Cucumber is a low-calorie, low-carb fruit, often wrongly accused as a vegetable. It bears a diversity of wholesome nutrients, flavonoids, and phytonutrients. Cucumbers are an extraordinary root for vitamin K, Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, pantothenic acid, and molybdenum. High water content makes it a detoxifying agent that washes out toxins and hazardous chemicals with urination. This property with low calories and rich phytonutrients mark it as an awesome “eat more “snack without a blow in fat cells and a few inches expansion in your skin. Cucumbers facilitate fast and nutritious weight loss.
Putting some extra weight every week is a common problem that leads to obesity and ultimately deadly diseases. Some common questions popping in mind could be;
Can we do this without using side effects bearing medicines? Without following strict diet plans? Without doing unrelenting workouts? They all can be answered as “Yes” by digging into the nutritional content and calories chart of cucumber.
This article arrays the facts behind answering the question, How to Use Cucumber for Weight Loss? and shares tips and tricks to use it in your diet effectively.
Does Cucumber Help in Weight Loss?
Right usage of cucumber promises very quick weight loss.
- It has very low calories and zeroes fat so you can eat as much as you want to control your appetite.
- High water content is not the only cause of weight loss but it also contains Tiptronic acid which prevents fat metabolism.
- Cucumber has negligible sugar content which is a plus factor in the weight loss process.
- It acts as a detoxifying agent.
- It shows hydrating properties.
- Cucumber contains potassium which helps in lowering high blood pressure.
Now, the question arises, How to Use Cucumber for Weight Loss, and what are the factors responsible for this functioning.
Let’s discuss a few parameters in details:
Hydration Properties:
A perfectly hydrated body can sharply reduce weight. We can boost our metabolism by hydration or we can say by drinking a lot of water but only drinking water is not enough, there are some fruits and vegetables enriched in water. The intake of such fruits and vegetables can prove helpful in weight loss and cucumber is one of them.
Cucumber consists of 90% water means it can act as a booster for hydration. How to use cucumber for weight loss is very relevant to the hydration potential of cucumber. Cucumber is a cooling vegetable, it also shows antioxidant, anti-diabetic, and lipid-lowering activities. In addition to water, it also contains Vitamin C and K which also helps in weight loss.
Calories Game:
Macronutrients that structure our maximum diet are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. They provide us with glucose and calories. In simple words, we can say a calorie is energy our body uses to perform daily life activities, including breathing as well. The extra calories shifted themselves to fats for later usage. Fat cells are more like balloons, they keep on accepting fats from our uncareful, extra high calories junk diet. In this scenario, keep on eating high calories, and working out hard is not a smart preference. This is the calorie game.
15 calories from a 100-gram cucumber serving take the perk of eating as much as you want and accepting low calories in return. 100 grams of banana gives 89 calories, the same amount of chicken accounts for 239 calories, and mango adds 60 calories per 100 grams.
Low Carb Content:
Carbohydrates bring 81% calories of our total diet. Carbohydrates in any form elevate the risk for being overweight and ultimately obese. Cucumber has marginal amounts of sugars in it. It can help to reduce and control body weight.
Relieves Constipation:
Constipation is the core of an inefficient digestive system. Disastrous gut health badly affects the well being and serves as the mother of all diseases. Luckily, cucumber brings the charm of dealing with constipation due to the fibrous content and water content. Having cucumber in your diet promotes gut health and eases constipation which also proves helpful in weight loss.
- One unpeeled cucumber contains enough vitamin K which can fulfil one-third of the daily need. Vitamin K in addition to weight loss plays an important role in blood clotting and bone metabolism.
- 7% of the daily need of Vitamin C which helps in improving immunity, supporting collagen production, and strengthening the bones.
- Cucumber juice helps to remove all the toxins from the body and cleanses it.
- Cucumber water shreds the belly fat and gives you a flat belly.
- Cucumber also controls cholesterol and blood glucose.
- It relieves stomach irritation.
- Eating cucumber can feel you energized and it can lead to an active day.
How to Use Cucumber for Weight Loss?
Cucumber can be used in a variety of ways such as
- In salads before your meal or in a combination of cucumber salad with chicken breast.
- As a snack, add-on in soups
- As a drink, cucumber juice is beneficial especially on an empty stomach
- By grinding it with yogurt to make raita which can be used with meal
- Can also be taken in the form of a smoothie. Add some cucumber slices, lemon juice, green apple, and mint leaves and grind well with ice cubes.
- Make cucumber kimchi
- By boiling chicken with garlic cloves, ginger, and bay leaves. Soak cucumbers in brine for a few minutes. Then add honey, soya sauce, lemon juice, and rice vinegar to the smashed chicken then mix with cucumber.
- Fried mushrooms with cucumber
- Apply salt to mushrooms for 5 minutes then wash and slice. Wash cucumber. Fry mushrooms until sautéed then add cucumber and fry for 2-3 minutes.
- In the form of cucumber noodles and black olives.
- As a Lemon-Cucumber juice.
- Add cucumber in salads, combine it with lemon juice and a pinch of salt and black pepper to incite weight loss, or drink cucumber mint water.
By viewing the vast scope of how to use cucumber for weight loss, It can be inferred that “Whenever you feel hungry, eat cucumber”.
Quick Tips:
- Do not eat a cucumber before sleeping.
- Do not eat it with peanut
- Do not combine it with celery
- Do not combine with cabbage
- Nutritional contents in cucumber are environment-sensitive, keep it in a cool, dry place packed in air-tight.
- Both the skins and seeds also contain unique phytonutrients, intact consumption is recommended.
Conclusion
Being on normal body mass index weight is mandatory for our health and well-being. This article demonstrates how to use cucumber for weight loss journey. The first thing to consider for weight loss is calorie intake and cucumber is a low-calorie vegetable, the best way to lose some extra weight. The reason for weight gain is taking extra calorie foods the whole day so if you cut down the extra calories by taking some low-calorie foods which majorly include vegetables and fruits can help in weight loss. Cucumber can be eaten easily because of its good taste and refreshing flavour can be added to many things like sandwiches, soups, noodles, etc. It is an additional benefit that can be taken in a variety of ways. Fibrous content and hydric properties mark the properties for the perfect answer of how to use cucumber in weight loss.
