5 Weight Loss Tips for Women Backed by Science

If you Google "how to lose weight women," you'll get hundreds of weight loss tips for women.

Unfortunately, many of these tips have no evidence to back them up, and some are ridiculous, such as one I read that advised people looking to lose weight to eat in front of mirrors in order to consume less food.

With so much misinformation on how women can lose weight online, I decided to write this post on scientifically proven weight loss strategies for women to help you avoid wasting valuable time on tips that will get you nowhere near your weight loss goals.

Let's get started!

Weight Loss Strategies for Women That Work

Adopting these practices can help you lose excess weight quickly.

Avoid Refined Carbs

Pasta, white rice, sweet desserts, white bread, pastries, pizza dough, and most breakfast cereals are examples of refined carbohydrates.

These foods digest quickly, making you feel hungry faster, and they also increase insulin secretion, which promotes fat accumulation <¹, especially around your waist.

You can replace refined carbohydrates with quinoa, oats, buckwheat, brown rice, barley, and other whole grain products that digest slowly, keeping you fuller for longer and allowing you to eat less without feeling deprived.

A 2019 study ² showed that consuming plenty of whole grains helped lower body mass index (BMI).

Drink Lots of Water

This simple act can help you eat less by suppressing your appetite and burn more calories, both of which are necessary for weight loss.

A study ³ involving overweight women who drank more than 1 liter (33.8 ounces) of water per day for a year found they lost 2kgs (4.4 pounds) without changing their workout routines or diet.

Another study ⁴ discovered that drinking 500 ml (16.9 ounces) of water increased the body's calorie burn rate within 10 minutes, and this went up by 30% after 30-40 minutes.

So, if you see fitness enthusiasts walking around with massive water bottles, don't judge them; they're on to something, and you should join them if you're not already keeping yourself hydrated throughout the day.

Sleep for at Least Seven Hours Daily

You may be strictly following your exercise and diet routines, but you aren't seeing any changes in your body, or your weight loss has plateaued, and you are wondering why.

The issue could be your sleeping patterns, which can frustrate your weight loss efforts.

Many studies have found that lack of sleep can lead to obesity ⁵, for a variety of reasons, including:

Sleeping for less than 7 hours per night slows your metabolism ⁶, meaning less of what you eat and drink is converted into energy. Calories that are not transformed into energy may be stored as fat, resulting in weight gain.
Inadequate sleep may also increase the production of cortisol ⁷ and insulin, which promote fat storage. It may further increase ghrelin production, a hormone that tells the brain you're hungry. This causes you to eat more, which is detrimental to weight loss.

So, get enough sleep if you want to increase your chances of losing weight by 33%, as this study ⁸shows.

Get Moving

You don't have to exercise to lose weight, but combining a healthy diet with regular physical activity will help you lose weight more quickly.

Cardio and weight lifting are good workout options for weight loss.

It has been demonstrated that doing 150-300 minutes of cardio per week can boost your metabolism ⁹and help you burn more calories, whereas lifting weights will ensure your metabolism doesn't slow down, which is a frequent side effect of weight loss.

If you're a busy woman who struggles to find time to exercise, check out our best workouts for busy women post for ideas on how to make time to move your body as well as workouts you can do if you only have a few minutes in your day for exercise.

Eat a High Protein Diet

Protein can also help you lose weight by providing satiety for several hours and cutting cravings by increasing the levels of satiety hormones like cholecystokinin ¹⁰and decreasing hunger hormone ghrelin levels.

Eggs, sardines, yogurt, chicken, chia seeds, nuts, cottage cheese, pork, beef, and turkey are good sources of protein.

A study ¹¹ done over 12 weeks showed a 15% increase in protein intake resulted in a weight loss of 5 kgs (11 pounds) due to a 441 average reduction in daily calorie intake.

Other weight loss tips backed by science include:

Eat mindfully. It has been discovered that eating without your phone or TV on and chewing slowly increases feelings of fullness and lowers daily calorie intake ¹².
Control your stress levels. Several studies ¹³show that stress can cause you to eat more food, particularly junk food, in order to feel better, putting you at risk of gaining weight.
Use a small plate to eat. Do you have trouble eating the appropriate food portions? Changing from a regular size to a smaller plate can help you avoid overeating.
Consider taking weight loss supplements. Weight loss supplements such as Modere Trim and Trimtone contain ingredients such as caffeine, grains of paradise, and capsicum, known to aid in weight loss by increasing metabolism, suppressing hunger, and stimulating thermogenesis. These supplements, however, must be used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise routine.
Try intermittent fasting. This wildly popular eating pattern entails fasting for 12 to 40 hours and then eating for several hours before fasting again. Research shows after several hours of fasting, your body will run out of sugar, at which point it will begin to burn fat more quickly.