How to lose weight at home: step-by-step guide

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2015-01-04

5. For breakfast, grapefruit juice and water with lemon – Water supports hydration and boosts metabolism, lemon provides vitamin C and helps maintain the immune system's protective functions, while grapefruit reduces cholesterol levels in the blood.

6. Portion size = 2 palms – Not overeating means not stretching your stomach; otherwise, to satisfy hunger, you’ll need to fill all its space. As a result, the amount of excess calories will exceed the norm.

7. Perform exercises at every opportunity – Whenever you find a free minute, don't waste time on the internet or "squash the couch." Simple exercises like squats, lunges, and push-ups will already kickstart calorie burning. When you get home, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the nearest supermarket instead of driving, and do upper body stretches while stuck in traffic, etc.

8. Massage – Using special massage gloves, it’s necessary to massage the thighs, legs, and stomach to enhance blood circulation, which brings more nutrients and oxygen to problem areas. Professional massages, along with proper nutrition and exercise, will help eliminate fat more quickly.

9. Sauna – Mild temperatures and not overly long sessions help eliminate toxins, waste, and excess salts from the body.

10. Meal frequency – Learn to eat 5-6 times a day; the old habit of eating just 2-3 times puts a strain on the digestive system, leading to heaviness and heartburn. Eating frequently in smaller portions will help avoid hunger, maintain a high metabolism level, and keep blood sugar stable, preventing spikes.

11. Increased protein intake – It's important to note that calories from protein do not get stored as subcutaneous fat, and digesting protein-rich foods takes more time, helping to curb hunger. Eggs, milk, cheese, lean cuts of meat and fish, yogurts, and cottage cheese should be included regularly in a young mother's diet.

Many people are overweight and don't want or can't go to the gym. They sit at home and want to lose weight. Yes, you can lose weight at home, but you will still have to train. But let’s take it step by step.

In general, losing weight at home is no different from losing it at the gym (after all, the body is the same) and consists of four components:

• Diet (40% of success)
• Cardio exercise (30% of success)
• Exercise program (20% of success)
• Sports Nutrition (10% of success)

These components are ranked in order of their importance. While sports nutrition can be neglected and is not a necessity, diet is the foundation. So let's start with that.

By the way, I forgot to mention, the topic of losing weight at home is too broad to cover in one article. Therefore, this article will consist of links to other articles.

1. Diet

We have ready-made meal plans for weight loss on our site. There's no need to come up with anything. Just follow these meal plans. Here they are:

• Women's Weight Loss Menu
• Men's Weight Loss Menu

For those who don’t want to count anything, you can take another route – create your own meal plan. But to do this, you need to know the basic principles of nutrition for weight loss: 5 principles of nutrition for weight loss. You also need to know how many calories you should consume daily: How many calories should you consume daily to lose weight.

2. Cardio Exercise

Cardio is meant to speed up your metabolism and make your body burn more energy. For example, a woman weighing 60 kg will burn approximately 350 calories in 30 minutes of slow running. This is about 20% of her daily expenditure.

Any physical activity that keeps your average heart rate at approximately 130 beats per minute or higher will do for cardio. This can be running, cardio machines, swimming, cycling, playing football, or even sex. Anything works.

A very important parameter is the frequency of cardio workouts. It’s better to work out for 30 minutes for 3 days in a row than to do one 1.5-hour session. Ideally, you should aim for at least 4-5 cardio sessions a week, each lasting a minimum of 40 minutes. From 40 minutes to 60. But that’s only if you’re not using the third component.

3. Exercise Program

This refers to workouts with dumbbells, barbells, and other weights. Many may ask: why is this necessary if the goal is to lose weight? The answer is simple. These workouts are necessary to preserve your muscles from destruction as much as possible.

Agree that a beautiful figure is built not only from the absence of fat but also from having enough muscle. When you start losing weight, your body burns both fat and muscle indiscriminately. Strength training "teaches" your body to preserve muscle. They signal to your body: "Hey, you see that your surrounding environment is making your muscles work. Keep them! In these conditions, you’re going to need them."

Home exercise complexes for weight loss for women:

• Home workout plan for girls for weight loss
• Dumbbell workout routine for girls – «Super Body in 1 Hour a Day»
• Combined workout plan for girls at home
• Homemade workout routine for girls «Super Sets for Super Definition»
• Home workout plan for women «four in one»
• Home dumbbell workout routine for girls for weight loss

And for men:

• Workout routine for men for definition at home
• Home workout routine for men «Supersets for Super Definition»
• Home workout routine for men «four in one»
• Circular workout for men at home
• Men's home workout plan for weight loss

4. Sports Nutrition

This point is not mandatory for weight loss. However, sports nutrition can make the process easier and slightly faster. This includes complex fat burners, L-carnitine, protein, and amino acids. With today’s prices on sports nutrition, you’ll need to spend about 3000 to 6000 rubles per month. For more details, click here: Which sports nutrition is suitable for weight loss.

I want to reiterate that this component of weight loss is not essential. But, when used wisely, it can greatly assist those who find it very difficult to lose weight.

Conclusions

1. As you can see, the process of losing weight is not just based on diet. More accurately, it can be built solely on a diet, and you will indeed lose weight, although not as effectively. But first, in such cases, the diet would need to be stricter. And it's unlikely that you'll be able to stick to such a diet for life. Secondly, along with the fat, your muscles will also disappear — and muscle loss can occur even sooner.

2. Personally, I recommend implementing all 4 components simultaneously. However, if you have very low physical conditioning, you can limit the first month to a set of exercises without cardio load.

3. The optimal weight loss rate is 4-5 kg per month. If you lose weight faster, it means you are losing both fat and muscle.

4. If you are incorporating both cardio and a set of exercises, ideally, you should aim for about 5 workouts per week: 2-3 cardio sessions and 2-3 weight training sessions with barbells and dumbbells. You can read more about their combination here. Good luck!