If you just can’t get yourself up off the couch, use these simple tricks and tactics to drop pounds without exerting any effort whatsoever.

But what if you are not able to exercise for some reason? Maybe you have been temporarily knocked back by illness or an accident, and simply can’t get out pounding the pavement. Perhaps you are in a location where undertaking exercise is not practical right now. Or let’s be honest…maybe you are just feeling too damn lazy!

Don’t worry…we’ve got your back. Here’s what you need to do if you want to keep losing weight without getting down and dirty in the gym or elsewhere.

Leveraging Your Body Chemistry

So can you really lose weight without exercising? Yes, you really can! All you have to do is maintain a calorie deficit. That simply means that on average, you need to burn more calories per day than you consume. And even if you stay in bed all day, you are still burning calories every minute of every hour.

Your body burns energy just to keep you alive. One of the reasons we need to eat so much food is that we are warm-blooded creatures. Our bodies need to maintain a consistent temperature, and they do that by burning energy. On top of that, we use energy to fuel our everyday body processes, such breathing, digesting food and keeping that all-important heart beating.

The number of calories needed to keep your body functioning at rest is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). If you are consuming fewer calories per day that you are burning in your BMR, then you will lose weight. It’s as simple as that! Mathematics says you will burn fat and slim down.

So let’s see how you can make that happen. Basically, you have two options. You can either reduce the number of calories below your existing BMR. Or you can pump up your metabolism to increase your BMR and burn more calories. Better still, you can do both and double your results.

Reducing Calorie Intake

We all know that if we control our diet, we will consume fewer calories and lose weight. That’s stating the blinking obvious, right? The challenge is making it happen without caving in to hunger and cravings for sweet, sugary foods.

Believe me, this is a problem I know all about. After struggling with yo-yo dieting for years, I finally found the solution. I simply made the decision to ban nearly all unhealthy foods from my kitchen. That meant I cut out at least 90% of all:

• Processed foods
• Bread
• Potatoes
• Pasta
• Rice
• Sweet or sugary foods

All of these went in the trash can (literarily). Instead, I filled my cupboards with fresh fruit and vegetables, soy-based protein products and restricted quantities of lean chicken, eggs and fish.

The result was that I was able to eat generous meals without every worrying about counting calories. After a week of adjustment, I found I no longer craved all the junk I had thrown away. In fact, I looked forward to my healthy, veggie-based dinners, and the fruit I enjoyed for dessert (and I still do!)

Increasing Your Metabolic Rate

When you speed up your metabolic rate, you increase the rate at which you naturally burn calories. It’s like turning the ‘Calorie Burn’ meter up to level 10. So how do you make this magical improvement happen?

An easy way to start is by eating more fish. That way, you get more of those lovely omega-3 fatty acids that are so good for pumping up your metabolism. They balance your blood sugar and reduce inflammation, which both help your body to run like a well-oiled machine. You can also try flaxseed oil or walnuts.

Drinking green tea can help, too. Recent research shows that the active ingredient in green tea, catechin, accelerated the metabolisms of people who took part in studies. It does this by improving fat oxidation and thermogenesis, thereby speeding up your natural calorie burn.

Go Organic

Don’t dismiss organic food as some kind of hippy fad. In Canada, researchers found that people with a higher percentage of organochlorides from pesticides stored in their fat cells were much more susceptible to problems in thyroid function and mitochondrial activity. This means that their metabolism was slowed down.

Switch to organic foods and eliminate those pesky chemicals from your diet as far as you can. That will keep your body working at optimal level for maximum calorie burn.

Drink More Water

Researchers at the University of Utah found that people who drank eight to 12 eight-ounce glasses of water every day had higher metabolic rates than those who drank half that amount. Water is free, and it’s really good for you…so make sure you get enough in your daily routine. Dehydration is the cause of so many health problems, including an inefficient metabolism.

…But Cut Back on Alcohol

You may be disappointed (but probably not too surprised) to learn that not all drinks are as good for you as water. Alcohol-based drinks are OK in moderation, but they do have an impact. Drinking too much alcohol has the immediate effect of slowing down fat burning in your system.

That’s clear a bad thing when you are trying to lose weight. When you add in all the empty calories you get with alcohol, it’s easy to see why you need to curb your enthusiasm for the demon drink. IF you can replace your alcohol consumption with water consumption, you will be doing yourself a huge favor.

Enjoy a Dairy Treat

A dairy snack such as yogurt mid-afternoon is not only good for you, it can speed up your metabolism, too. According to the University of Copenhagen, calcium helps your body metabolize fat more efficiently by increasing the rate at which it gets rid of fat as waste. So even if you have given in to a fatty treat earlier in the day, you can reverse some of the damage by consuming a calcium-based product.

Avoid Extreme Dieting

So many people make this simple mistake, and it’s easy to see why. We all know that cutting down on calories helps you lose weight. So if you want to lose a lot of weight, you cut your calorie consumption down to almost zero. It’s bound to work, huh?

Not so fast…this is a really bad idea! When you cut your calorie consumption drastically, your body goes into panic mode, thinking that you are starving to death. So it slows down your metabolism to reduce the number of calories consumed. The result is that crash dieting is counter-productive – it can actually have a negative effect on your weight…and makes you feel lethargic and listless at the same time. Don’t do that!

Adjust to Your Natural Circadian Rhythm

Social life in the 21^st century has resulted in most of us keeping unhealthy hours. We stay up late watching TV, browsing YouTube videos or catching up with friends on Facebook. Then we stay in bed as late as our schedule will allow…maybe even sleeping through until lunchtime at the weekends.

The big problem with this is that our bodies naturally work to circadian rhythms. These means our bodies work best when we go to sleep not long after the sun goes down, and get up at the crack of dawn.

When you sleep in line with your natural circadian rhythms, amazing things happen. Your body works at its optimal rate, you get all the sleep you need in less time, and you feel refreshed and invigorated.

Going to bed at 9.00pm and getting up at 5.00am may seem like a shocking idea. But just think about how you use your late evening hours. Do you really need to watch another funny cat video…or would you rather change your habit and transform your life? Even going to bed at 10.00pm and getting up at 6.00am will make a huge difference.

Exercise…Who Needs It?

So if you find yourself in an ‘exercise-challenged’ position, all is not lost. Just follow the principles outlined here and you can still achieve amazing results.

Of course, it;s obviously true that if you combine all of the above with a healthy exercise program than you will double – or even triple – your results. You will be next to unstoppable. But that is up to you. At least now you know that real fat loss is within your scope, regardless of your workout regime…or lack of one.