balance your metabolism and prevents loss of muscle mass. After all, weight loss is important, but building muscle is too, for a well-toned body.
17. Include more fiber foods in your diet
Many health and fitness experts recommend eating more amount of fiber to lose weight. Although studies show mixed evidence, there are some that say fiber tends to boost satiety and controls weight for a longer time.
18. Eat more fruits and veggies
Fruits and vegetables are healthy food having many properties that make them beneficial for losing weight. Firstly, they contain lots of fiber and fewer calories. Secondly, their high water content keeps you full for long as they become low-energy density.
According to studies, people eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables weigh less than those who don’t. These are nutritious food that must be included in your healthy balanced diet.
19. Get enough good sleep
In today’s youth, sleep is a greatly underrated and ignored subject, but it is highly important for weight loss, just as exercising and healthy food habits. As per reports from expert studies, poor sleep or lesser hours of sleep is one of the biggest risk factors of obesity. Records from surveys say that poor sleep causes 89% more risk of obesity in kids and 55% in adults. That’s scary!
20. Fight your food addiction
In recent studies, 19.9% of North Americans and Europeans are found victims of food addiction. If you have to deal with overpowering food cravings and find it difficult to curb your bad eating habits, you are a victim of food addiction. If you relate to this, it is time to seek professional help. You need to do it before getting on the weight loss regime.
Yoga Asanas for Weight Loss
In addition to the above-mentioned weight loss tips, yoga for weight loss is also a great idea. Check out these yoga asanas to get started:
1. Surya Namaskar
Suryanamaskar or Sun Salutation (its literal translation) is a widely practiced yoga asanas across the world. It includes a series of 12 steps (different yoga poses) that focus on different parts of your body. This makes it an all-in-one yoga asana. Some of the 12 poses include the basic prayer pose, bhujangasana, and the forward bend.
As per yoga experts, It is a great way to have an active body as it focuses on almost all the areas of your body. It strengthens your skeletal system and aids in controlling anxiety and stress.
2. Veerabhadrasana or warrior pose
The second on the list of yoga asanas for weight loss is the veerabhadrasana or the warrior pose. You first need to get the mountain pose right and then stretch one of your legs back and the other leg lunging with your knee positioned at 90 degrees. All this while, your hands must be stretched above your head.
If your body allows, you can proceed further to the warrior pose 2 or veerabhadrasana II, where you can bring your hands near (in front of) your chest with your leg straightened (the one which was stretched), pointing outwards, keeping the other leg at 90 degrees. Keep both the arms stretched wide apart outwards.
Veerabhadrasana works well on your thighs, legs, arms and back. It boosts blood circulation.
3. Trikonasana or triangular pose
Start this pose keeping your legs wide apart, turn your right foot out and stretch your arms out. It should be wide open so that it pushes the right side of your waistline over the right leg. Now go down slowly, facing downwards. Place your right palm on a block (if reaching the ground seems difficult), keeping your left arm stretched upwards. The triangular pose works on the sides of your body, thighs and arms.
4. Purvottanasana or upward plank
This one might be a difficult pose initially, but the effects are wonderful. So, you won’t regret the pain and efforts put in to learn the asana. Sit with legs stretched right in front, put your hands at the back of your hips, pointing towards feet. Now, point towards your feet and try raising up your body. Raise it from the tailbone and pull your head backward. In appearance, it is the opposite position of what you get in before doing push up.
This asana works on your back, arms, spine, shoulders, wrists and fortifies your muscles. It is also good for the respiratory system. It improves your body’s core strength as it works on your inner thighs, legs and hips.
5. Bridge pose
Lie down with your hands stretched on the sides and fold your knees. Spread your knees out and try raising your body from the pelvis. With the support of your hands, hold the position for as long as you can. This is a brilliant yoga asana for your thighs, stomach, back and hips.
6. Boat pose
In this pose or asana, you need to lie down on your back and go into a V-shaped pose that resembles a boat. Try to hold the pose for around 10 seconds and keep increasing the bar as you become a pro in the asana. It is worth trying to reduce the stubborn fat on your belly.
To sum up
Weight loss is very important for most of us and among the hundreds of solutions in the weight loss industry, most are myths. We hope these best ways to reduce weight loss and yoga asanas help you get the perfect body you desire.