5 things that can help you shed the quarantine weight
If you’ve noticed you’ve put on the ‘quarantine 15’ it’s OK, it’s expected, says Dr. Taz Bhatia an immune support and wellness physician. “Losing weight, it's not just about looking in the mirror and trying to look fantastic,” she explains. “It's really more about your overall health.” To look and feel good, Bhatia recommends ditching the comfort foods and reorganizing your refrigerator to include healthy foods like: lean proteins and vegetables. She also emphasizes the importance of movement. The real secret to weight loss is that we need to move throughout the day,” Bhatia says. Instead of putting in a full hour of a hardcore workout, try exercising three times a day for 30 minutes. Check out the video above for more tips.
Video Transcript
TAZ BHATIA: Hi, there. I'm Dr. Taz. I'm an integrative and board-certified wellness physician. If you gained some weight over the quarantine, don't worry. You are not alone. And honestly, it's expected after everything we've all been going through. I'm here today to talk about weight gain and some easy ways for us all to lose that quarantine weight.
Here's my first tip-- it's time to ditch those comfort foods. You know the foods I'm talking about-- Oreos, Spam, potato chips, Pop Tarts, you name it. But when we're stressed and upset, those are the things we naturally run back to. Here's what you'd like your refrigerator to look like. I would start by organizing it by category. That's the easiest way to think about food.
So have a shelf dedicated to your lean proteins. This could be things like turkey slices, chicken breast. The next shelf can be devoted to fiber. We also want a lot of vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, kale. All of those different vegetables provide us with fiber that's going to keep us healthy and keep us full. And then the next shelf down, let's think about our healthy fats. And in this case, I'm talking about avocados, some cheese, full fat milk. Those type of things could be sitting near as well.
The key to weight loss is constant movement. And many people think that they need to move for one hour, work really hard, and they're done. But the real secret to weight loss is that we need to move throughout the day. So even if you schedule 20 to 30 minute bursts maybe three times a day, and that could be getting up, walking around your house, running around your house or on a neighborhood street, that's going to make a difference and you're doing it throughout the day, rather than just dedicating that one hour of a full day to a workout.
Fasting creates clear boundaries. This is when you're allowed to eat, this is when you're not allowed to eat. So I love using intermittent fasting when you're trying to jumpstart your weight loss. I often advise starting with at least a 12-hour fast then graduate to a 14-hour fast. And ultimately, we know weight loss happens when there's a 16-hour fast. It's always a good idea to run any changes to your diet and exercise plan by your doctor.
My next tip is all about balancing your digestion, and one of the ways you can balance your digestion and then lose weight is by adding in gut-friendly foods. I'm talking about foods that balanced gut bacteria. These are going to be things like bone broth, non-dairy kefir, yogurt, fermented vegetables. All of these add all this great bacteria into the gut and help, in turn, to balance the gut and really alter and improve our metabolic rate.
