Many people want to look slim and fit, but not everyone is ready to diet and sweat in the gym. Fortunately, you can stay in shape not only through dietary restrictions and exercise.
Recent scientific research proves that a person’s weight is influenced by seemingly insignificant and even surprising, at first glance, factors.
We'll tell you what simple life hacks will help you lose weight without putting in much effort.
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Don't stay up late
The quality of sleep is fundamentally important for human health in general. Interestingly, the lack of night rest is reflected not only on the face of a sleep-deprived person, but also on the scales.
The fact is that during sleep the body spends an average of 50-70 kcal per hour, with the main energy costs occurring in the first half of the night. Therefore, those who care about weight should go to bed early.
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During sleep, the body actively produces hormones responsible for metabolism. Regular lack of sleep leads to hormonal imbalance and poor digestion. Food is less digestible, which contributes to the appearance of extra pounds.
In addition, lack of sleep increases the level of ghrelin, a hormone responsible for the feeling of hunger. Therefore, a person who does not get enough sleep wants to eat more often. In addition, the body tries to compensate for the lack of energy with foods high in sugar, which also negatively affects the figure.
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Losing weight with water
Why is it so much easier to lose weight in summer than at other times of the year? Due to increased physical activity or consumption of large amounts of vegetables and fruits? Nutritionists assure that easy weight loss during the hot period occurs due to changes in the drinking regime. A person consists of 80% water, which delivers all the necessary nutrients and oxygen to the body’s cells. A lack of clean fluid slows down your metabolism and prevents you from losing excess weight.
Water is a wonderful solvent with which you can cleanse yourself of accumulated toxins and decay products. People who drink 1.5 liters of clean water per day feel worse than those who drink more than 2 liters. In 3-10 days of a water diet you can get rid of 3-8 kilograms (it all depends on the initial weight and metabolism).
The essence of the diet is to nourish the body with water, clean liquid. During the water diet, tea and coffee drinks, alcohol, soda and juices containing sugar are excluded. The water should be at room temperature; it must be drunk 20-25 minutes before meals (to fill the stomach and reduce hunger) and 30 minutes after (so as not to interfere with the digestion process). The feeling of thirst is easy to confuse with hunger, so before you eat something, you should drink a glass of clean water.
Sleep in complete darkness
By the way, the quality of sleep is not always determined by its duration. To help your body recover properly, you need to sleep in complete darkness. Close curtains tightly, turn off all flickering lights from chargers, monitors and other devices. Or use a sleep mask.
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Extraneous light, even not very bright, disrupts circadian rhythms and negatively affects the production of hormones. Experiments with animals showed that individuals who slept with a constantly flashing light bulb, with the same diet, gained weight faster than those who slept in complete darkness.
The best exercises for the body
There are hundreds of exercises you can do without any equipment, just using your own body weight. These are all compound exercises, meaning they use multiple muscle groups at the same time. They are best for weight loss because they burn more calories while you are doing them. The higher the intensity and the more challenging you are, the more calories you will burn doing them.
Lower body exercises:
- Squat-jump
- Single leg squats
- Jump-lunge
- Bike
- Bridge
Upper body exercises:
- Push ups
- Pull-ups
- Falls
- Handstand push-ups
Basic exercises:
- Plank
- Side plank
There are many variations of these bodyweight exercises, but when you're just starting out, the basics are all you need. Once you have mastered these steps, you can begin to enable more complex versions.
Take sunbathing
If at night it is really better to isolate the room from extraneous lights, then immediately after waking up, on the contrary, it is worth opening the curtains and letting sunlight into the room.
If you are exposed to the sun's rays for 20-30 minutes every morning, you can greatly help your body in the fight against excess weight. This is confirmed by the results of a study by scientists from Northwestern University in the USA. The fact is that sunlight ideally adjusts a person’s biological clock, thereby activating metabolism and all internal processes in the body.
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How to lose weight
30. Next time it snows a lot, add a plus to your karma and dig out your neighbor's car.
31. Play music and dance while cooking.
At work
32. Drink more water. You will have to get up every time.
33. Squat near your chair for 15 seconds every hour.
34. Keep a small glass glass of water on your desk that needs to be refilled regularly. Skip the big plastic bottle.
35. Stand up every time you talk on the phone.
36. If you have a work meeting, hold it in the farthest offices.
37. Buy a plant to take care of in your office. This will make you more active.
Choose dishes in “unappetizing” colors
To prevent weight gain, it is important to establish control over the amount of food consumed. Strange, but scientifically based tricks will help with this. Thus, according to colorists, dishes in blue, purple, gray and black colors significantly reduce appetite, but red, yellow and green plates, on the contrary, provoke you to eat as much as possible.
Contrasting food and utensils will also help reduce portions. American scientists have proven that a person will eat 30% more pasta in tomato sauce if it is served on a red plate rather than a white one.
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Losing weight without the gym
Circuit training is one of the best ways to build strength and endurance and burn calories. It's ideal for home workouts that don't involve equipment. If you design your workout correctly, you can combine your workouts throughout the day in one fell swoop.
Choose several exercises for all major muscle groups and perform one set of each exercise without resting in between. You can either do a certain number of repetitions—10 or 15, for example—or you can set the timer interval to 30 seconds to one minute. When the timer beeps, move on to the next exercise.
At the end of the round, rest for a minute or two, then repeat. You can start with two rounds and work up to four to six.
Eat from small plates
Another easy way to trick your stomach while eating is to use smaller dishes. It has been proven that a portion of the same size on a large plate is eaten much faster than on a small one. This effect was discovered back in the 19th century and was called the Delboeuf illusion.
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Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted a study that confirmed this theory. It turned out that reducing the diameter of the plate by 5 cm allows you to eat 22% less food. Thus, a simple technique will help you lose about 5 kg in a year.
How quickly will the results of natural weight loss appear without exercise and fasting?
According to the rules of proper nutrition, the calorie content of the menu cannot be reduced by more than 20%. This threatens exhaustion and disruption of the functionality of many organs. Based on this, the energy value of the diet can be reduced by no more than 500 kcal.
Important! According to nutritionists, to get rid of 1 kg of fat, you need to burn 8000 kcal.
If the calorie deficit for passive weight loss is 500 kcal, then a person will lose about 400 g of total body weight per week. That is, in 4 weeks you can get rid of only 1.5 kg. This is the downside of the “lazy” diet.
Minimal physical activity will help improve results. Jogging for half an hour will help you get rid of 300-400 kcal. If a person walks about 7 km every day, the fat burning process will accelerate.
You can quickly get rid of excess weight at home by doing everyday things. This could be cleaning, washing floors, windows, working in the country, dancing, etc. Then you can get rid of 700 g to 1 kg per week.
This is interesting! With regular intense training combined with proper nutrition, a person can lose 8 kg in 7 days.
Don't rush while eating
In the modern rhythm of life, snacks on the run and express lunches have long become the norm, but experts advise, if possible, not to rush while eating. As a rule, real satiety occurs earlier than we feel it, since the signal from the stomach to the brain comes with a slight delay.
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In order not to eat too much, you need to stretch out the pleasure, eat in small pieces and savor the taste of the dishes. Moreover, this advice will only benefit the digestive system.
Homemade preparation
In addition to drinking, of course, you should also take care of nutrition. With the advent of fast food restaurants and grocery stores, many people have forgotten what it's like to take lunch to work from home. And completely in vain. After all, ready-made purchased food, as a rule, is as high in calories and harmful as possible. And, of course, it doesn’t add any slimness.
It's much better and easier to bring a lunch from home that won't take much time to prepare but will be a great healthy alternative. An excellent solution would be a light salad of fresh vegetables and herbs, chicken broth, and sandwiches made from whole grain bread with chicken and vegetables. Such a lunch will provide everything necessary to maintain a person’s performance. And it won’t be too high in calories. There are many options for homemade healthy lunches, and you can choose easy-to-follow recipes that won’t take much time.
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Try products with the “fifth taste”
Proper diet is one of the main factors influencing a person’s weight. But to maintain a slim figure, it is not at all necessary to go on strict diets and count every calorie. Some foods can have such an effective effect on the body that even a slight increase in their consumption helps you lose weight.
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A similar property is observed in products that have “umami” (Japanese for “pleasant taste”), or the “fifth taste.” This category includes, among others, mushrooms, seaweed, green tea and tomatoes. The Japanese believe that the taste of these products does not fit into the framework of the four main ones: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. The secret of umami food is the high content of natural monosodium glutamate, which enhances the taste sensation. American scientists have found that after eating foods with the fifth taste, the feeling of fullness lasts longer.
Is it necessary to exercise when losing weight?
First, you need to understand that the process of weight loss is activated by a calorie deficit. Therefore, it is necessary to spend more than to consume. Physical exercise undoubtedly burns calories, but proper nutrition remains an important component of a beautiful figure. It is enough to correctly adjust your diet, and you will not need to torture yourself with grueling workouts to burn extra calories.
Celebrity nutritionists are ready to reveal the secret to the slimness of Hollywood TV stars. It's all about strict adherence to the basic requirements of proper nutrition and drinking balance. 80% of success depends on it, while sports account for only 20%.
It is important to note that in this case we are talking about healthy eating, and not about hunger strikes and strict diets. They only help you temporarily get rid of extra pounds, which are guaranteed to return to you in double size soon. You can only reduce your kcal intake by 20%, otherwise you risk getting a whole bunch of diseases along with your beautiful figure.
A proper diet should include proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It is preferable to make a choice in favor of protein foods. It makes you feel full for a long time, thereby reducing the likelihood of unplanned snacking. However, this does not mean that carbohydrates and fats can be excluded. With PP, this is unacceptable, since a deficiency in the body of one of these components threatens serious health problems. If you have switched to a healthy diet, it will be useful to learn to distinguish between simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple ones (found in confectionery, pasta, white bread) are the enemies of your figure. Complex foods (cereals, cereals, vegetables), on the contrary, saturate the body with energy.
