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How to get slim: 7 tried-and-tested ways to lose weight

Losing weight is not as difficult as you think.

Updated: November 30, 2016 10:11 PM IST

By India.com Staff

How to get slim: 7 tried-and-tested ways to lose weight

If you, like us, have always wanted to get slim and show off your toned body, you will be surprised how easy it is to get slim and lose those pounds. Contrary to popular perceptions, losing weight is not half as difficult as putting on weight. If you really think of it, you got to be doing so many things wrong to put on all that weight. We’re not saying putting on weight isn’t fun — having all those cookies and chocolates and fried things is a lot of fun — but you will be surprised at how many things you have to be doing wrong to put on that weight! Think, really, how many years it took for you to put on, let’s say, those last 10 kg? On the other hand, if you do things right, you are bound to lose that weight in a matter of months! So ask yourself, which of the two is easy: losing weight or gaining it? Today, we are bringing you these handy tips on how to get slim. Remember, you cannot get slim without some hard work and consistent efforts. Gaining weight may be a lot of fun but losing weight isn’t. If you want to get slim you will have to start by taking baby steps. Remember, you will begin to see results from the first day itself. These changes in your body won’t be won’t be seen by others for some weeks. And even you won’t be able to see it in the mirror. But you are bound to feel the difference even after just the first day of your plan. So, remember that feeling and keep at it. Here are seven basic tips on how to get slim. Some of them are pretty straightforward and simple, the others involve a little bit of effort. But if you want to get slim, there’s no better way!

1. Drink water, lots and lots of it!

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drinking water

Your parents probably screamed themselves hoarse telling you how drinking water the first thing in the morning was a good thing. A large glass of water, preferably warm water, always helps you jumpstart your body’s metabolism. It also helps cleanse all the toxins from your body. Research has proven that drinking about a litre of plain water in the morning also helps you purify the colon, which in turn improves your ability to absorb nutrients. A good digestive system always translates into better overall health. When you drink plain water, you also control your hunger and it prevents you from consuming unnecessary calories. It isn’t just warm water that helps your body, research has proven that drinking about half a litre of chilled water also boosts your body’s metabolism by 24 per cent. Better metabolism means better burning of fat, which helps you get slim faster.

2. Take a short walk after every meal

walking

Research has proven that walking for just 15 minutes at the moderate pace of 5 kph will help a 63 kg person to burn 60 calories. An 80 kg person will burn 84 calories at the same pace. This just goes to prove that the heavier you are, the easier it is to lose weight. But all that aside, a short walk after a meal doesn’t just help you burn calories but also helps in digesting your food better. It has also proven that a short five-minute walk taken after every meal, can in fact help improve your blood sugar levels better than a 45-minute walk in the morning. Researchers also suggest that a post-meal walk also helps your body muscles use up glucose from your bloodstream, which again helps you lose weight and get slim.

3. Have more high-fibre foods

high fiber food

Few things are as good for getting slim and losing weight than high-fibre foods. After you eat fibre-rich foods, you feel fuller and if you feel fuller you tend to eat less. The unique aspect of high-fibre food is that they require more time to chew, which n turn gives your body more time to process just how much food it should consume. So if you eat high-fibre food, there is a better chance of you not overeating. Yet another advantage of high-fibre foods is that they are less energy dense, which is to say that they have fewer calories in the same volume of food. However the shocking part is that most us eat only half as much as fibre as we should. One of the best ways of adding more fibre to your diet is by starting your day with a breakfast of oats, muesli or whole-wheat flakes. You could also consider including a fruit with every meal and starting your meals with a bowl of salad.

4. Eat as much home food as possible

home cooked food

We know just how tempting it is to order in after a long day’s work. After slogging for 10-12 hours you return to an empty refrigerator and you reach out to the phone to order in from your local eatery. This is especially true of people living in urban India where new restaurants spring up every other day and food apps deliver meals at discounted rates. It isn’t unusual for young urban Indians to have at least four takeaway meals every week. And in some cases people eat as much as one meal a day from outside. Sure, there are restaurants that offer healthy meals but more often than not these options are limited. Invariably you settle for the restaurant that delivers fastest rather than one that delivers the healthiest food. Most restaurant dishes are high on salt and calories and no matter what that neighbourhood hipster joint tells you, there’s no way you can control what goes into your meal. Celebrity dietician Rujuta Diwekar has been among the earliest nutritionists who have been encouraging her readers and clients to go back to the kitchen. There is no better way to get slim and lose weight than to eating at home as often as possible.

5. Go easy on the salt

less salt

Salt and high-sodium foods cause the body to retain water thus making you look bloated. To make matters worse, salt can be somewhat addictive, which explains why you can never be happy with just one chip. Namkeen items, chips, pretzels etc tend to have very high amount of salt. These are not just addictive but also make you look fat and bloated. Even a small packet of potato chips has as many as 500 calories. And how long will you need to burn those calories? Well, let’s just say an hour at the gym at the very least! Now, don’t you think you could do with avoiding the chips altogether? Also, when you are cooking go super easy on the salt. Just because you are cooking at home doesn’t mean that you can add a lot of salt to your food!

6. Go for a run

running

We cannot begin listing out the benefits of running. For one, it is the most basic form of workouts, not to mention one that comes most naturally to human beings. Running also has an added advantage: it doesn’t require anything else except a pair of running shoes (and if you’re running barefoot not even those)! Yet another advantage of running is that it doesn’t just help you burn more calories but also helps you tone up much faster than you would if you walked for the same amount of time It has also been proven that your body continues to burn calories for as many as two hours after you have finished with your run. We could go on; the advantages of running are way too many to list here.Do squats and push-ups regularly

7. Do squats and push-ups regularly

squats

We, more than anyone else, know just how much motivation is needed to go to the gym every day. So if you, like us, don’t have the patience or the time or indeed the motivation to hit the gym that is literally outside your doorstep, you can spend as little as 15 minutes doing squats and push ups. Both these workouts are among the most basic forms of exercises and ones that have been used by the pehlwans of yore to stay fit and in shape. Not only do these exercises burn fat, they also help you tone your legs and arms in almost no time at all! They also serve as great cardiovascular workouts so that’s an added advantage, right?

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