26 Ways To Lose Weight: An A To Z guide

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There's more than one route to weight loss. In this post, we'll take a look at 26 different ways to shed some pounds – one corresponding to every letter of the alphabet. All of these could be effective. Which one will you choose?

Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise – also known as cardio exercise – can burn a huge amount of calories. It includes any physical activity that is rhythmic and repetitive. Examples include running, swimming and cycling.

Balanced diet
You can also lose weight by adopting a balanced diet. This involves eating a variety of food from all the different food groups: fruit and vegetables, proteins, starchy carbs and dairy/plant-based milk.

Cutting calories
Weight gain is caused by eating more calories than you are able to burn off. By reducing your calorie intake, you can reduce the amount of excess calories that your body stores as fat.

Drinking water
Yes, drinking lots of water can help you lose weight. Staying hydrated throughout the day can keep you feeling fuller and prevent food cravings.

Eating less carbs
Excess carbs are often converted into fat cells. Our body also prioritises using carbs for energy before burning fat. By eating fewer carbs, you can encourage your body to burn fat for energy and reduce excess fat build-up.

Functional training
Functional training is all about adopting exercises that mimic everyday activities such as walking up stairs, lifting heavy boxes, shovelling snow off the driveway, sweeping or even unloading the dishwasher. You can even integrate exercise into these activities through squats, lunges and lifts.

Getting enough sleep
Getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night can help to regulate hormones and encourage weight loss. It is particularly good at reducing stress (stress is a major cause of weight gain).

HIIT exercise
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves carrying out short bursts of intense exercise with small rests. This form of workout can be excellent for those that don't have a lot of time to exercise – you can squeeze a HIIT workout into 30 or even 20 minutes.

Injections
Injectable medicines like semaglutide can help suppress one's appetite and increase one's metabolism to help with weight loss. These medicines are typically prescribed – choose the best online semaglutide program by comparing reviews.

Juicing
Juice diets involve substituting certain meals with juice. This is a great way to drastically reduce calorie intake without fasting by still giving you something to consume during meal times.

Keeping a food diary
Tracking what you eat allows you to understand how many calories you are consuming, which food groups you are eating and when you are eating. This can help you to adopt a healthier diet.

Lifting weights
A lot of people think weight lifting is just for building muscle, but it can actually be great for burning calories too. Building muscle actually helps you continue to burn calories while you are resting – so it's worth incorporating some weights into your workout.

Mindful eating
Mindful eating involves paying attention to your food and body as you eat. By eating food slowly and chewing more times, you can get fuller sooner. This can encourage you to eat smaller portions and less calories.

No eating before bed
It's worth establishing a cut-off period to prevent late night snacking. Eating before bed increases the chance of weight gain, because you're putting calories in your body that are unlikely to be burnt off as you sleep, causing them to convert into fat.

Omega-3
Consuming lots of omega-3 can help regulate our appetite and metabolism. Omega-3 is found in many types of fish as well as seeds and walnuts. You can also take omega-3 supplements to get your fix of this nutrient.

Portion control
Putting less food on your plate can encourage you to eat less calories. Think carefully when portioning foods like pasta, rice, potatoes and meat. If you cook too much food, remember that you can also keep food for tomorrow to eat as leftovers.

Quitting sugary drinks
Sugary drinks are one of the biggest sources of excess calorie consumption. Quite often the sugar is converted into fat cells unless we do exercise directly after. By drinking less sugary drinks and more water, you could lose weight.

Reducing stress
Stress can increase some people's appetite and slow their metabolism. Engage in de-stressing activities like yoga, meditation and taking hot baths to help regulate your hormones and reduce food cravings.

Spin classes
A 45 to 60 minute spin class can burn 400 to 600 calories making it one of the best forms of aerobic exercise. Spin classes can also help build leg muscles and a rewarding social form of exercise.

Taking probiotics
Probiotics are good bacteria – they can help regulate our appetite and improve gut health for better digestion. This in turn can lead to weight loss. Probiotics can be found in many fermented foods like yoghurts, sauerkraut and kombucha.

Using weight loss apps
Many apps can help you to record your weight loss progress and motivate you to keep going. This includes tracking foods, exercises, calories gained, calories burned and your weight.

Vitamin D
Studies show that those with low vitamin D levels are more likely to be obese. Vitamin D helps regulate our mood and is key to bone and muscle health – it is created by the body by going outside and exposing our body to the sun's rays.

Walking
Walking is a simple and functional way to burn calories. By driving less and walking more, you can burn more calories each day and potentially lose weight.

Xenical
Oral medications like orlistat (known by its brand name Xenical) are sometimes prescribed to patients to help with weight loss. These pills help reduce absorption of fat, which can inhibit weight gain.

Yoga
Exercises like yoga help reduce stress and slowly burn calories through static exercises. They are an excellent low-impact workout for burning calories.

Zumba
We end with Zumba – a fun dance-based workout that is a great cardio exercise. A zumba class typically burns between 300 and 900 calories.