4 Surprising Yet Effective Tips for Weight Loss

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A lot of Canadians suffer from being overweight or obese. Currently, over 63% of the adult population is overweight or obese, which increases their risk of developing chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes. Researcher and doctor Robert Ross notes that weight loss is hard to maintain for adults because of today’s hectic society. Due to work and other commitments, people rarely have the time to perform traditional weight loss activities. Instead, he recommends small behavioral changes—rather than major ones—might be the key to weight loss.

In line with this, if you’re interested in such small and surprising yet effective ways to lose weight in today’s busy society, here are some to try.

Don’t restrict your diet

Weight loss is often associated with highly restrictive diets and calorie counting. But these methods are just time-consuming because you must meticulously plan your meals and calculate their calories to determine if you’ll lose weight. Fortunately, this traditional way of thinking is changing. Effective weight loss programs now allow you to eat what you want—including your favorite foods—as long as you consume them in moderation. This unrestrictive dieting method prevents you from binge-eating your favorite snacks when you crave them, which ruins your progress and leads to weight gain.

To ensure that you eat your well-loved foods in moderation, use the 80/20 rule. It means 80% of your daily meals must compose of healthy food, while the remaining 20% can be made up of less healthy snacks. Over time, balanced and unrestricted eating leads to better satisfaction and the development of healthy weight management habits.

Undergo cryotherapy

Cryotherapy exposes the body to low temperatures for medical purposes. It lasts two to four minutes, and you can expect to be subjected to -166 and -292 degrees Fahrenheit. It may sound a little extreme, but the benefits of being cold include better sleep, increased energy—and, most notably—weight loss. This is because the cold boosts your metabolic rate, which, in turn, burns hundreds of calories quickly to keep you warm.

You can experience cryotherapy in wellness centers and spas. To be safe, consult your doctor before this cold therapy. People who should avoid cryotherapy include pregnant women, people with cardiovascular conditions, and UTI patients, as they might have sensitivities.

Start weight-lifting

Many people hesitate to begin weight-lifting because they assume it’ll make them look bulky. They fail to realise that it is also effective for weight loss. This is because muscle size plays a role in your resting metabolic rate (RMR), or how many calories your body can burn at rest. RMR accounts for 60% to 75% of your body’s total expenditure. During this process, the body burns fat to expend energy.

Thus, incorporate weight-lifting into your workouts. Even if you can’t access weights, you can use your body weight by doing pushups, squats, and lunges. Resistance band exercises also work as a weight-lifting replacement because you use the band’s elasticity and your strength as “weights.” Some activities you can do with these are glute bridges and pullups.

Chew some gum

The most surprising tip is probably this one. Chewing gum is a casual everyday activity for many people, but evidence suggests that it can actually serve a more intentional weight loss purpose. The logic is that chewing gum decreases feelings of hunger because your mouth is kept busy by the chewing motion. The brain can take this action of chewing as “eating” something, thereby reducing hunger and cravings. So, in your free time, try chewing some gum to contribute even the tiniest bit to your weight loss progress.

More and more modern and surprising methods are replacing traditional weight loss approaches. If you want to switch up your weight loss journey, try out these tips today. Also, for similar articles, keep reading the Great Lakes Ledger.

Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.