5 Great Tips to Maximize Your Weight-Loss Routine
Looking for a little extra oomph for your diet and weight-loss program? For those of us already in the process of losing weight, finding a few tricks to help boost your success at the dreaded weekly weigh-ins is like striking gold. Here are a few low-effort tips and tricks to help you burn extra calories in ways you may not have yet thought of.
Stand.
According to the July 2004 Harvard Health Letter, for a 185 pound person, standing in line for 30 minutes burns on average 56 calories per 30 minutes, while watching television burns only 33 calories. Instead of watching Grey’s Anatomy on the sofa, try standing or pacing around the living room. It may not come near to equaling aerobic exercise, but it may help make a dent into the extra calories you have consumed with that extra snack!
Lap the store.
Going grocery shopping? Before you start placing anything in your cart, organize your coupons while lapping the store. When you’ve finished making your shopping selections, lap the store to reorganize your coupons and make final decisions on which foods NOT to buy, for example that chocolate ice cream that always seems to make itself magically appear in your cart.
Fidget.
Teach yourself how to recognize when you are sitting still. Instead of working stolidly in your swivel chair for eight hours, move your chair back and forth while sitting or move your feet up and down, but not to the point where your colleagues will be placing bets on your sanity. When you are sick of standing through a television show, sit down, but keep moving.
Drink cold water.
Drinking ice-cold water is estimated to burn approximately 70 calories per 64 ounces. The reason? Essentially, it is expected that your body expends energy to heat the icy water to preserve your body temperature. While the veracity of this claim is currently under debate in the scientific community, if drinking cold water does not burn more calories than room-temperature water, what have you lost?
Eat calorie busting foods.
Currently there is a debate raging on the so-called “negative-calorie foods”. Many vegetables, such as asparagus, iceberg lettuce, broccoli, and spinach, and some fruits, such as strawberries, apples and honeydews, are reported to, at least by calculation, force your body to burn more calories in digesting them than the food contains. While eating a plateful of lettuce cannot take the place of thirty minutes on the treadmill, adding extra servings of fruits and vegetables enhances any diet plan!
Everything you do, every action in the day, every time you move a muscle, you are burning calories. Some actions, like aerobic exercise, burn hundreds of calories, but every action, from walking to the car at the grocery store to digesting your lunch, burns calories. What else can you do to build opportunities to chip away extra calories in your day?