7 Tips How To Lose Weight If You’re Working From Home

Working from home may not be for everybody, but during to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are forced to do so. And even though working from home has a lot of positives, like spending more time with your family and not getting stuck in traffic, it can also be a sudden change to your lifestyle that leads to unexpected weight gain.

It’s easy to say no to an unhealthy lunch when you are at work, but when you take a break to browse through your favourite foods in the pantry after a difficult zoom meeting, you go for the emotionally satisfying food – which may not be the best for you. When you add the fact that you don’t need to leave the house every day and walk to the station and then to work, it’s easy for your body to get used to this “new normal” and start storing fat.

Fortunately, there are many ways to control your weight while working from home, especially nowadays when there are a lot of mums out there that have been doing so for many years before and share their experiences.

As a dietary consultant, I’ve decided to share my 7 main tips on how to avoid gaining weight when working from home.

Let’s take a look!

 

7 Top Tips to Control Your Weight When Working from Home

1. Shop only healthy foods and do meal prep. Use Healthy eating to control your weight

Nutrition is the most important part of controlling your weight, no matter if you’re working from home or at the office. But when you’re at home, it’s easy to just grab whatever snack you have in your kitchen and eat it while you work. Over time, this could lead to significant weight gain without you realizing it, all because you snacked while doing other things and not paying attention to your nutrition.

But how do you stop this?

The best way to stop snacking on unhealthy foods all throughout the day is to stop buying them in the first place. When you go shopping, remember that everything that you buy will eventually end up in your stomach, so choose carefully!

If you can control your shopping, you control your nutrition, and essentially control and lose weight naturally.

In addition, you can put all that free time to good use and start doing meal prep every week. When you return from shopping, organize everything you bought and start prepping nutritious meals for the whole week. That way, whenever you feel hungry, you already have good options at the ready and you won’t have to just eat whatever is lying around the kitchen.

 

2. Try out a Diet Programme when Working from Home

Another great option is to try a diet plan with a natural approach to weight loss. If you’re often asking yourself “What’s the best diet for me?” and “How to lose weight?” the best answer is to try and lose weight naturally, meaning a weight loss plan that is scientifically proven and has a whole range of other health benefits.

There are a lot of diet plans that can actually boost your energy and productivity levels, which we know can be difficult when working from home. One such plan is the 5:2 weight loss programme that is based on intermittent fasting. You eat as you normally would for 5 days of the week, and the other two you have strict calorie restrictions.

 

3. Drink a lot of water

Drinking water is great for your health. According to advice from Australian government officials on HealthDirect, adult women should drink at least 2 litres of water every day, or about 8 cups. Drinking lots of water, besides helping your body function normally, also makes you feel full for longer and stops you from overeating.

But working from home can throw you off balance and it’s easy to forget to drink 8 cups every day. To help yourself out, keep a larger bottle of water near you at all times and possibly set reminders to take a sip every now and then.

 

4. Exercise is a huge part of weight loss and weight control

What are the easiest ways to exercise when working from home? Create a designated exercise area!

It’s difficult to find the motivation to exercise when all you’re doing is lying around the house. To inspire healthier living and more exercise when working from home, try and designate an area of your home specifically for working out.

That way, it will be much easier for you to “switch” to your exercise mindset when you go to that area, and just focus on your body. This will eventually lead to regular workouts throughout the week, just like going to the gym.

 

5. Carefully plan your work from home/exercise schedule

Simply having a designated home exercise area is not enough. You need to optimize your time at home to the fullest and go to your “home gym” whenever you feel like you have the most energy. Whether that’s late in the evening after work or the first thing in the morning, it’s up to you.

Just find your optimal time, and stick to it. It will be much easier to build a routine that way, and doing your exercises when you’re most energetic will help you maintain that energy and motivation all throughout the day.

Find your optimal exercise time when working from home, and build it into your routine.

 

6. Getting the right amount of sleep is critical to controlling your weight

Nutrition and exercise are only two out of three parts of a natural approach to weight loss. The third one is sleep. Regular and quality sleep will fill you up with energy, provide you with mental alertness, and allow your body to fully recover from everything that happened in the day.

To help you wind down, turn off all electronics at least an hour before you go to bed, especially if you’ve been working at your computer the whole day. Also, try to avoid working in your bedroom – it will confuse your brain and after a while, it will be difficult for you to fall asleep.

 

7. Wear tighter clothes once in a while when you’re Working from Home

It’s hard to notice that you’re gaining weight when you’re sitting in comfy clothes or pyjamas all day. When we go to work, we dress up every day and immediately notice if our clothes start getting smaller.

But that’s not the case when working from home. Yes, it’s much more comfortable to work in sweats or pyjamas, but try to put on your work clothes at least once a week to make sure they fit.

In addition, dressing up first thing in the morning will help you get out of the lazy mindset and kick-start you into gear so you can be productive the whole day.

 

Using a Natural Weight Loss Approach

Working from home can be great in so many ways. However if you don’t pay attention you can find your weight creeping up. Undoubtably the best way to deal with this is a natural approach to weight loss. Luckily there are many ways to take this approach, from eating carefully such as the Michael Mosely Fast800 diet, or exercising regularly. It’s not something to worry about too much, but making up for the lost exercise of not going to work can be as easy as walking to the park in your lunch break at home.