Are you getting married in the near future and already having butterflies in the stomach? Let’s figure this out – all that stress and erratic eating habits that happened over the past few months when you were planning out every little detail for the D-day has taken a toll on your health and those extra pounds are showing up at all the wrong places now. We understand that the slight pooch and flabby arms are giving you sleepless nights, and the extra kilos are standing between you and your dreamy wedding outfit. Fret not, we are here to help so that you can look your best on one of the most important days of your life. Do not think about losing weight to look lean, it’s also about feeling amazing and healthy. Looking good is not about looking perfect in every wedding pic, it’s about feeling fit and confident. And to achieve that, don’t even think about crash dieting or consider those heavily advertised fat-cutter pills because you definitely do not want to reel under the side effects associated with them. Lose weight the healthy way, and do not get caught up in the pressure trying to get slim – feel healthy and terrific while being the center of everyone’s attention at your fairytale wedding. So, coming back, here’s how to lose weight before your wedding.
1. Lose Weight by Dieting the Healthy Way: Here’s a sincere advice – never compromise on nutrition even while trying to lose weight. People often think that crash dieting would fetch faster weight loss, but crash dieting is based on the concept of food deprivation which can trigger nutritional deficiencies, which in turn may cause hair fall and skin issues. Also, crash dieting can make you look malnourished – you want to look leaner and toned in your wedding outfit, not weak and frail, right? Lose weight the healthy way by following the Rati Beauty diet which places great importance on eating the right kind of food to burn excess fat. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
2. Clean out the Kitchen and Pantry: Whilst you are planning the wedding outfit, makeup, and other details, do take time to clean out the kitchen, pantry, and refrigerator and throw out processed, junk, and packaged food. With hectic planning, increased stress, it’s easy to reach out for high-calorie and unhealthy food stored in the kitchen and refrigerator for comfort and to calm jittery nerves. Go through these posts for ideas on what needs to be thrown out from your diet – 24 Worst Foods in your Fridge that Prevent Weight Loss, 10 Things you Should Throw Away From the Kitchen to Lose Weight.
3. Practice Portion Control: Practicing portion control is essential to get into a calorie deficit because that’s when the body reaches out to stored fat to use up as energy. Calorie deficit can be easily be achieved without compromising on nutrition by practicing portion control, without actually starving through the day. In this post, we list out “10 ways to cut portion sizes without getting hungry all over again.”
4. Increase Fiber and Protein: These two nutrients are absolutely important for weight loss because they not only curb appetite, they help with the whole fat-burning process. Check out the Rati Beauty diet on how to include more protein and fiber-rich food in your diet.
5. Cut Down Refined Carbs: Full of empty calories, refined carbs are one of the major reasons why people gain weight in the first place. Avoid white bread, maida, white polished rice, cookies, biscuits, etc. have refined carbs in them. Include food sources with complex carbs instead.
6. Try These Indian Superfoods: There is no single “superfood” that can trigger fat burning; however, they do help accelerate the weight loss process with their nutrient-dense properties. Here’s a list of “30 Inexpensive Indian Superfoods you Should be Eating Often for Weight Loss.”
7. Avoid Eating Junk and Processed Food: Water retention and bloating are some common side effects of eating junk and processed food. They tend to have to loads of calories, high sodium and sugar content, that stall fat burning. Give up on processed, ultra-processed food, and eat whole foods instead.
8. Try HIIT Workouts: Along with dieting, exercising is also important for fat burning. HIIT workouts are popular to burn fat when compared to cardio exercises such as walking or running on the treadmill. Interestingly, even after you have finished HIIT routine, your body continues to burn calories because of increased oxygen consumption, keeping up the metabolism high all through the day. HIIT also boosts enzymes that are responsible for fat burning and also decrease levels of fat-producing enzymes. In fact, here’s a list of “7 Minute Fat Burning HIIT Exercises That you can Do at Home.”
9. Say No To Sugar: When you give up sugary drinks, cupcakes, ketchup, jam, chocolates, candies, fizzy drinks, etc., you are cutting out a major source of weight gain. Cut down sugar, and lose weight (tummy fat too) rather quickly.
10. Workout Three To Four Times a Day: As we have mentioned earlier too, being active and exercising is important when trying to lose weight because it burns calories, boosts metabolism, and tones the body as well. Try to workout at least three to four times a day no matter how busy you are.
11. More NEAT activities: Being on your feet throughout the day helps in burning calories and keeps metabolism robust. One hour of gymming is never enough to lose weight, keep moving throughout the day and practice NEAT activities. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis and is the energy we use for everything we do in our day-to-day life except for when we are sleeping or exercising. Using the stairs instead of the lift, squatting on the floor to lift something up, walking while talking on the phone, every activity we do while being on our feet, comes under NEAT. All these activities help to burn some amount of calories and these bits of calories spent here and there, add up to a considerable amount when you are trying to lose weight.
12. Find Ways To De-Stress: We do agree that wedding planning can be a stressful task, but stress can also increase your appetite and cravings, interrupt with sound sleep, and one of the main reasons behind belly fat. Dancing, listening to music, doing outdoor activities, reading, do everything you can to de-stress because stress hormone “cortisol” is strongly linked to weight gain.
13. Drink Lots of Water: This is an obvious tip. If you want to lose weight, always carry a water bottle with you and sip on it at every given chance because it’s a calorie-free drink that not only curbs appetite, it also boosts metabolism, and helps to burn more calories. There’s also a clever way to eat lesser calories with water, and it’s called “water preloading,” where you consume 500 ml of plain water half an hour before each meal. Practicing this method will significantly stretch your tummy and as a result, there would be lesser release of the hunger hormone “ghrelin” and you would feel full with less amount of food and fewer calorie intake. It is an effective strategy to tackle overeating.
14. Sleep for 7 Hours: Sleep for at least 7 hours each night since sleep deprivation and less number of sleeping hours also has been found to increase belly fat.
Follow these tips and look absolutely smashing as a bride!
24 Worst Foods in your Fridge that Prevent Weight Loss
10 Things you Should Throw Away From the Kitchen to Lose Weight