11 Practical Ways To Lose Weight Without Diet Or Exercise

Last updated on : June 23 2021

1. Drink Plenty Of Water

Drinking a lot of water is, in itself, beneficial to every person’s health. Additionally, it helps us eat less and lose weight.

Pro tip: this is especially true when we drink water before a meal.

A recent study conducted among a group of adults showed that drinking half a liter of water about 30 minutes before a meal reduces hunger and cuts down calorie intake.

The research says that doing so will help you lose about 44% of your body weight over 12 weeks. That goes to show that we should never underestimate the power of drinking eight glasses of water a day.

If that wasn’t enough, water also plays a significant role in boosting a person’s metabolism by 24 to 30% over 1.5 hours.

In summary, drinking enough water at the right time helps us to lose weight and has other beneficial effects that protect your body from illness. 

2. Thoroughly Chew Your Food 

It might sound a little absurd, but slowing down and chewing your food while savoring it, will help you lose weight.

The stomach takes some time to tell the brain that it is full. Eating too fast means you have likely overeaten by the time the brain tells you to stop. 

Yes, the brain doesn’t immediately process when the stomach is full. Eating slowly and chewing food correctly gives your mind enough time to receive the signal that your stomach is full - before you overeat. 

A review of various studies concluded that people who eat their meals faster acquire weight faster than those who take time. So absurd as it may sound, taking your time when eating will result in weight loss. 

Pro Tip: Write stuff down. Next time you eat, try to record the number of bites it takes before you swallow your food. Count your chews and aim for a higher “chew count.”

3. Eat Fiber Rich Foods 

Consuming clean whole food rich in fiber helps you lose weight.

Fiber-rich food increases satiety, the feeling of being full and often contains fewer calories. The benefit is two-fold - you feel fuller for longer, and you eat fewer calories - overall increasing your weight loss. 

Viscous or soluble fiber, in particular, is helpful for weight loss. It dissolves in water and forms a gel in your gut that increases nutrient absorption time and slows down the emptying of your stomach.

Pro Tip: Viscous fiber is present in plants such as beans, oat cereals, asparagus, oranges, Brussels sprouts, and flax seeds - work these ingredients into your diet slowly to see weight loss benefits.

4. Don't Drink Sugary Beverages

Too many of our beverages of choice contain high levels of sugar. When you drink them, you run high risks of obesity, cardiovascular and other health-related problems. 

Think sugar-sweetened beverages as well as fruit juice. These drinks are calorie dense but don't make you feel full, leading to over-consumption.

You might think of freshly squeezed fruit juice as healthy, it is natural after all, but it contains just as much sugar as a soft-drink - keep consumption to the absolute minimum.  

Replace your sugar-filled drink cravings with water, herbal teas, green juices or other healthy sources of sugar.

Pro Tip: A good source of sugar is whole fruit. All the fruity goodness, plus you burn calories by chewing, rather than just gulping it down. 

An excellent choice is berries, which have been proven to prevent weight gain and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Note - although whole fruit contains sugar you are eating far less than you do in a fruit juice. 

You can't eat more than two whole oranges in a serving however you can quickly drink the juice of seven or eight.

5. Get Enough Sleep And Avoid Stress

A lack of sleep impacts the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite.

During sleep, your body releases appetite-regulating hormones such as leptin. Not getting a solid 8 hours a day reduces these hormones enough to lead to overeating, often at night, two problems which lead to weight gain. 

A recent study claims that eating when you are stressed causes more weight gain than eating the same amount of calories when you are not stressed.

Additionally, when stressed, your body releases cortisol which intensifies your craving for unhealthy foods, causing you to take in more calories than you burn. 

Unfortunately, sleep deprivation and stress work hand in hand. When we deprive ourselves of sleep, we ruin our regular body clocks and make ourselves prone to anxiety.

It’s a vicious cycle. Without realizing it, our high-stress levels and lack of a good night’s sleep end up in weight gain.

Pro Tip: If you're struggling with your stress levels, try getting to bed earlier to break the weight gain cycle.

Read More - Try These 8 Exercises To Help You Reduce Stress

6. Keep Junk Food Out Of Sight

We get food cravings from the regions of the brain responsible for memory, pleasure, and reward. Often the desire is for foods high in sugar and fats. Bad for weight loss. 

When unhealthy foods are readily available, intense food cravings come into play. Either put these foods out of sight or don't have them available at all.  

Pro Tip: Stop going to the grocery store to fill your refrigerator with unhealthy options.

Instead, stock healthy snack choices in your kitchen. Such as yogurt, hard boiled eggs, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. This way, you can satisfy your cravings without compromising your health and your weight.

7. Reduce Your Portions

Too often we eat more than our body needs to satisfy its hunger. We don’t stop when we’ve had enough. We stop when our body refuses to take in more.

This manner of eating increases our serving sizes over time. We might not realize it, but our bodies need double or triple the amount it used to feel full.

Pro Tip: If you are can't willingly reduce your portions, one great way to serve food, especially unhealthy dishes, is on smaller plates. The serving looks bigger, tricking you into eating less.

Psychologically-speaking, putting food on red plates can also make your brain think that you should eat smaller portions.

8. Use Healthy Oils In Cooking 

One of the reasons why we fail to lose weight is because we use unhealthy oils in cooking our food.

Changing to one of the many healthy oils available can produce a significant effect on your weight loss.

Pro Tip: Coconut oil has a lot of health benefits. In pursuing weight loss, it helps lower your cholesterol levels, boosts your metabolism, improves satiety, and reduces your body mass index.

Olive oil is another healthy choice. It is high in monounsaturated fatty acids which help in reducing lipid levels, promoting HDL cholesterol, and lowering LDL cholesterol - all things that are good for the body.

9. Eat More Protein Rich Food

Protein is a favorite macronutrient present in weight loss and bodybuilding supplements because it reduces hunger and boosts metabolism. It makes you feel full, and so leads you to eat fewer calories.    

One study found that replacing other calorie sources with whey protein helps you lose up to 3.6 kgs. of weight and increase muscle mass.

Eggs, high in protein, also lower your calorie intake for most of the day if consumed for breakfast instead of grains.

Pro Tip: The list of protein-rich food include chicken breasts, fish, almonds, and quinoa. Introduce these into your diet in exchange for foods with lower protein content. 

10. Focus on Your Meal

When we watch TV, scroll through our smartphones, play video games, or are otherwise distracted when we eat, we fail to focus on our food and run the risk of overeating. 

The more we are distracted, the less we get satisfied with our meals.

Pro Tip: According to one study, increased levels of background noise reduces people’s ability to perceive sweetness and saltiness. This distraction leads us to want to snack later on. 

A similar study concluded that people who get distracted during their meals eat 10% more than those who don’t. They even take in 25% more calories in a subsequent meal.

Parents might have been right all along. Taking away the smartphone when their kids eat unknowingly protects them from distracted eating and the ill-effects on their children’s bodies.

11. Drink Coffee Or Green Tea

Drinking coffee or green tea is the perfect way to avoid the sugary beverages we warned you about earlier. 

And these two “other-than-water” beverages can significantly improve your diet.

Pro Tip: Tea or coffee, mainly green tea and black coffee with no sugar and cream, are great metabolism boosters.

Various studies found out that caffeine in coffee and tea can improve metabolism by 3 to 11% and increase fat burning by 10 to 29%.

Aside from caffeine, the antioxidants in green tea called catechins enhance the regulation of body weight and the burning of energy. 

Summary

Adopting just a few of these tips will leave you feeling lighter and healthier, especially if you can't find the time to exercise or revamp your diet completely.

They are after all a common sense approach to healthier eating and are easy to implement into your daily routines. 

Use them as a step towards improving your overall diet and taking up a regular exercise routine that works for you - two essential goals for life.   

Warning - consultant your nutritionist or physician before making changes to your diet.

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