Weight Loss Tips: Six Alternative Ways to Enhance Weight Loss

In the last twenty years, obesity rates have skyrocketed and are threatening the health of millions of people nationwide. Numerous fad diets, weight loss pills, and bizarre fitness devices have stemmed from this phenomenon, but people are becoming increasingly fed up with their failure rates. These things do not usually work for the average person and when they do, the results are not permanent. People who experience results often gain back everything they lost and then some.

However, there is a number of tried and true methods for losing weight that is not as mainstream as they should be. Some have been in use for thousands of years while others are only now being understood. Here are six alternative techniques that you can use to lose weight.

Ditch Soy

Soy is a common part of our modern diet. What you might not realize, though, is that it is one of the worst things you can eat if you want to lose weight. Although nobody ever talks about it, soy is a potent endocrine disruptor that does two things to hinder weight loss and encourage weight gain. First, soy overloads your body with estrogen. Excessive amounts of estrogen shift the body into fat storage mode, slow down metabolism, decrease energy and increase stress. The effects are particularly devastating for males.

Soy also causes hypothyroidism. It suppresses thyroid function and prevents the conversion of the thyroid hormone T4 into its usable form, T3. The purpose of T3 is to convert calories into energy, but this can’t happen when the thyroid is functionally disabled and there’s not enough T3 to go around. Instead, all of those calories are stored away in your fat cells.

Thermogenic Diet

The key to losing weight successfully is increasing your metabolic rate and keeping it high. This can be achieved through a process known as thermogenesis.

There are a number of foods and beverages that, when consumed, cause your body’s temperature to rise. When this happens, your body requires greater quantities of energy, which it gets by boosting metabolism to burn stored fat. Some of the things that trigger thermogenesis include caffeine, ginseng, and spicy foods.

Cayenne pepper in particular has been widely used for this purpose because of its potency. In fact, research has shown that consuming cayenne pepper with each meal causes a metabolic increase of up to three percent.

Massage

Massage is not a form of exercise, so it may be difficult to believe that it could help you lose weight. However, the feature that makes it popular is also what aids weight loss, and that is stress relief. When you’re stressed, your body releases a hormone called cortisol that increases blood sugar, boosts appetite, and brings metabolism to a halt. This combination of factors makes it nearly impossible to lose weight and very easy to gain it. By taking advantage of massage, you can dramatically reduce your cortisol load and begin losing weight.

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is well-known to help with stress relief and can be used with massage or on its own. There is another benefit to aromatherapy, though, that you may not have known about: it can control your appetite.

Scientists are just beginning to learn that scent has a powerful influence on the human brain and that certain smells are capable of triggering the release of hormones and neurotransmitters. For example, some essential oils trigger the release of brain chemicals that tell you you’re full. Some of the scents that can help you control your appetite include lemon, ginger, peppermint, and rosemary.

Fruitarian Diet

While it’s not safe or healthy to eat nothing but fruit, making it the main feature of your diet could help you lose a lot of weight. Besides being sweet and delicious, fruit is loaded with vitamins and minerals that will enhance metabolic function, energy levels, and mood. Furthermore, fruit is very high in fiber and water and very low in calories. In fact, most fruits are calorie-negative. You’ll expend more calories digesting them than you get from eating them.

Bodybuilding

Lifting weights with the goal of increasing muscle mass is commonly thought of as the realm of men, but it’s actually good for both genders. As a rule, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate is. Even while you’re resting, muscle requires a very large amount of energy to sustain, which it will get from your fat stores if you’re eating a low-calorie diet. In addition, half an hour of lifting weights offers a metabolism boost that will last for two to three days after.

Also Read: Lose Weight Fast Without Sacrificing Your Health