12 Easy Tips to Follow for Better Weight Management
Life presents us with many struggles and hurdles in its course, and one of those struggles is to manage your weight and stay healthy. You may have tried everything in the book, from switching between different diet plans to trying out different weight loss supplements, to several methods of exercise. But if you are still grappling to maintain your weight, then you need to adopt the following practices to ensure favorable results.
Consume single-ingredient and wholesome foods
One major step you shouldn’t forget while losing weight is to maintain a diet plan that consists of single-ingredient food items. This allows you to keep away from added sugar, processed food and added fat.
Most wholesome foods tend to be heavy on the stomach, so it becomes convenient to stay within limits in terms of calorie intake. Moreover, eating wholesome foods also ensures you have your fill of many essential nutrients that your body needs to function appropriately.
Weight loss can be considered as a natural outcome of consuming wholesome foods.
Opt for proper detoxification
The chemicals, compounds, and toxins present in the foods items are instrumental in case of the accumulation of fat in the body. The harmful compounds can adversely impact the body’s ability to oxidize fat. It becomes difficult to metabolize the fat, as it gets accumulated in the fatty tissues.
So choose organic food and keep away from toxins as much as possible. Also, adopt a proper detoxification ritual as that will help in warding off bloating, contain constipation and avert weight gain. Try to add a herbal tea like green tea or oolong tea that helps to boost your metabolism and antioxidants helps to reduce fat more effectively.
Adopt the ‘Plate method” to make sure you are consuming a healthy meal
Fill half your plate with vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, asparagus, brussels sprouts, beans, or leafy greens and some fruit. Now add one quarter with a whole grain like barley, brown rice, quinoa, or a starchy vegetable like corn or potatoes. Add a protein like broiled, roasted, baked or sauteed (not fried) fish, turkey or chicken without the skin, lean cuts of meat, eggs or tofu.
Eat small portions and frequent meals
Rather than consuming three large meals in a day, you can break it into 5 or 6 smaller meals. Now many people find it hard to consume six small meals when they’re trying to lose weight, but this is actually an efficient way to attain your fitness goal.
Frequent meals also ward off irregular cravings and bingeing. Having smaller meals keeps you satiated and works wonders for your energy levels as well. Also, make sure not to rush while consuming your meals. Finishing your meals in a hurry does not allow sufficient time for your body to send signals to the brain when you are properly satiated. That eventually results in overeating.
Make sure to include fibre in your meals
Fibre-rich foods can be extremely effective for your weight loss plan. Food items that comprise of water-soluble fibre are helpful in particular since this kind of fibre helps to make you feel full. Fibre may make the stomach expand and propels the release of satiety hormones.
This automatically prompts us to eat less. Moreover, some variants of the fibre are capable of feeding the friendly gut bacteria. Nurturing the healthy gut bacteria is associated with a lower risk of obesity. Just ensure to increase the amount of fibre intake gradually to prevent conditions like bloating, diarrhoea and cramps.
Indulge in cardio exercises
Opting for cardio workouts, whether it is running, jogging, cycling, or hiking, is an excellent way to lose some calories and boost both physical and mental health. Cardio workouts have been recognized to lower risk factors for heart diseases. It can also help contain the body weight.
Cardio workouts are also effective in case of cutting down the dangerous belly fat that accumulates around your organs and triggers the metabolic disease.
Slow down while eating your food and chew properly
Our brain generally takes about 20 minutes to decipher that the stomach is full. So take adequate time to taste and chew your food. This way, the brain will be able to keep track of the things you eat.
Also, try not to indulge in distracting activities like looking at television, or cell phones while eating your food. Wait until you swallow the food in your mouth slowly and completely before taking another nibble. Drink soups and other beverages slowly so that you get to savour them.
Go easy on the carbohydrates
Refined carbohydrates that you don’t divest off turn into fat. Even foods like fruit yogurt and several breakfast cereals contain lots of added sugar. So replace the fruity yogurts with plain Greek yogurt, low carb cereal, choose food rich in high-fibre, and also incorporate tiny amounts of healthy fat to your meals with unsalted nuts, avocado slices, seeds and olive oil.
Never skip your breakfast
When you don’t eat breakfast on time, your body conserves energy by slowing down your metabolism and accelerating its insulin response. So the next thing you eat will shoot up your blood sugar levels and make you feel famished soon after. Also, this leads you to develop major appetite that prompts you to hog whatever food comes to your mind impulsively, and that becomes bad news if you’re trying to stick to smarter food habits for your weight management plan.
Even if you aren’t particularly hungry in the morning, consuming a small amount of protein and fibre rich food, like oatmeal, avocado toast, a yogurt parfait with a green smoothie, scrambled egg, or even last night’s leftovers.
Drink plenty of water
Make it a point to drink an ample amount of water every day. Hunger pangs are often a telltale sign of dehydration, which people control by eating. Have glassful of water whenever you contain the untimely bouts of hunger. Drink warm water with one squeezed lemon on an empty stomach in the morning to quicken the process of weight loss.