You don’t need to work out for hours or meal prep rabbit food over the weekend to lose weight. With these 23 lazy girl weight loss hacks, you can avoid getting fat and get fit instead.
So sit back, relax and don’t move a muscle as you learn these hacks that only require small changes to your daily life.
1. Drink More Water
Not only is water great for your health and digestion, having just half a liter of water half an hour before a meal can help you lose 44% more weight than those who don’t!1 Plus, we often confuse thirst with hunger, so you should always drink water and see if you feel fuller before trying anything else.2
Drinking more water can also reduce excessive bloating from water retention which makes it a great way to jump start your weight loss.
2. Eat Mindfully & Chew Slower
Mindful eating means paying attention to your meal while you’re eating. No distractions – not even your phone or the TV… it’s the easiest thing to do as a lazy girl!
When you eat mindfully, you take the time to appreciate every bite, so you feel more satiated than you would be eating while looking at your phone. If you chew slower, too, you’ll take a slightly longer time to finish your meal. Since your stomach takes 15-20 minutes to signal fullness, eating slower may save you quite a few calories!3
3. Use Smaller Plates
You don’t have to weigh out your portions to practice portion control – using smaller plates is an easy hack that can trick your brain into thinking that you’re eating more food than you are.
For example, if you put the same amount of salad on a 10-inch plate instead of a 12-inch plate, the 10-inch one will look fuller, while the 12-inch one might still have some white space, making you feel as if you’re not eating enough.
4. Stand More
Just standing is one of the easiest weight loss hacks for lazy girls! That’s right, Standing burns slightly more calories than lying down or sitting so try to stand while eating, working or even watching TV.
Some additional ideas to avoid being inactive for lazy girls include pacing around between bites, taking phone calls while standing, or parking further away at the grocery store.4
5. Manifest Weight Loss & Positivity
Manifesting weight loss can not only keep you on track with your diet, but it might also motivate you to work out a bit. Every time you struggle to work out or eat healthy, picture yourself with your ideal body, lifting that weight you can’t lift or running that marathon you can’t run right now.
When you manifest weight loss, it’ll become easier to turn it into reality. Besides that, always tell yourself that you’re capable of eating healthy, working out, and losing weight and that your body is a blessing no matter what – place some sticky notes around your living space.
6. Replace Dessert with Fruits
Apples, oranges, bananas, and other sweet fruits are tasty treats that provide you with essential vitamins and minerals, but most desserts are just a sugary delight.
While we all love sugar, it’s high in calories and promotes higher levels of spooky abdominal fat, which increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and all kinds of other illnesses.5
Also, you won’t crave desserts after eating fruit as you would with artificially sweetened stuff, but they’ll curb your cravings with all the extra fiber!6 So if you have a sweet tooth, try to eat mangoes or bananas instead of ice-cream.
7. Eat Your Veggies
Vegetables are the best things you can eat for nutrition and satiety – they’re full of fiber, vitamins, minerals and are tasty to boot!
You don’t have to eat raw vegetables all the time – you can cook most of them in multiple delicious ways, such as roasting, stir-frying, or even grilling. Pair your veggies with sides of complex carbs (brown rice is an excellent choice) and lean protein, and you’ve got the formula for a healthy, filling meal.
8. Avoid Crappy Carbs
Don’t kill your contentment with empty, refined carbs if you’re eating your vegetables. Sure, something like a piece of chocolate might serve as an excellent pre-workout snack because of the simple carbs it contains, but it’s not a snack you want often.
Instead of filling your plate with white rice or eating white bread for breakfast, replace them with whole-grain or complex carbs like brown rice, whole-grain pasta, and brown bread. These carbs contain more fiber and vitamins and have a lower glycemic index than refined food, so they don’t cause insulin spikes and curb cravings!
9. Eat More Protein
Protein keeps you full for longer – eating just 30% of your calories as protein may reduce your calorie intake by 441 per day, which is a significant amount.7
Try not to go for beef or bacon, though – it’s okay to have them once in a while, but lean meats like chicken breast or fish are better in the long run. Red and processed meat may increase bad cholesterol, and your risk of heart disease by 9-18%, so lean meat is the option to have daily.8
10. Get Enough Fiber
If you don’t get enough fiber, you might end up feeling hungry even after you’ve had a complete, balanced meal. Fiber, especially soluble fiber, turns into a gel-like substance in your stomach and slows down digestion, keeping you full for longer!9
It also helps you go #2 more effortlessly, so it might relieve some stomach bloat and make your belly look flatter without any effort – perfect for lazy girls!
11. Take the Scenic Route
Walking is one of the easiest ways to lose weight and depending where you live, you may even have a scenic view to enjoy. Your body loves walking, and on a pleasant sunny day, it can refresh your mind. Working up to walking just 2 miles can really help you reduce weight.
Try walking to the bus stop, to work, to pick up your kids from school. Park further away at the store, and take your dog on an evening walk. You can even walk while hanging out with friends and family instead of going to a fast-food restaurant. Or you can walk too that fast-food restaurant to remove some of the guilt!
12. Try CoolSculpting
CoolSculpting freezes and destroys fat cells under your skin, and the liver then discards these cells. Though it isn’t 100% effective, it may lower the number of fat cells in an area by 20-25% and is a great idea for lazy girls to shave off that last bit of pesky fat.10
CoolSculpting can be pretty expensive at about $1,000 per treatment area, but if you can afford it the results seem worthwhile. It can take a few months for full results to show, so stay patient and keep your expectations realistic.
13. Cut Back on Sodas
Sodas are the stereotypical drink for sedentary people, but you should try cutting back on them because the excessive sugar has absolutely no nutrition (aka empty calories). Besides, they’re carbonated, so they make you gassy and bloat your belly.
Try switching to diet sodas at first, then move on to flavored or fruit-infused water if plain water doesn’t suit your taste. It might take some work, but it’s great for your overall health and eliminating sodas is one of the simplest weight loss hacks for lazy girls!
14. Throw Motivation Out the Window
You don’t need to be cheerful and motivated every single day – it’s okay, we all have bad days. On days you’re lacking energy, do small things like eating a healthy meal or drinking water. These might seem minuscule, but anything that makes you feel accomplished is worth it.
It’s more effective to have a routine and form habits than to rely on motivation all the time. This way, even if you feel like slacking on some days, the comfort of routine and the invisible force of habit will keep you on the right track.
Also, have a cheat day every once in a while, as long as you don’t go overboard – looking forward to a cheat day might help you stay healthy on all other days. Although this may not work for everyone because cheating alone may spike cravings later on and figuring out the calorie count on a cheat day can be a pain.11
15. Try Using a Fitness Tracker
Not only can a fitness tracker make you more aware of how many calories you burn and how well you sleep, but the novelty of it might also get you up and moving at random!
A fitness tracker serves as a constant reminder to stick to your weight loss goals. If you happen to work out, it also tells you your heart rate and how many calories you burnt, and seeing these numbers might give you a sense of accomplishment even if you only take a leisurely walk around the block.
However, there’s no guarantee you’ll lose more weight by wearing a fitness tracker – you need to try and take care not to overindulge after seeing that you’ve burnt a lot of calories, and it should keep you on track.12
16. Make a Meal Plan You Enjoy
A meal service or meal planning for the week can make all the difference if you’re always tempted to dine out with friends.
But make sure to include foods you enjoy! You can use an online meal planner like the Noom diet as a guide. Or if you don’t like salad or chicken, replace it with something you want, such as roasted veggies and chickpeas.
17. Drink Your Coffee Black
That Starbucks latte is more likely to give you a sugar rush rather than a caffeinated pick-me-up. Black coffee contains 0 calories and is a perfect accompaniment to your breakfast since it can curb your appetite and improve your metabolism to burn more fat.13 It’s also great before a workout since the energy boost means you can exercise more intensely.
If that’s too strong or bitter for you, feel free to add low-fat milk and a natural zero-calorie sweetener like Stevia. It’s still a lot better than a coffee with tons of sugar, flavor, and cream!
18. Experiment with Something New
You don’t have to follow a boring routine for weight loss – try something like yoga, dance, protein bars, new recipes, or anything else that sounds fun to you! Having fun while working out or meal prepping means you’re more likely to stick to your weight loss regime.
Even picking up a new hobby that’s not related to weight loss might help you shed some pounds since whenever you start craving junk food or desserts, you can distract yourself with your hobby and still have fun. Your brain will slowly begin associating pleasure not with unhealthy food but with productivity, so try something new today!
19. Listen to Your Body, Try Intuitive Eating
We’ve already discussed mindful eating, but intuitive eating might get you even farther in your weight loss journey. Intuitive eating means letting go of the notion of “bad” and “good” foods, permitting yourself to eat, and confronting difficult emotions with self-compassion instead of self-loathing.
You might need to count calories at first, but eventually, as you become used to your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues, you’ll be able to let go of calorie-counting apps and macros. Of course, if counting and structure work better for you, go ahead, but if it makes you feel held back or constricted, intuitive eating might be for you.
Intuitive eating isn’t one of those overnight weight loss hacks for lazy girls, but it can help you maintain your weight in the long run.
20. Drink Less Alcohol
We know that alcohol has a lot of calories, but being tipsy also means you may cave into your desires of eating junk food. While you might feel good at the moment, your body won’t thank you the next day!
To drink less and reduce weight gained from alcohol, try alternating your drinks with seltzer or diet coke. Take your friends for a walk rather than the bar, or take small sips instead of doing shots to cut back on alcohol.
21. Avoid Fast Food, Sugar, & Junk Food
Fast food, sugar, and junk food are obviously not good for you, but the good news is you simply need to avoid them, which should be easy for lazy girls!
Fast food and junk food tend to be incredibly high in sodium and empty carbs, making you bloat up and doing nothing to make you feel full.14 Sugar, too, makes you crave more sugary treats and is extremely calorie-dense while providing 0 nutrition, so it’s best to stay away and enjoy tasty, home-cooked meals 90% of the time.
22. Track Progress with Pictures
Take pictures regularly to track your progress! Progress pics are a great way to see how far you’ve come and keep yourself motivated. Just stand before a mirror and click!
If that doesn’t work, you can try starting a weight loss Instagram page where you can share your progress and interact with others trying to lose weight. The sense of community and accountability might help you keep going, and you’ll want to look fitter every time you take a pic.
23. Keep Trying & Don’t Give Up on These Lazy Girl Weight Loss Hacks
You might feel demotivated from time to time, as we all do, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up. Even if you feel like loafing on the couch, keep trying to do small things that can help you lose weight! You can lose weight lying in bed if you eat a healthy diet, or you can do some crunches while watching TV. Anything counts!
As you can see, laziness doesn’t mean you have to give up on weight loss. These lazy girl weight loss hacks will get you looking fit without elaborate meals or ever setting foot into the gym. All you need to do is adopt some healthy habits, make small adjustments to your diet, and move a little more.
References
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7Weigle, D. S., Breen, P. A., Matthys, C. C., Callahan, H. S., Meeuws, K. E., Burden, V. R., & Purnell, J. Q. (2005). A high-protein diet induces sustained reductions in appetite, ad libitum caloric intake, and body weight despite compensatory changes in diurnal plasma leptin and ghrelin concentrations. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 82(1), 41–48. <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16002798/>
8University of Oxford. (2021, July 21). Red and processed meat linked to increased risk of heart disease, Oxford study shows. University of Oxford. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from <https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-07-21-red-and-processed-meat-linked-increased-risk-heart-disease-oxford-study-shows>
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10CoolSculpting. (2022). Fat-Freezing Vs. Weight Loss. CoolSculpting. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from <https://www.coolsculpting.com/what-is-coolsculpting/fat-reduction-vs-weight-loss/>
11Forman, E. M., & Butryn, M. L. (2015). A new look at the science of weight control: how acceptance and commitment strategies can address the challenge of self-regulation. Appetite, 84, 171–180. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314333/>
12Zeratsky, K. (2020, August 26). Activity trackers — help or hindrance for weight loss? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from <https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/activity-trackers-for-weight-loss/faq-20348545>
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