- Make It Yourself Lavender Heart-Shaped Bath Bombs!
- 20 Things You Never Knew About “Down There”
- 12 Best Foods For Those Suffering From Arthritis Pain
- 12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)
- 15 Medicinal Plants And Herbs From The Cherokee People
- 12 Mind-Blowing Benefits Of Drinking Coconut Water During Pregnancy
- 12 Outstanding Winter Foods That Won’t Fatten You Up Like A Christmas Turkey
10 Ways To Burn Fat While You Sleep (No, We Aren’t Kidding!)
Photo credit: bigstock.com
Losing weight, for most people, is incredibly frustrating. It seems that you live on carrots and salads for weeks to lose five pounds, but those same five pounds can reappear over a three-day holiday weekend!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could lose weight while you are sleeping or watching TV? We’ve all seen those infomercials on television late at night — you know, the ones where some thin, young beautiful couple is eating cake and burgers, then they pop a pill, go to sleep, and wake up five pounds thinner?
Well, although those commercials are nothing more than wishful thinking, you actually can lose weight while you sleep. Really! Ok, so you can’t lose five pounds overnight, but you can continue to burn fat and calories while you sleep, and it’s not nearly as difficult as you think.
Keep reading: We are going to tell you the 10 best ways you can burn fat and calories while watching House of Cards, taking a nap, sleeping in late, or just relaxing outside.
1. Weight Training
Sometimes called resistance training or strength training, working with weights or resistance bands will increase your metabolism, which is something you must do if you want to burn more calories. You also need to improve or maintain muscle mass. For every pound of muscle you lose, you decrease the number of calories your body burns by 30 calories a day. This might not sound like much, but consider this: As we age, many people lose one pound of muscle every year. That means you will burn 150 fewer calories every day over a five-year period. Start doing the math, folks. This is why, even if you never increase your caloric intake, over time, you will gain weight. Lifting weights just twice a week will replace five to 10 years’ worth of muscle loss within months. Lifting weights will increase the number of calories you burn, it will increase your metabolism, and it will increase your muscle mass, which will naturally burn more calories, even when you are at rest.
2. Try Nighttime Fasting
Closing the kitchen early — and we mean very early — can help you lose weight, even if you eat more food during the day. One study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, put two groups of mice on a high fat, high calorie diet for a period of 100 days. Then, half of these mice were allowed to nibble all day, all night, on a healthy, calorie-controlled diet. The other group was given access to all the food they wanted, but only for an eight hour period. The mice who went through their mini-16 hour fast each day stayed thin and lean but the other mice, who were allowed to eat around the clock, became obese, even when both groups consumed the same number of calories. It might seem strange at first to eat only during an eight hour period, but your body will adjust, and you will lose weight because of it!
3. Take Electronics Out Of The Bedroom
Research has shown that the more electronic devices we keep in the bedroom, the fatter we become, especially those under the age of 18. Pediatric Obesity published as study in their journal finding that kids who had computers or televisions in their rooms did not get enough sleep and had poor lifestyle habits, such as a lack of exercise. Scientists found that students that had one electronic device in their room were 1.47 times more likely to be overweight than those with no electronic devices. For kids with three devices, that number increased to 2.57 times. The same is true for adults. Keep your television, iPad, cell phone, and computer in the living room.
Continue to Page 2
Photo credit: bigstock.com
4. Shake It Up!
One study out of Florida found that those who had a 30-gram protein shake before going to bed had a higher resting metabolic rate the next morning when compared to those who ate nothing. This study, from Florida State University, found that protein is more thermogenic than either fats or carbs. This means that your body burns more calories digesting protein than anything else.
5. Think Blue!
Have you ever noticed that almost all fast food restaurants have red and yellow themes? There is a good reason for that. Although scientists don’t understand why, studies have shown that we eat more in the presence of those colors. One such experiment was published in the interior design magazine Contract. Partygoers were given identical foods in rooms painted with different colors. Subjects in the red and yellow rooms ate the most (actually, the yellow room subjects ate more than the red room) but those in the blue room only ate half as much. So perhaps it is time to change that sunny yellow kitchen to a nice seaside blue, buy some blue dishes, and get blue glasses for everyone!
SEE ALSO: How Much of This Do You Need to Do to Lose Weight?
6. Eat Foods That Burn More Calories
Some foods help us to burn more calories than they contain. Some of these include:
- Whole grains (They keep insulin levels low)
- Legumes (They take more time to digest)
- Dairy Products ( They help break down fat)
- Spicy Foods (They increase your metabolism for hours after consumption)
- Green Tea (This beverage also increases metabolism and the oxidation of fat cells)
- Citrus Fruits (Their high content of vitamin C and fiber helps burn fat naturally. Eat the whole fruit, not just the juice)
Continue to Page 3
Photo credit: bigstock.com
7. Have A Mint
Certain scents will make you want to eat while others seem to suppress the appetite. One study published in the Journal of Neurological and Orthopedic Medicine found that when subjects sniffed peppermint every two hours, they lost five pound in a four-week period without changing diet or exercise habits. Vanilla, green apple, and banana also seemed to have similar effects. Add a few drops of peppermint essential oil to your pillow, and sniff peppermint throughout the day.
8. Keep Things Cool
The journal Diabetes published a fascinating study showing that keeping the room at a cool 66 degrees can help to burn belly fat while we sleep. This study had people sleep in rooms with three different temperatures: A neutral 75 degrees, a warm 81 degrees, and a cool 66 degree room. Over time, the subjects who slept in the 66 degree room doubled their volumes of brown fat and lost belly fat overall, just by sleeping.
9. Ditch The Night Light
Being exposed to light at night, even just a night light, not only interrupts your sleep, but it can cause you to gain weight. The American Journal of Epidemiology published a study which found that those who slept in the darkest rooms were 21 percent less likely to be overweight than those who slept in lighter rooms. Time to ditch that night light, and buy some blackout shades!
10. Turn Off The Screens
Did you know that people who watch less TV or spend less time on the computer are thinner than those who don’t? It only makes sense: If you aren’t watching TV, you will probably get off your butt and do something. Few people like to sit and stare at a wall. Watch just one hour less of television each day and do something else — anything else — and see if you don’t lose weight without trying.
References:
