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You want to lose weight, but challenges will always get in the way when you’re on a budget.
“There are too many people who have joined that gym. I don’t have enough time in the day. I’m just too tired, and (one of the most famous lines) it costs too much money.”
It always seems like we go back to the thought of money. The million-dollar question is how to lose weight while on a budget.
The cost of new equipment, special gym memberships, and food plans can add up! Then too often, it just doesn’t seem as worth the price.
While your health and weight loss are important, it is also important to save money when you can.
We are reviewing 10 tips to help you lose weight without breaking your bank account.
Watch the pounds shed off and the money pile up by applying these tips in your everyday routine!
Table of Contents
1. Budget Your Meals
This simple yet effective concept has helped countless people lose weight on a budget and keep it off!
It may take a little more time at the beginning of the week to sit down and plan. Heading to the grocery store with a list will save you time while you are there and money!
Without a list, unintended purchases can add up for you and counteract the budget you have been sticking to.
Another important tip to remember at the grocery store is to buy fruits and vegetables in season. Cut those fruits and vegetables at home rather than buying precut produce.
These little changes to your next grocery trip could help you slim down and save big!
2. Do Budget-Friendly Workouts
Are your friends joining the newest spin class, or is your roommate begging you to take a hot yoga course? As fun as these endeavors seem, they may not be the best option for losing weight on a budget.
For example, a monthly membership for four workout sessions could be around $60.00.
Paying $60.00 a month for only four sessions doesn’t seem as financially sensible since a basic gym membership is $10.00 a month.
One beautiful aspect of most gym memberships is they usually have unlimited entry into the facility. Also, many of the gyms come with perks as well like free workout classes.
Plus, you can use YouTube for free to help design the workouts you can do at the gym. Many of the HIIT workouts or spinning classes you would pay for can be found on YouTube and recreated.
With so many wonderful and free resources, you can work out and lose weight without ruining your monthly budget.
Related Content: 6 Great Ways to Boost Your Home Workout Routine
3. Practice Mindful Eating
How often do many of us think about our food and each mouthful we consume as we eat?
Scarfing it down and moving on to your next activity is easy. There are actual studies and research about the benefits of mindful eating habits.
According to an article written by Harvard Health Publishing, a nutritionist, Lilian Cheung, says that mindful eating habits can help to lose weight.
Due to hormones and the nervous system, it takes around 20 minutes for our brain to register the full stomach. Therefore, if you eat too quickly, you may eat more and overeat.
Some interesting ways to practice mindful eating and slowing down your meals include setting a timer for 20-30 minutes and using the entire time to eat the meal or eating with your non-dominant hand to slow down.
A more meditative way of practicing mindful eating habits would be to imagine all the steps it would take to produce the meal you are eating, including the growing and harvesting of the crops, to the preparation it took to process, package, and ship the food, to the meal preparation itself.
Chewing each bite more thoroughly throughout this practice will also help decrease the bloating that could occur with eating quickly.
Not only will mindful eating practices help to save you money, but they might also help you to destress at the same time.
4. Reduce Stress in Your Life
Some of you may have heard of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is the “stress” hormone, and it is the bad hormone that makes us gain weight. This is only partially true.
Cortisol is released from a part of the brain when we experience stress. These stressors include giving a big presentation at work, raising your hand in class, or simply putting your body under physical stress like exercising.
Our bodies need cortisol as a part of life. The trouble comes in when we are experiencing elevated levels of chronic stress, which can lead to damaging effects like increased blood sugar.
Interestingly, incorporating more exercise into your life can decrease circulating cortisol levels in your body. This result is because when you exercise, you are putting your body under stress. Then you are building up your tolerance to stress, and your body decreases the amount of cortisol released with everyday stressors.
It is important to remember to eat good carbohydrates, like whole grains, when exercising and avoiding weight gain related to cortisol.
If you don’t, your body will use proteins for energy instead of carbs and fat, which defeats the purpose of weight loss and will not help you lose weight related to the hormone cortisol.
Try finding easy and free ways to help you destress, including meditation, journaling, taking a walk, calling a friend, and overall recognizing what items in your life are causing the most stress and trying to eliminate those.
If that cannot be done, then destressing your life in other ways will help.
5. Cutting Out the Sugary Drinks
Sometimes, nothing is more satisfying than the crack of the can and the sizzle of the drink. Unfortunately, most delicious sizzle drinks aren’t good for us. Whether it’s a soda, energy drink, or beer, it will be high in sugar and calories.
Also, keep in mind the prices. The average pack of coke goes for around $6.00. It can be difficult for you to switch to a healthier alternative if you are used to your midday Monster, but the results with your weight loss and overall health will be worth it.
If you don’t like drinking plain water, a healthier alternative for you would be lemon water. It might be a good time to join if you haven’t hopped on the lemon water craze yet.
Lemon water has some great aspects, such as it is a great source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is essential for your health and can help with brighter and better skin.
Lemons might not be the first fruit you buy on your grocery trips, but they are typically priced around $0.89. This can seem pricey; however, if you buy three lemons and use half a lemon a day, that would be a week’s worth of lemon water!
Drinking more water is also known to make you feel fuller and eat less food, aiding your weight loss journey.
Everything is good in moderation, so try and start small by switching one soda for water and see where it takes you!
6. Good Quality Sleep
We all know how important sleep is for our health. Most people do not get enough sleep at night to live healthy lives.
Not only is it important for our overall health to get a good night’s sleep, but it can also add to your weight loss.
The Sleep Foundation recognizes how important it is to get a good night’s sleep to help aid in weight loss. They have stated that many studies show the relationship between the lack of sleep and metabolic disorders, weight gain, and the risk of obesity.
It is also known that more research on these relationships needs to be conducted to solidify the exact reason for this connection.
Some ways to better your sleep
- Not eating late at night or right before bed.
- Trying to sleep in a dark room.
- Reducing electronic use before bed.
- Having a regular sleep schedule.
- Reducing your stress before bed.
Whatever works for you to ensure you get quality rest will only help improve your overall health!
7. Intermittent Fasting
One inexpensive and effective method for weight loss is intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is a wonderful way to lose weight and not break your budget because it doesn’t require any purchases. You don’t have to buy any special plans or subscriptions.
Intermittent fasting focuses on when you can eat during a period. Mark Mattson, P.h.D, of Johns Hopkins, explains how intermittent fasting causes metabolic switching, which is your body using your sugar stores to start to burn fat.
It is also advised to check with your health care provider to ensure this is a safe option for you for weight loss.
There are many methods of intermittent fastings, such as the daily method. This method consists of being allowed to eat for six or eight hours and fasting for the rest of the 24 hours.
Another option would be eating regularly for five days of a week and then for two days a week you limit your calorie intake.
If you decide intermittent fasting might be a good option for you, remember not to go too long (as in days at a time) without eating because it could put your body in starvation mode, which would lead to weight gain and be dangerous for your health.
Also, it may take a few weeks (two to four) before you start to notice a difference in how you feel and your weight.
This is a great and cheap way to jump-start your weight loss and help you save money and not break your budget.
If interested, I wrote an article explaining exactly How Intermittent Fasting Accelerated My Weight Loss [Lost 35 Pounds].
8. Focus on the Gut
Our digestive tract and intestines (i.e., “the gut”) are filled with trillions of little bacteria, fungi, and other little microbes that can affect weight loss.
These microbes impact our hormones, energy levels, how food is absorbed, and how fats from our diet are stored.
Gut health is also very individualized because of the different factors that can affect it, such as your environment and genetics. There are a variety of ways you can improve your gut health.
One step is to add more fiber to your diet. Adding fiber can be easy by planning meals and snacks rich in fruits, vegetables, or seeds, and can help with weight management.
Another tip is to add fermented foods to your diet. Fermented foods like yogurt, pickles, and kombucha are loaded with gut-healing probiotics.
A happy gut can mean all the difference in weight loss and doesn’t have to break your budget.
9. Less Meat – More Savings
When you look at your grocery bill, it can be shocking how expensive a pack of ground beef or chicken breasts is. Fish and seafood have even higher-priced usually.
You don’t necessarily have to go meatless to save money and lose weight but opting for beans or eggs as a protein source may save you some money.
It is known that people who follow a vegetarian diet tend to be leaner and have less of a risk of obesity.
Just remember that substituting meat by eating more sugars and fats through non-meat alternatives is not healthier.
Gaining protein through other outlets is important if you decide to go meatless. Also, remember to maintain a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins and carbs.
10. Lastly, Losing Weight Saves Money
Hear us out; deaths related to heart disease are one of the top killers in America. There are numerous other comorbidities linked to obesity.
These include hypertension, multiple cancer types, high cholesterol, type two diabetes, coronary heart disease, etc.
According to the CDC, in 2008, the US spent around $147 billion on diseases related to obesity. The bottom line is chronic health diseases related to obesity can be costly.
This is not a tip we all think about when you want to lose weight on a budget, but it is a reminder of why we are trying to be the healthiest versions of ourselves every day!
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All in All, …
You can take numerous paths to assist with your weight loss journey. Remember, there are many ways to help save money in the end and not break the bank.
The best tip is to focus on how you feel and what makes you the healthiest! What are some ways you’ve lost weight on a budget? Please comment below and let us know! 🙂
Disclaimer
The content on this blog includes our personal experiences and opinions in regard to pursuing a healthier lifestyle. We hope the information provides valuable insights to every reader but we are not health advisors. When making your health choices, we recommend researching multiple sources and/or receiving advice from a doctor or licensed health professional.
