lose weight Archives

April 22, 2022 By GOQii 19 Comments

Myths, Tips and Tricks for Weight Loss

Are you facing issues with weight loss? Have you tried everything from fad diets to exercises to health clubs but found no permanent results? At some point, you may have even gained the kilos almost as quickly as you lost them. So when it comes to weight loss, what exactly works?

As each person’s body needs and compositions differ, weight loss works differently for different people. What remains common is the fact that weight loss needs to be holistic and diet alone isn’t the best method. The ideal method is a combination of various lifestyle factors.

The key to weight loss is making permanent changes in your eating habits as well as lifestyle. It is said that weight gain is not quick and is not the result of days or even a few months. It’s a result of years of overeating. The safest and the most effective way of slimming is to lose weight sensibly. For instance, a kilo in a week is quick, safe and manageable.

Crash diets should be avoided because more often than not, they fail. A severe diet can slow the body’s metabolism down. The key to successful weight loss is making permanent changes in your eating habits. Do not try to revamp your diet all at once. Start with a few adjustments and gradually build on them until balanced nutrition choices become a regular part of your routine. Gradual changes in diet are more likely to become habits eventually.

Some Myths, Tips & Funny Tricks For Weight Loss

Myths

A glass of warm water in the morning helps you lose weight: Many believe that consuming warm water on an empty stomach is a cure for excess weight. They believe that hot water dissolves fat but the truth is that fat does not dissolve in water
Switching sugar with honey will aid weight loss: I agree that honey has many therapeutic and curative powers but curing obesity is not one of them
Bananas are fattening: This is the most misunderstood fruit and has calories as much as any other fruit. Also they are a wonderful source of potassium. They are filling and assuage constipation
Standing while eating burns more calories: The truth is you tend to eat more while standing. I always recommend one to sit and eat unless circumstances demand otherwise
Skipping breakfast is good during dieting: It’s recommended never to skip breakfast or else you tend to overeat in your next meal. After dinner, our body is in the fasting state and next morning when we wake up, our body needs fuel to get going
Potatoes are fattening: It’s safer to consume potatoes over breads as breads are twice as fattening as potatoes. Go for boiled potatoes rather than fried ones
Saunas help in shedding kilos: You may feel rejuvenated and great sitting in a sauna but what you really lose after one session is merely the weight of water. Once the fluids have been replenished, your weight comes back to normal

Tips

Eat plenty of green leafy veggies, fruits, and whole grains
Drink plenty of water. This will keep off hunger. Sometimes, what we often think as hunger is in fact thirst. Here’s how you can differentiate between hunger and thirst
You need to watch the nutrients that you consume. Divide your entire day’s plate into 4 quarters. Fill more than half of your plate with veggies and fruits. Remaining could be balanced between dairy, beans or cereals
Try to go for small frequent meals instead of typical 3 square meals i.e. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Ideally, you should consume some food after every 2.5- 3 hours
Have a colourful meal. By colours I don’t mean artificial/synthetic colours. What I mean is choose foods with colourful veggies and fruits and make your plate aesthetically attractive
Eat your meals mindfully and chew thoroughly. This will help in portion control, better digestion and reduces the chances of overeating
If you have a sweet tooth, don’t hold the guilt, satisfy it. Choose a sweet, like a candy or peppermint, which will last in your mouth for some time and tastes heavenly. If it is a high calorie sweet loaded with sugar and fat, take just a bite. Remember taste is what you want, not the calories
If you happen to treat yourself with some sweets or fried foods, do so at breakfast. As our metabolism is more active during this time of the day. Plus, you have an entire day to burn off the extra calories
Sleep deprivation can cause you to snack unnecessarily. Have a good rest and sleep for weight moderation
Focus on deep breathing, into your stomach and not just your chest. Oxygen is one key to lose weight, as fat burns in the flame of oxygen. Take equal time to exhale so as to eliminate toxins from the body
Don’t miss your daily workout. If you don’t have the luxury of time, try and be active for at least 20 minutes per day as it’s always said that a little workout is better than no workout

Tricks

Develop a reward system. It’s proven that when you have something to look forward to at the end of each milestone, it automatically helps to mentally and emotionally shorten the cycle of long term success
While setting a target, try to be realistic and do not dream of a petite figure. It will boost your confidence once you achieve that realistic goal
This sounds silly but really works (personal experience). When you are tempted to reach out for that forbidden snack, before satisfying your taste buds, just take a deep breath & count to 100. Usually, by the time you finish counting to 100, your craving would have vanished
Chocolate craving is the most addictive of all. Next time you feel like eating a chocolate, just take a whiff of a strong perfume. This eases the craving
Pinch your ear to lose your appetite! Surprising, isn’t it? Well Reflexologists believe that pinching your ear will curb cravings and reduce your appetite
Above all, always be motivated! Think thin and fit. Imagine yourself at the weight you would like to be or the clothes you would like to fit in. Also picture how others will react to you at your new weight and look. Enjoy the feelings that these thoughts will evoke as they will keep you motivated for the long run!

The takeaway message here is that weight loss comes as a by product of an active and healthy lifestyle. It’s you who has to get you off the couch to exercise, cook a healthy meal and move that body!

Do you have any other myths, tips or tricks you’d like to share? Drop them in the comments below! For more on Weight Loss, check out Healthy Reads. For the right guidance and motivation to work towards your health goals, subscribe for GOQii’s personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce

October 5, 2021 By Alfana Khatri 2 Comments

Unable to Lose Weight? 7 Secrets for Sustainable Weight Loss

During your weight loss journey, have you contemplated the impossibility of you reaching your weight loss goal? How many times were you close to giving up? Despite all your struggles with following proper exercise routines and eating the right food, you don’t seem to lose weight. If you resonate with this, it is fairly common. Such situations or instances are faced by people who are trying to lose weight. And yes, we understand how frustrating that can be. The real question here is – is there anything more beyond diet and exercise?

7 Acceptable and Easier Secrets to Lose Weight

1. Focusing on a Single Number
How frequently do you check your weight and get disheartened? The thing is that weight loss isn’t just about losing weight in kg but also about losing fat mass and gaining muscle mass. Your body type, ethnic group and muscle mass can change the meaning of the number that you see on the scale. How much fat loss and how much bone density has improved are the numbers you should be looking at. A Body Composition Analysis (BCA) once a month would be a better indicator than a weighing scale alone. Also, measuring waist and hip circumference in inches gives insight on your inch loss. Measure it once in 15 days along with weight.

2. Setting Unrealistic Goals
Always set tangible and measurable goals. Aim for slow and steady weight loss i.e. 1.5 – 2 kg/month as it’s easy to achieve and maintain. Setting short term quick fixes will not help you with sustainable weight loss and the chances to regain the shed kilos increases. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Accompany your health goals with good planning, take some expert advice for goal setting and guidelines which will also help you track them daily.

3. Sitting Time
If you haven’t been able to lose weight despite working out for an hour a day, 7 times a week, then there’s a good explanation for it. Researchers conclude that sitting continuously for hours is as dangerous as smoking! When you stay seated, your body metabolism slows, you burn less calories, your muscles and joints stiffen up, and your back may hurt. Rather, get up every 30 minutes and stretch or take a short walk, as every bit counts. You can also try this workout routine you can do anywhere.

4. Sleep Well
Adults usually need 7-9 hours of sleep. Our bodies use that time to detoxify, fix tissues, make hormones, and grow muscles. Our brains use it to process the information and learning of the day into memories. Not enough sleep can make you hungrier and make junk food more appealing. Quantity of sleep is as important as quality of sleep. It’s important to train your body’s circadian rhythm to sleep early and wake up early. Your body responds well if you sleep during the magical hours of 10pm to 6am.

5. Manage Stress
How many times have you been stressed out over not reaching your target weight? Stress can make the weight loss journey nearly impossible. Stress eating is a type of emotional eating, where the body usually craves high fat, high sugar foods. Stress produces cortisol, a hormone which promotes body fat and makes it harder to lose weight, especially belly fat. It also causes disturbance in sleep. Less sleep, chronic fatigue leads to the rise of the hormone – Ghrelin, which is the primary hunger hormone, which makes you feel hungry even when you don’t need to eat. Constant stress, however, can wreak havoc on your emotional and physical health by causing anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation.

6. Water Intake
Many of us cannot draw a distinction between thirst and hunger. The first thing that comes to mind is always ‘food’, even if it is just thirst. In most cases, a glass of water might do the trick instead of eating a snack. To set a baseline, drink one glass of water before you eat anything. Drink adequate water before, during and post-workout.

7. Nutrient Deficiencies
Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D3 are the major vitamins involved in the fat loss process. Vitamin B12 converts fats and proteins into energy and aids in the breakdown of carbohydrates too. The sunshine Vitamin D3 decreases body fat and limits weight gain by altering the storage and formation of fat cells and it also increases the levels of serotonin (happy hormone) and testosterone (affects bone and muscle mass) in the body. Unfortunately, nearly 50% of people worldwide suffer from low Vitamin D levels.

If you’re still looking for a “magic pill” to aid weight loss, it is the combination of the above points. They can help you succeed in your weight loss journey as well as sustain it. There is no shortcut to it, only consistency. We hope this article helps you out. For more tips on weight loss, check out Healthy Reads or reach out to your GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce!

August 1, 2021 By GOQii 38 Comments

Health Benefits Of Eating A Bowl Of Salad Daily

Traditionally, salads are prepared with raw vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage and onions – which are cut into slices and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and lemon. They were either served as the smallest portion of the meal or totally ignored. If you have also been doing the same, it’s time to change! Adding a bowl of salad to your meals is important and that’s what we’re going to tell you in this article.

Why Should You Eat A Bowl Of Salad Daily?

Firstly, starting your meals with a bowl of salad will help you lose weight. It’s true because salads are low in calories, high in fiber and rich in other nutrients. Fiber helps you feel full and you go easy on the rest of your meal. Eating less but healthy = sustainable weight loss! Eating a high fiber salad aids in lowering cholesterol and also is known to prevent constipation.
Eating a little good fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables in salads helps your body absorb protective phytochemicals (known to protect against cancer and heart disease), like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables.
Best way to skip croutons (deep fried pieces of wheat bread) which are few in nutrients and have a high glycemic load, is to replace them with nuts and seeds and maintain the crunchiness in the salad.
To balance it with proper carbohydrates and proteins to make it a whole meal, you can add brown rice or protein packed Quinoa, grilled chicken, low fat Paneer, Tofu or Sprouts.
People, who do not like to eat fruits, can relish salads which combine fruits and vegetables and eat it as a whole meal or an in between snack. This provides a host of powerful antioxidants which protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

Tips To Prepare Healthy Salads

Salads are known to be rich in Vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K cannot be absorbed and used by the body without the presence of some fat. So go for the unsaturated kind (good fats) like olive oil or canola oil. Toss the oil with vinegar which helps to prevent blood sugar spikes after meals.
The best way to include greens like romaine, radicchio, iceberg and spinach in our daily diet is to mix them all up or use one at a time in salads.
Add medicinal herbs like basil, garlic, lemon juice or parsley to the salad for that strong punch of flavor and loads of disease fighting antioxidants. The more flavorful your salad is naturally, the fewer high calorie ingredients you will need to add for taste like extra cheese and cream.
Pack your salads with as many other veggies or fruits as possible to get the synergetic effects. Carrots, cucumbers, different colored peppers, broccoli, peas, artichokes, strawberries, raspberries, or pears are great choices to get in different textures as well as plenty of filling fiber.

We hope this article helps you pick up the habit of adding a bowl of salad to your meals! Do get creative with your salad, make it colorful or crunchy and share a pic on social media or the GOQii Arena and tag us! For more on healthy living and nutrition, check out Healthy Reads.

To get more advice on nutrition, weight loss, diet tips and healthy recipes, subscribe to personalized coaching and ask your GOQii Coach directly: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Eat Healthy and #BeTheForce

June 1, 2020 By Shaeba Shaikh 2 Comments

Top 5 Effective Workouts For Weight Loss During Lockdown

Visiting gyms, joining classes for yoga and zumba have become troublesome because of the COVID-19 lockdown. With limited options, it is natural to get bored and stumble back into a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t put on all the weight you’ve worked so hard to lose. We have some effective workouts to help you lose all that unhealthy weight.

5 Easy and Effective Workouts To Lose Weight

1. Walking/Running:
There’s nothing better than running outdoors – the fresh air and all but the problem is that the lockdown prohibits anyone from stepping out… so how do you do it? There are many ways, in fact, it is easier if you have a treadmill. If you don’t, try spot jogging and taking frequent breaks in between your work from home schedule to walk around the house and unwind.

2. Jump Rope:
Do you want that sleek, slender body? Jump Rope is your answer! It is one of the most underrated yet effective workouts. If you’re new to this, start with a 2-5 min warm up, then do the traditional rope skipping with 30-50 reps. Then, you can run up and down your building stairs, do the rope again for 30-50 reps and end with a cool down. It is high intensity, low cost, doesn’t consume time and is still one of the most effective workouts for weight loss.

3. High Intensity Interval Training:
As the name suggests, it is periods of High Intensity exercises coupled with Low Intensity exercises/rest. The aim for HIIT workout is to target 80% of VO2 Max (Max Oxygen Consumption) for maximum results.

Your typical HIIT session can be:

Warm Up
Lunges for 1-2mins at a stretch
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Pushup for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Squats for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Abdominal Crunches for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog for 30secs
Cool down

You can add more exercises and modify the exercises as per your fitness levels.

4. Weight Training:
Yes, this might be impossible since most of us don’t have dumbbells and other gym equipment at home but that shouldn’t pose much of a problem. You can still use your daily household equipment as weights. For instance, water bottles filled with water as dumbbells or a bucket of water for your deadlifts. In fact, you can also use your own bodyweight. The key idea here is to undergo a process called Hypertrophy of the muscles, wherein the body increases the size of the muscles and reduces the fat around it. Weight training helps in burning fat 24×7 as opposed to burning fat only during the workout. A beginner can start with 20 reps + 3 sets of deadlifts, squats, lunges, bicep curls, etc.

5. Boot Camp:
This is one of the most intense and effective workouts which alternate between aerobic activities of sprinting/running along with strength exercises and drills. It simultaneously works on your endurance and strength.

You can start a typical routine as:

Warm up
1 min each of Push ups, Lunges, Pull ups, Crunches, Buttkickers, spot jog
Repeat the exercises
Cool down.

To make things easier for you, you can find all the above effective workouts for weight loss on GOQii Play. You’ll be guided by fitness experts in LIVE sessions. More so, you can also subscribe to GOQii and get tips, guidance and motivation from a certified GOQii Coach.

We hope this article helps you choose your workouts and lose weight during the lockdown. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more tips on fitness, do check out Healthy Reads within the app as well.

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce