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Your weight is a balancing act that features how many calories you consume plus the amount of energy you burn throughout the day. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 67% of adults age 20 years and over are overweight or obese. If you live your life as a couch potato or munch on too many potato chips, you may find a need to explore the many different home remedies for weight loss.

Causes of Weight Gain

From drinking too much soda to going through a divorce, there are numerous everyday habits and events in life that can contribute to an increase in weight. Some of the most common causes of weight gain include [1]:

• Medications: While prescription drugs are supposed to make you feel better, some also come with side effects that can cause you to gain weight. Common culprits include steroids, antidepressants, diabetes medications, heartburn treatments, seizure preventatives, and birth control pills.

• Lifestyle: Your daily habits could be at the root of your weight gain. Perhaps you’re working long hours and the stress is adding to your waistline. Are you an emotional eater? Not getting enough sleep? Have you recently quit smoking? Other lifestyle choices that can contribute to weight gain include not eating enough fiber, high-sugar snacks, sedentary job, hanging out with overeaters, heavy drinking, eating large portions, and skipping meals (which can slow down your metabolism).

• Life Changes: When the body goes through a change, such as hormonal changes associated with menopause and pregnancy in women, weight can become redistributed and accumulate in the body. Oftentimes, the midsection and hips are the hardest hit areas. Aging is another reason people gain weight because their metabolism starts to slow down as they get older.

• Lifting Weights: Since muscle weighs more than fat, “pumping iron” can cause your scale to display higher numbers. It is one of the few cases in which weight gain is actually healthier for you.

• Water Retention: A bloated stomach during menstrual cycles and eating too much salt are linked to your body retaining water, which results in temporary weight gain.

• Disease and Illness: Sometimes, being sick or fighting a disease can cause weight gain, such as thyroid problems, kidney disease, fibromyalgia, sleep apnea, heart issues, ovarian cysts, tumors, and a dysfunctional liver.

Weight Loss Home Remedies

If you are overweight, it’s important to embrace weight loss remedies, as excess pounds can seriously affect your overall health and also increase your risk of premature death. A host of medical problems often plague an individual who is overweight or obese. They include high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, weak muscles and bones, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, cancer, gallstones, and overall difficulty completing your everyday tasks.

Losing weight means enjoying a lengthier life, fewer health problems, and gaining more energy. By making changes to your everyday routine, such as your exercise and eating habits, you can shed unwanted pounds. A few home remedies for weight loss to consider include:

a) Green Tea:

Boost your metabolism by drinking green tea. Research has shown that green tea can aid weight loss by helping to burn an estimated extra 78 calories per day.

b) 7 p.m. Cutoff:

Some people have lost weight by not eating anything after 7 p.m., which is usually the prime time when people tend to overeat. To satisfy hunger pangs, try chewing gum.

c) Cinnamon:

Cinnamon has a reputation for specifically targeting extra weight in the stomach region. When the spice is combined with healthy eating habits – cinnamon can assist with insulin resistance to encourage weight loss.

d) Morning Weight Loss Drink:

Boil one cup of water with lemon juice and honey to create a weight loss boost that should be consumed every morning.

e) Hula Hoop:

Once you get the hang of the motion, include 30 minutes to one hour of hula hooping per day to watch the extra pounds melt away from your waistline.

f) Apple Cider Vinegar:

Studies have shown that apple cider vinegar increases metabolism, which helps to burn more calories while the body is at rest. Mix two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to 16 ounces of water, and sip throughout the day.

g) Fruit Smoothies:

Encourage weight loss by starting the day off with a fruit smoothie, which delivers a blend of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, and fatty acids to the body. The combination of ingredients offers a tasty remedy that helps prevent food cravings. A couple of additions to consider include orange juice, banana, strawberries, rice milk, concentrated cherry juice, flaxseed oil, aloe juice, and soy milk.

h) Grilled Food:

Your meals will contain less fat and more of a healthy boost when you grill meats instead of fry or sauté.

i) Non-Stick Cooking Spray:

Swap butter and oil with non-stick cooking spray when you need to coat your pans before cooking. Some people will save up to 27 grams of fat and 230 calories.

j) Steam Your Vegetables:

Save a great deal of calories by steaming your vegetables instead of frying or cooking in melted butter.

k) Egg Whites:

Cut down the fat content in your recipes by using two egg whites instead of one whole egg. Eliminating egg yolks from your meals will also lower your cholesterol intake.

l) Kitchen Scissors:

When cutting fat away from your chicken and meat, use kitchen scissors, which take some of the strain from using a knife to cut away excess fat.

m) Frozen Yogurt:

If you’re a fan of ice cream, find lower-fat substitutes, such as frozen yogurt and sherbet, to lessen the damage.

n) Applesauce:

Applesauce makes a healthier substitute for oil, margarine, and butter when preparing baked goods, such as cookies, cakes, and muffins. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of vegetable oil, use ½ cup of applesauce and ½ cup of oil.

o) Frozen Fruit:

Packed with vitamins and minerals, freeze cubed fruit (like oranges, cantaloupe, pineapple, peaches, grapes, and strawberries) for an after-dinner treat.

p) Low-Fat Milk:

The next time you add milk to your cereal, remember that whole milk contains 8 grams of fat per cup, while skim milk has zero. You will also get the same amount of calcium and vitamin D if you switch to low-fat milk. Calcium additionally helps break down fat.

q) Soy Products:

Soy actually contains components (such as lecithin) that keep fat from sticking around longer than it has to. Soybeans also increase the body’s ability to eliminate fat by breaking down deposits in the body.

r) Oatmeal:

Many food cravings develop with blood sugar levels take a dive. However, fiber-packed oatmeal lingers in your stomach for hours, which helps curb cravings. Just make sure you don’t pile up on the sugary flavored oatmeal, which does more harm than good.

s) Nuts:

Stay full by snacking on nuts, which treats hunger pangs without packing on an extreme number of calories. Avoid salted nuts, which raises your blood pressure and can lead to water retention. A decent serving is 24 almonds per day.

t) Weight Loss Journal:

Writing down what you eat in a ‘food diary’ can help you assess how many calories you consume throughout a day, week, and month. Seeing what you eat can help you make healthier choices that lessen your overall calorie intake. Some people also record how much exercise they get on a daily basis. The weight loss journal is also a good place to track progress by entering daily or weekly weigh-ins.

u) “Negative”-Calorie Foods:

There is a theory that if you stock up on ‘negative’ calorie foods (items that burn more calories than they contain) – you can lose weight faster. At the very least, replacing your guilty edibles with negative calorie snacks can help you achieve your weight loss goals faster. Examples include celery, oranges, strawberries, grapefruit, apricots, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, tangerines, carrots, apples, and hot chili peppers.

v) Drink Water:

Water is a natural remedy that suppresses your appetite, flushes away toxins, removes excess sodium, and helps increase your metabolic rate.

w) Citrus Fruits:

The vitamin C found in citrus fruits offers a fat-burning component that helps eliminate excess pounds from your system quicker. A couple of ways to increase your intake of citrus fruits is to eat a grapefruit for breakfast, drink orange juice with lunch, or add lemon to your water at dinnertime.

x) Berries:

The fiber content in berries can help with weight loss. However, don’t think that you can satisfy your intake with jelly, as many options have nearly no fiber and are loaded with added sugar.

y) Beans:

Helping to tone your body and lose weight, beans make an effectively low-calorie side dish that is filled with protein and fiber. One of the best bean choices is cannellini, which slows down your digestion and makes your body work harder to process meals. The result is burning more calories. Other decent options include pinto and black beans.

z) Choose Whole Grains:

Not all carbohydrates are bad for you and when you choose the ‘right’ kind of carbs for your diet – you can aid weight loss. Select food products that state “whole grain” or “100 % whole wheat” to avoid becoming too hungry throughout the day and night.

aa) Cayenne Powder:

Sweat your way to weight loss by consuming spicy foods, which sets your body in motion to burn calories hours after eating. Cayenne pepper is considered one of the best fat-burning spices to add to your dishes.

bb) Ginger:

Expanding blood vessels and increasing body heat and metabolism, ginger works towards burning fat. Eaten fresh, ground, pickled or candied, ginger also helps detoxify the body and stimulate circulation.

cc) Green Leafy Vegetables:

Fight a bulging waist by eating green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and broccoli, which offers a lot of fiber and very few calories. Starting your meal with a salad will help you eat smaller portions. The best greens to add to a salad are romaine, arugula, and spinach.

Resources

[1] http://www.nursingdegreeguide.org/2008/50-surprising-causes-of-weight-gain/

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