Want to Lose Weight? Use These 20 Simple Tips

Fat Loss

How To Lose Weight? Why Tracking Calories Isn’t Enough?

The journey to lose weight can be challenging and frustrating, especially if you feel like you have to constantly track every calorie you consume. The good news is that there are other effective ways to shed excess weight without obsessing over calorie counts. In fact, many people find that tracking every calorie they eat is not only tedious but also unsustainable in the long run.

This article presents 20 simple tips to help people lose weight without tracking calories. These tips are designed to be practical, effective, and easy to implement into your daily routine. They cover various aspects of diet, exercise, and lifestyle habits, providing a well-rounded approach to weight loss.

By incorporating these tips into your lifestyle, you can create sustainable habits that support weight loss without the need for obsessive calorie counting. These tips are backed by science and have been shown to be effective in helping people lose weight and improve overall health.

Whether you’re just starting your weight loss journey or looking for new ways to optimize your progress, these tips can help you achieve your goals without the stress of calorie counting. So, let’s dive in and explore these simple yet effective strategies for losing weight.

#1 Limit Your Alcohol Consumption

People like drinking alcohol. It gives them a boost of hormones such as Serotonin, Dopamine, and endorphins, making them feel good. However, that feeling of happiness comes at a price. Alcohol and weight loss co-relate with each other, just not in a way one would presume.

Drinking alcohol creates big problems for you, in terms of weight loss, in more ways than you can imagine. First, your body’s sleep cycle gets majorly hindered by alcohol consumption. Then, your body has to spend a significant amount of time digesting the liquor before getting to the burning of that excess weight.

The digestion of alcohol takes significant time and energy away from the body that could be used for shedding off those extra thick layers of weight. So, first thing first. Limit your alcohol consumption. If you’re drinking daily, you need to stop it and go see a doctor first because you’re addicted to it, no matter how much you deny it. Second, if you drink 2-3 times a week, shift that consumption to just special occasions.

#2 Junk Food Has To Go To Lose Weight

Eating junk food is the main reason for most people not only gaining weight but also struggling to lose it. All sorts of junk food are highly processed. They have really high levels of salt and sugar that make your brain fall in love with fast food at first instance. And then, that love soon turns into a relationship.

And six months later, you struggle to even touch your toes. So, the second tip is to stop eating junk food at every chance you get. Learn to control your brain. Hitting the gym and doing cardio is not going to help you lose weight if you don’t put a stop to junk food. Consumption of juicy burgers, oil-dipped french fries, and other sorts of junk food should be limited to once or twice a month and no more.

#3 Don’t Sip On Cold Drinks

Cold drinks are the most dangerous beverages to consume. They have such a high amount of sugar, which doesn’t only increase weight significantly but also spikes your blood sugar to a very high amount.

One regular-size bottle of cold drink has so much sugar that it completes about 90-95% of the daily sugar requirement of a human being. So, the third tip to lose weight is to stop consuming cold drinks and other sugar-added (packaged fruit juices) beverages.

They are just not at all good for your health. They also have such high calories that if you pair them with junk food, your dream of losing weight and becoming jacked will practically stay just that a dream. Take it from one of the fittest athletes in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, who only sips on water, not cold drinks.

#4 Choose Fun Cardio Movements Over Boring Treadmill

Cardio helps you lose weight significantly when paired with strength training correctly. The idea of walking or running on treadmills for many-many minutes feels just exhausting. Just a 10-min walk on the treadmill feels like an eternity for most people. This is the reason why most people opt out of cardio.

They get just too bored to perform it. However, cardio is a beneficial tool to shed off those extra layers of weight. If you’re too bored to walk/run on the treadmill but still want to reap the maximum benefits of cardio to get shredded, opt for fun cardio movements. Some of those movements are: Long Jumps With Jog Back, Runner’s Skip, Jumping Rope, Jumping Squats, Jumping Jacks, Stair Climb, Lateral Shuffles, etc.

You could choose any of the aforementioned three movements and perform them for a total of 15-20 minutes. They will be enough for your cardio section of the workout. You can also play sports such as Trampolining, Cycling, Boxing, Swimming, Basketball, Football, etc.

#5 Train With More Intensity To Lose Weight

To lose weight you need to put more stress on your body. One way to do that is by adjusting the intensity of your workouts. Many people don’t pay attention to this factor when they’re looking to lose weight. Though they might be nailing their diet, they’re most probably neglecting their training.

So, one of the main keys to losing weight is by tuning up the intensity of your workouts so your body burns more calories. To be clear, doing more exercises isn’t an optimal way to increase intensity. Lifting heavy weights for more reps, taking less rest time in-between sets, using techniques such as drop set and superset, and doing compound movements. All of these methods are great tools to increase intensity.

#6 10K Steps Per Day Aren’t Necessary

Whoever tells you that you need to walk 10,000 steps a day to lose weight and increase cardiovascular strength, they are giving you a false representation. Walking 10,000 steps per day is just a random number and it has nothing to do with losing weight. (Click here to know the history of 10k steps)

You can walk 5,000 per day and still lose weight. In fact, you can walk just 3,500 steps a day and still achieve your goal of losing weight as long as you cover these many steps per day on a daily basis.

#7 Start Prepping Your Meals To Lose Weight

If you’ve been doing good in the workout area, you need to put focus on the diet. You need to find how many calories you need to eat to shed off those extra layers of fat in your body. Once you find the optimal diet, you need to start prepping your meals daily. What this will do for you is help you keep on your path and will give you lesser occasions to both skip meals and eat food that isn’t necessary for you.

So, buy yourself a couple of Tupperware and prepare your meals in the morning that you’re going to eat throughout the day. Then make sure you carry them with you every place you go to hit daily goals.

#8 Prioritize Protein Intake

Protein is a very important macronutrient. For your body to lose weight and build muscle, you need to include this macronutrient in your diet. When you work out you’re burning fat as calories to fuel up your workout. However, your body requires protein to recover and rebuild the muscle tissues broken during workouts.

Also, a high-protein diet makes you feel less hungry and boosts several hormones which help you lose weight. So, prioritize protein in your diet. Aim for about 1-1.5 gm of protein per pound of your body weight. Eat protein-rich foods to cover up for your daily requirement of protein.

#9 Do Not Workout On An Empty Stomach To Lose Weight

It’s largely believed by beginners that working out on an empty stomach helps you lose weight. However, this is far from the truth. Exercising on a fasted stomach does more damage to your body than benefit. It sucks out energy from your body, messes with your metabolism, and burns muscle for energy.

These are just a few drawbacks of working out on a fasted stomach. So, whether you work out in the morning or evening, always eat a meal 2-3 hours prior. It’s going to give you the much-needed energy to lift weights and focus on your workout. That way you can burn more calories and lose weight faster.

#10 Fruits and Vegetables Should Be A Staple of Your Diet

Foods and vegetables have almost every mineral and nutrient you need to build a healthy physique. They have plenty of healthy carbs, protein, and fats. If you eat one cup (medium-sized) of fruit, you can easily hit your daily requirement of sugar too. Moreover, daily consumption of fruits and veggies helps your body to get easily adapted to a balanced diet. Due to this, fruits and veggies are a staple for most diets.

Though fruits and veggies are very rich and dense in macronutrients, they still are very low in calories. Due to this, you can eat a lot of them and still lose weight. Also, fruits and veggies are filled with almost every vitamin and anti-oxidant which are needed by the human body to stay function properly.

#11 Your Diet Plan Has To Be Sustainable

Putting in the work at the gym is great but it isn’t going to do much for you if you’re not following a good diet plan. A good diet plan is first and foremost the plan which you can follow easily. It has to be sustainable. You can achieve that by making small rather than big changes to your current diet plan.

For losing weight, you’ve to be in a calorie-deficit state and eat a lot of good and healthy foods. There are a lot of diet plans which can help you achieve that. Some of those diet plans are – Mediterranean, Intermittent, Plant-based and flexitarian, Mayo Clinic, and Low-Carb.

#12 Avoid Screen While Eating To Lose Weight

When you’re trying to lose weight, you have to be aware of what and how much of it you’re putting in your mouth. While eating any meal of the day, try not to stream Netflix, watch YouTube, or scroll reels on Instagram. What they do is take away your attention and you often end up eating more than you should.

Or worse, you don’t even realize eating your whole meal and end up still feeling hungry. Then to get rid of that hunger you eat more than you planned. So, avoid watching TV, PC, or Mobile when you eat. It’s going to make your plan to lose weight much more easier and effective.

#13 Nutrients Dense Foods Should Be Your Focus

Nutrient-dense foods should make up around 90% of your weight-loss diet. They should be your go-to choice. They not only will help you get rid of those extra layers of fat but also feel energized while you’re through the phase of losing weight. The remaining 10% of your diet could consist of some fast foods.

However, you can’t eat them every week. Foods such as burgers and fries are though not toxic for your body, they are not healthy either. You can consume them in moderation once in two weeks or a month just to treat yourself. Other than that, stick to nutritious foods. They are a must for you and your goal.

#14 Take The Stairs Whenever Your Can

One of the simple tips and tricks to lose weight is to walk the stairs instead of using elevators or escalators. This simple way will help you burn more calories without putting in much extra work and time.

Taking the stairs whenever possible could become sort of your cardio workout. To climb up a few pairs of steps you don’t need any special outfit or equipment. Workplace, shopping mall, or home. You can walk the stairs at any of these places, and especially at any time. Talk about using things to your advantage!

#15 Compound Exercises Should Be 90% of Your Workout

In order to lose weight, your workout plan needs to be formed and sequenced correctly. It must consist of compound exercises because they use multiple body parts simultaneously. They put a lot of stress on your body and force it to give the maximum output. At the same time, they burn a lot of calories too.

Compound exercises such as Bench Presses, Barbell Rows, Deadlifts, Military Presses, Squats, Pull-Ups, and Push-Ups should sum up around 80% of your workout routine. The remaining 20% should include isolation exercises such as Triceps Extension, DB Curls, Side Raises, Leg Extensions, Cable Chest Flys, etc.

#16 Don’t Search For Motivation, Build Discipline

If you’ve decided to lose weight and you’re waiting for some motivation to hit you so that you can start doing things that are essential to achieve that goal, there’s a high chance you’ll fail. Motivation can last for a few hours, days, weeks, or a full month. But, it’s never going to extend more than that time frame.

And you need to do things over and over for a long period of time in order to lose those extra layers of weight. You can only do them if you discipline yourself. So, take one step at a time. Train your mind to do hard things during hard times. Remember discipline will take you to places where motivation won’t.

#17 Avoid Late-Night Snacks To Lose Weight

Late-night snacks are the worst. All day you might have done everything right. Train right. Ate right. But, as the dawn comes and it’s time to go to bed, you get the craving of eating something tasty. You submit to that craving and end up eating more calories than you should in order to lose weight.

One way to make sure you don’t have late-night cravings is by following a calorie-deficit diet and sticking to it most of the time. Also, go to sleep early so that your body won’t have time to crave tasty snacks.

#18 Strategize For Social Occasions

Following your diet plan is much needed for you to lose weight. While you might stick to it most of the time but what about when you have social outings? It could be once a month or maybe even a few times. You can’t break your diet and cite the outings as the reason. You have to be smart with how you handle it.

Obviously, you can’t take your prepped meal in a Tupperware and eat from it everywhere. But, what you can do is control what sort of food you eat and how many calories you put in your stomach. These days most food outlets include a calorie menu for food items. Choose what is tasty but also has fewer calories.

#19 Boost Your Metabolism With Water

Metabolism is a very important factor to lose weight. The faster your metabolism, the quicker your body will burn fat. Therefore, if your metabolic rate is slow, you’re going to have a very difficult time losing those extra layers of fat covering your body. Though working out and sticking to a nutrient-dense diet boosts your metabolic rate, drinking water is beneficial too. It also boosts metabolism to a great extent.

If you drink just 500 ml of water, you’ll be increasing your metabolic rate by 25-30% for an hour or so. And when that happens your body will lose weight at a faster rate. Therefore, sipping 3-4 liters of water on a daily basis will not only help you lose weight faster but also will help you to keep it off.

#20 Track Your Progress To Lose Weight

To make sure you’re making progress and are on the right path to losing weight, you should take pictures of your physique once every week. Though your weight on the scale might not change, you’ll still be able to tell if you’ve lost weight by looking at those pictures.

Also Read: Not 10,000, But Here’s How Many Steps You Need To Walk Every Day To Stay Healthy!

You should also log in your workouts and the weight you’re lifting during each and every training session. That way, you can keep a track of the weight you’re lifting in the gym and if it’s right where it needs to be. That said, tracking your progress will make sure you’re losing weight while also increasing your strength.

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