My previous article was entirely emphasised on why you should stop counting calories for overall health benefits.
So, here I bring out the healthy ways of getting the result of most of your health goals naturally and holistically.
There are many things you can do to lose weight — without ever counting a single calorie. Here are 8 tips that will help you crush your weight loss goals—no counting or measuring required.
1.Cut out distractions while you eat
Losing weight isn’t only about what you eat—it’s also about how you eat. Distracted or inattentive eating is one reason people overeat and gain weight. Being in tune with your body and paying attention to hunger and fullness or satiety signals is very important.
Many of those who struggle with weight gain or obesity eat out of habit or boredom, rather than necessity. This often happens when people are doing something else at the same time, like watching TV or browsing the internet.
In these situations, practicing mindful eating could be useful. It involves paying full attention to what you are eating, without any distractions, chewing slowly and savoring every bite.
2.Eat Nutrient-Dense Foods
It turns out that weight management is associated with the types of food you eat, not just calories. Nutrient-dense foods have high nutrient content relative to their calories. By including nutrient-dense foods, we can increase the amount of nutrition, without increasing number of calories.
Nutrient-dense foods would include healthy fats, and phytonutrients like fruits, nuts, beans, virgin plant oils, non-starchy veggies, minimally processed whole grains as well as yoghurt with live probiotics. Wanna know more about nutrient-dense food? Read this detailed post – 9 Foods To Replace Your Multivitamins
3.Say no to Sugar
Refined sugar is insanely high in calories with zero nutritional benefit to the body. These calories are called “empty calories” because they hardly provide any nourishment in terms of vitamins or minerals to the cells.
The biggest issue is when the body converts the excess sugar into fat and stores around the belly, under the skin, and around the organs. When you give up on added sugar in the form of refined sugar, energy drinks, soft drinks, cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, etc., you are cutting out a lot of unwanted calories. Handy Tips To Stop Sugar Cravings
4.Cook your Own Meals
Take a break from those takeout orders. Take-out and restaurant meals are often high in sugar, sodium and unhealthy fat — not to mention the portion sizes can be excessive. When you’re preparing your own food, however, you’re in charge of the ingredients that go into each meal to assure they align with your health goals.
When we cook our own meals, it is easy to get into a calorie deficit by cutting down extra calories that may otherwise creep through unhealthy ingredients and high-fat cooking oil.
5.Eat from Smaller Plates
The bigger the plate, the larger is the room for more food to be served. Make that important switch from 10 inch dinner plate to 8 inch small plate, and you would be able to finish everything that’s there on the plate without overeating or falling into calorie surplus.
Understand meal portions like Three ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, a half cup of grains is roughly the size of your palm, and one cup of veggies is equivalent to a medium-sized fist. Stick to those approximate measurements so you don’t eat too much.
6.Follow the 80-20 rule
Practice “Hara Hachi Bu,” which means “eat until you are 80% full.” It is an eating technique that originated from Okinawa region of Japan where people live an exceptionally long life, are not obese, and rarely suffer from any metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke or cardiovascular issues.
This practice promotes putting a stop to eating once a person reaches 80% satiety and hence promotes weight loss. The idea is simple: just eat healthfully 80 per cent of the time and leave 20 per cent of the time to splurge. That way, you won’t feel guilty and stressed if you happen to nab a slice of pizza at your cousin’s backyard party.
7.Get Enough Sleep
Did you know that getting inadequate sleep make you weigh more. The easiest and most effective way to shed some extra weight is by getting full 7 hours of sleep at night because sleep deprivation is strongly linked to weight gain.
When you sleep comfortably at night, your body can go into a fat-blasting mode by raising metabolism, levelling up fat-burning enzymes, and decreasing the stress hormone. Lack of sleep can stimulate appetite and you are more likely to wake up “hangry” with a ravenous appetite for unhealthy and high-calorie food. So, get your mandatory 7 hours of beauty sleep every night to lose weight and wake up refreshed and with a robust metabolism.
8.Drink More Water
Staying well-hydrated is a simple and easy way to control your weight. Drinking 16oz of water before each meal can help you eat less, leading to weight loss.
Drinking 16oz of cold water can increase resting metabolism by up to 30% for up to 40 minutes after drinking. This effect happens because the body uses energy to heat the water to body temperature. It may seem insignificant when you drink a single glass of water, but it adds up when you drink the recommended eight cups per day.
Research has shown that increasing water intake is an effective way of increasing fullness, thus helping you reduce your total calorie intake.
Here are my 9 personal tips I do instead of counting calories:
1. I always eat when I’m hungry.
2. I eat foods that I’m actually in the mood to eat.
3. I put my full attention on the meal in front of me.
4. I sit down when I eat.
5. I chew every bite before taking another.
6. I enjoy the flavours, texture, mouthfeel, sounds, richness, crunchiness or softness, saltiness or sweetness.
7. I make an effort to eat healthy foods and make an equal effort to eat the healthy foods that taste good to me.
8. I sometimes choose to eat foods purely for the please of eating them, even when they are not “healthy”.
9. I sometimes choose to eat more food than is comfortable, either because the food tastes really good or because I know I won’t have time to eat again for a while (such as during a busy workday).
It’s empowering to know that your body knows best. It validates all of those signals your body sends you a moment to moment, even the urge to eat a little something extra at the end of a meal.
Now before you go, I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below.
Detoxpri 
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