Science Backed Ways to Lose Weight

by Deepika R.

It’s Friday night, I am desperately trying to fit in that little black dress for a casual night out with my girls. I see my belly pooch and a bit of loose flab ruining that “perfect dress experience”, I quickly change into some oversized tees and leggings to hide my short comings. The next morning I spend hours grabbing my fat and staring at the mirror, giving myself this little pep talk “You are fine, you just need to lose some flab, get to the gym, cut the junk and eat healthy, come-on baby girl.” I put on some gym shoes and head to the gym to do that quick fat blaster session and when I head home I grab every kind of low-fat food, kale and avocados at the supermarket in order to establish a clean eating routine.

Exactly a week later, you will see this “super-food eating-fitness-freak” lying on the couch in her pajamas forgetting everything about clean eating and healthy living; stuffing pizzas and cookies in her mouth along side some diet coke. All when the avocados on the table purchased a week ago have gone brown, kale from last week is still in the fridge, alongside other low fat stuff she purchased a week ago.

Does this remind of you anyone? Can you relate to this? If so, then join the club ‘goalie’ (if a roomie is a person who you share your room with then goalie is a person who shares the same goals as you – interesting how boredom makes me challenge the rules of English). We all start off with these massive goals to lose weight and tone up and some of us including me end up stopping midway due to the practical difficulties of following a diet or because of the lack of perseverance to hit the gym daily.

That’s when I decided to make simple changes to my lifestyle that can help me achieve my goals slowly. My extensive background in the sciences motivated me to go through credible nutrition science journals to discover weight loss tips rather than believe something that is merely word of mouth. Further below I am going to break down some interesting science backed weight loss tips that will motivate you and help you be the “super-food eating-fitness-freak” instead of the “I hate exercise, but I love pizza” girl. Yes! It is going to be hard. Yes! We will feel like quitting and that is absolutely normal, but let’s show junk food how much we love a perfect body in that perfect black dress and who is the boss.

Let us get the obvious out of the way first, – EXERCISE.

Exercise is the best way to get rid of the calories and recent studies done have also shown that exercise encourages the loss of calories even while you sleep (another reason for all us to strengthen our relationship with Mr. Sleep).

Don’t’ you dare skip a meal.

Don’t ever skip meals in hopes of losing weight because as a budding neuroscientist I can confidently say that when you starve yourself, your brain develops this huge, huge crush for high calorie foods as opposed to healthy options available. You will end up sitting on that couch stuffing cookies and chips in your mouth, even when you have a healthy salad bowl in front of you. That is something you wouldn’t want to do to your body. Breakfast is specially known to kick start your day and gives you that edge to lose more calories throughout the day.

Make friends with protein and low fat dairy.

Add more protein and low fat dairy to your diet. Increasing your protein uptake by about ten percent produces hormones that reduce hunger. The calcium in your dairy binds to the fat in your body and is pushed out of the body. Honestly, calcium must be a wizard straight out of Hogwarts because it does amazing stuff like maintaining your pearly whites, driving away Mr. Osteoporosis from you and helps you lose that belly pooch as well. Amazing, isn’t it, I could sit here all day and appreciate about how nature does all these miracles.

Soup it up .

Soups are amazing for weight loss because they are slowly absorbed into the body and hence, keep you full for longer. A good bowl of a lovely veggie soup for lunch might not be a bad idea at all.

Track your intake.

Count your calories by either writing it in a book or just documenting it on your mobile phone. This way you get the opportunity to eat more food, but still consume fewer calories as you aware of what you are eating. A very interesting study from an Internal Medicine Journal claimed that using an app to record your calorie intake and weight loss details helps you lose more weight than jotting it on paper.

Snooze to lose and play it cool.

Sleep deprivation and stress can play a very major role in increasing your appetite. Another interesting study found out that the negative people in your life can be responsible for that belly pooch you have. Cut out that negativity to keep your mind and body as active as you can.

Gulp loads of H2O .

Sometimes it makes me wonder if most of us would drink more water if it was sold as the “Magic potion for weight loss”. Eight to ten glasses of water a day is honestly not a lot (just as I am writing this out, I am telling it to myself because I am equally guilty of not drinking enough water). Water is really the magic potion for a clear skin, a flatter belly and a healthy body. If plain water makes you sulk like it does to me, make flavored water by adding mint leaves, watermelon pieces or orange slices to it.

Make room for the good fats.

Always look out for the level of saturated fat (the nasty toxic stubborn fat that wants to clings to you) in any product you pick up from the supermarket. Never pick up anything that has saturated fat more than 10% of your daily intake (also, avoid those foods high in sugars because these are the foods that have the potential to be converted into saturated fats). The polyunsaturated fats and the monounsaturated fats you get from your walnuts, avocados are the fats you want to cling on to. Go get em girl.

Cave in for the crave.

If you have an occasional craving for that cheesy pizza or that finger-licking golgappas, go for it. Don’t deprive your body of some dirt after days of religious good eating. But, don’t cave into cravings to an extent that they sabotage your relationship with “Mr. Clean-Eating”. Remember you need him to help you fit into that lovely dress you have been longing to look good in.

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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