Losing weight with a hectic schedule and no gym time can be a bit of a hassle. After a hard day, we all just want to kick up our heels, flop on our sofas, relax and watch a good movie or TV program before sleep takes over. With early office resumption hours, it’s tough to fit in exercise routines into or mornings without encroaching on our much needed sleeping hours.
Under these circumstances, how does one actively work on losing weight? Easy! I call it, ‘cheat codes’. These methods are a cheat because they help you lose weight without feeling like you are working hard at it.
1. Breathing Exercises – These help your core and stomach muscles, that’s why even when working out, you are advised to not hold your breath but consciously work on breathing in and out. Here’s one you can do at any time of the day: deeply inhale while pulling in your stomach muscles and slowing exhale without releasing the muscles. Do this ten times and repeat this set of ten three times. I’m told this is a yoga technique.
2. Staying Active – Take time out to walk for seemingly long distances. When you get used to a particular distance, increase it. Brisk walk for at least 10mins daily covering at least one mile (1,604m) and watch the calories burn off. The faster your pace, the more calories you’ll burn. You can dance every chance you get, even if it means moving your body’s weight to musical rhythm from one foot to the other. Even when you are working on your computer, reading a book or watching TV, try to move your body by standing up occasionally, tapping your feet, doing leg crunches, pull ups, etc. and burn off the fat that would have accumulated from being stationary for too long a time. Any activity that increases your heart rate will help your body use up excess calories faster because your body’s metabolism increases as well.
3. Eating Right – The trick is to eat less foods with have high calories. You don’t need to stick to a three meals a day plan, learn to snack in-between meals on fruits and healthy snacks like plantain or sweet potato chips or nuts like walnut, cashew nut, etc. Cut down on processed, frozen and canned foods. Eat more home-made meals. Also you need to eat the right portions of food e.g. cut down your carbs intake (by carbs, I’m referring to carbohydrate-based meals like white bread, pastries, etc). Try eating your dinner before 8pm and snack whenever you get hungry afterwards. Sometimes what you think is a hunger pang might just be your body’s way of asking for water so be sure to drink water first before opting for a snack. Remember the saying, “Eat like a King in the morning, a Prince in the afternoon and a Pauper at night”? Well, it simply means eat your heaviest meals (like beans and akamu) in the morning and your lightest meals at night. This will prevent your body converting undigested meals into useless fats stored in your under arm, buttocks, abdomen, thighs, etc. This plan is to help you avoid over-eating the wrong foods.
4. Ambient Temperature Variation – When your body can’t keep up with the change in temperature outside your skin, it does two things: 1.Generates heat to keep warm or 2.Releases sweat to keep cool. How does this help you lose weight? Simple. When you work out in a hot room, you tend to sweat more because your body circulates more blood and the liquid portion of the blood gets sent to the sweat glands as a means of transferring internal heat out through sweat which becomes a container of heat that evaporates at the skin surface and cools the body. This translates into weight loss because you lose your water weight. The down side of this is your blood plasma volume reduces causing dehydration and it needs to be replaced by more in-take of water and electrolytes. A more effective weight loss with temperature variation is staying in a cold environment. Here’s why. With a cooler atmosphere, your body works harder using up body fats to produce heat to keep you warm. But be careful not to make this a habit because after a while, your body can adapt or stabilize and by then there won’t be any weight loss no matter how long you stay in that cold place.
5. Drink Water – So we can’t do without water, but how does this help us lose weight? Many ways. Drinking water can help you feel full and reduce your food consumption hence less calories eaten especially if you take it before after and during meals. Even drinking cold water can increase your energy expenditure rate because your body will work hard to warm the water as it goes into your system. The effect of this elevated metabolism shows up 10mins after drinking the cold water and peaks 30-40mins later. For water to be an effective weight loss tool, cut down salt/sodium intake as this tends to make your body retain water rather than release it through sweat or urination. Water lubricates joints which enable you exercise easily and helps to maintain muscle tone by assisting the muscles contract properly while exercising.
There are other cheat codes for losing weight but you must know that the results from using cheat codes are never instantaneous. So while they may seem like quick fixes, they actually aren’t, get ready for the long haul. They require consistency over a long period of time to yield results but rest assured that they do produce the much needed results. The easiest cheat method is simply having an active lifestyle and eating healthy always.
