How not to gain weight while at rest

All, or almost all, of us are clear about the keys to losing weight or, at least, not gaining weight. Eating and exercising is the basic duo for anyone who wants to maintain a healthy weight. However, what happens when we are forced to be in bed? Injuries, bone fractures, pregnancy or a postoperative period are situations that can be prolonged and force us to rest, something that over time can cause us to gain weight.

That is why we bring you the definitive guide so that you know how to act and how not to gain weight while at rest.

How to lose weight while resting: key points

I am at rest and I need to lose weight: what to do? In the first place, it is essential that you stop and think about how your diet was before you had to rest and what you should change so that these days stopped are not translated into kilos. How did you eat? How much did you eat? What kind of food did you eat? Was it a balanced diet? Once you have answered all these questions, you should take into account the following points, as they are the keys that you should guide your resting diet:

• You should consume less amount of food.
• Avoid eating processed or industrial products, even those that may seem healthy like packaged soups, sauces, packaged juices, or yogurts that contain fruit.
• Eat in an orderly manner, that is, eat 5 times a day and do not skip any meals.
• You must drink at least 1 and a half liters of water daily, for this you can accompany yourself with infusions.
• Do not follow very strict diets; you must eat well to recover as soon as possible. Food is essential to be able to do so.

In addition, to know how to lose weight while in bed, you must banish some ideas that we have very established and that, in reality, do not have any scientific basis. A clear example is that carbohydrates should not be consumed at night. This is totally false; in fact, it can be good for not gaining weight while at rest. Of course, you must do it correctly.

When you eat carbohydrates at night you should always do it with vegetables, better if it is raw, since it will satiate you, will make you no longer want to eat and will help you not to gain weight. Of course, when we talk about eating carbohydrates it does not mean that you can eat as much as you want. You can eat a small plate of pasta -boiled AL dente- accompanied by vegetables.

Diet for people at rest

This is how the diet for people at rest should be so as not to gain weight or even lose weight:

• Breakfast: it has been repeated ad nauseam, but it must be repeated as many times as necessary: ​​breakfast is the most important meal of the day and this is also true of diets for people without mobility. Eating enough for breakfast will activate our metabolism and burn more calories throughout the day. We must avoid eating sugar that causes us to rise and fall in glucose that makes us hungry. With all this in mind, your breakfast should include: fruit with a low glycemic index, coffee or tea, low-fat milk, cereals or whole wheat bread with turkey or fresh cheese.
• Food: this is the food in which we must incorporate carbohydrates, proteins and some healthy fat. One way is a good salad with avocado, tuna, and nuts or brown rice with chopped turkey, tomato, and onion.
• Dinner: it should be the lightest meal of the whole day since we do not need calories that we cannot burn. That is why a good dinner should be a small serving of something like vegetables or protein. A vegetable puree or a vegetable scramble is an ideal option before going to sleep.

In this diet to lose weight while at rest, it is important to make small snacks between meals, a small lunch and snack are essential to keep glucose levels stable and avoid hunger and wipe out the refrigerator. The ideal is to eat a piece of fruit; however, you can also combine it with a handful of nuts, a yogurt, dehydrated fruit or vegetable and fruit smoothies.

Burning fat at rest with exercise

Exercise is the best option we have to burn calories, acting as a counterweight and balancing what we consume so as not to gain weight. Beyond that, movement and sports are essential for a multitude of benefits in our body such as accelerating metabolism, keeping muscles toned and preventing cardiovascular diseases. However, if we are forced to rest, either due to an injury, pregnancy or an operation, our mobility can be very limited.

If this is your case, you can rest easy, physical exercise is not just the dumbbells and going for a run, we have a wide variety of exercises at our disposal to burn calories and avoid sedentary lifestyle even when we are at rest. Here”s how to burn fat at rest with exercise:

Isometric exercises

Isometric exercises are an ideal alternative to exercising while at rest and thus avoid gaining weight. These exercises can be done to gain strength and tone:

• Triceps

The fact that isometric exercises are ideal for people who are at rest is because they are exercises in which there is no movement. We often believe that sport is only possible by moving, but isometrics show that it is possible to exercise muscles effectively in a static way. It is about tensing the muscle, either by pushing, stretching or using force for a certain time, and for this it can be done with specific material, with a wall, with towels or with our own body. Despite the fact that hypopressive exercises are very varied, depending on the condition that you have in bed, you should opt for one or the other, avoiding those that compromise any of the affected areas. For this, the most advisable thing is always talk to a doctor or physical therapist who will tell you which is the best option. Below you can see some isometric exercises for the abdomen or for the legs.

Muscle toning exercises in bed

The exercises that we are going to explain below focus on the legs, the extremities that suffer the most with rest and the most important ones to have toned so as not to suffer once our rest days are over. All of them are done in bed, lying up and with the legs and arms stretched out. In turn, we will perform between 10 and 15 repetitions, alternating one leg and the other. These are the exercises to avoid gaining weight while at rest:

• Starting with your legs straight, extend and bend them while moving your toes down and up.
• Keeping your foot in contact with the mattress, bend your legs up and stretch them out again.
• If your condition allows it, repeat the same exercise but without the foot touching the mattress.
• Starting with your legs straight, lift one leg 30 centimetres above the mattress, hold for 5 seconds and repeat with the other leg.
• Stretch your leg and place a cushion or folded towel under your knee. Once you are like this, press your leg down while lifting the tip facing you.

We have chosen exercises that are easy to do so that anyone can do them, however, it is always best to talk to a doctor or physical therapist for advice on which ones you can do and what you cannot do if you are injured and do not want to gain weight.