How to Lose Weight When You Can’t Exercise (Yes, You Can!)

We all know that you have to exercise if you want to lose weight. Right?

But what if:

You can’t exercise because of a 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.

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Can You Lose Weight Without Exercising?

Director Woody Allen was once asked in an interview about how he manages to stay so thin. His answer was “anxiety. While he is correct, it’s probably not the best way to stay thin or lose weight.

Even though you were told a hundred times that losing weight is about burning more calories than consuming and that you can’t lose weight when you can’t exercise, both statements are not true.

1. Losing weight does not have to be 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 by 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.

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

Just by lying on an infrared sauna blanket mat or sitting inside a portable infrared sauna at home can help you burn hundreds of calories.

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.

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 blanket.

And you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on it either.

You can get your own high-quality infrared blanket (This one is what I recommend), and use it whenever you want, for years to come.

(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 to 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, and 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 of ground Cayenne Pepper to your green juice, or you can add it to soups, potatoes, and basically, anything you cook – they make everything taste better.

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.

Here are 11 simple ways to improve your blood circulation – by the end of today (Just ignore the one that involves exercising)

I hope that by now you have liberated yourself from thinking you can’t lose weight without exercising.

Simple Tricks to Lose Weight Without Working Out

Here are a few more science-backed ways that are easy, and many people don’t know about them:

1. Eat more protein – studies have shown that proteins make you feel fuller faster, so you’ll need less food – without staying hungry.

For example, this study found that increasing protein from 15% to 30% helped participants lose an average of 11 pounds over 12 weeks and eat 441 fewer calories each day, without intentionally restricting any foods or working out.

2. Drink more water – many people miss signs of dehydration and believe they are hungry when they are actually thirsty. Drinking more water will help you prevent this common mistake.

3. Use red plates and bowls for your snacks and high-calorie food – believe it or not, research has shown that people associate the color red with “stop,” – which makes them eat less food when it’s served on red plates.

4. Sleep more – a good night’s sleep is proven to balance your metabolism and help with optimal digestion.

To your health and happiness,

Meital

Studies

Genschow O, Reutner L, Wänke M. The color red reduces snack food and soft drink intake. Appetite. 2012 Apr;58(2):699-702. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2011.12.023. Epub 2012 Jan 5.

Weigle DS, Breen PA, Matthys CC, Callahan HS, Meeuws KE, Burden VR, Purnell JQ. A high-protein diet induces sustained reductions in appetite, ad libitum caloric intake, and body weight despite compensatory changes in diurnal plasma leptin and ghrelin concentrations. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jul;82(1):41-8.

Dean, Ward. (1981). Effect of sweating.. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association. 246. 623. 10.1001/jama.246.6.623.

Henderson KN, Killen LG, O’Neal EK, Waldman HS. The Cardiometabolic Health Benefits of Sauna Exposure in Individuals with High-Stress Occupations. A Mechanistic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan 27;18(3):1105.