Tis the season to get healthy, fit, and of course lose weight (if extra pounds are standing in between). Surely, we all aim to be healthy, but certain mistakes can ruin our best efforts, and believe it or not, a chunk of those mistakes are committed at night, and that too right before bedtime. In this post, we will guide you through 12 weight loss mistakes you should absolutely avoid so that you can reach your goal weight sooner and feel fabulous.
1. Having a Heavy Meal Right Before Bedtime: If you have been staying off food for the entire length of the day (in order to shed weight) and then eat your heaviest meal at night – it’s a big big mistake. Don’t starve the whole day and give into cravings at night and end up binge eating. It’s also easy to reach out to unhealthy and high-calorie snacks such as chocolates, biscuits and yummy desserts lying in the fridge because your body is looking for instant treats to replenish energy. Light meals are your best bet to curb hunger and yet feel comfortable through the night. Heavy meals also prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep. So, eat food at fixed timings through the day, check Rati Beauty diet for correct meal timings.
2. Drinking Sweetened Beverages Before Bedtime: Even if it’s fruit juice or just a small can of fizzy drink, avoid drinking sweet beverages at night because they will cause sharp insulin spikes, and with a sluggish metabolism at night, all those extra calories would get converted into fat by this hormone. Also, chances are there that the subsequent insulin slump will wake you up in the middle of the night for a quick treat since you are hungry all over again.
3. Sleeping in an Uncomfortable Environment: If your sleep surroundings are hot and humid, and if the bed is not comfortable, chances are high that you are not gonna have a good night’s sleep. It’s essential to sleep soundly at night so that the body can rest, recover, and reset metabolism in order to burn more calories the next day.
4. Exercising Close to the Bedtime: We know some crazy fitness freaks who would not miss their workouts for anything in the world and if they weren’t able to find time during the day to flex muscle, they would squeeze in a little workout right before bedtime. Well, it’s a bad idea! Working out prior to bedtime will give you a boost of energy that would hamper your sleep schedule. Ideally, there should be a gap of 5 to 6 hours between workout and bedtime.
5. Sipping on a Cup of Coffee on the Bed: Many Indians have this habit of having a hot cup of coffee after dinner time. Having caffeine before bed affects the production of sleep hormone “melatonin,” preventing you from having a good shut eye. In fact, have your last cup of coffee 8 hours before bedtime so that it does not interfere with the body’s normal circadian rhythm.
6. Checking Social Media while trying To Sleep: Some people save the social media content for bedtime and spend a lot of time on their phones or gadgets while doing so. Just like caffeine, the blue light emitted from phones and other gadgets can interfere with the body’s circadian rhythm and disturb your sleep at night. Stay away from all gadgets at least one hour before bedtime so that the body has enough time to build on melatonin.
7. Finishing the Dinner with a Dessert: It would be extremely difficult to lose weight if you have a habit of finishing dinner with a sweet treat. You can have such a treat once in a while but not every night. Those extra (and mostly empty calories) would most probably find their place around your waist.
8. Eating Dinner Too Late: We all know our metabolism slumps down towards the end of the day, and with a dinner too late, the body would find it hard to burn off the extra calories and you might wake up with gastric issues as well.
9. Eating Dinner in Front of Television: It is difficult to eat mindfully if you have the dinner while watching your favorite TV show or binge watching Netflix. Eat every meal without any distractions (no phone, TV, laptop or even magazine) so that you are not overeating and are aware of what and how much you are eating.
10. Eating from a Bigger Dinner Plate: Do check the size of your dinner plate, it should be ideally 8 inch. Changing the size of the dinner plate to a smaller plate would help you in portion controlling and you would be automatically eating fewer calories.
11. Ordering Food From Outside: Not a good idea at all! Cook your own meals so that you have an idea about the ingredients and number of calories in your dinner. Check out the Rati Beauty diet plan for yummy and easy-to-make dinner ideas.
12. Not Getting 7 Hours of Sleep: Getting good quality sleep, and that too for at least 7 to 8 hours, can do wonders for the whole weight loss process. You can literally have no food during the day and exercise like crazy for hours, but without a good night’s sleep, the extra pounds are gonna stay right there. The better you sleep at night, more would be the chances of the body burning fat. Also, when you wake up, you would wake up with a robust metabolism and low levels of ghrelin hormone (which is the hormone that makes you hungry). Additionally, 7 hours of sleep would help reduce cortisol level (stress hormone), which is one of the major reasons for increase in belly fat (16 Extremely Delicious Food That Cause Belly Fat).
Additionally, always end the day on a positive note. Resolve conflicts with your partner or family, leave aside work issues and unwind with a relaxing read. Avoid arguments, anger and chaos as it creates a state of imbalance and stress within the body, and stress, my friend, is probably one of the biggest reasons why you are not able to lose weight!
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