15 Tips for Slimming Down Apart from Dieting

Sticking to a healthy diet is essential for losing weight, but following some other tips and advice will also help you slim down.

Written and verified by Doctor Carlos Fabián Avila.

Last update: 15 December, 2022

When we have a goal of slimming down, we try to do everything in our power to achieve it: We consult our doctor, we start to improve our eating habits, we adopt a more active lifestyle and, in general, we try to make better decisions regarding our health. But how do you lose weight besides dieting and then how do you maintain that weight?

Here are 15 tips to help you reach your goal and stay healthy. Read on to learn more!

Tips for slimming down beyond diets

Diets for slimming down are usually diet plans for a specific period of time. They¿re not intended to be followed permanently, which means that you shouldn’t maintain them beyond the established period.

However, there are healthy eating patterns that can be maintained over time, as they usually provide several advantages and not only weight loss. Some examples are the Mediterranean diet and the Harvard plate.

1. Drink Water More Often

Health and nutrition experts recommend drinking enough water per day according to thirst and clarify that the idea of two liters of water is nothing more than a myth.

Especially before meals, drinking a good amount of water will allow us to accelerate the metabolism for a period of one to one and a half hours. In addition, it will allow us to maintain proper hydration.

2. Eat Eggs for Breakfast

Including eggs at breakfast and swapping them for cereals or sugary pastries will make you feel fuller for the first hours of the day. They also provide a good amount of protein, which will help you to lose weight more efficiently.

3. Drink Black Coffee

Coffee is often spoken about negatively when it comes to adopting a healthy diet. However, coffee is full of antioxidants. With these nutrients you can accelerate your metabolism, resulting in increased fat burning.

4. Drink Green Tea

Green tea contains small amounts of caffeine, but it also contains powerful antioxidants called catechins, which work together with the caffeine to improve fat burning.

5. Cook with healthy fats

Fats are essential in the diet. Eliminating them completely does not help to lose weight, but puts your health at risk. Therefore, health experts recommend not only reducing the amount of harmful fats, but also replacing some of them with healthy fats, such as olive oil, for example.

6. Consume Less Added Sugar

If you want to lose weight, you need to reduce your consumption of added sugar. To do this, make sure you read the labels carefully, as many products that are meant to be healthy are sometimes full of added sugar.

At the same time, it’s a good idea to learn to enjoy the natural sweetness of foods. For example, you don’t need to add two spoonfuls of sugar to your chocolate milk in the morning, or any at all. It already has enough sugar in it. The same goes for many other beverages and foods, from coffee to various preparations.

7. Consume Fewer Refined Carbohydrates

Refined carbohydrates are usually sugars or grains that have been stripped of their fibre and nutrients. This type of carbohydrate increases blood sugar levels, which causes hunger cravings.

8. Use Smaller Plates

Some believe that using smaller plates for eating tends to automatically result in less food intake. This means better control of food quantities and, supposedly, a lower calorie intake.

Some people try it and it works for them. Not everyone can apply the same strategy and be successful, so it’s necessary to rely on other strategies to make good choices. Don’t just go for small plates.

9. Have More Healthy Foods to Hand

Often when we’re hungry, we go straight for the food that’s readily available. In this way, we tend to satisfy our sudden appetite with unhealthy foods and beverages, rich in sugar, sodium and empty calories.

However, having fresh fruits, seeds, nuts, dried fruits or unsweetened and unfried cereal bars to eat mid-morning or mid-afternoon will allow us to reduce this excessive consumption of calories and lose weight beyond dieting.

10. Brush Your Teeth Just After Dinner

It’s a really good idea to brush your teeth just after dinner, since it’ll remove the temptation to eat something else as well as helping control your appetite.

11. Use More Spices

Some spices, like cayenne pepper, contain compounds that can accelerate your metabolism. Also, the powerful flavour of many spices can make you feel fuller with a smaller amount of food.

12. Lift Weights to Continue Slimming Down

One of the side effects of going on a diet is that you tend to lose muscle mass and your metabolism slows down.

The best way to prevent this is to perform some kind of hypertrophy exercise, such as weight lifting. This can keep the metabolism accelerated and prevent loss of muscle mass.

It should be noted that muscle hypertrophy can be achieved by weight training in the gym. However, you need to consistently break down and challenge the muscles to see growth.

You can also consume or drink a protein source within the first 30 minutes of a workout.

13. Chew Slower

If often takes a while for the brain to register that you’ve eaten enough. Therefore, chewing slower helps you consume fewer calories before your brain tells you you’re full.

14. Don’t Drink High-Calorie Drinks

If you want to significantly reduce your consumption of unnecessary calories, the best thing to do is avoid things like soft drinks, juices, flavored waters, and other industrialized drinks. These drinks aren’t great for your health because of the calories they contain and their few nutritional benefits.

15. Eat More Protein contributes to slimming down

Eating a lot of protein, particularly in the morning, accelerates the metabolism during the following hours. This helps burn more calories with your basal metabolism and slim down quicker than just dieting.