Can you lose weight at home without going to the gym? Yes, it’s possible. The gym can help you in many ways but ultimately the #1 fat loss rule is CALORIE DEFICIT. You don’t need a gym for that. You just need to eat less calories than your body burns. Here are 5 top tips to get fitter and leaner at home.

Diet tips to lose weight at home

Say yes to whole foods…

and keep ultra processed foods to the minimum. To keep it simple, the more a food is processed, the less fibre it contains. As a result, you chew faster and you eat more than what your body actually needs.

Not to mention that ultra processed foods such as pizza, pies, cakes are designed to be highly palatable and addictive.

The easiest way to eat less calories without counting them is to prioritise whole, natural foods that have gone through as little transformation as possible.

Want to know more? Read these blog posts:

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Smart diet swaps

A simple and quick way to consume less calories is to identify what you can remove and what you can swap.
For instance, if you’re having cookies every day out of habit, you can save a few hundred calories by limiting them to once a week. If you’re having takeaways twice a week, save calories and money by only ordering twice a month.

As for smart swaps, it’s a matter of replacing higher calorie foods with lower calorie ones. But this doesn’t meant that you get to eat more of these foods, otherwise it’s pointless!

Here are a few examples:
Light mayo/ketchup instead of normal ones.
Unsweetened almond milk or low-fat milk instead of whole milk/sweetened dairy-free milk.
Low fat yogurt instead of full fat & dessert yogurt.
Squash in your water instead of fruit juice.

You get the principle, it’s about saving calories where you can without making too much of an effort.

How to lose weight at home: get moving

Get fitter and leaner with home workouts

If lockdown has showed anything, it’s that there’s plenty of ways to keep fit at home. Although having access to a gym and a lot of equipment can be convenient, it doesn’t mean that you can’t workout effectively in your living room or your local park.

In order to lose weight and achieve your goals, I’d recommend following a structured plan. What does that mean? Basically, choose a home workout programme which suits your level and follow it for at least 4 weeks, rather than doing a different workout from a different source every day.

This will allow you to progress the workouts by adding more reps, more sets, more weight or resting less.

Although bodyweight workouts are fine to start with, I’d suggest getting a few cheap accessories, such as resistance bands. Here’s a list of affordable home fitness equipment you can find on Amazon.

I offer personalised workout programmes that are tailored to your goals, your fitness level and equipment available. You will get 8 weeks of bespoke home workouts. More info here.

Increase your non-exercise activity level

Workouts are great to burn calories and build muscles (which helps with long-term fat-loss). However, increasing your non-exercise activities such as walking will really help you be in a calorie deficit.

Why? Because you burn more calories when you’re walking, cleaning, walking up the stairs than when you’re sat on the sofa.

My best tip is to start tracking your steps (with your phone or a smart watch) and aim to get to 10,000 steps per day on average. For instance you can start doing a 20min walk after each meal, walk to the local shops, etc…

Finding it hard to get fit at home?

You’re not the only one. Keeping yourself on track can be hard, especially if you don’t have anyone to keep you accountable.

If you’ve tried and haven’t managed to reach your goals, don’t beat yourself up. It’s ok to get external help and to have someone guiding you through the process.

That’s what my online coaching is made for. I help motivated women like yourself achieve their fitness goals through bespoke workout programmes (at the gym or at home), flexible nutrition guidance and mindset coaching.

Sounds like it’s what you need to succeed in your fitness journey? Read more about my Thrive Strong programme here.

Okay so let’s recap!

Follow these 5 top tips to lose weight without having to go to the gym:

1: Prioritise whole, natural foods rather than ultra processed foods.

2: Adopt some smart diet swaps to reduce your calorie intake.

3: Follow a home workout programme.

4: Walk more!

5: Get an online coach to keep you accountable and create a personalised plan.