What you can expect from this blog
This blog gives you insightful weight loss diet tips and tricks that are proven by industrial experts and leveraged by fitness enthusiasts around the globe. With an array of misconceptions surrounding the topic, we have taken it upon ourselves to create a list of proven methods that result in rapid weight loss.
Hydration, Order of Eating, Healthy Snacking, Patience, Reward System, Good Quality Sleep, Slow Eating, Food Journaling, Meal Prepping, Not Skipping Meals, Portion Control, Limiting Alcohol, Adding Fiber to Diet, Walking, and Seeking Professional Guidance are points that have been briefly explained in the blog, elucidating what they will do and why you need to incorporate these practices into your routine.
Introduction
The journey towards a fit and healthy lifestyle is never easy. It can oftentimes come with truckloads of fear, uncertainty, and self-doubt. Today, we see fitness influencers say that the best ways to lose weight in a couple of days that promoted losing weight through a celery juice cleanse and a weight loss gummy. Needless to say, it is baffling to see this ignorant advice and misconception openly being advertised to the masses. In fact, pick up any weight loss book and you will find a plethora of ways that would claim to be the best ways to lose weight, some proven to be effective and others, eh, simply bogus!
So, which advice should you really believe?
Take our word for it, weight loss is not rocket science and does not have to be difficult. We are firm believers that eating healthy does not translate to eating bland or untasty food, rather it is the minuscule changes in your lifestyle that drive you towards that goal. Through professional guidance and advice can you truly navigate through these challenging obstacles and shed the weight in a healthy and sustainable manner.
Check out our weight loss programs, for instance, Our team of highly qualified registered dietitians build a customised diet plan for weight loss considering your body type and closely monitor the progress at each step. We do this because we understand that everybody’s needs and requirements are different and generalized diets can only get you so far.
Through our experience and expertise in the field of health and nutrition for decades now, we have curated a list of 15 weight loss hacks that truly work like magic! It’s as simple as it sounds. You'll just have to learn some simple food hacks and implement them in your life and before you know it, you’ll be shedding off kilos as you’ve always wanted to.
1) Stay Hydrated
Water can be really helpful in your weight loss journey. It has 0 calories, helps suppress your appetite, and burns fat faster. Ideally one should have 8 glasses of water daily.
Sometimes, thirst can mask itself as hunger so if you’re feeling hungry, drink a glass of water before eating and you will automatically see your portion size decrease.
Although hydration throughout the day is important, make sure to avoid drinking water during and immediately after your meals. We suggest waiting for 1 hour after and 30 minutes before your meals to resume your water intake.
2) Order of Eating
Although there is no replacement for a healthy diet and portion control while losing weight, order of eating could be a close second.
You should keep this golden rule in mind at all times if you want effective and quick weight loss - Veggies first, Proteins second, and Carbs last. Eating in this order controls the glycaemic index of the entire meal.
It is very important to taper carbs and end your day with a protein-rich meal. Your last meal should have a lot of protein for satiety as it stays in your GI tract for a long time thus, making you feel less hungry.
3) Healthy Snacking
Stocking on healthy snacks for those late-night hunger pangs can save you from consuming hundreds of unwanted calories. Keeping healthier alternatives in your lounge area will prevent you from ordering food or preparing an unhealthy snack in your kitchen.
Make sure to check the nutritive value of the snacks you pick out. Some “ready to eat” healthy snacks are being sold to millions of people worldwide as alternatives to fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. However, only a few are aware that most of the products in these segments are a sham - They are advertised to be “fat free” but are filled with sugar.
Also, you have to make sure to look at portion size and micro and macro information. Let’s say you buy a healthy chips packet that weighs 500 gm. Right off the bat, you would notice that they have advertised it in a sly and clever way, elucidating that each serving is approximately 150 calories and contains only x% of fats and sugars. This can be very misleading if the consumer does not pay heed to the actual serving size mentioned on the back of the packaging, which in most cases is 1/4th of the whole pack. So always do your math and don’t fall prey to these marketing schemes.
4) Patience goes a long way
The result of perseverance and hard work will never disappoint you. However, it is key to set realistic, achievable, and sustainable goals. Eg: Set a goal of losing 3 kgs in a month as opposed to 20 kgs in a year. This will keep you motivated and on track.
Patiently working on your stress and anxiety levels can also help in regulating your hormones.
There are no shortcuts to healthy weight loss, you have to look at the bigger picture. If you take a shortcut, the benefits would also be short-lived. Please note that it took you years and years to get to this weight, so you have to give yourself some time to lose that as well.
5) Rewarding Yourself
When you celebrate your accomplishments, you are reassured that you are capable of reaching your goals. A reward system can keep you motivated in many ways. It makes your progress more focused and purposeful.
You need not always reward yourself in the shape of a cheat meal. Instead, you can reward yourself in the form of buying a dress that you always wanted but felt that you could not fit in, or a makeover at your favorite salon.
Always make sure to be your biggest cheerleader because, at the end of the day, you are the one who gets to live your best life through your journey of healthy weight loss.
6) Good Quality Sleep
This is not something that a lot of people would know about but you should always prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to sleep.
You may sleep in an uncomfortable position for 9 hours and wake up feeling groggy, however, a good 6-hour sound sleep can have you feeling energetic and ready for the day.
Try and establish a conducive environment for good quality sleep. When you don’t sleep well, your stress hormone - also known as cortisol enhances and there is a huge imbalance between ghrelin (a hormone that tells you have an empty stomach ) and leptin (a hormone that tells you that you are full ). This imbalance can oftentimes result in unnecessary overindulgence.
7) Eat Slowly
A growing number of studies state that just by eating slower, you consume fewer calories — in fact, enough to lose 20 pounds a year without doing anything different or eating anything different.
To eat slowly is to eat better. It has a lot of benefits - better digestion, greater satiety, better hydration, and rapid weight loss. It also enhances the levels of leptin.
It also promotes thorough chewing. Calorie intake is decreased by a whopping 9.5% when people chew their food well.
8) Keep a Food Journal
Holding yourself accountable for your indulgence is the first step to a successful weight loss journey. Be it the late-night munching on a bag of peanuts, or stealing a few bites of the scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich from your spouse.
Keeping a food journal will help you in many ways. It will help you identify when you are hungry, if you are genuinely hungry, or just hungry out of boredom, or it may just help you track how close you are to your goal and how much you have achieved.
In 2008, the Kaiser Center for Health Research conducted a study of 1,700 people, reporting that dieters who kept a food journal for six months lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t.
9) Meal Prepping and Batch Cooking
Batch cooking paves an easy path to a healthier diet by saving you time and reducing waste.
We live in a very fast-paced world where on-the-go foods are preferred over foods that take a lot of time to prepare. Oftentimes this leads to people ordering takeout or just ending up eating on-the-go foods that usually don’t have any nutritive value.
To make this easier, you can set a few hours aside once a week to cook nutritious food in batches and then freeze them. This will only save you time and money, but will also ensure that your calorie-counted meals supplement your weight loss journey.
10) Don’t Skip Meals
Calories are not bad for your body, excess or lack of them are. Food acts like fuel to your body, it helps you function, move around, interact, and most importantly keeps you alive.
A lot of folks associate weight loss with stringent fasting and skipping meals when in reality skipping meals causes the body to lower its metabolism which then causes it to burn fewer calories. This may also result in weight gain and leave you feeling sluggish.
Skipping meals also causes your blood sugar levels to either spike or drop. We would suggest you stay clear of skipping meals and try having a balanced diet to enhance your bodily functions.
11) Portion Control
Systematic studies have shown that providing individuals with larger portions of foods and beverages leads to substantial increases in energy intake.
Most of the time, we do not pay heed to our portion sizes. Whatever we put on our plate, we eat. Portion control is crucial for weight loss as it enables you to have a grip on how many calories you are consciously consuming.
This is a great exercise to reduce mindless eating and overindulging as it keeps you in check of whether you are eating out of hunger or out of boredom.
12) Cut Down on Alcoholic Beverages
A can of beer may contain as many calories as a bar of chocolate. Mixed drinks and cocktails are filled with sugary substances to make them taste better.
Alcohol is full of empty calories. It serves no nutritional value but still adds calories to your body. You may perceive burgers, burritos, and pastries to be indulgences but you may not perceive alcoholic beverages the same way, despite similar calorie values. You are not alone, a lot of people think this way.
If you cut down on your alcohol consumption, you will start losing weight more efficiently.
13) Eat Fiber Rich Foods
Fiber encourages weight loss as it provides satiety and fullness despite being low in calories.
Not only is fiber great for weight loss, but it also enhances heart health, gut health, and reduces the risk of diabetes.
Foods like apples, green beans, chickpeas, raspberries, and pumpkins are very high in fiber. Just make sure that while taking a rich fiber diet, you are also drinking a lot of water. Fiber works by drawing water into your stool which will also help you get your bowel routines in place.
14) Walk, Walk, Walk
Walking is a form of physical activity that is accessible to almost everyone. No membership, equipment, or expertise is needed to walk.
Lack of movement is a potential cause of many ailments and since not everyone can make time for exercise, walking becomes an ideal choice. It not only contributes to healthy weight loss but also keeps you protected from diseases.
Your goal with walking should be to increase the intensity one day at a time. Don’t expect to walk 10 Kms in a day, rather start slow with a few steps and work your way up. This will increase your stamina and build up a routine. A fat loss diet plan combined with a good 45 minute walk every day can do wonders for your body.
15) Professional Guidance
If all fails, you should seek professional guidance. There are many certified and registered dietitians around the globe who can contribute to your ongoing weight loss success.
From helping you overcome emotional challenges to educating you about nutrition from the get-go, professional guidance will help you be the best version of yourself.
Niwi.ai has helped thousands of people in achieving their target weight goal. Our certified dietitians take into consideration your body type, ailments, and goals to create personalized plans that help you fulfill your goals, quickly and efficiently.
Mind-Boggling Weight Loss Statistics :
- Globally, more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight, out of which 650 million adults are obese. (WHO, 2020)
- 28.5% of elderly adults aged 65 and older were obese in 2019. (United Health Foundation, 2019)
- The cost of obesity is estimated to reach 5%-to-14% of health expenditures from 2020 to 2050. (Frontiers in Nutrion, 2020)
- The annual medical cost of obesity is estimated to be $149.5 billion. (PubMed, 2016)
- Out of all the OECD countries, Japan has the lowest rate of obesity (3.7%) which is considerably lower than the average of 19.5%. (OECD, 2019)
- With the pandemic still raging in 2021, maintaining a healthy weight is the primary concern for 59% of women and 47% of men, with a total of 51% wishing to reduce weight. (RunRepeat, 2021)
- Obesity has been associated with various disorders, including stroke, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and many forms of cancer. (Loudcloudhealth, 2021)
- In 2020, 70% of Americans said they’ve been stress-eating. (WebMD, 2020)
Losing never felt so good…
Losing weight and keeping the kilos off for good takes a lot of blood and sweat. The aim here is to stay focused and determined. The initial journey may be challenging but eventually, it will all be worth it. Every weight loss journey has its ups and downs, whatever roadblock or limitation you may face, there is always a solution! So, don’t give up, and keep striving to be in the best of health and spirit!
To really stay motivated, consider all the aspects of losing weight that would improve your life and health. Create a list of all the things you wish to achieve in your weight loss journey and the benefits you will gain from that. Whenever you feel like quitting, revisit the list and add more points.
Regardless of the method or combinations of the methods you chose from the above list, you need to be self-aware and conscious of what you put in your body. Awareness about nutrition will help you triumph in your weight loss goal.
Ready for a health revolution? Join us on our mission to transform the nutrition landscape!
At niwi.ai, we have helped thousands of clients transform their lives and feel stronger, more energetic, and definitely more confident in how they look and feel, by improving their relationship with food!
Check out our weight loss programs. Our team of highly qualified registered dietitians build a customised diet plan for weight loss considering your body type and closely monitor the progress at each step. We do this because we understand that everybody’s needs and requirements are different and generalized diets can only get you so far.