Five habits to lose weight without having to diet

Scientifically proven: the easy tricks to lose 3 kilos that, on average, make you fat on vacation

It's not just your feeling: on vacation, we usually get fat. The excesses in food and drink, delicious ice cream or hammock days end up taking their toll. And although you have entrusted to the watermelon and the sports of the models, the summer means to gain an average of 3 kilos, according to the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition. The return home is the decisive moment to eliminate them before those extra kilos settle as their own. And although the simple fact of recovering good habits will do much of the work, there are some easy and science-backed measures that will accelerate weight loss and will make the scale re-score what in June without you suffer extreme diets or workouts.

1. Sleep well

For some experts, this is the number one rule when it comes to losing weight, more important than diet or exercise. And is that many studies (the latest published this week in Science Advances) have shown the relationship between sleep deficit and weight gain. The reasons are several, mainly hormonal but also so simple to understand that if your brain and your body do not have energy, they will demand the most caloric food.

2. Eat this type of cereal

Eating breakfast every day, including fruit and protein, is a habit shared by thin people. But, according to a new study conducted by The State University of Pennsylvania, there is one more ingredient that, consumed in the first meal, can help you lose weight: large flakes cereals. If we choose this type instead of the smaller flakes, it will be easier to control the quantity and calories.

3. Avoid all soft drinks and alcoholic beverages

Sugary sodas seem doomed to disappear, but the same could happen with their calorie-free versions: a recent study developed by Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin found that light sodas not only do not help you lose weight, as we sometimes suppose, but may even predispose to suffer obesity and diabetes. For its part, alcohol provides empty calories that can be avoided with a gesture as simple as replacing that glass with a natural juice -which will give you vitamins and other micronutrients- or, simply, a glass of water.

4. Eat fruit between hours

"When consumed outside meals, we favor a good digestion as well as better absorption of nutrients," nutritionist Cristina Amago told us, who also points to breakfast as a good time to eat fruit. If you take fruit in the middle of the morning or in the afternoon, in addition to digesting it better and taking advantage of its fiber supply to keep you satisfied until the next main meal, you will replace other less healthy snacks and thus you will be able to save more than 360 calories each day.

5. Walk

The easiest and most accessible exercise at all levels of fitness can be a real help to lose those 3 kilos of vacation in a few weeks: walk an hour at a rate of 5 km / h burning around 230 kcal. The best thing is that you do not need to go out to walk specifically, but you can incorporate into the routine with habits such as walking to work, using the stairs, getting up several times throughout the day ... Download an app to control the number of steps you take each day, starting with an amount appropriate to your condition. David Peinado, Mexico's personal trainer, recommends "setting a minimum the goal of 7,000 steps a day-the equivalent of an hour-and every two weeks increasing it by 1,000 steps to 12,000 steps a day."