Weight is usually one of the most common concerns after the festive period.
The extra calories accumulated take their toll in the form of tighter clothing and unwanted bulges along the contour of the body.
However, losing these extra measures through physical activity can be a sweaty affair in our climate, not always a pretty sight, especially if you can only exercise before heading to the office or your evening social activities.
If you’re one of those people who would rather avoid sweat but still lose weight, check out these five ways to cut fat without breaking a sweat.
1. Modifying your diet
Flat bellies and slimmer thighs start in the kitchen.
While an active lifestyle is an important part of staying healthy and maintaining an ideal weight, the right food choices can help you shed pounds without as much effort as doing a squat or running a 10K, and no, this doesn’t mean doing a intensive diet.
Choosing a breakfast rich in protein and fiber can help keep us full and prevent us from reaching for that unhealthy mid-morning snack.
Also, have you thought about how many meals that syrupy cup of bubble tea or coffee represents?
Try swapping your boba for healthier alternatives like aloe vera or konjac jelly, and opt for brewed tea instead of milk tea (the cream used to make the milk tea we like is made from sugar, oil vegetable and milk protein derivatives that accumulate in hidden calories).
Just as we spring clean before the holidays, we should “spring clean” our diets from time to time to eliminate unhealthy eating choices or habits that we’ve developed over the years.
2. Choose activity over convenience
Think of the times we have chosen the sedentary option over the active one during our day, for example:
- Take the elevator to go up only one floor instead of the stairs
- E-hailing a car or taxi instead of walking to the bus stop or LRT station
- Using a cart instead of a basket at the grocery store, or
- Buy clothes online lying on your bed instead of going to the mall and exploring the stores.
We are faced with many choices in our daily lives, some of which could burn extra calories through simple physical activity that doesn’t necessarily require breaking a sweat.
By not choosing the sedentary option, we increase the number of calories we burn.
For example, each step we climb helps us burn about 0.17 calories (on average), while housework can help us remove about 120 calories for every 30 minutes of housework on average.
So the next time you’re faced with a choice, choose the option that involves a little more activity—the pounds will begin to fall off before you know it.
3. Bring a bottle of water
In our urban lifestyle, staying hydrated is often not one of our top priorities.
How often do we remember to take a bottle of water with us?
And when we are thirsty and don’t have water with us, we often head to the nearest store where the drink of choice is usually bubble tea, soda, juice, coffee or tea, but never plain water.
Not only do the calories from these sweetened beverages stack up, but our metabolic rate actually slows when we’re dehydrated.
Drinking water throughout the day can increase our metabolic rate by about 30%.
So the next time you leave home, remember to take that bottle of water with you and don’t forget to hydrate throughout the day.
4. Stop burning that midnight oil
Staying up late at night can hamper our efforts to lose those pounds.
When we don’t get enough sleep, we are actually cooking up a perfect recipe for weight gain.
Lack of sleep dulls activity in our frontal lobes, the center for decision-making and impulse control, which in turn makes us more likely to snack, skip exercise, and make unhealthy food choices.
When we’re tired, our brain’s reward center becomes hyperactive, making us more likely to indulge in sweet desserts, that late-night snack, or even a larger portion of dinner.
And, in fact, studies around the world have shown that lack of sleep is closely linked to weight gain.
But it doesn’t stop there.
When we don’t get enough sleep, the stress hormone cortisol increases and causes our body to conserve energy, which lowers our basal metabolic rate.
In essence, lack of sleep makes us “metabolically groggy” and less efficient at burning that extra pound of fat.
Therefore, try to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night.
5. Consult your doctor
You can talk to your doctor about weight-loss medications, which might be right for certain people.
These drugs are indicated for use in people who are obese (ie, with a body mass index, BMI, of 30 or more).
They may also be helpful for people who are overweight (ie, have a BMI of 27 or higher) and other health conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure, or obstructive sleep apnea.
There are a variety of weight loss medications, each with its own distinct mechanism of action.
Some medications work by decreasing your appetite.
An example of a drug in this category works as an appetite suppressant and can also increase your metabolism.
Some medications increase the feeling of satiety.
A drug in this category is commonly prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes and mimics a satiety hormone to signal your brain that you are full.
And some drugs can do both.
Others act by blocking the absorption of specific macronutrients.
For example, there is a drug that prevents the patient’s body from absorbing part of the fats ingested.
Meanwhile, some combination medications block certain signaling pathways in your body, resulting in a feeling of fullness and increased metabolism.
Each medication has its own list of side effects, but the most common are nausea, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, lethargy, dry mouth, and insomnia.
Your doctor is the best person to advise you on the right medication for you and, if necessary, switch to a different one if you experience significant side effects.
So if you’re overweight and have other chronic health conditions, or are obese, you can talk to your doctor to find out if you’re right for weight-loss medications.
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