Home Remedies to Reduce Weight | Best Tips for Effective Weight Loss |

In this article, we are going to share an extensive study on home remedies to reduce weight.

With time since the industrial revolution, humans have begun to get busier and busier as time passed on. So, a convenient medium to carry out everyday household chores became an important aspect of everyday life and people soon adapted to it on a mass scale. The list of these convenient products includes easily accessible foods that are readily available at low cost and require zero manual processing, ready-to-eat meals, electronic gadgets, etc. This made life quite easier and hassle-free but brought a significant concern in modern lifestyle that is nothing but obesity or simply being overweight.

With the advent of technology in nearly every sector, the main job profile of the masses has become restricted to the desk only. The work-from-home culture that got a spike in popularity during the covid period is adding more to these problems. All these convenient products make people lazy and reduce physical movement, packaged food has a lot of chemicals harmful to health, more screen time increases stress and all of this adds up to make the perfect condition for the human body to accumulate bad fat and become overweight.

But people now are educated and well-conscious about health. So, people understand that it takes a lot of toll on health to be or to stay overweight or obese. People spend a lot of money in gyms, personalized apps, and even personal trainers to reduce weight but understanding the basic science and following a few easy tips and home remedies can significantly reduce weight in no time and can even save all the above-mentioned costs.

What is fat?

In terms of biochemistry, fat is known as lipids and their derivatives. They are esters formed by the condensation of alcohols and fatty acids. These substances are unable to dissolve in water but can dissolve in organic solvents. Like carbohydrates, they are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen but the main difference between fat and carbohydrates is that proportion of oxygen is much less than the 2:1 ratio found in carbohydrates. Thus, fats are hard to break down and require more oxygen for oxidation.

Ghee, butter, cooking oils, and cholesterol are examples of lipids.

Mechanism of fat storage in the Human Body at the cellular level

Cells are the main functional and structural unit of living beings. Every major change in the human body starts to take place slowly one by one from the cellular level. The human body has the main type of tissue and among these tissues, Adipose tissue a type. Adipose tissues are known as fat-storing tissues. Its matrix is packed with large spherical or oval-shaped fat cells or adipocytes. These cells store fat in the form of fat globules.

We become obese or overweight when these adipose cells increase by accumulating fat globules. At the cellular level, this accumulation of fat is known as adipose.

Mechanism of fat burning in the Human Body

Metabolism is the mechanism of fat burning in the Human Body. It is the main life function of living beings and an important criterion that differentiates living beings from non-living ones. Metabolism consists of two-step catabolism which is the breaking down of any biomolecule and anabolism which is the formation of new biomolecules (mainly repair of tissue, growth, etc.). Thus, metabolism is the energy-liberating process in living organisms.

The role of metabolism in fat burning is that due to cellular respiration, the mitochondria, a cell organelle responsible for energy production in a cell and directly associated with cellular respiration and ATP formation), take up oxygen and break the fat globule by oxidation liberating energy. Generally, adipocytes have low counts of mitochondria or do not have any at all. But when the process of metabolism is at its peak, the adipocytes tend to increase the count of mitochondria thereby, increasing the amount of oxygen intake and fast oxidation of fat globules.

Health Hazards Linked with Overweight

There are a lot of health hazards that are directly linked with obesity:

1. Impact on the knees: The overall weight of our body is mainly concentrated at the knees when we walk. So, being overweight might harm our knees and make walking painful.

• Risk of Type II Diabetics: Excess fat in our body shoots up insulin levels. Thus, making us more prone to Type II Diabetics.

• Risk of atherosclerosis: Atherosclerosis is the excessive accumulation of fat in the walls of arteries supplying blood to the heart itself. It reduces the flow of blood to the heart and increases the risk of cardiac arrest.

• Lethargy and depression:- Increased cholesterol level, creates a hormonal imbalance in the human body thereby leading to lethargy, depression, and improper sleep.

• Liver Damage – Too much accumulation of fat around the liver causes fatty liver which in later stages can transform into cirrhosis.

• Physical impairments in males:- Physical impairments in males like Gynaecomastia (enlargement of breasts) are one common problem if someone is too overweight. This does not cause any harm but yet it reduces self-esteem in many.

Liposuction || A surgical procedure for weight loss

Liposuction is a surgical procedure of removing excess fat from the body using suction. This is also known as contouring surgery as it contours the body lining of the area where the procedure is performed. This surgical procedure is very prevalent nowadays, and many people are undergoing it. But it is too costly and weakens the body and takes a toll on it. Moreover, surgical procedures require anesthesia and have a lot of risk factors involved. The surgical method is for severe obesity. Therefore, opting for home remedies for minor issues of weight gain at initial or mediocre levels of obesity is the best.

Dopamine || Main cause for over-eating

Dopamine is known as the hormone for good mood and also a hormone related to habit formation. All the delicious food we eat like fries, chocolates, mayo, cheese, etc. tend to release a certain amount of Dopamine in our brains. Prolonged consumption of these food elements increases the amount of SER (Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum), the site of fat synthesis in cells.

Now after a while, the same amount of dopamine is not released in the brain on the consumption that was being taken earlier. So, to meet the satisfaction we tend to eat more of these foods so that more SER is generated to meet the amount of dopamine and synthesis of these fatty foods into cells.

This whole cycle continues, and we end up consuming more and more quantities of food to obtain a state of satisfaction even if our body has no need for this excess supply. Thus, this habit formation of overeating is directly connected to being overweight.

Steps to get rid of the overeating cycle:

A few easy steps can help to get rid of this overeating cycle:

1. Do not try to achieve the goal in one or two days. Completely abstaining from the food will only increase the cravings more and will ultimately not help in anything.

• When there is a sudden urge to munch on favorite food items, immediately drink water. This will fill the stomach, will keep the body hydrated, and will also prevent overeating.

• Slowly try shifting towards vegetables, or protein-rich food instead of eating these fat-rich foods. Initially, try plating the fat-rich foods with vegetables or preferred protein sources. Then gradually remove it from the diet.

• Once out of the cycle, keep strict self-control.

Optimizing Stimulation of Thyroid Hormone || An important factor for losing or gaining weight

The thyroid hormone plays a crucial role in lipid metabolism. Many of us have seen people who eat a lot, yet they are slim. They never gain weight. This is because they have hyper-stimulation of thyroid hormone which is why they lose weight even if they are physically inactive.

On the contrary, some people do not eat much, yet they tend not to lose weight. This is because they have lower stimulation of thyroid hormones.

For healthy living with a balanced weight, we should keep the amount of thyroid stimulation at equilibrium. Thus, can simply be done by eating foods that help to keep the thyroid balance. This includes:

1. Zinc-rich food like lentils.
2. Iodine-rich salt.
3. Selenium-rich foods like sea salt

It must be noted that these foods should not be consumed if there is hypersecretion of the thyroid gland. To know the secretion levels a medical practitioner must be consulted, and a pathology test should be done.

GMO crops eg. Soybean should be avoided as it disbalance thyroid secretion.

Intermittent Fasting || A blessing for weight loss

Intermittent Fasting is an age-old technique used for weight loss and maintaining optimum weight. It is based on the principle of the rise and fall of digestive fire “pitta” in our body. As the sun rises our digestive fire rises and is at its peak during the midday. As the sun gradually sets the digestive fire also reduces thereby leading to slow digestion of food.

Thus, this technique emphasizes two windows namely, an eating window of approximately 8 hours a day when the sunlight is present in the sky and a fasting window of 16 hours after the sun is set.

This fasting phase is quite easy as out of 16 hours, 8 hours will be spent easily while asleep. This process is still followed by Indians living in villages and mainly by the farmers.

They eat their breakfast strictly by 9 am and complete dinner by 7 pm.

Thus, the main protocol for intermittent fasting is eating proper breakfast strictly by 9 am and completing dinner by 7 pm.

The benefits of intermittent fasting are:

1. The prolonged period of fasting reduces weight as it burns excess body fat.

• Good digestion as eating is avoided after sunset.

• Rejuvenation of the Liver, as the liver rejuvenates when we are fasting.

Home remedies to reduce weight:

A few home remedies and tips will help to cut excess fat from the body and will help to lose weight and get a properly toned figure.

1. Keep Your Body Hydrated:- Water is very essential for weight loss, especially lukewarm water. Drinking only lukewarm water just after waking up boosts metabolism and helps to clear the intestines. Generally consuming lukewarm water in between diets keeps the body hydrated and also helps in digestion.

• Adequate amount of sleep:- Proper sleep is very vital for weight loss. Because maximum metabolic activity takes place when we are asleep. Proper sleep also helps our muscles to take up proteins so that they do not accumulate in the body.

• Keeping the calorie input less and output more:- We must keep a proper note of how many calories we intake. It should always be less than the calories we burn throughout the whole day in various works.

• Daily Cardio and weight lifting:- Daily Cardio for just 20 minutes followed by low-intensity weightlifting will aid in calorie output, thereby reducing weight. It also has many other health benefits like high energy levels in the body, increased blood circulation, etc.

• Avoiding Trans fat:- When we use refined oil for a long time even after it has exceeded its smoke point then the oil starts to form trans fats in it. This is very much harmful to the body and trans fats are so stubborn that they are very hard to remove from the body. This is why we should avoid street food as most of them have trans fats as the oil they are prepared in are used for long hours to reduce cost. In general, we should always avoid junk foods to reduce weight.

• Increasing the amount of protein in diet:- Proteins in the diet tend to keep the stomach full for a longer period. Thus, it helps reduce the amount of lipid intake by the body. Moreover, proteins are helpful in muscle building and also help to remove cholesterol.

• Keeping a salad and fiber-rich diet:- Salad and fiber-rich diet helps to clear the intestine thereby removing old bowels in the intestine. This helps to get rid of gastric issues and proper defecation in the morning generally keeps body weight in control.

• Keeping a variation in food:- Keeping a variation in food like having wheat chapatis, oats, white rice, millets, and chickpea flour on alternate days as a staple food will help the body to digest fast thus aiding in metabolism.

• Avoiding refined sugar and flour:- Refined sugar and flour go through so much chemical and mechanical processing that it does not have any nutritional value at all. Rather its consumption spikes the rate of insulin release in the body and refined flour remains stuck to our guts.

Also Read: – 15 Health Nutrition Diets for Everyone, Swollen Gum Treatment at Home

CONCLUSION

These tips if followed strictly then weight loss will be visible within months. Rather than going under surgical procedures and medication that will affect the body at a later stage, we can bear some initial discomfort and follow these home remedies for our long-term happiness. Weight loss is very important as being overweight is a curse for a healthy lifestyle.