How to Get Skinny Without Having a Diet

Diets can be effective short-term weight loss plans, but they are not practical over a long period of time because the regimen is nearly impossible to maintain. Since the definition of dieting implies dramatic changes to your eating habits, making small and permanent lifestyle changes to your eating habits does not constitute a "diet." With a few simple changes and rules, you can continue to eat the foods you love while trimming your waist size.

Instructions

• 1

  Create a physical activity routine. If you are looking to cut your waist without changing your eating habits, getting active by performing household chores and cardiovascular activities can burn calories and help you lose weight. Some cardiovascular activities are rollerblading, swimming, biking and running. According to NutriStrategy.com, a person weighing 155 lbs. can burn 563 calories in an hour of running. Chores that burn more calories include washing the car, mowing the lawn, cleaning the house and walking the dog.

• 2

  Educate yourself on rules of losing weight naturally without a diet. Ideally, for maximum weight loss you must burn more calories than your daily consumption. The two rules of weight loss, exercising and eating healthy, can help you lose one pound a week. To continue eating normally, you must burn 500 more calories per day than what you consume. For example, if you consume a daily value of 2,000 calories, you need to burn 2,500 calories to lose a pound a week.

• 3

  Make slight changes to your eating habits. Substitute high-fat and high-calorie foods with alternatives, such as substituting ranch dressing with low-fat dressing, whole milk with 2 percent or skim milk and cookies with pieces of fruit. Over time, small changes become permanent lifestyle changes and can be more effective in the long term than a diet with major changes.