The novel global pandemic influenced the immediate change of lifestyle for many people. One of the best prevention ways is certainly social distancing. People withdrew to their home offices, while a lot of gyms and fitness centers closed. People who want to lose weight have less options on their plate. We wrote this article for everyone who struggles with losing or maintaining healthy weight. Here are the best ways to lose weight during the COVID-19 quarantine.
The global pandemics also influenced events like hoard grocery shopping and instilled fear of people from going outside. That?s true, many countries announced partial or complete lockdown which prevented people from going outside at certain times.
Workout routines differ for many people and that led to the neglect of exercising and meal planning. The hoard shopping meant that a lot of groceries became unavailable in a short amount of time, so people were limited to certain foods that could be high caloric or generally unhealthy for your lifestyle.
Finally, the pandemics also caused a lot of people to feel anxious
and nervous due to the feeling of uncertainty, leading to hormonal changes, stress eating, and procrastination. If you?re reading this article because you?re one of the people we mentioned, don?t worry we wrote this article to showcase our methods to either lose weight, get back on track with your weight loss routine or maintain the weight you earned as a result of hard work recently. We wrote a breakdown of the best ways to lose weight during the COVID-19 quarantine. There are passive and active methods.
Passive Ways to Lose Weight
Drink Enough Water
Sedentary lifestyle means we?re less likely to get tired or dehydrated and as a result of being occupied with moderate activities, we forget about the importance of fluid intake. Drinking water is just as necessary when you?re staying at home as when you?re on the go and is a great way to lose weight during quarantine.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the recommended water amount includes 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) for men and 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluid for women. There are a lot of hidden benefits of water, like dissolving the salts in our body, getting rid of waste through urination and protection of joints and sensitive tissues in our body.
Don?t Skip Meals
It?s of utmost importance not to skip meals because every meal plays an important nutritional role for your metabolic processes and body. Breakfast is considered the most important meal in the day because it serves as a fuel for our body and should carry the most nutritional values for our body to use throughout the day.
Given the pandemics and new lifestyle at home, a lot of people practice going to bed late and waking up well-past the breakfast time and mostly skip it. Skipping breakfast may leave your body craving for sugars and protein it misses through breakfast. On the other side, eating frequent meals is one of the best ways to lose weight during the COVID-19 pandemics because you won?t be overly hungry all the time.
Experts recommend three to five meals a day, with three being the main courses ? breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the other two light snacks that restore your strength and serve to make the lunch or dinner wait time shorter. Proper meal distribution will definitely help you with losing weight during the COVID-19 pandemics.
Get Plentiful of Sleep
One of the good sides of staying at home during the virus outbreak is that there?s more time for sleeping and getting enough rest. If anything, even if you work at home, you can save the time you normally use for public transport or driving to squeeze more time to sleep. Nourishing healthy sleep cycle will help you lose weight during coronavirus pandemics.
Sleeping has restorative effects on our tissues, muscles, and bones, there are even some studies that propose that sleep loss affects the benefits of dieting. Experts also say that the best sleep times are from 10 pm to 6 am, suggesting that anywhere from seven to eight hours of sleep is enough to have a productive day. Sleeping sufficiently also decreases the chances of anxiety and depression which can limit your productivity and routine.
Also, don?t forget to stretch after waking up!
Don?t Eat Junk Food and Find a Hobby to Reduce Food Cravings
Another of the rare benefits of the pandemics is that you can finally find time for that hobby or business idea you had at the back of your mind. Keeping yourself busy will also result in fewer food cravings, making it one of the best ways to lose weight during the COVID-19 quarantine. Food craving is bad because it leads to stress and binge eating which can eventually turn in a disorder with vast consequences.
Another thing worth mentioning is that during stress or binge eating we often reach out to high-caloric and unhealthy food sold through the fast-food chains. The delivery service businesses have skyrocketed because there?s a high demand for home food delivery as a result of restaurants being closed. Don?t let one poor meal ruin your hard work, make healthy snacks at home, and maintain your routine.
Active Ways to Lose Weight
Make a Meal And Workout Plan
An effective plan and routine should get you started into the conscious spending and nutrition, while helping you lose weight during the quarantine. Bullet journaling and planners became extremely popular over the past few years. With that in mind, a lot of people use them to plan their meals and workout routines.
If you don?t know where to start, you can always plan your weekly or monthly meal plan which involves calorie counting, grocery shopping list, calculating macros, as well as workout plans.
For example, you can determine how many times a week you?ll work out at home and write it down in the planner. Additionally, you can download apps for grocery shopping plans, calorie counting, water drinking reminders, and more.
Exercise at Home
There are a lot of ways to exercise at home, without needing to visit a gym or other public places, without compromising your weight loss. With the spike of newly infected, a lot of fitness agencies moved their services to YouTube, Twitch, and other streaming services. Additionally, various sports club moved their training online, so you can check if your favorite club moved to Zoom or Google Meet sessions.
Alternatively, you can make your gym at home. There?s anything you can do, from pilates and yoga to aerobic and weight lifting. Normally, you can exercise with ropes, weights, dumbells and other equipment at home.
If you don?t have equipment at home and you can?t order it online, you can swap smaller weights for water gallons, and if you have a relatively portable couch, you can use it for heavier lifting exercising episodes. Working out consistently will shortly prove ass one of the best ways to lose weight during the COVID-19 quarantine.
If you don?t want to give up on cardio and there?s no gym nearby that?s open, you can still make the best out of your workouts in the morning. Try with early morning walks or jogs while everyone?s still asleep and there are not a lot of people on the streets. If you own a bicycle, you can go for cycling through the park or woods nearby for 30 to 45 minutes.
Start a Low-Calorie Diet
Lastly, the diet changes will compliment your weight loss during pandemic. Starting with calculating your macros and daily calorie intake, you can change your lifestyle and either lose weight or maintain the fit shape you worked so hard for.
Since we no longer go outside so much, it?s only natural that our calorie-intake will be lower. Here?s what you can do according to the World Health Organization (WHO):
- Limit salty food ? Canned and processed food is a great alternative when hoard shopping swept all the food shelves. However, processed food is rich in salts which keep the water and bind to it in the organism, causing weight gain.
- Limit sugary food ? According to the WHO, the total energy intake for adults should include less than 5% of sugar. We all have sweet-tooth at times, but try swapping refined sugar foods for fruit.
- Eat more fibers ? More fibers improve your digestive system and overall metabolism. Fiber-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods.
- Eat more protein food ? That includes eggs, meat (chicken, turkey, veal, beef)
- Limit Saturated Fats ? Food rich in saturated fats can cause weight gain and contribute to cardiovascular diseases.