Losing weight can be tough, and it’s easy to feel discouraged when diets don’t seem to work. But don’t give up hope just yet! Thanks to some cutting-edge research, we now know that making small changes to our lifestyle and eating habits can lead to significant weight loss.
These changes can help improve gut health, reduce inflammation, and even turn off your body’s fat-storing mechanisms. Best of all, you can still enjoy your favorite foods while shedding those extra pounds, especially around your belly.
If you’re curious about these simple but effective tweaks that can lead to weight loss of up to 14 pounds in just 14 days, keep reading!
1. Take a Brisk Walk Before Breakfast
This easy a.m. ritual works on two levels. First, a recent found that exposure to sunlight between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon reduced your risk of weight gain regardless of activity level, caloric intake, or age. Researchers speculate that the morning light synchronizes your metabolism and undercuts your fat genes. And burning calories before you eat means you’re exercising in a fasted state—the energy you burn comes right from your fat stores, instead of the food you ate.
2. Choose Red Over Green
It’s the best fruit for weight loss. That means Pink Lady over Granny Smith, watermelon over honeydew, red grapes over green ones. The higher levels of nutrients called flavonoids—particularly anthocyanins, compounds that give red fruits their color—calm the action of fat-storage genes. Red-bellied stone fruits like plums boast phenolic compounds that have been shown to modulate the expression of fat genes.
3. Make Some Guacamole
But keep the chips on the down low. Avocados are a double-whammy to belly fat. First, they’re packed with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that dim your hunger switches; a study in Nutrition Journal found that participants who ate half a fresh avocado with lunch reported a 40% decreased desire to eat for hours afterward. Second, healthy fats like the unsaturated fats found in avocados seem to prevent the storage of belly fat.
4. Power Up With Eggs
The muscle-building macronutrient is fundamental to the plan, and eggs happen to be one of the easiest and most versatile delivery systems in the universe. Not only that, but they’re also the number-one dietary source of a nutrient called choline. Choline, which is found also in lean meats, seafood, and collard greens, attacks the gene mechanism that triggers your body to store fat around your liver.
The more eggs you eat, the less egg-shaped you get.
5. Make Your Own Trail Mix
The three major ingredients of a perfect belly fat reducing meal or snack are protein, fiber, and healthy fats, and all three can be found in abundance in a good trail mix. Sadly, most commercial mixes are made with extra oils, salt, and sugar. Mix up homemade, high-protein snacks from a selection of nuts, seeds, unsweetened dried fruit, and dark chocolate pieces. Make sure to include peanuts—they’re a top source of both genistein and resveratrol, two nutrients that help diminish the action of your fat-storage genes.
6. Short Bursts Of Exercise
The biggest reason we can’t stick to our workouts? No time. Trying to squeeze a trip to the gym, with a shower and change of clothes, into a hectic schedule—especially around the holidays—can make even the most dedicated fitness buff into someone, well, less buff. But scientists in New Zealand found that men and women who engaged in three 10-minute exercise “hors d’oeuvres” before breakfast, lunch, and dinner saw lowered blood glucose levels—a fat-busting benefit these folks showed all day long!
7. Eat Dark Chocolate and Berries For Dessert
A study found that antioxidants in cocoa prevented laboratory mice from gaining excess weight and lowered their blood sugar levels. And another study at Louisiana State University found that gut microbes in our stomach ferment chocolate into heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory compounds that shut down genes linked to insulin resistance and inflammation. Why the berries? The fruit speeds up the fermentation process, leading to an even greater reduction in inflammation and weight.
8. Wild Over Farmed Salmon
Lean protein like fish is a great way to fight fat and boost your metabolism. But the farmed salmon you get at the local market might not be the best bet for your belly. The cold-water fish has a well-deserved reputation for packing plenty of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids—1,253 milligrams of the good stuff and just 114 milligrams of inflammatory, belly-busting omega 6s. But the farmed variety—and 90% of what we eat today is farmed—has a very different story to tell. It packs a whopping 1,900 milligrams of unhealthy omega-6s.
9. Eat Real Peanut Butter
Real peanut butter is made with two ingredients: peanuts, and maybe some salt. You already know that peanuts give you belly-slimming monounsaturated fats, tummy-filling fiber, and metabolism-boosting protein. But peanuts have a hidden weapon in their weight-loss utility belt: Genistein, a compound that acts directly on the genes for obesity, helping to turn them down and reduce your body’s ability to store fat. (Beans and lentils have the same magic ingredient, albeit in a slightly less delicious form.) But be careful of the brand you buy: if you see ingredients like sugar, palm oil, or anything you can’t pronounce, put it back. They’ll undermine any good the peanuts might do.
10. Eat Leafy Vegetables Before Your Main Course
Leafy greens like collard greens, watercress, kale, and arugula may not be on your everyday list, but they all contain a compound called sulforaphane. This nutrient has been shown to act directly on the genes that determine “adipocyte differentiation”—turning a stem cell into a fat cell. A healthier intake of the compound means a healthier body weight for you. And just a scant teaspoon of vinaigrette will help your body absorb the fat-soluble nutrients.