Avoiding weight gain can be especially difficult at times, such as during winter and early spring, when the weather is acting up and you're stuck at home. But there are some simple and straightforward lifestyle tips and supplements you can follow/use that can help you avoid weight gain or even lose a few pounds during those otherwise dormant times when eating always seems to overrule exercising.
Supplements & Ingredients to Help Keep Weight Off
Use stevia instead of sugar. Stevia is a natural sweetener comparable to sugar, and not only is it tasty but it also has zero calories. It is not a supplement, but rather a plant extract that is most commonly available in granular or powder form. Using this sweetener in your baked foods, including cookies and the like, will make them sweet and delicious, without the unnecessary calories and potentially addictive ingredient of sugar, per
leaf.tv. Stevia is available as Stevita here on wonderlabs.com.
Chromium picolinate is a supplement that helps increase the effectiveness of insulin, a hormone that assists your body in converting food into energy, per
webmd.com. Those who use this supplement claimed that it was helpful in curbing their appetite. It is also thought to help your body get rid of fat.
Conjugated Linoleic acid (Tonalin) might help you stay full after eating, and also help your body curb excess fat, per
webmd.com. The research supporting the effectiveness of this supplement in shedding excess weight is mixed. It is recommended that you use it only as a short-term tool for weight loss, as long-term use is associated with increased insulin resistance and Type II diabetes.
Caffeine, a common substance in coffee and tea, has properties that make it an effective metabolism booster, per
healthline.com. Some science suggests that caffeine can boost the metabolism, allowing your body to burn fat quicker, and possibly helping with moderate weight loss.
Simple Measures to Help You Avoid Weight Gain
Monitoring the amount of food you consume is a necessary step in avoiding excess weight gain. To do so, eating mindfully by eating while not distracted with multi-tasking, as well as watching your portion sizes, are two good tricks to monitor your food intake, per
healthline.com. By doing these things, you can observe your body's signals about when it is full and respond in kind. This will allow you to know when you're about to eat too much, so you can stop before you do.
Drink water throughout the day. Drinking water is healthy not only because it is necessary to sustain life, but because it might also reduce hunger. Per
squatrunthencoffee.com, dehydration can sometimes manifest itself as hunger. So if you're hungry, and you realize you haven't had any water in the last couple of hours, drink a glass of water and see if this helps. In doing so, your cells will stay hydrated and you'll be less likely to be unnecessarily hungry.
Avoid stress eating or comfort food, as it is colloquially known. If we are stressed or feeling down, then it can be tempting to eat in order to cope with what we are feeling, per
squatrunthencoffee.com. However, an alternative outlet for stress, such as going for a walk, meditating for a few minutes, or reaching out to a friend to talk is a much better solution than eating for the sake of solace.
Getting enough sleep can make a big difference in avoiding unnecessary hunger. Per
healthline.com, getting less sleep tends to make you hungrier, perhaps on the account of hormones that are released from getting less sleep. Inadequate sleep has also been shown to lower the rate of your metabolism, so be sure to get enough sleep!
