Weight loss and obesity control: An out-of-the-box approach
“You are what you eat.” Well said, but perhaps you are also how you eat just as much as you are what you eat. And here, I bring you some tricks that can come handy in your efforts to maintain or lose weight alike. As a reminder, there are no shortcuts to this as is the case with anything else in life. But the following unique steps can ensure that your diet and exercise plans are well-complemented.
- Sleep on it. This may sound fairly simple and trite. But not so fast. Because if you sleep less, you will end up eating more. Optimum sleep is necessary to regulate hunger and metabolism and continued sleep deprivation may lead to a whole lot of other symptoms including cognitive impairments and cardiovascular risks.
- Hydrate. Not only is water a refreshing drink, but over time it can have a significant impact over your overall health, including body weight. This is because water increases your metabolic rate and drinking plenty of water each day can help to lose up to 10 pounds of body fat annually. You can also consider calorie-free drinks such as unsweetened beverages and mineral water to aid your other efforts to control body weight.
3. Use small plates. Now, this is interesting as your brain interprets visual information by comparing it with the surroundings. So, if you put the same piece of food in a larger plate, your brain will perceive it as small or less and consequently, you will end up eating more. The same optical illusion holds true for perception of colour as well.
4. Avoid TV while eating. You must have heard of this before and the reason behind this is pretty clear. If your attention is being held by the television, you will fail to keep track of how much you have already eaten, increasing your likelihood to take in extra calories. If you cannot avoid TV at all, you must at least fix the size of the meal beforehand so that you don’t go for extra(you might have probably noticed that you tend to ask for more food if you are in front of a screen).
5. Chew more. This will not only improve digestion, but the extra pain you take while chewing well and carefully will also ensure that you become tired more easily and leave the dining table earlier than otherwise.
6. Avoid light late night. The lights inhibit the release of sleep-regulating hormones and thus affect your sleep cycles. Make sure you don’t use the screens for up to at least an hour before bed, and if possible switch off the other lights too.
7. Eat the right type of fats. There’s no need to cut down all the fatty foods when trying to lose weight. Instead, unsaturated fats that are found mainly in fish and vegetable oils can actually improve metabolic fitness. However, fast foods are not at all recommended as these come loaded with strong amounts of saturated fats.
The above tips must prove useful for weight management. Content has been derived from reliable sources, particularly from Runtastic Health facts and myths.
All the best!
