What’s the Best Morning Routine for Weight Loss?

There’s some wisdom in the old phrase ‘start as you mean to go on’, and if you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle, eat well, and lose weight, you need to be working towards your weight loss goals from morning til night. The best way to encourage that? Kick off your day in the right way with a healthy morning routine for weight loss.

Establishing and maintaining a healthy routine for the first part of the day could well prove vital. Morning habits can set the tone for the rest of the day and see you heading out of the front door focused on weight loss and motivated to keep it up until bedtime.

But what does the best morning routine for weight loss look like? Everyone’s different, so there’s no set one-size-fits-all routine. However, with a little inspiration, you can find a lifestyle that works for you and helps you reach your weight loss goals.

Your morning routine for weight loss

Whether you decide to introduce all of these ideas into your daily routine or you simply want to enhance your existing habits, the key thing to remember is consistency. Whatever your current morning routine for weight loss looks like, maintaining healthy habits can help you stick to your goals and build a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable. Explore the following useful tips, hints and suggestions and tailor the right set of habits for you.

Enjoy your sleep

A good night’s rest is central to good overall physical and mental wellbeing. It’s also a key tool in weight loss¹. Getting the sleep you need not only means that you’re refreshed for the day, but set up for achieving your goals, making it central to your healthy morning routine for weight loss.

Sleep deprivation has been shown to lead to extra snacking and weight gain. It’s because the body increases production of hunger hormones when you’re tired to up your energy levels². So don’t set an alarm extra early, a full night’s rest is important.

Brew up a coffee

It can be tempting to think of a morning cup of coffee as something of a luxury, indulgence or even a vice. We shouldn’t, though. In fact, it’s something to be encouraged, and can be part of your morning routine for weight loss.

Caffeinated beverages like coffee can speed up the body’s metabolism, which helps burn fat³. It’s also been shown that coffee can stimulate the burning of ‘brown fat’, also known as ‘brown adipose tissue’. Doing this means the body can work off calories faster throughout the day⁴.

Plus, a quick caffeine hit in the morning will focus your mind on your routine and give you a little added energy boost for any exercise you may undertake.

It’s important that you keep things nice and basic, though. Make your brew black or, if you prefer it white, use skimmed milk. Avoid any added extras that are likely to include sugar or needless calories such as cream, too much milk or flavoured syrups.

Pack your breakfast full of protein

We all know how important breakfast is. More important than just eating it each morning is making sure it’s healthy, and a good breakfast is among the best morning routines for weight loss. The key to a nutritious breakfast which will set you up for the rest of the day is protein, a macronutrient which takes longer for the body to digest. A protein-rich meal first thing results in less hunger pangs as the day rolls on⁵.

Protein also jump-starts your metabolism, another aid to losing weight⁶. If you can aim for around 20 grams of protein in your breakfast, you’ll reduce your appetite later in the day and that encourages weight loss.Protein comes in many forms. For breakfast, think:

• Poached or scrambled eggs
• Turkey bacon
• Cottage cheese
• Yoghurt
• Almonds
• Berries
• Peanut butter
• Wholemeal toast

Say hi to hydration

It’s a smart idea to keep hydrating throughout the day, but this is particularly true in the morning. You’ll have just woken from 8+ hours of taking in no water at all, so enjoy a nice cold glass of it as part of your morning routine for weight loss. It’ll refresh you and help wake you up.

Water is zero calories and can help alleviate appetite to some degree⁷. Of course, it’s not a substitute for a healthy protein-rich breakfast, but it may help you keep portion size down. Water has also been shown to help people make healthier food decisions⁸.

Water also helps with speeding up your metabolism and aiding digestion⁹. Not only that but it helps rid the body of toxins too¹⁰.

Don’t worry if you don’t like the taste, you can add lemon to make it more palatable. Lemon water has been shown to help in weight loss¹¹. Plus lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C¹².

Weigh yourself

Charting your weight loss every morning is important. Research has shown that those that do lose approximately three times more weight and body fat compared with people who don’t¹³.

The ideal time to weigh yourself is in the morning as part of your weight loss routine, after you’ve used the bathroom. It doesn’t matter too much if you step on the scales with or without clothes, just try to be consistent with how and when you weigh yourself. That way you can be sure you’re getting accurate results and tracking your weight loss consistently.

Fit in a quick blast of exercise

Research has indicated that morning may well be the optimal time to exercise in terms of calorie burning14. Morning workouts have also shown to reduce appetite and calorie intake throughout the day¹⁵.

That’s not to say that you have to replace your afternoon or evening exercise with a spell of morning movement. It can be in addition to it. It also needn’t be a 10km run or an hour in the gym. A light ten minutes on a mat or a quick walk will wake you up and get your system running—a great addition to your morning routine for weight loss.

Prepare lunch

It’s much easier to stay on track with a healthy diet each and every day if you’ve prepared a low calorie lunch as part of your healthy morning routine for weight loss. Dietary decisions made impulsively and in a hurry can lead to poor choices, so spend a few minutes each morning making your next meal in advance.

If you prefer hot meals at lunchtime, you can meal prep. Home-cooked meals are generally lower in calories. Make them in the evenings and all you need to do in the morning is pack them and go.

Soak up a little sun

Okay, so this tip isn’t always the easiest to follow, given how unreliable the weather often is. If the Sun is out and the sky’s nice and bright in the morning though, try and spend a few minutes outside soaking up the rays.

Vitamin D has been proven to help reduce your waistline by decreasing the formation of new fat cells and also helping reduce fat storage¹⁶.

Even just a short spell exposing your skin to the warmth and light of the sun can have a positive influence on your weight¹⁷.

There’s no formula for the perfect morning routine. We’re all different, with different preferences, lifestyles and attitudes. What’s important is that you find the regime that works for you.

Factor in as many of our tips as you can and you’ll be using mornings to your advantage in no time. For more advice and guidance on reaching your weight loss goals, explore the XLS blog today.