Here are Some Budget Friendly Tips to Help You Lose Weight

Is there really such a thing as losing weight on a budget? And how can you even make that possible when you seem to have so many things to change in your usual routine and food prepping? Losing weight and staying fit can be a difficult lifestyle change for many. You’d need to change your schedule to fit your new activities, strategize your meal plans and limit your food intake among others. What many people seem to not take notice though is how to turn that budget around to accommodate their new lifestyle.

Some tend to spend hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars on superfoods and personal trainers thinking that that is the only way to go to be successful at shedding those extra pounds. This has further led others to believe that hitting your weight loss goals will require lots of extra spending in order to fund their new lifestyles. That’s completely false as you can perfectly attain the healthy lifestyle that you want while also staying within your usual budget. Fortunately for you, you can easily get the same results by just eating your vegetables and doing daily exercise. Oh yes, it can be as simple as that if you just commit to it and stay consistent. Below are some tips and tricks on how you can lose weight effectively while on a budget.

Tip #1 Learn what your goals are and then strategize accordingly

The first step to creating a budget-friendly plan for your weight loss program is to determine the end goal. Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months. You need to know what foods you can and cannot eat, then schedule your exercise, as well as the time that you need to spend for each. When it comes to your diet plan, it is always good advice to mind your portions and this implies eating less than your usual consumption. As such, you can easily trim down your budget by trimming down the amount and quantity of food that you get from the supermarket. As for exercise, there is no need to buy equipment or set up a home gym immediately. Using your body-weight is a very effective way to exercise and lose weight so it is something that you should be considering. There are many factors to consider when strategizing for your goals. This will help you organize your budget a lot better and not spend too much on expensive supplements that you do not actually need.

Tip #2: Research, Research, Research

You can’t strategize your diet plan’s budget without a little research, right? It’s easy for many people to neglect this part of the process and get frustrated trying to think about what went wrong. However, knowledge is power and power in this sense refers to knowing and learning as much as you can about budget-saving ways to go about your healthier lifestyle. Learn more about the nutritional facts of the foods you have locally and compare it to prices. Alternatively, you can also learn other recipes that are cheaper and healthier than foods that you can buy while eating out. Oh and when it comes to eating out, you might consider lessening this activity or avoiding it altogether because this is much more expensive than eating at home. Also, you will have more control over what you consume if you stay and eat at home instead. On top of that, you can also research what kind of exercises can go well with the foods you eat so that your weight loss progresses even faster.

Tip #3: Learn how to portion your meals

When you portion your meals correctly, it does not only make you feel full after every meal but also maximize the food in your budget. There are a lot of premade plans out there for you to follow like Beachbody’s Ultimate Portion Fix eating plan. It’s an easy comprehensive guide to the foods that are inexpensive, delicious and nutritious which can guide you all the way. You can choose to explore that and see how it works for you as an option. However, that is only one option among many others that you can try so just keep an open mind. With enough research and know how, you can determine what fits you the best according to your work, body proportions and body condition.

Tip #4: Workout at home

A lot of people enjoy going to the gym to perform their workouts. The atmosphere, equipment and personal trainers that can provide can help you get into the workout mood. What’s not to love about going to the gym? But it can be expensive over time, especially if what you’re going to is a high-end gym. Even more expensive is having to pay extra for a personal trainer who, while being very dedicated to your fitness, can stretch your wallet to its limits.

Anyway, you can get the same results by knowing how to do home workouts. Home workouts can be a cheaper alternative to going to high end gyms. You just need to be creative with how you exercise. Some of the exercises you can do is by going up and down the stairs, doing pushups or maybe you can go out and do a bit of jogging. And the best part about doing home workouts is that your “gym” is open 24/7 so you don’t have to worry about it closing anytime soon or missing out when the weather is not that favorable.

Tip #5 Buy your food in bulk

It can be a lot cheaper when you buy your food in bulk rather than individually. It can look expensive on the outside but if you really stop to analyze the prices and combine it with your meal portioning plans, you’ll come to realize that it’s a lot cheaper than you think. Yes, buying in bulk will complement your meal prepping as you plan ahead and cook your food in preparation for the days or the week ahead.

More importantly, food items or any item at that, cost less when they are packaged in big bulks rather than in small, individualized packaging. Many stores can sell their products for cheaper if you can buy it in bulk, especially if its food produced locally. Try to figure out which stores sell food in bulk and try to compare the prices for each of them so you’ll save more money in the future. All in all, buying in bulk is solely to your advantage.

Tip #6 Shop with a grocery list

It’s a proven fact that the longer you stay in the grocery store, the more likely you’ll buy unnecessary and unhealthy food items. This rings especially true when you don’t have a list to guide you. Try to bring a shopping list every time you go to the market as it will help focus on what you need to buy versus what you want to buy which often causes you to go overboard with your set budget limit. So yes, grocery lists can definitely help limit purchase impulses and can be used to help reduce unnecessary trips back to the food store. It would likewise help a lot with your budgeting if you check out the food prices ahead of time before going to the supermarket. You can always choose the less expensive one on the list while staying true to your weight loss goals. Overall, it just makes your life way more convenient and stress-free without having to remember and figuring out what you need to buy for you next meals.

Tip #7 Learn to make your own meals

It can be very tempting to just go out and have your meals at a restaurant or diner. Other times, you don’t know what to cook or are too lazy to make your own meals. It’s time to stop being lazy and start learning how to cook your own meals. There are a lot of cheap and healthy recipes you can find online. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t look like the picture because you’ll just get better over time. It can be fun and rewarding once you’ve mastered the art of making your own meals.

All it needs is a little time and effort to make all the difference in the world. The only hard part is just getting started. So before you say no and say cooking is not your cup of tea, try it out for a few weeks and see how it goes. Who knows, you might actually like it and develop a passion for cooking, baking, plating, and all the other interesting stuff you can do in the kitchen. Besides, there is no better way to know what is exactly in your food than preparing them yourself. Remember, you are trying to lose weight and what’s in your food will spell the difference between being successful at it and failing altogether.

Tip #8 Be with a like-minded group

Finding a like-minded group can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You need to be very careful who you choose to be with on your fitness journey. Of course, that’s not to say you have to cut off friends and family who don’t follow your lifestyle. You just need to surround yourself with people who encourage and support healthy habits. Not only that but some people who have been doing this for a longer time than you can give you advice on how to better budget and plan your meals. This will be like benefiting from free coaching for you and not just any coaching because it will be from experience. In this case, you can expect it to practical, and yes budget-friendly. They can also join you in your exercising session so that time will fly faster while you have fun so it is really a win-win.

Tip #9 Leave some leftovers

Another big thing you can do is to cook larger meals and divide it up into smaller pieces that you can eat and enjoy throughout the day. By creating leftovers, you save yourself time from cooking as well as help save money on other things like cooking oil and other ingredients. If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you can also use your leftovers in other recipes too. This is where you will discover how unlikely options and alternatives can actually make your food more delectable for you. It will allow you to make typical recipes with your own spin so it won’t feel like some bland diet food that you need to force yourself to eat. Just don’t over do it or you might be gaining weight instead of losing it. Another thing you need to know about making leftovers is that you might take longer to consume it. This, in turn, will give it a high likelihood of spoiling if left untouched so eat all of your leftovers in a timely manner.

Tip #10 Never shop when you’re hungry

It’s a dangerous thing when you shop and you’re so hungry that you can practically hear your stomach grumbling in the background. You’ll more than likely buy more food than necessary or buy unhealthy food because it’s tempting. Of course you will listen more to your immediate cravings rather than that now-distant goal to lose weight. And you won’t even care whether it is going to be within your budget or not. Your brain will tend to overpower whatever willpower you might have left and just pay for that food that you are craving for. It’s an obvious piece of advice that people often forget when they go shopping but it can be the only advice they need to heed to lose weight even if they are on a budget.

Tip #11 Incorporate more activities in your life

Dieting is one thing but doing your exercises is another. It can be difficult for some people to plan out their exercise routines either because of their hectic schedule or a general lack of energy. Whatever the reason may be, you should try incorporating more activities to your day for the sake of your life-work balance as well as for your weight loss journey. As an example, instead of taking the car to deliver some mail, you can walk to the post office.

You can also take a short walk between your lunch breaks at work or, when you’re done working, you can jog back home. There’s a lot of ways to seamlessly incorporate more activity into your life. All you have to be is a little creative. At the end of the day, you will be hitting two birds with one stone as you exercise and stay on budget at the same time with this strategy.

Tip #12 Try to do some Calisthenics

At the gym, you can find all sorts of equipment, from nautilus,bike, dumbbells to the treadmill, all are good to help you build muscle. However, they’re not mandatory for building muscle and getting fit. At this point, you could try some Calisthenics. What are Calisthenics, you might ask? They are exercises that rely only on a person’s own body weight. Some examples of these exercises are Push-ups, Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Lunges, Planks and Jumping Jacks. Calisthenics can also increase your metabolism while building muscle and enhancing body coordination. Give it a shot and you will be losing weight without spending a dime.

Tip #13 Learn how to create a home gym

Let’s say you tried to maintain any form of home workout but you simply can’t keep it consistent due to one of many reasons. This can be true for a lot of people but perhaps the problem lies with where you do your workouts at home. Like, how a student studies at a library or how you go to the beach to relax. You might need to make a separate space in your house to give you the feeling of working out in a gym.

There are a lot of creative and cheap ways to set up your own personal gym at home with a budget. One way is to look for used equipment for cheap at any yard sale. the Facebook Marketplace or a thrift store. Perhaps, you can try using your chairs or any old nylon bands to help with resistance training. You can even use the stairs in your house to climb up and down. If that doesn’t work and you lack space for any of these then you can borrow a workout DVD from a friend or grab yourself a BODi Membership. If you got a bit of money to spare, try looking for multi-use equipment and make sure it’s durable because you’re going to be using that for a while. If there’s a problem, there’s always a solution, you just need to know how to find it.

Tip #14 Health smoothies

Health smoothies are an amazing, delicious and cheap way to increase your vitamin and fiber intake. It also helps with food cravings and can even be a meal replacement for those with stricter diets. Plus, it’s fun to mix and match what fruits and veggies you like for your smoothie. You just have to make sure which fruits and veggies are in season and which are not as you can always buy the in-season fruits and veggies in bulk for a cheaper price. There are some recipes you can follow online for delicious combinations to help jump start your day or keep you going through out your day.

Tip # 15 Always try to be consistent

The hardest part about any weight loss program is to be consistent. There’s always going to be temptations that can not only make you fat but also eat your wallet away. Saving a little money here and there may not look like too much now but it can build up over time. You need to learn to be patient with yourself, forgive any mistakes and move on. Nobody’s perfect and you aren’t either. The only thing you can do is to do the best you can and commit to the process.

These are the best tips you can use to lose weight while on a budget. Do try to remember that these are just guidelines and not the rules. Everyone is going to experience something different and it’s up to you to figure out what’s best for yourself. Maybe you need to eat less or exercise more. You don’t really know that unless you try. But the best part about exercising on a budget is that you can keep trying and trying until you get it right without risk of spending more money than you normally would.

One last piece of advice that everyone should follow is that you should not compare yourself to others even when you think they have the best equipment or personal trainers, you can literally achieve the same results if you do your own research and commit to your own training regimen.