Do you struggle to lose weight, even on the strictest diets? Read on to learn lifestyle hacks that may help you reach your goals.<\/p>\n
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Based on the evidence, lifestyle factors and healthy habits that complement dietary changes and help with weight loss include [R<\/a>]:<\/p>\n The following lifestyle interventions may help you with your weight-loss plan. Although most of them have multiple benefits to overall health, remember to talk to your doctor before implementing any major lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n Doing high-intensity exercise<\/strong> is probably the best strategy to lose weight. In addition to promoting fat burning, the increased norepinephrine<\/a> production may suppress food intake according to a study in rats [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Exercise <\/a>also increases endorphins<\/a>, which activates mu-opioid receptors and also suppresses appetite [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n You can see a whole list of ways to naturally activate <\/a>opioids here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Any exercise is good, though. Aerobic exercise <\/strong>(like walking, running, swimming, etc) has also been shown to cause major reductions in belly fat in multiple studies [R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Although the reason is not fully understood, yoga<\/strong><\/a> can be a useful tool for weight loss<\/a> too [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n The bottom line is you need to move. Stand, get a treadmill desk, bike to work, do yoga<\/a>, mix it up. This will burn calories and increase <\/a>BDNF<\/a>, ultimately causing you to eat less [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Short sleep <\/a>duration has been associated with weight gain in many studies. A meta-analysis of 30 studies and over 630,000 people associated short sleep duration with a 55% higher incidence of obesity in adults and 89% in children [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Poor sleep can increase hunger<\/a> and cravings and disrupt hunger hormones like ghrelin<\/a> and leptin<\/a> [R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n If your quality or quantity<\/strong> of sleep is bad, everything else will be out of whack. If you\u2019re waking up in the middle of the night, that\u2019s bad news.<\/p>\n You can read the following articles on how to fix your sleep:<\/strong><\/p>\n Stress<\/a> is a well-know risk factor for obesity. It increases cortisol<\/a> and dynorphin, both of which cause weight gain [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n It also increases glutamate<\/a>, which increases appetite, while decreases NGF<\/a> and BDNF<\/a>, both of which are appetite suppressors [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Additionally, stress makes the brain resistant to serotonin<\/a>, a neurotransmitter that also suppresses appetite. Stress also causes resistance to dopamine<\/a>, which may cause us to eat more as we\u2019ll need to eat more food for the same rewarding effects [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Intense (above 500 lux) light exposure<\/a>, particularly in the morning, was associated with a lower BMI independent of sleep duration and timing in a study on 54 people [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In a similar study on 34 overweight women, exposure to at least 45 minutes of morning light (between 6-9 AM at 1,300 lux) for 3 weeks resulted in reduced body fat and appetite [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Particularly, red and green light exposure (for 2 hours immediately upon waking) altered the levels of the satiety hormones leptin<\/a>, and ghrelin<\/a> in a clinical trial on 11 sleep-restricted (5 hours of sleep per night) people. Both of these hormones cause reduced hunger<\/a> following sleep deprivation [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In addition to visible light, UV<\/a> radiation may also contribute to weight loss. In a study in mice fed a high-fat diet, UV reduced obesity regardless of their vitamin D status. On the downside, this radiation is a well-known cause of skin cancer [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n UV stimulates the production of vitamin D in the body. The deficiency of this vitamin has been suggested to be a cause of obesity [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n
Complementary Strategies to Lose Weight<\/span><\/h2>\n
Lifestyle<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
1) Exercise More<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
2) Get More and Better Quality Sleep<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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3) Reduce Stress<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
4) Get More Sun in the Morning<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n