7 Strategies to Lose Weight Without a Restrictive Diet
Do you hate being on a diet? You may be surprised to learn that a restrictive diet isn’t the best way to lose weight and maintain a stable weight in the long run. According to experts, it only offers short term change.
The best way to reach a healthy weight is to improve your diet without having to resort to an excessively restrictive intake. This way, not only can you fight obesity, but you can also improve your quality of life!
Can a restrictive diet help you lose weight?
Most people have tried out one of these diets or know someone who has. The main take-away is the following: at the beginning, they lose weight, but soon the person feels anxiety due to the many restrictions. In the end, the person ends up abandoning the diet because it’s too complicated to follow, and this ends up in a consequent rebound effect.
Why does this happen with a restrictive diet?
In the first phase, the person is motivated and finds it easy to follow the diet they have chosen. More importantly, because of the caloric deficit, they notice that they lose weight quickly.
However, in the process, they notice that they have several forbidden foods, according to the type of “miracle” diet…and that these foods are increasingly difficult to avoid.
These diets can cause nutritional deficiencies and be ultimately be unhealthy. Also, from a psychological perspective, they can increase the level of anxiety, lack of concentration, irritability, and even the risk of suffering from depression. All these symptoms can even lead to an eating disorder.
When the person is already immersed in all these physical and psychological symptoms, it becomes increasingly difficult to follow the diet with the frustration that this generates.
Tips for losing weight without a restrictive diet
Instead of suffering through a restrictive diet and exposing yourself to every danger, we’ve just mentioned, we recommend you choose other ways to lose weight that have nothing to do with an extreme diet.
Are you ready to try these options? If so, keep reading the tips we’re about to give you. Also, remember that consistency is key when trying to get these results.
1. Drink enough water
Though it seems like an exaggeration, it’s completely true. Water is very healthy for the body. Believe it or not, drinking water properly can also help you lose weight.
Water helps you eliminate toxins and keeps you hydrated and energized. This can keep you from eating foods that are high in sugar to stay awake, water will do this for you instead!
It’ll also help you feel fuller after a meal for a longer period of time. This way, you’re less likely to reach for snacks.
2. Forget the car: walk instead!
In this day and age, the car is our go-to transportation. We know it’s very comfortable, but it can interfere with your weight loss journey. Besides being harmful to the environment, it prevents us from actively doing one of the best exercises there is: walking.
Also read:Keys To Losing Weight with Your Diet
3. Identify unhealthy foods
The secret isn’t going on a restrictive diet, but rather identifying the food that could make you gain weight. The goal is to slowly cut them out of your life.
Industrial soft drinks, fried foods, and all those foods with saturated fats are a very bad choice for the body according to an article published in the BMC Public Health magazine.
4. Say goodbye to stress
Believe it or not, stress is bad for your health and it will also end up contributing to your weight gain. It’s best to identify what’s causing your anxiety.
Identify and eliminate everything that generates stress in your everyday life. Nothing is worth sacrificing your health for. Stress can be the trigger for many illnesses and it’s best to stop it in time. To relax you can practice meditation exercises or some other relaxing activity.
Other strategies such as melatonin supplementation have proven effective in reducing anxiety levels, according to a study published in 2017. Regular intake of this substance can improve the quality of rest and help reduce stress, which has a positive impact on health and weight loss.
5. Dance and have fun
Exercise helps you lose fat. One of the activities you can include in your routines is dancing because the movements will get you moving and make you sweat like never before.
The best part is that you won’t feel as tired because you’ll be having a lot of fun! Some gyms have dance programs to lose weight.
Also read: What’s a Sustainable Diet?
6. Get enough sleep
Experts recommend sleeping between 6 and 8 hours to achieve high performances in our activities and keep ourselves healthy. Getting proper sleep for the right amount of time will make you feel much better. To begin with, you’ll feel less stressed and have much more energy.
According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, restricting sleep can cause problems in our metabolism and eventually cause us to gain weight.
7. Cook at home to avoid a restrictive diet
As hard as it may be to believe, cooking your own food can make a huge difference. Eating in restaurants prevents you from knowing all the ingredients that are put in the food. You also don’t know how much fat it is prepared with and if the food is of the best quality.
Preparing your own food will help you know what’s best for your health.
Improve your weight loss habits
In conclusion, it’s possible to lose weight safely and healthily without a restrictive diet. A healthy lifestyle will give you safe and permanent results. Improving certain aspects of your routines, along with regular exercise, can help you reduce extra pounds without a rebound effect.
Remember that maintaining a healthy weight is one of the best ways to take care of your health.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Zhao Y., Wang L., Xue H., Wang H., Wang Y., Fast food consumption and its associations with obesity and hypertension among children: results from the baseline data of the childhood obesity study in China mega cities. BMC Public Health, 2017.
- Impellizzeri P., Vinci E., Gugliandolo MC., Cuzzocrea F., et al., Premedication with melatonin vs midazolam: efficacy on anxiety and compliance in paedriatric surgical patients. Eur J Pediatr, 2017. 176 (7): 947-953.
