If you’re trying to lose weight, then you’ve probably considered all the obvious ways to go about it. A better diet and more exercise are clearly at the top of the list. More sleep and less stress can also help.

One area that often gets overlooked is the home. Did you know that there are a whole host of home design tips and tricks that can help in your battle with the bulge? From changing the purpose of the microwave to getting rid of electronic goods in certain rooms, a few minor changes to your house set up can have a long-lasting, beneficial impact on losing weight.

Here are some great ideas to get you started:

Along with fast food, ready meals are one of the most dangerous types of meals when it comes to weight gain. After a long, hard day at work, there is a natural temptation to pop one in the microwave, heat it for 10 minutes and then tuck in. You can remove this temptation by changing the purpose of your microwave. Turn it into an additional storage unit by filling it with healthy foods rather than using it to zap calorie heavy ready meals which are extremely detrimental to your waistline.

While open kitchen shelving looks great by providing a fresh and airy look, it can have a detrimental effect on your ability to avoid snacking. If you can see that tin of cookies or that bag of potato chips, you are much more likely to reach out and start eating them. By hiding all your snack foods in the uppermost cupboards, behind closed doors and way out of reach then you’ll be helping your brain to forget it exists and avoiding the temptation to start snacking.

Temperature can play a role in our appetite and thus our weight. In general, research suggests that we eat less when it is hot. There are many reasons for this, but the most obvious seems to be that eating and consuming calories serves to warm the body up as you add energy to your system, and we tend to need more help staying warm in winter. Working on that theory, if your home is too cold, then you might be tempted to eat more. You can avoid this by installing a smart meter to ensure that the temperature is always at a warm and comfortable level. It can also be worth getting somebody such as Penguin Cooling and Heating, to carry out an ac repair on your air conditioning systems. A faulty unit could be adversely affecting the temperature of your home, making it colder than it should be and causing you to snack more.

Technology and the kitchen make for two uncomfortable bedfellows. We’re not talking about dishwashers or stoves here, but more anything that has a screen. Take a kitchen television for example. Having a tv in your kitchen makes it a more habitable room, and if you’re spending time hanging out there, you’ll find yourself much more likely to start snacking. Take anything that might tempt you to spend more time surrounded by food away, which means no television or other screens such as tablets or cell phones in the kitchen.