As nearly 70% of Americans deal with being overweight, not everyone has the time or money for a gym membership. If your schedule is tight with work, family, and extra-curricular activities, you need to figure out how to lose weight without exercising. Thankfully, there are some tried and true tactics available to just about everyone.
Here are five that you should try.
1. Drink More Water
One of the most important ways that you can improve your health and lose some weight is to change how much water you drink. A lot of excess weight has to do with hydration and dehydration. If you’re not drinking eight glasses of water a day, then you’re probably holding on to some weight based on what your body is doing to compensate.
You can also compensate for how much food you’d like to be eating in the middle of the day with a few glasses of water. When you’re hungry but it’s not time to eat yet, your body could be telling you that you’re dehydrated. If you chug two glasses of water, you might find that you’re far less hungry.
The average person holds a few pounds of weight that could come off in a week or two with constant hydration. If you drink the right amount of water for your height and weight every day, you’d drop pounds quickly right at the start.
You’ll have to maintain your regimen if you start making water part of your weight loss program, but you’ll find it’ll change the way your body works for the better.
2. Take The Long Route
If you’re used to taking the elevator up to your office or home every day, why not swap out your trip for a trip on the stairs. You’ll find that if you’re willing to start taking the stairs on a regular basis, your legs and bottom will strengthen and tighten up. If you’re comfortable taking a long way up and down to where you’re headed, you won’t balk at taking a parking space at the end of the parking lot.
Think about making that a habit for yourself. When you drive to the grocery store or to work every day, add in a few extra steps by parking at the far end of the lot and walking across. Every little bit counts when you’re trying to lose weight without exercising.
If you walk to and from places often enough, start taking a longer route. If you’re not on too tight of a schedule, you’ll find that those extra minutes will make a difference. The more comfortable you feel traveling around by foot, the more you’ll end up making it a habit.
3. Cut Out Bad Habits
If you’re able to cut out some bad habits, you’ll end up dropping pounds without having to do any extra work at all. If you’re used to making decisions that are unhealthy, you’ll find that just taking a break from some bad habits will make you feel better. When you feel better, your body has more energy to process food and you’ll have the energy to walk a little further and take those long routes.
If you’re a smoker, you should quit as soon as possible. It’ll make your skin look better, help you sleep easier, and cause you to enjoy healthy foods a lot more. Since your tastebuds have been deadened, you’re going to only respond to rich, salty, or fatty foods.
If you’re a heavy drinker, you need to lay off for a while. You’ll find that those empty calories you get from beer or wine are going to be what’s standing in your way of losing weight. Rather than continue to slow your own metabolism down, cut out the alcohol so you can start processing things faster and easier.
4. Go Vegan
If you’ve never considered it before, now’s the time to think about it. Going vegan can change your whole relationship to food. IF you’re able to eat only healthy natural foods that are packed with nutrients, you’ll lose weight fast.
Most of the food that we eat is processed with so many things that the body can’t easily deal with. Anything that your body can’t deal with is turned into sugar and then fat to be burned up later. All those extra elements add up, turn into fat, and slow down your whole system.
Going vegan means that you’re getting lots of natural fiber, lots of nutrients, and giving your body what it needs to fuel itself through the day. Without any excess, you’re sure to shed weight quickly.
Discover more about things you could combine with a healthier diet.
5. Travel Other Ways
While you could make an argument that it’s technically exercising, you need to get to work somehow. Rather than booking in extra time to spend on a stationary bike or running, you could turn those things into part of your daily commute.
If you live in a city, biking to work could be a fairly straightforward issue. There are often bike lanes and easily accessible ways to ride a bicycle. In rural areas or in suburbs where people take a train into work, many commuters bike from their home to the train.
Find ways to walk, run, or bike to work each day and you’ll be able to skip traffic and build in some weight loss every single day.
Learning How To Lose Weight Without Exercising
If you absolutely don’t have time for exercising, losing weight is going to be a struggle. Figuring out how to lose weight without exercising is hard because there really are no shortcuts. However, with some discipline and focus, you’ll be able to shed pounds.
For more tips on cutting calories, check out our guide of ways to do it without going insane.