Top 5 Weight Loss Strategies
Top 5 Weight Loss Strategies You (Probably) Aren’t Trying Yet
When we think about losing weight, our minds often go straight to the usual suspects: This means cutting calories, sweating it out at the gym, or following the latest diet trend. What if I told you that there are simple yet overlooked strategies that can totally change your weight loss journey? It’s easy to adopt these techniques, and it helps you stay on track without feeling too overwhelmed.
Now let’s explore the Top 5 weight loss strategies you’re probably not trying yet, but should!
Start Your Day with More Protein
We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what you choose to eat for breakfast can make or break your weight loss efforts. Instead of grabbing something sugary like cereal or a muffin, try starting your day with a protein-packed meal.
Why It Works:
Protein has a unique way of reducing hunger and keeping you fuller for longer. It not only helps to stabilize blood sugar but also reduces the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin, making you less likely to overeat later in the day. Foods high in protein take longer to digest, which means you stay satisfied for longer.
What to Try:
- Eggs: Eggs are a great source of protein no matter if you eat them scrambled, boiled, or in an omelet.
- Greek Yogurt: Greek yoghurt is a high protein, low sugar option for a heavy breakfast.
- Protein Smoothies: If you’re looking for a nutritious, quick first meal of your day, blend a scoop of protein powder with some fruits and veggies.
Protein for breakfast means no such thing as mid-morning hunger pangs and you’re ready to go from the get-go.
Slow Down and Chew Your Food Mindfully
Have you had a meal, and thought, ‘I didn’t eat that much, did I?’ This is usually a result of eating too fast or when we’re distracted. The practice of mindful eating is a way to slow down when you eat, reducing consumption to match. Chewing your food slowly helps your body digest it and tells you whether you’re hungry or full.
Why It Works:
So it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to tell your stomach you are full. If you eat too fast, you tend to eat more than you need because you haven’t allowed your brain enough time to catch up. SLOWLY chewing allows you to enjoy your meal, and control your portion sizes.
How to Practice Mindful Eating:
- Between bites, put down your fork.
- Weave your food’s taste, texture, and smell into a moody chorus that can be heard in this world but is most crucial to those on the other side.
- Don’t eat distractions—like watching TV or looking at your phone.
- Occasionally taking deep breaths in between bites will help slow you down.
Eating less without feeling deprived can be as simple as how you eat.
Use Smaller Plates and Bowls for Portion Control
One of the easiest ways to control your eating is to simply change the size of your plates and bowls. A study shows that if you use diminished dinnerware, the brain seems to think you are eating more than you are. When you have a big plate, you fill it up, thus eating more than you need to.
Why It Works:
But visual cues based on how much food we get for money are critical to understanding how much we’re eating. On large plates, we tend to use lots of food, but when our portion is small, we tend to ‘cross up’ by piling more food. This makes a portion look bigger on a smaller plate and thus you will feel you’re eating the right amount because the plate appears to be right.
How to Implement:
- Get rid of the massive dinner plates, and replace them with salad plates.
- For snacks and such, use smaller bowls.
- Try using a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon.
It’s an excellent and extremely effective strategy that allows you to not feel you’re depriving yourself when you portion your food.
Hydrate Before Every Meal
Did you know it’s sometimes not hunger, but having no gumption to get up and have something to drink? Drinking water before eating will reduce your hunger and help you avoid overeating. Before you eat, hydrating a little fills up your stomach a bit more, and you feel fuller and eat fewer calories.
Why It Works:
Stretched stomach a little early when drinking water before meals, which your brain is already aware of the size of your stomach, thus telling them to come sooner, making you feel the fullness earlier. And extra hydration will help digest your food more effectively and reduce bloating—helpful on the road to weight loss. And many people mistake dehydration for hunger which can make you snack when you don’t necessarily need to.
How to Implement:
- About 30 minutes before each meal, drink a glass of water.
- Keep a reusable water bottle with you to keep drinking water from morning till night.
- You look for at least 8 glasses of water a day, but more is recommended if you’re exercising.
- This simple trick will not only help you control hunger but will also contribute to your overall health.
Prioritize Sleep for Better Weight Management
If you’re thinking of losing weight the usual advice is to eat less and exercise more but what about ignoring sleep entirely? But lack of sleep messes with your hormones around hunger and appetite. Your body starts to produce more ghrelin, the hormone that makes us feel hungry, and less leptin, the hormone that tells us we’re full if we don’t get enough sleep. It can cause overeating as well as cravings for sugary, high-calorie foods.
Why It Works:
Why It Works:
Stable hormones will help you get enough sleep. It reduces cravings and even stabilizes your appetite. It also happens to be that when you are well rested, you have more energy to exercise and eat healthier in the first place.
Tips for Better Sleep:
- Establish a consistent bedtime routine (go to bed and wake up at the same time every day).
- Limit screen time before bed. The blue light from devices will disrupt your body’s natural sleep cycle.
- To create a perfectly sleep-inducing environment, keep your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet.
Sleeping more helps you get more done, not less, and reduces the risk of developing depression (which can put your weight on the fritz), amongst other things.
Conclusion
That doesn’t mean you can’t lose weight and not have it be stressful or complicated. The key to losing weight in a healthy, sustainable manner is saying no to sugary drinks, making healthier choices at lunch, picking the righteous yogurt (a fat burner), paying attention during meals, stepping on the scale daily, walking or working out, doing squats, choosing noisier plates, taking peanut butter, exercising more, ditching booze, ingesting greener when buying a salad, choosing no juice.
These top 5 weight loss strategies are super simple but are often overlooked, sometimes they are the difference in unlocking you results you have been trying to shake for so long. Every little step matters! Today, why not try one (or all) of these top 5 weight loss strategies? And you might be surprised by the difference it makes!
You can read our Other Blogs as well