We all know that you have to exercise if you want to lose weight. Right?
But what if:
- You can’t exercise because of knee or back injury?
- You can’t exercise because you can’t walk?
Is all hope lost and you’ll just keep adding on more pounds?
The answer is NO.
Page Contents
Can you lose weight when you can’t exercise?
You were told time and time again:
1. Losing weight is about burning more calories than consuming.
2. You can’t lose weight when you can’t exercise.
Both statements are completely untrue:
1. Losing weight is NOT about counting calories. Weight gain can be caused by dozens of different factors.
And:
It’s a well-known fact that people who lose weight through counting calories, restricting food and being hungry all day just end up gaining all the weight back – sooner or later.
2. Exercising is tremendously important to keeping healthy and more importantly – happy. But you don’t have to do “traditional” exercise to burn calories and lose weight.
That’s right; you can exercise – without exercising at all.
2 Simple Ways to Lose Weight When You Can’t Exercise
Here’s the kicker:
Imagine getting all the benefits of exercising – without actually exercising, or even moving – at all.
For example:
Sweating burns a lot of calories. But you don’t have to exercise to start sweating.
You don’t even have to stand up.
[Tweet “Sweating burns a lot of #calories. But you don’t have to #exercise to start sweating…”]I’ll explain how below, but first, let’s look at how exactly exercising helps us lose weight:
1. Exercising burns calories.
2. Exercise boosts blood circulation – which allows more nutrients to get to each cell in your body – faster and better.
Plus it helps cut toxins and waste. Both lead to a faster metabolism and weight loss.
3. Exercise helps cleanse your lymphatic system – again, toxin elimination unburdens your body and allows it to “concentrate” on proper digestion and optimal metabolism.
4. Exercise improves cardiovascular system health.
5. Exercise leads to sweating and burning lots of calories.
So, how can you achieve all that without exercising?
It’s simpler than you think.
1. Infrared Light Therapy
What if I told you can lose weight fast without exercising, just by lying on an infrared heating mat, or in a portable infrared sauna at home?
Here’s what science has found:
A 30-minute session in an infrared sauna (while doing absolutely nothing) achieves the same health benefits of running 2-3 miles.
This is a scientifically proven fact.
That’s right. Relaxing for 30 minutes in an infrared sauna gets your heart rate up as if you were outside running your 3rd mile.
It makes you sweat the same amount of sweat (about 500 grams) as huffing and puffing on the Treadmill.
And get this:
It burns the same amount of calories (300-600 calories!).
In 1981, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that:
“Regular use of a sauna may impart a similar stress on the cardiovascular system, and its regular use may as effective as means of cardiovascular conditioning and burning of calories as regular exercise.”
This has mind-blowing consequences:
People in wheelchairs and people who can’t exercise for any reason – arthritis, chronic pain etc – can get the same benefits of daily aerobic exercise – just by taking a nap in an infrared sauna.
And you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for it either.
Read more about infrared therapy and how to use it to lose weight when you can’t work out – Right Here.
(By the way, other proven benefits of infrared light therapy include drug-free (and effective!) pain relief, full body detox, improved sleep, reduced stress and much more)
2. Metabolism Boosters
Imagine your circulatory system as a network of tubular highways reaching every part of your body.
Now imagine a traffic jam on one of those highways, with massive delays, excess pollution and a high risk of accidents.
When your blood circulation is less than ideal (one of the worst “side effects” of weight gain), your metabolism is slower, your digestion is impaired and losing weight becomes a difficult/impossible task, even if you’re dieting.
Boosting your blood circulation is an important factor in losing weight when you can’t be physically active and in preventing life-threatening diseases.
But don’t worry; you can significantly improve your blood circulation by the end of today – without exercising at all.
Spicy foods, such as garlic, onions, cayenne pepper should be part of your daily meals every single day.
(But, if you have hypertension or suffer from an ulcer – check with your doctor first).
Chili peppers, other than being honorary members of the super-foods family, are well-known for their ability to increase blood flow, strengthen arteries and stimulate the heart (by “exercising” it…)
You can add 1/2 teaspoon ground Cayenne Pepper to your green juice, you can add it to soups, potatoes and basically anything you cook – they make everything taste better.
Basically, any food that is naturally spicy will increase your blood circulation. Mustard, ginger and the all-mighty Turmeric are a few examples.
But spicy foods are not the only (easy) way to boost your metabolism.
I hope that by now you have liberated yourself from thinking you can’t lose weight without exercising.
The thought itself, by the way, can prevent you from achieving this, because our body “listens” to our brain all the time.
But that’s a story for a different post…
I’d love to read your thoughts and your personal experience about trying to lose weight or avoid weight gain when you can’t exercise. What has worked for you? What hasn’t?
To your health and happiness,
Meital
Julie says
Walking is the best
Meital James says
Thanks Jan…I agree!:)
Jan says
Hi! I just stopped by from the Homestead Barn Hop. You make some great points about metabolism boosting. It is a great reminder to never give up. Where there is a will, there is a way in weight loss!
Jan