Gym membership. Check. ✔
No sweets. Check. ✔
No oil. Check. ✔
Now whether you have checked the above parameters or not, the fact that you have somehow reached this page is enough of an indicator that your body fat is bothering you and that you wish to lose fat. (see these posts, if it’s thigh fat or belly fat that’s particularly the problem)
Fats make the body a host to several deadly diseases and that you wish to do something about it is commendable since majority of people around us are in denial and hardly care or seek help.
There are a number of universal tips and ways to reduce body fat and everyone is aware about them. What we are discussing here are the ones that are unpopular but as effective if not more in your fight versus body fat. So here we go!
Eat plant based food to lose fat
People who are overweight tend to have a diet rich in saturated fats, sugars, and large amounts of sodium.
If you are looking to not only lose weight, but you want to be able to maintain a healthy weight over long period of time one of the best ways to do it is to switch over to a diet rich in plant-based foods. This type of diet
- focuses on minimally refined, unrefined and whole plants.
- is essentially built around legumes, whole grains, tubers, vegetables, and fruit
- discourages the consumption of dairy products, meat, eggs and refined sugar.
However, be forewarned that switching to an all veggies diet is certainly not advisable. Veggies do not have enough calories and cannot provide sufficient energy to your body. An all veggies diet will make you feel weak and increase your craving for carbs.
It is advised that starch based diets replace the contemporary meat based diets.
Don’t frown!
Starch based items are any less capable of tingling your taste buds especially items like spicy baked french fries, sweet potato lasagna, polenta curry, mashed potatoes and gravy, black bean and rice burritos, Tuscan white bean burgers, easy Thai noodles, Shepherds potpie, and lima bean soup.
To sum it up, the following foods can be enlisted under plant based diet:
- Vegetables: carrots, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens, lettuce, etc.
- Tubersand starchy vegetables: green peas, corn, winter squash, yucca, yams, potatoes, etc.
- Whole Grains: oats, whole wheat, rice, barley, quinoa, millet, etc.
- Legumes: black beans, cannoli beans, lima beans, lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc
Drink plenty of water to lose fat
We have been time and again advised to keep ourselves hydrated at all times. But did you know that drinking water might just help you to stay slim?
The logic here is that the lesser your body is hydrated at a particular time, the more it will crave for sugar and you will end up binging on foods that will make you gain weight.
The next obvious question is, how much water should you drink to ensure that you are hydrated at all times?
Take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2. This is the value in ounces of your ideal daily water intake. Say you weigh 120 pounds, so your ideal daily water intake should be 60 ounces.
Now again this comes with a condition, you should drink this much amount of water not in just one or even two goes! You should drink the required amount of water at timely intervalsover the course of your typical day.
Learn to differentiate between good sugars and bad sugars to lose fat
There are two types of people you must have essentially come across. People who binge on their favourite sweets and people who think sweets are as evil as Voldemort and completely avoid them.
Sugars are of two types, simple and complex. Simple sugar is the one which is easily absorbed by your bloodstream whereas it takes time to digest complex sugar.
Simple sugars are glucose and fructose which destabilize your body sugar levels causing immediate spikes in these levels. What we are talking about here are processed simple sugars.
Naturally occurring glucose and fructose are not at all harmful for you; rather they are the most important energy sources!
Complex sugars are complex carbohydrates which require time to be processed and hence can be utilized by your body for a long time.
These complex carbohydrates are commonly found in vegetables, whole meal bread and cereals. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates include spinach, whole grains, broccoli, yams, beans, lentils, skimmed milk, zucchini and most leguminous plants.
So there you have them! Our top three unpopular tips for losing body fat and consequently weight. Start inculcating these habits in your routine and say hello to fitness!