If you don't have access to commercial exercise equipment at home, such as weights, resistance bands or machines, you can still find plenty of ways to lose weight using your own ingenuity. Combining smart eating with regular exercise will help you take weight off and keep it from coming back. Using items you have around the house and tweaking your cooking techniques and eating habits will help you improve your health and fitness.
Step 1
Exercise using homemade weights. Fill plastic milk jugs with handles with water to create your own dumbbells. Use these weights to perform a high-intensity cardio workout. Move from exercise to exercise, taking one-minute breaks in between. Perform full-body exercise routines that work your lower and upper body and your core. Use non-weighted calisthenics like sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, lunges, squats and chair dips.
Step 2
Write menu plans the day before, and review nutrition labels and websites like Livestrong.com's My Plate to help you keep track of the calories in foods, and to help you calculate the number of calories you'll need to eat each day to lose weight. Cook meals in advance when you're not hungry and freeze individual meal servings to prevent overeating. Buy low-calorie, fat-free foods and use lean cuts of meat and poultry. Grill, bake and broil meats, rather than frying them, to let fats drip away during the cooking process.
Step 3
Drink a glass of water with each meal to help curb your appetite, keep you properly hydrated and help you digest your food. It's a myth that water with a meal interferes with digestion, according to Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, Dr. Michael Picco.
Step 4
Exercise along with TV workout programs. Many networks feature free workout programs throughout the day. Record your favorite shows so you can exercise when you wish. Use your milk-jug weights during your aerobic workouts. The American Heart Association recommends cardio workouts of 60 to 90 minutes for weight loss.
Step 5
Create your own riser to use as a step during aerobics workouts. Find or make one or more risers that are lower than your knee, depending on how difficult you wish to make the step. A riser should be stable and heavy enough that it doesn't slide forward when you step on it. If you will use your riser on a wood or smooth floor, place a piece of skid-proof material underneath. A riser can be as simple as a sturdy briefcase or overturned plastic milk crate.
Step 6
Make a jump rope. Jumping rope is one of the highest calorie-burning workouts on the MayoClinic.com list of exercises, burning 730 calories per hour for a person weighing 160 lb., 910 calories for someone weighing 200 lb. and 1,090 calories for a 240-lb. person.
Step 7
Walk up and down stairs to create an aerobic workout while you work your quadriceps, calves, hamstrings and glutes. Take stairs two at a time to increase the intensity and add more muscle resistance.
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