22 Tips to Lose Weight Naturally

There are a lot of different opinions out there for how to lose weight naturally. While there isn’t just one way to go about it, there are some ways that work better than others.

Just because that method works for one person, doesn’t automatically mean it will work for another. Sometimes weight loss can be trial and error. Luckily, there are some proven ways, backed by science that you can count on to work – want to know how to lose weight naturally?

There are foods that cause weight loss. Foods that cause you to gain weight will vary with your metabolism and diet plans (see studies from the International Journal of Obesity and Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism). Avoiding or reducing consumption of such foods is an effective way to reduce weight. The following shows you 22 tips on how to lose weight naturally and fast.

Reduce Sugar

According to the American Heart Association, Americans eat way too much sugar.

It’s one of the worst things for both your health and your waistline.

It’s been shown that both sugar and its counterpart, high fructose corn syrup, are major contributors to obesity and a number of other serious health problems (see studies in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Circulation).

Sugar can pop up in unlikely places, so make sure you pay careful attention to nutrition labels, so you’re not consuming hidden sugars.

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is essential to good health.

It’s also super important if you want to keep the extra pounds off.

According to Sleep Research Society, lack of sleep has been shown to be a huge contributor to obesity in both adults and children, so make sure you are getting enough of it.

Food Journaling

Diets are short-term solutions that almost never provide long-term, sustainable results.

Diets can sometimes lead to weight loss, but since they usually rely on crash course tactics instead of lifestyle changes to provide results, the weight almost never stays off, says a study in Frontiers in Psychology.

Keeping a food diary is crucial to many weight-loss regime. It will help you track what you are eating, thus preventing overindulging.

There are advances in technology, like the weight-loss app Noom, clinically proven to help you lose weight and keep it off. Food journaling backed by an extensive database of foods will help you stay on track.

The International Journal of Consumer Studies published a study showing shooting photos of food was more effective than using pen and paper.

Instead of using tips to lose weight counting calories, go for this one. In fact, taking a photo before you consume your food will help you improve the choices of food you make.

A study done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that participants looked at photos of their food realized they could skip the meal or snack they were considering, or reduce the portion sizes in their meal.

Drink Green Tea

Green tea is beneficial to good health in many ways.

The compounds found in green tea work in harmony with its small amount of caffeine to aid in weight loss and provide the body with a concentrated source of antioxidants.

Some studies in Physiology & Behavior and the International Journal of Obesity have shown that green tea can increase the body’s ability to burn fat and therefore act as an excellent tool for weight loss.

Increase Water Intake

Drinking water not only helps to boost your metabolism; it also contributes to keep you feeling full for longer periods of time (see studies from The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and Obesity).

If you drink water prior to eating a meal, you will be less likely to overeat, since your body isn’t as hungry.

Fuel with Protein

Protein and weight loss go hand-in-hand.

Not only does protein help to give your metabolism a boost. You will feel full and are less likely to indulge, overeat or even think about food, say studies in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The British Journal of Nutrition.

After drinking a shake by Isagenix, you feel full and you are less likely to indulge or overeat or even think about food.

Just adding protein to your diet, and changing nothing else, is one of the easiest ways you can start to shed unwanted pounds.

Take Evening Off

Imagine making minimal dietary changes by ensuring you eat between seven in the morning and seven in the evening.

If you can manage to make this small dietary change, you can shed between 10% and 12% of your current weight. Researchers have discovered that eating within a certain time frame helps you lose more than 10% of your weight within three months, CNN reports.

Researchers had a group of mice that did not eat for 12 to 15 hours a day. This group was able to lose 12% of their initial body weight. Another group of mice was allowed to eat as they wanted.

The second group gained 5% to 12% within the same period. From the study, researchers determined that a person has a higher digestive rhythm during the day than at night.

Since the study on the mice was successful, further research on obese adults had the same results. Evidently, it is the best way to lose weight without exercise.

While our bodies do need carbs for energy, cutting back on them can help you to lose weight.

Cutting back on carbs, instead of cutting back on fat, has been shown to be much more effective for weight loss, according to research from The New England Journal of Medicine, and Diabetic Medicine.

Don’t Skip Your Cardio

It may seem simple because it is, but if you want to lose weight, you must exercise, the International Journal of Obesity and Obesity Reviews state.

One of the keys to weight loss is expending more calories than you take in.

The most effective way to accomplish this is by getting in your cardio.

It is suggested you undertake 30 minutes of moderate exercise up to five days a week. But, you can start slow with 10 minutes a day and work up to 30 or more.

Chew Slowly

Most people eat way too fast and don’t give their brain enough time to recognize that they are full.

By slowing down the process of eating and chewing your food, you will recognize the feeling of fullness sooner and be less likely to overeat, suggests studies in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The brain needs enough time to register your body’s satisfaction with food.

You eat more slowly when you chew your food thoroughly. The move is associated with smaller portions, increased fullness and decreased food intake, suggests research in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The speed with which you finish your meals has an impact on your weight. A review of 23 studies showed slower eaters are less likely to gain weight, compared to faster eaters.

People who eat fast also increase their chances of being obese. Counting the number of times you chew each bite might help you learn to chew more slowly.

Eat Fiber

Fiber slows down the passage of food through your digestive tract.

This helps you to feel full sooner and helps to reduce the likeliness of overeating, stated studies in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition and The Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.

To know exactly how much fiber is in the foods you’re eating, track your intake with a weight-loss app like Noom. 

Eat Small Portions

One of the tips on how to lose weight at home is eating small portions. A typical plate of food is larger than the size it was half a century ago.

It is a proven fact that smaller plates make portions appear large, making you eat less. At the same time, a larger plate makes portions appear small, resulting in a higher chance of going for seconds.

You can take advantage of this by using smaller plates for junk food, and larger plates for foods with few calories.

Cool Off

One of the greatest tips on how to lose weight at home is cooling off. It is the best trick even for people who hate exercising and dieting.

All you need to do is walk to the thermostat.

When you turn the heater down several degrees, a type of fat gets activated in your body. This fat is known to burn calories. Children have brown fat while adults have white fat.

Studies done recently have made the conclusion that brown fat burns calories.

It reports that white fat is converted to beige, darker color when the body is exposed to cool environments. This does not mean you have to live in cold regions with sub-zero temperatures.

All you have to do is lower the heater by at least two degrees. The best results are achieved by maintaining 65 degrees to 69 degrees.

Conquer Your Cravings

A lot of people are addicted to food and don’t even realize it.

Sometimes a food addiction can be the one thing that prevents you from reaching your weight-loss goals.

If you find yourself overeating one food, turning to food in times of crisis, or having constant cravings, you may have a food addiction.

Addictions, no matter what kind, are difficult, but not impossible to beat.

Once you conquer your cravings, you will be one step closer to reaching your weight-loss goals.

Eat Spicy Foods

Spicy foods, like cayenne and other peppers, contain a potent compound called Capsaicin.

Capsaicin has been shown by studies in Clinical Nutrition and Physiology & Behavior to help boost metabolism and limit appetite.

Try adding a little spice to your regular meals to get the health-boosting and weight-loss benefits of Capsaicin.

Weight Loss By Exercising

When you start to lose weight, muscle is often one of the first things to go.

Since weight loss often requires a calorie reduction, your body sometimes goes into starvation mode and starts to pull from your muscle mass, explain studies from The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and The International Journal of Obesity .

When you add weight training to your workout plan, you not only boost your metabolism, but you also help to maintain muscle mass. Working on how to lose weight naturally, doesn’t mean you can skip the exercise.

Exercise tracking with apps like Noom make it easy to maintain a workout schedule to keep your metabolism in overdrive to lose weight naturally. Noom is available with a free trial offer. 

Once you start to lose fat, you’ll want to make sure that you keep your newly lean body toned and firm.

Moderate to high intensity muscle-strengthening activities, at least two days a week can do the trick.

For some people, they will find exercising to be the best tips on how to lose body weight.

If you are such a person, you do not need to pay for gym memberships and spend hours doing exercises.

There are ten renowned exercises sure to guarantee weight loss. These can be easily done in the comfort of your home or office. The following is a list of 10 effective weight-loss exercises:

Kettlebell Swings

Top on the list of tips on how to lose weight and get fit is kettlebell swings. They lead because they are not only high intensity and low impact, but also engage the whole body.

This combination makes them ideal for burning calories. To do them, you need to follow these instructions:

Stand with your feet slightly wider than your hip’s width. Use both hands to grasp a kettlebell in front of you.

Slightly squat to engage your core. Swing the kettlebell upwards after pressing your hips forward as you stand. Lower the arms and return to squatting position to complete the first repetition.

Try to complete three sets of 15 swings.

Body-Weight Exercises

Body-weight exercises activate your muscles while ensuring your heart is pumping.

This is one of the best tips on how to lose weight and build muscle. More calories are burnt when you increase your muscle mass. Here is how you go about it:

Begin with your feet together and arms at your side. Raise hands to form a jumping jack while jumping with your feet apart. From this position, jump feet out then back in with your hands on the ground.

Go back to a jumping jack position. Continue ten times and make sure you complete three sets.

With the right hand on your hip, lift the left leg while ensuring the right one is straight. Bend and use your left hand to touch the right knee. Repeat it ten times before switching sides. Do this for three sets.

With legs outstretched behind you, and hands on the ground, get into plank position. Drive the left knee into the right shoulder. Switch legs after every 45 seconds, and repeat for three sets.

Jumping Rope

Jumping rope seems like a middle school gym activity. However, it is a great weight-loss exercise that is fun and effective. Try to complete at least a minute of jumping rope. You can start slow and increase the duration according to your endurance. Tips to lose weight daily while jumping rope include:

The length of your jump rope can be checked by holding the rope and making sure the handles are lining up with your shoulders.

Begin with elbows in toward your ribs, hands holding the handles of the rope, and feet together.

Hop over the swinging rope with your feet together. Avoid jumping in between swings.

Try jumping for a full minute, taking a break, and continuing for another minute. Do this for three sets, and you will have used one of the best tips on how to lose weight and get fit.

Tabata Grill

This is one of the many tips on how to lose weight and build muscle.

Put your feet together and lift dumbbells up to your shoulders.

Jack the dumbbells straight up, to the point you fully extend your arms. While doing this, jump your feet outward. Use all your effort while doing these moves for 20 seconds.

Rest for 10 seconds. With the dumbbells on your chest, place your feet shoulder-width apart.

Start jabbing dumbbells across your body. Change sides and continue for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and repeat both exercises eight times.

Squats

One of the most effective tips on how to lose weight and belly fat is squats. The lower body and core is engaged when you properly do this exercise. Squats are achieved by:

Begin with arms holding weights or at your sides. Make sure your feet are hip-width apart. Weight should be kept in your heels as you raise your arms in front of you, and lower your legs.

Lower your body until each thigh is parallel to the floor. Your back should be kept straight during this period. Additionally, the knees need to be in line with your toes.

Raise your back to a standing position while maintaining an even pace. Aim for three rounds of 15 reps each.

These are tips on how to lose weight fast using exercises. You can decide to do one different exercise each day.

For the best result, you will need to combine at least two different exercises for each workout session.

Strive to do these workouts at least five days in a week. Within a month you will notice a reduction in your weight.

Use Coconut Oil

You may think coconut oil, because of its high-fat content, is unhealthy.

However, it’s very healthy and a great tool for weight loss.

The medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil behave differently than most fats and work to boost metabolism and limit appetite (see research in International Journal of Obesity and European Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

Try replacing some of the fats in your diet with coconut oil to reap the most benefits and track your fat intake with an app like Noomto stay on top of the nutritional values of fats like coconut oil.

Drink Coffee

Black coffee, like green tea, is a great source of antioxidants and other health-promoting compounds.

The caffeine found in coffee has been shown to boost metabolism and help promote weight loss (see studies from The American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

If you want to get the health and weight-loss benefits found in coffee, make sure that you don’t add any sugar and limit your milk or cream use. Often, when looking for tips on how to lose weight naturally, this is one of the easiest.

Apart from caffeine, coffee has a number of biologically active substances. In the short term, some of these substances can increase fat burning and boost your metabolism.

However, negative effects associated with adding other ingredients such as sugar and cream outweigh coffee’s positive effects. High-calorie coffee drinks are loaded with useless calories.

If you love coffee, you can only lose weight if you go for black coffee. A little cream and milk is okay, as long as the quantities are minimal.

Limit Alcohol

Drinking alcohol in moderation is fine and can actually cause weight loss. Taking one beer or two a day may not cause weight gain.

Heavy drinking, more than four bottles of beer a day, is a sure way to gain weight. One of the celebrity tips on how to lose weight is – if you cannot control your beer intake, it is better to quit drinking altogether.

Wine lovers can indulge with a single glass a day. Strong alcohols such as brandy, whisky, gin, and vodka have little impact on weight gain.

Use A Protein Supplement

As we mentioned before, protein is an important answer to how to lose weight naturally (see study in Obesity).

It can sometimes be difficult to get enough protein in the diet, that’s where supplements come in.

Choose a high-quality protein supplement, like whey, to add extra protein to your diet.

Supplementing and replacing calories with whey protein has been shown to help shed pounds.

Stock Up on Healthy Food

Keep healthy food in your house, and you will eat healthy food.

It may seem simple, but one of the best ways to lose weight is to make sure that you don’t have tempting junk food lying around.

Buy healthy food-eat healthy food.

Say No To Sugary Drinks

According to a study in the International Journal of Obesity, our bodies react differently to sugar consumed in liquid form than it does to other sugary foods.

The Lancet says that sugary drinks can cause you to gain more weight than eating other types of sugar-laden foods.

Drinks, such as soda, could potentially affect health and wellness.

Sugar calories may not make you feel full. When you plan on losing weight, consider avoiding sugary beverages. This is among the tips to lose weight and belly fat.

Seemingly healthy fruit juices are also often packed with sugar and can cause you to go well beyond your sugar limit for the day, The Lancet adds.

What Users Are Saying

“At 18, I weighed I 165 lbs. At about age 40, I weighed close to 200 lbs. Went to get a stress test and the exact results I don’t recall, but my cholesterols were way up there. I exercised heavily; vastly cut down my intake of food, ate a lot fruit and drank a lot of water. I took off those 35 pounds, and today at 76, I weigh the same as when I was 18. I keep to the same regimen, but my exercise is confined to long walks (10-15km/day) and very light eating, often, of fruits and veggies and small portions of chicken, turkey and fish in the evening.”

“I am down 109lbs from 320 to 211 and I have to say the biggest downside from such excessive weight loss is the sagging skin. Mine is not near as bad as it could be, but still bothersome. I could be at least 2’more pants sizes smaller if I didn’t have the skin from my stomach. And my breasts are deflated balloons these days. I feel SO much better and still plan on losing more weight, but the skin has definitely been the biggest issue for me.”

“I am no expert on walking or weight loss, but I do know something about thermodynamics and the laws of physics. Walking requires energy and calories are energy, it will burn calories. If you burn more calories than you eat you will lose fat, you have to it’s basic thermodynamics. If you lose fat you will eventually lose weight, you have to. Now other exercises may burn more calories than walking, and most weight loss comes from diet rather than exercise. So walking may not lose you a lot of weight, but if you walk rather than sit you will lose more weight, but maybe just a little. Walking also has all the advantages, so keep on walking!”

Say Yes to Fruits and Veggies

Generally, people who eat more fruits and vegetables are healthier and weigh less, according to research in Obesity Reviews.

When you eat more fruits and vegetables, you will likely eat less processed, unhealthy foods and naturally reduce calories.

If you’re asking how to lose weight naturally, here are 22 ways to get things started. Start with one, add two or three – however you want to do it. Now you have the answer to how to lose weight naturally that doesn’t involve starving or exercising for 10 hours a day.

Article Sources

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2008130
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7486839
3. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sugar
4. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/79/4/537/4690128
5. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/199317
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22412070
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2398753/
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3759019/
9. https://noom.8utb.net/c/1720052/500038/8591
10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938410000703
11. https://www.nature.com/articles/0801101
12. https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/92/8/3334/2598681
13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661958
14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19640952
15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20565999
16. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/19/health/weight-loss-circadian-rhythms-drayer/index.html
17. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022637
18. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1464-5491.2007.02290.x
19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21951360
20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18589027
21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19875483
22. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24215801
23. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23885994
24. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17092830
25. https://noom.8utb.net/c/1720052/500038/8591
26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19345452
27. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21093467
28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22535969
29. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/
30. https://noom.8utb.net/c/1720052/500038/8591
31. https://noom.8utb.net/c/1720052/500038/8591
32. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8696422
33. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8654328
34. https://noom.8utb.net/c/1720052/500038/8591
35. https://www.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpendo.1995.269.4.e671
36. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7486839
37. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2912010
38. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847729
39. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10878689
40. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11229668
41. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587%2814%2970013-0/fulltext
42. http://www.city-data.com/forum/diet-weight-loss/3024099-how-lose-weight-fast-2.html#post55035135
43. https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/8oeo9r/have_you_noticed_any_downsides_to_losing_weight/e02uee8/
44. https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/does-walking-help-to-lose-weight.121149/#post-1114561
45. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20633234