As people emerge from the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many are taking a fresh look at their eating habits during the past two years. Some people improved their diet during this lockdown, while others gained the undesired excess weight. Whatever your current situation, it is not too late to adopt some excellent lockdown habits that can help you lose weight. Other eating patterns born of the pandemic — the ones that caused weight gain — can derail your healthy eating habits long-term if you do not deal with them now. This blog discusses the dietary habits you want to take in the lockdown and which ones are better off left behind.
What is weight management?
Weight management includes the physiological processes and techniques that contribute to the ability of a person to attain and maintain the desired weight. Most weight management techniques encompass lifestyle strategies for the long term that help promote daily physical activity and healthy eating. Moreover, weight management involves adapting meaningful techniques to track weight over time and identify ideal body weights for various individuals.
What role does leptin play in weight management?
Leptin is a hormone acting mainly in regulating appetite and fat storage. Leptin is generated by the fat cells in your body. Its primary role is to control fat storage and how many calories you eat and burn. Leptin is a mediator of long-term regulation of energy balance, suppressing food intake and thereby inducing weight loss.
How to lose weight fast at home without exercise?
1. Having Breakfast
Many office workers transitioned to work from home during the pandemic, freeing them from morning commutes. And if you have ever had a schedule that requires you to race through school drop-off and fight traffic to get to your desk on time, you know that breakfast is often the first thing that gets cut from a morning routine.
People usually give ‘ran out of time’ as an excuse for not eating breakfast. Without that hectic morning commute, some people spend their time improving their self-care with simple steps like eating breakfast. And that can help with weight loss. A study found that those who did not eat a morning meal were more likely to eat more added carbohydrates, sugars, and total fat over the day. Certain things you want in a healthy diet, like fiber, are often front-loaded for the day at breakfast.
2. Homemade Lunch
Many were suddenly forced to go without takeout lunch specials when offices closed due to the pandemic. According to a survey, 31 percent of people ate lunch at home every day, compared with just 18 percent pre-COVID — and that may have been a blessing. When
3. Skipping Restaurants
Between capacity restrictions and full-on closures at restaurants, most people have found themselves eating out far less frequently than they used to before the lockdown. This is an unambiguously positive thing from a weight perspective. A study found that 91 percent of restaurants deliver way more calories than you need on any single eating occasion.
4. Weighing Yourself
A tight waistband will signal that you gain weight if you wear fitted clothes to work daily. But what about living locked in your house, as several people did during the pandemic? That is when you need to check in with your bathroom scale. According to a study in February 2015 in Obesity, regularly weighing yourself has been consistently associated with better weight outcomes. It is good to keep it up even when you go back to pants with zippers.
5. Eating Whole Grains and Beans
Early in the lockdown, people stocked up on shelf-stable ingredients that could help reduce trips to the grocery store, like whole grains and dried beans. These foods also are some of the most nutritious foods out there. Eating these healthy foods more usually has gut health benefits. People who eat many of these healthy foods are more likely to have a healthy weight. A study published in July 2020 in The Journal of Nutrition found that people who eat three servings of whole grains a day had smaller increases in waist size than people who eat little or no whole grains. Now that you will be shopping more often, it is still wise to keep these staples on your shopping list.
6. Cooking More
You probably saw many more home-cooked dishes in your feed if you have spent any time on social media during the lockdown. Most people were forced to rediscover their capacity to prepare meals daily, and many rediscovered their enthusiasm for it. With few options for entertainment outside the home and restaurants often being off-limits, families turned to their home kitchens for fun and food. Cooking at home is the king of positive health habits — studies have shown that people who often cook for themselves eat fewer calories and enjoy a good quality diet.
Habits That Can Derail You
1. Grazing and Snacking
For many people, working in or next to the kitchen was challenging. For those who were suddenly working from home, usual mealtime at times devolved into an all-day buffet. It is easy to grab a handful of this or a bite of that every time you enter your home kitchen. In the absence of the usual social constraints (not wanting to have a family-size bag of chips for lunch in front of a colleague, for example), people were not self-conscious about their unhealthy snacking habits.
2. Emotional Eating
The coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented stress and uncertainty into people’s lives. If you cope with your feelings by eating, you are not alone. Food was a persistent stress relief valve for boredom and screen burnout. And research suggests that emotional eaters are 14.38 percent more likely to be obese or overweight than people who do not use food as a coping tool. Learning other ways to manage stress and process intense emotions will help you leave an emotional eating pattern behind.
3. Buying Treats in Bulk
In the early days of lockdown, panicked shoppers cleaned out the supermarket’s shelves. If you played your cards right, you did not set yourself up to fail by buying big tubs of flavored popcorn and the giant barrel of cheese balls. The reality is, that several people did precisely that. If you are still stockpiling Oreos by the thousands at a buying club, it may be time to reassess your shopping habits.
4. Delivery App Abuse
During the coronavirus pandemic, there was a significant increase in food delivery app use. A study published in February 2020 in a leading magazine on nutrition shed some light on what people eat when they get dinner delivered via these food delivery apps. Most frequently ordered dishes include nachos, cheesecake, cheeseburgers, pizzas, and baby back ribs — classic calorie bombs are very likely to derail any weight loss efforts.
5. Overdoing alcohol
A study published in June 2020 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Publish Health found that 61.1 percent of people aged 20 and older said they were drinking more alcohol than before the lockdown. People tend to undercount the number of calories alcohol contributes to their dietary intake. You may quickly increase your daily calorie intake by 40 to 50 percent. These alcohol calories contribute to no satiety, the feeling of fullness, and the satisfaction you get from food.
What are the types of exercises to lose weight?
Nearly half of all American adults attempt to lose weight every year. Besides dieting, exercising is one of the most helpful strategies employed by those trying to shed extra pounds. Exercise burns calories, which is crucial in aiding your weight loss. In addition to helping you lose weight, exercise has been associated with many other benefits, including strong bones, improved mood, and a reduced risk of various chronic diseases. The eight best practices for weight loss are walking, jogging, running, cycling, weight training, interval training, swimming, yoga, and pilates.
How many steps do you require to walk every day for weight loss?
While the exact number of steps you must walk for weight loss is based on age, gender, and diet, one study found that getting at least 15,000 a day correlates with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome. But if 15,000 in a day seem like a lofty goal, getting to about 10,000 will help you lose weight and improve your mood.
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