In fact, exercise is absolutely not a necessity if you want to lose weight. In this article you can read how you can lose weight without exercising.
You read why nutrition is the most important factor when it comes to weight loss, and reads how sports can even stand in the way of diet. At the end of this article you will find 6 tips on how to burn extra calories through nutrition and alternative forms of physical activity.
Lose weight due to a negative energy balance
To lose weight it is essential that you consume fewer calories than you consume. This is also called a negative energy balance, and can be seen as a simple calculation:
Energy balance = calories in - calories from
If the energy balance exceeds 0, it is positive. In this case your body will store extra calories as fat and / or muscle tissue, and you gain weight. If the energy balance is a mingetal, or negative, your body will use your fat reserves to supplement the calories. That's how you fall off.
You can create a negative energy balance in two ways:
- Getting fewer calories Using nutrition
- Burn more calories By exercising and/or increasing your metabolism
Only a small part of your daily calorie consumption is taken up by physical exercise. What and how much you eat has a much greater influence on how easily and quickly you waste.
The reason is that your body uses most of the calories you consume to keep you alive and to function. This is also called basal metabolism.
In addition, your body also needs the energy to digest food and to be able to exercise, although these elements require a considerably smaller part of your daily calorie intake.
The energy distribution in your body is as follows:
- Basal metabolism: 60 - 75% of your daily energy consumption
- Digestion: up to 10% of your daily energy consumption
- Physical exercise: 15 - 30% of your daily energy use
Basal metabolism (BMR), also called basal metabolic rate or resting metabolism, are the calories your body needs for all sorts of life processes, such as breathing, temperature regulation and the functioning of your organs.
Basal metabolism is based on someone who takes complete rest and stays in bed, at an ambient temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. How high your basal metabolism depends on your gender, height, and weight.
In general, the basic metabolism of a person is between 1300 - 1800 calories a day. But you can imagine that a tall, muscular man of 30 years has a considerably higher basal metabolism than a small, slim woman of 65 years.
2. Digestion
Furthermore, your body needs the energy to digest the food you eat. Some foods require more energy to digest than others. For example, your body needs to work harder to digest proteins than it needs to work to digest carbohydrates or fats. About 20 - 35% of the calories from proteins are used for their digestion. You automatically burn a large part of the calories that you consume from proteins.
Lose weight and proteins
Eating enough protein helps you lose weight tremendously. First, proteins ensure that you maintain and build muscle mass. Muscles consume more energy than fat tissue does, even at rest. By eating high protein you also indirectly increase your basal metabolism, because you maintain your muscles.
Finally, proteins are effective in restraining hunger by suppressing the hunger hormone ghrelin. They also keep you saturated longer than carbohydrates. In short: if you eat healthily and get enough protein you will quickly and easily lose weight without having to exercise.
3. Physical activity
Exercise accounts for only 15 - 30% of your daily calorie use. This includes standard daily activities such as walking, cycling and doing the housework. But sport is also a form of physical activity.
If you like sports you can continue to do this if you want to lose weight. By exercising you burn extra calories, suppress your hunger and appetite and make fabrics that you feel good about. Strength training, in particular, is effective for losing weight on a long-term basis: it temporarily increases your basal metabolic rate after training and builds up muscles so that you also use extra calories at rest.
By exercising, you can help the weight loss process, but it is absolutely not necessary to lose weight. As long as you consume fewer calories than you consume in a day, you can lose weight without exercising.
Do you want to burn extra calories, but do not sweat yourself in the gym? Then you are lucky: there are countless alternative forms of exercise that allow you to use energy without having to pay much extra effort.
Alternative forms of exercise
Every form of physical exercise causes you to burn extra calories. Think for example walking, cycling, climbing stairs, vacuuming, mopping, bending or sprinting to the train. Also, low-intensity sports such as yoga and pilates, and all the activities you do at work belong to this. So go get more coffee for your colleagues or help your neighbor with moving. By moving a little more during the day, you will undoubtedly consume a lot of extra calories.
Potential adverse effects of sport
If you like sports we encourage you to continue to do so. Sports is good for your body and mind, and it can help you lose weight. But if you do not like it, remember that you do not have to exercise if you achieve a negative energy balance through your diet.
Especially if you do not enjoy it, exercise during your diet can even have adverse effects on your weight loss process.
MORE FOOD BY EXERCISING
This way extra sports can ensure that you eat more in a day. This may be because you want to reward yourself for your hard work in the gym, or because you get an extra pull from exercising.
BE LESS ACTIVE BY EXERCISING
In addition, you will generally be less active during the rest of the day if you have taken part. This is because you are physically tired and your body wants to give your muscles rest to recover. This also works in the psychological field: the idea that you have already taken part in sport can ensure that you decide to slow down the rest of the day.
TOO MANY SPORTS: CORTISOL AND BELLY FAT
An adverse effect of too much sport is that it can make your hormones work against you. If you exercise too much, too often and too intensively, your body will register this as stress. In response, your body makes the stress hormone cortisol.
Cortisol makes you hungry and stimulates the production of visceral fat ( belly fat ). This is because the belly fat between your organs is four times more sensitive to cortisol than the fat in other areas of your body.
Be careful with long-term, intensive ways of exercising, such as running or cycling. Never do intensive cardio training more than 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Burn extra calories without exercising
1. Drink plenty of water
Research shows that drinking water temporarily increases your metabolism. Make it easy for yourself by filling a liter can with water, a few sprigs of mint and a few drops of lemon juice. Put the jug on your desk or on the counter and fill your glass all day long. Use a straw if you regularly drink lemon juice to prevent tooth attack.
2. Drink coffee in the morning
Coffee contains caffeine, which makes you more energetic and increases your metabolism by 3 to 11%. This way you burn extra calories without having to do anything. And these calories come mainly from fat: caffeine stimulates fat burning by as much as 29%!.
Drink coffee preferably in the morning, not after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and limit caffeinated coffee to a maximum of 4 cups per day. The caffeine remains in your body for 8 hours. If you consume too much caffeine, you will not be able to sleep as well, which puts slimming back in the way.
3. Drink green tea
Green tea ensures that your body responds faster to your fat reserves for energy. Green tea also increases your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories. For example, research shows that men who drink green tea burn 4% more energy than when they do not. That is good for about 100 to 150 calories per day!
4. Eat those vegetables
Vegetables contain a lot of nutrients and few calories and keep you saturated for a long time. Some vegetables are so low in calories that you can eat them almost unlimited. If you have these vegetables on hand for when the appetite strikes, then you're fine:
- Cucumber
- Radishes
- Cherry tomatoes
- Celery
- Bell pepper
Carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, which causes your body to produce the hormone insulin. Insulin ensures that the sugars can enter your cells, stopping them from burning fat.
In fact, insulin stimulates the production of adipose tissue. By eating fewer carbohydrates you reverse this process and you start burning more fat. Replace a large part of your daily portion of carbohydrates, such as pasta, potatoes, rice, candy, and cake, with (more) vegetables and proteins, so you stimulate fat burning.
6. Eat more consciously
Eat more slowly and scoop your food on a smaller plate than you are used to. Research shows that people automatically eat less when they use smaller plates. By eating more slowly, you stimulate the satiety hormones that tell your brain that you are full. You can eat more slowly by chewing better and laying down your cutlery occasionally.
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