Weight gain or loss is a complicated mix of various factors like your genetic makeup, hormonal controls, dietary habits and the environmental factors like sleep, physical activity and stress. Any imbalance, these factors cause in energy equation will be finally reflected in your weight loss or gain.

For weight loss primary requirement is to create an energy deficit whereby you consume less calories than you can burn. Follow these few simple steps during your daily routine to achieve your goal of weight loss.

1. Active life

Have an active life. See how we are operating our life these days. We have a box life, where we start our day with travelling in a box car, to working in a box office and having entertainment in front of an idiot box. We have forgotten to incorporate in our life any activity. Travelling small distances on cycle or may be walking down the street for picking our groceries is no rocket science, but frankly how many of us do it. While working in our offices rather than messaging our colleagues on mail, we may just walk to their cubicle. Instead of elevator try to take stairs. These may be very easy things to do but also very easy not to do.

2. Sleep proper

Just have a look on your sleep patterns. If you are short on sleep, it can affect your weight. Experts agree that getting adequate sleep is important to health, well being and your weight. Research tells us that when people are sleeping less they tend to have increased late-night snacking and more often than not choose high-carb snacks. There are two hormones ghrelin, for food craving or emptiness and leptin, for satiety or fullness which control your eating patterns and hunger, and sleep deprivation adversely affects these two. In addition to these there is cortisol which is a stress hormone released on sleep deprivation and cause body to conserve energy and keep your weight high. Take at least 7-8 hours of sleep daily to heal from the stress of the day.

3. Hydrate

First point to remember is that you don’t require water only to remain hydrated, but it is one of the main source. Water as such is good for weight loss, as it is 100% calorie free and when you drink a glass before meals, it gives the feeling of satiated. Amount of water required will depend on various factors like weather, your physical activity levels and body size. Feeling of thirst and dry mouth may sometime be misinterpreted by body with other symptoms like urge to snack. Drinking water is also said to increase your body metabolism and thus may help in your goal of weight loss.

4. Exercise

Most simple requirement of weight loss is that you must burn more calories than you consume. After you keep a tab on what you eat to limit calories, for effective weight loss you need to exercise also. Exercising will increase your body metabolism, which is the process of body converting what you eat and drink into energy.

Include at least 30 minutes of physical activity during the day as anaerobic exercises like cycling, jogging etc. Strength training like weight lifting etc also will help as they increases the muscle mass of the body and thus the calorie consumption.

A point to consider here is that exercising induce release of cortisol but this reduces on regular exercises, at the same time release of adrenaline allow more fat to be burned from under the skin and exercising muscle.

5. Food

For weight loss the food should be high on fiber and protein rich. Fiber helps you feel full without adding much calories to your diet. Soluble fiber absorbs water and moves slowly through your gut and thus slows the absorption of sugar, meaning lower insulin levels and less fat storage. High fiber food also acts as prebiotic. Out of all the meals of the day the most important for weight loss is breakfast. See the reasons Why You Should Never Skip Breakfast

High protein diet is ideal for weight loss. By replacing carbs and fats with proteins there is reduction in hunger hormone and increase in satiety hormones. this is the main reason why proteins make you lose more weight. Also it is known that body cannot effectively burn and use fat as energy without the presence of either carbohydrates or proteins. So continuing intake of proteins while burning fats is important.

One should avoid processes food to the maximum. Processed food are high on sugar, and sugar in itself can cause many harm. Sugar has empty calories and may have adverse effects on metabolism. Processed foods because of high salt level generally are more likable to taste buds and thus cause overeating. Refined carbohydrates in processed food are also bad for your health.

Get close to natural products like cinnamon tea, green tea, ginger, ginseng, honey and lemon. All these help in detoxifying your body and lose weight .

In the end keep in mind it is easier to cut 125 calories in a day than to burn 125 calories. And if you think how will a meager 125 calories cut will help, remember consistency is the key. If you cut 125 calories per day it will result an average weight loss of 7-8 Kg in a year.

So don’t go on any crash diet or heavy gym sessions or any other kind of overdrive for short burst of period rather loose weight by taking these small seemingly insignificant but consistent steps.