8 small things you can do each day to lose weight

Weight loss is one of the biggest conundrums we face as modern humans.

With abundant advice on how to go about it – from the fad diets to try, the super ingredients to add to your meals and the exercises sure to make the pounds drop off – there’s no wonder we’re prone to giving up and sacking the whole thing off.

But for those of us that just aren’t suited to stringent rules about what we can and can’t eat and how much work-out hours we have to squeeze in every day, thankfully, there are a few easy steps we can take to help aid weight loss.

From sleeping more to keeping tabs on your water-intake (see, we told you they were easy), check out the small things you can do to see results…

Sleep more

More time in bed?! You hardly need to pull our arm to get us to take up this health trick. But seriously: sleeping more can aid weight loss.

According to researchers at King’s College London, those of us who snooze for an extra hour or so could end up consuming fewer sugars and carbohydrates.

They found that extending sleep patterns resulted in a 10-gram reduction in reported intake of free sugars compared to baseline levels.

“When we sleep we burn most of our fat, so if we don’t sleep this can significantly affect weight loss,” nutrition and weight loss expert Pippa Campbell told Yahoo Style UK.

Carry a water bottle around

Consuming more water is perhaps the simplest way to help lose weight: it contains zero calories, can suppress your appetite (it’s recommended you drink water half an hour before meals) and can even help burn calories.

Therefore, making sure you’re always carrying water around is an easy way to make sure you’re doing it without much thought at all. Before long, you’ll be reaching for the water bottle with muscle memory frequency.

To make the idea more appealing, why not invest in a reusable water bottle? We recommend S’well for their chic, stainless steel designs.

Eat slower

According to a study by Yumi Hurst and Haruhisa Fukuda in BMJ Journals, eating slower is linked to weight loss.

The study found that patients tested who ate slower saw a “reduced BMI and waist circumference”.

It’s said that the body takes 20 minutes to realise it’s full, so if you wolf down your dinner in lightening speed, there’s a chance you could be massively overeating.

Try to drag your meals out to half an hour and you could very well see a change…

Eat more fats (the healthy kind)

Swapping out sugary food for healthy fats like nuts, eggs and coconut oil is an easy way to lose weight.

Healthy fats help you stay fuller for longer, can increase your metabolism and provide an alternate fuel to unhealthier snacks we’re prone to consuming. 

So instead of crisps of chocolate, snack on almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, and instead of tons of cheese and sauces chucked on your salad, add a cooked egg and a twist of pepper.

Yum.

Make plans that don’t revolve around food

Social time can be held accountable for a huge portion of our calorie intake per week.

Think about it: how often is a delicious (albeit calorific) meal central to plans you make with your friends?

While it’s easier said than done, making plans that don’t revolve around food can be an easy way to aid weight loss: Instead of a meal out why not go and see a show? Meeting your friends for drinks? Make sure you squeeze in dinner beforehand so you’re not tempted to buy a burger on the way home.

The likelihood is that your friends will be supportive and commit to food-free socialising with you. 

…cut down on alcohol too

It’s hardly a secret that alcohol is calorific. Cutting out even one night of drinking per week could make a massive difference.

Being peer-pressured into work drinks? Saying ‘no’ every now and again could do your waistline the world of good.

Don’t eat after 7pm

Not eating after 7pm is an easy way to help the weight loss process.

Having dinner early and making sure you don’t succumb to post-dinner snacks means you could be consuming up to 238 calories less per day, according to a study carried out by students at Cambridge University, now published in the British Journal of Nutrition. 

Long periods of not eating – say from 7pm to roughly 7am the next day – are likened to the benefits of fasting, popularised by Dr Michael Mosley and his 5:2 diet.

While not everyone can stick to the intermittent fasting diet he recommends, staying away from food past 7pm can still beneficial.

Eat fruit instead of drinking them

Consuming loads of orange juice, apple juice and shop-bought smoothies can only be a good thing right? Wrong.

The sad news is that many fruit juices are packed with sugar, so cutting them out could actually be helping you toward weight loss.

In the interest of still getting your five-a-day, pick up some real fruit instead of a fruit juice when buying your lunch at the supermarket.