A year ago, I was entranced by the prospect of getting thin without much work. The founder of a fitness app revealed the secret ingredient or food that when eaten would drastically speed up our metabolism. While I was reluctant about paying for the regimen he offered, I did took some time to research the food and carb cycling which he stressed as well.
But a family member demonstrated that without the need of such complicated methods of dieting and exercise, he can dramatically lose weight. And by dramatically I mean 40 pounds dramatically.
There is no exact science to getting thin, and he stumbled upon it through his own research. I did see some results myself when I began to (partly) follow his routine.
Here's the kicker: I lost weight without exercise. Let me explain how.
We based our own regimen on weight loss on the cycle of calorie burning of the body. Based on your age, height, current weight, the body regularly burns a certain number of calories. If you calculate that, then the other half of the trick is to eat only a sum calorie of less than that much.
That entails counting calories every food… Googling the name of the food then the acceptable or official calorie count. Then setting a total calorie count below the regular calories burned per cycle.
There's also a lot of research in finding out your regular calorie burn. What we do is we have separate apps… my relative uses Samsung Health and I use MyFitnessPal. The point is not the app. The point is finding the app for you that will help automate the calories you need to burn based on how much you want to lose and on how much you regularly burn.
Now I said you can get thin without exercising. Now I advise you to exercise anyway.
Why? Apart from building your body strength and all the physical rewards achieved from such effort (including dopamine), exercise makes the regimen easier. You can thin down faster, as exercising and dieting both contribute to burning calories. More importantly, it eases the pressure of eating less.
You have no idea how many snacks that I once regularly ate I now look at with regretful aversion, because it would take me beyond my target calories. I reserve most of my calories for snacks when hunger sets in. I've learned to allocate but I've lost so much.
On the other hand, my relative simply eats the food… then exercises to offset the calories gained. It means you can eat, just as long as you're willing to work for it. Because I choose not to, dieting becomes harder, I miss out on past delights, and I even exceed my target while obstinately refusing to burn it off.
Exercise actually makes it easier to eat. Not even the hard crunches. A simple 30 minute walk was measured in the 100+ calories. Again, you can use any app to measure how many calories are burned with each exercise, though I recommend the one that can integrate that and the calories of food you eat. And no pressure on making hard crunches. I dance for a few minutes, burning 30-60 calories. My relative does shadow boxing and martial arts stances, and he burns 200+. Even just walking the mall can be clocked as exercise just as long as you keep moving.
That's it really. The secret to losing forty pounds. No pizazz. No glam. And one last thing: you dramatically lose weight but not overnight. In fact, it takes months of frustration in not seeing any effect until you do see it suddenly.
Once you get into the system of counting calories it becomes second nature… and you even become comfortable with your foods that you know you can eat.
(Bear in mind that I am only skimming the surface of healthy eating… this is only the layman's weight loss, but theres a lot more to it than that)