I have been overweight for almost all my life. I always thought it was because of my bad genes.
When my friends teased me about my weight, my answer was always, I have a fat gene, and I will always be like this.
Then, I started observing my friends who were fit and lean. I started to track down what they were doing, and I was not, to my supplies.
It was not my genes; they were doing a lot of things that I was not doing. Here are the most common habits of lean people.
7 Habits Of Lean People
I will name my friends in this post, but I can tell you that I met them during my university days.
To this day, we are still communicating and sometimes have dinner. Here are the seven habits of lean people.
They drink water
Wherever we were on the faculty, I would see them with water bottles. Not me. While they were drinking water throughout the day, I used to drink a glass of water just after a meal. That was it.
Drinking water helps to hydrate your body, increase metabolism, and help you lose weight.
Another thing I noted is that sometimes I thought I was hungry, but in reality, I was just thirsty. Drinking water helped me not overeat.
They limit alcohol
I do not drink alcohol, so this was not an issue for me, but the difference between my friends who were chubby like me and those who were lean was the amount of alcohol they took in.
Lean people limit the amount of alcohol they take in because alcohol can cause you to gain weight.
Alcohol can cause weight gain in four ways: it stops your body from burning fat, it’s high in kilojoules, it can make you feel hungry, and it can lead to cravings for salty and greasy foods.
If you drink a lot of alcohol and want to become lean, you must reduce your alcohol intake.
They exercise daily
None of my friends go to the gym. They do not like it, but they manage to exercise daily.
One thing they had in common was walking. They always used stairs instead of elevators. They used to park their cars far from the campus and come there on foot.
One of them even went further. He would go to town on foot and work 10 km on foot each weekend.
I have used this practice recently. I walk at least 10K steps daily, and since I started in March 2013, I have lost 20 kg and feel much better and leaner. This is the reason I started this blog: to keep myself motivated.
You will get lean if you can start working 7K+ steps daily and go to the gym at least three times daily.
They prioritize their sleep
I studied engineering at university, and one of my worst habits was staying awake for a long time, sometimes studying, partying, or just goofing around.
What I realized from my lean friends is that most of them slept well every day. Most of them slept for at least 6 hours a day.
Research has observed weight changes when people get fewer than 7 hours of quality sleep a night.
Poor quality sleep has repeatedly been linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) and weight gain.
They limit processed sugars
I said that I do not drink beer. Do you know what I used to drink a lot? Cocacola ·
I used to drink sugary soft drinks daily to stay awake. I would drink Coke when I felt thirsty or tired. It was my favorite drink.
I lost about 5 kg in just two weeks when I cut Coke from my diet. Please remove Coke from your diet to become lean and healthy.
High-sugar diets contribute to prolonged elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance, which are all linked to weight gain and excess body fat.
You need to cut processed sugars from your diet to lose weight and get lean.
They eat a diet made of whole foods
I used to be lazy, never cook, and eat fast food; McDonald’s and KFC were my favorite places to go. If you add that to the Coke I used to drink, the result was fatal.
What I noticed from my friends was that they used to eat whole food, most of the time, they cooked at home, and even when we went out, they used to eat healthy food.
I cook my food these days, and if I go out, I make sure to go to restaurants that serve whole food.
You can get your custom diet and cook your food here.
They eat slowly
My high school days were great; I had different friends with different ways of thinking, and one thing was that always when we ate out, the last person to finish eating was the person who had to pay for it all. This little game made me develop the habit of eating very fast.
I found out my lean college friends used to eat slowly. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence, but after digging deeper, I realized that eating fast can cause weight gain.
It’s much easier to eat much more food than your body needs. Over time, excess calorie intake can lead to weight gain.
One study of children found that 60% of those who ate rapidly also overate. The fast eaters were also three times more likely to be overweight.
Final words
Those are the seven habits of lean people. How many of them do you have?
After studying with my friends and starting to do the same things as them, I lost a lot of weight and became lean.
One thing I can add to this is that you should not do this for a few days or weeks. My lean friends are lean because they do boring things consistently.
