10 Best Kept Weight Loss Secrets
Losing weight can be challenging for many people. Maintaining a healthy weight can also be hard.
However, there are plenty of secrets and deeply rooted traditions for weight loss from around the world.
Conventional weight loss tips may not be effective for some people, so these tips can surprisingly work wonders.
An important thing to remember is that there isn’t an actual “secret” that will help you lose weight in a day.
All of these tips can help you switch to a healthy lifestyle and start seeing results long-term, but none of these are magic and they won’t be able to help you unless you actually decide you’re ready to commit to a healthy lifestyle (without torturing yourself).
10 Best Kept Weight Loss Secrets
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is an eating plan where you switch between eating periods and fasting periods. The most common one is eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 hours.
IF has many health benefits, and weight loss is definitely one of them.
The good thing about Intermittent Fasting is that there are no foods you can’t eat or a specific limit to your intake of calories a day. The only rule is that you limit your eating to a specific time period (as I mentioned, 8 hours is most common). However, if you want to lose weight long-term and maintain it, you definitely should eat healthily. If you only eat fast food in those 8 hours, it probably won’t do you any good.
You can choose yourself when that period will be. Some choose to eat from 9 am to 5 pm, some from 11 am to 7 pm, and some choose a different time period that best works for them.
Drink Water & Tea
Drinking water and tea is not only great for your overall health, but it can also help you lose weight if you drink them often.
Green and black tea are especially good for burning fat.
A study has shown that people who regularly drank oolong tea (long term) lost a pound a week without doing anything else in order to lose weight.
So, drinking tea can definitely have a positive impact if you want to burn calories more efficiently.
And we all know water intake is one of the most crucial parts of anyone’s health journey.
Eat Mindfully
This tip may not sound like much, but it’s actually very important. Eating mindfully means listening to your body. Eating when you’re hungry, but stopping when you’re not.
For example, many of us eat when we’re bored or stressed. But in those times we don’t feel actual hunger, we just want to eat to calm our nerves or to do something while we’re bored. So, by practicing mindful eating, you’ll learn how to listen to your body and figure out if you’re actually hungry or not.
Another thing you’ll learn to avoid when practicing mindful eating is overeating just because it’s on your plate. Sometimes we fill up our plates too much without realizing it, and we tend to eat everything on the plate, even though we might have been full after half of the plate already. So, eat slowly, listen to your body, and don’t eat more than you need in order to satisfy your hunger.
This definitely isn’t a fast weight loss tip that’ll help you lose weight in a week, but for long-term weight loss, this is a great thing to start practicing.
Make A Plan
Making a weight loss plan is probably one of the best things you can do. Your weight loss plan should include a meal plan and a physical activity plan.
Decide how you want to reach your goal weight and your fitness goal.
What foods you’ll be eating, how often you’ll be exercising, all of it.
Knowing what to do will make it easier to actually do it and stick to it. It will help you avoid weight gain because you’ll know what to do and what to avoid.
Your eating plan can include stuff like:
Avoid fast food,
Eat more veggies,
Drink more water,
Eat lean protein (chicken, salmon, etc.), good fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, etc.), veggies, and fruits,
A meal plan you’ll follow,
etc.
Your physical activity plan could include stuff like:
Exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 4 times per week,
Take a walk every day,
Find a form of physical activity you enjoy,
Take the stairs instead of the elevator,
etc.
These are obviously just some suggestions, but you should create a plan based on your needs, goals, bodies, and health.
Deciding to exercise will help you build muscle, burn calories and burn fat, and overall look better.
And eating better will help you be healthy, lose weight like you want to, have better blood sugar, feel better, and so much more.
Occasional fast food won’t do any permanent damage as long as your overall diet is healthy. So, if you’re really craving a cheeseburger and you haven’t had it in a while, go for it. Just make sure your other meals are healthy, you’re exercising, and that you’re overall leading a healthy lifestyle.
Get Healthy Snacks
Instead of snacking on chips and fries, why don’t you try a healthy snack? You can make homemade hummus and dip some veggies in it. Or you can make some chickpeas with a bit of olive oil and snack on that. Or, you can make mini cucumber “sandwiches”. Or, make your own veggie chips.
There are tons of healthy snacks out there, so if you love snacking and it’s causing you to gain weight, this tip can be a huge help.
You can cut up some veggies, such as carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, and have them ready in the fridge. So, when you see you’re starting to crave a snack, try snacking on those. You might be craving the feeling of having something to snack on and not the actual unhealthy snack you’re used to.
Nuts are also a great way to have something salty, tasty, and crunchy when you want a snack. Nuts are higher in fats usually, but those are good fats, and we need them.
Create Healthy Habits
Creating healthy habits is the key when it comes to losing weight and maintaining it long-term. You can’t expect to go on a crazy and intensive diet and to be able to do that daily for years.
Instead, make smaller changes, and turn them into habits.
Start drinking more water.
Start exercising.
Start eating breakfast instead of skipping it.
Start drinking more water.
Start walking more.
There are so many small habits you can develop that will help you lose weight and stay healthy.
Walk More
Instead of taking your car everywhere, try walking more. If you have time, walk to the destination instead of driving. It’s a small change that will help you get some physical activity, which will help you lose weight, look better, tone up, burn calories, and so much more.
Walking truly has many health benefits and people don’t take advantage of that enough.
There are a few ways you can start walking more.
One way is the way I already suggested - walk instead of taking your car. If the destination isn’t too far, and you have time, it’s a great solution. You can walk to your work, to your nail appointment, to your school, to the restaurant, wherever you’re going.
However, if the destination is too far, or you just don’t have time at that moment for a 30-minute walk, you can find a time during the day to take a walk around the block or the nearest part. It can be a shorter walk when you’re busy. Even a 15-minute walk is better than no walk.
Make Your Own Food
Making your own food instead of buying it can have a huge impact on your weight loss journey, and it’s one of the best weight loss tips you can get.
By making your own food, you know exactly what’s in it. You know the ingredients you use are good and clean, and there are no surprises.
You’re also avoiding having to order something hungry, and ordering food when you’re hungry can often lead to ordering fast food.
By making it yourself, you can choose to make healthy foods that go along with the meal plan you made.
You can also do meal prepping. A lot of people find it easier to stick to a healthy diet if they prepare the food upfront. That way, you have healthy food ready whenever you’re hungry, you won’t need to stress about what to make every day, and you’ll always know what to get at the grocery store.
When coming up with a meal plan, just make sure you’re creating balanced meals that will give you all of the nutrients your body needs.
Find Healthier Substitutes
A great way to make a healthy diet easier on yourself is to find healthier substitutes for foods you like.
For example, try a lettuce wrap instead of a regular wrap.
Try a cauliflower pizza instead of a regular pizza.
Try dried fruit instead of a chocolate.
Try zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti.
Change Your Mindset
Changing your mindset is probably one of the first things you need to do. You need to think of this change you’re making as a lifestyle, not as a short-term diet. You want to switch to a healthy lifestyle and lose weight in a healthy way (and be able to maintain it), and not just lose weight fast and gain it all back.
When you start thinking of these changes as something permanent and not temporary, it will be easier to actually stick to them.