In our eat-and-run, massive-portion-sized culture, maintaining a healthy weight can be tough---and losing weight, even more durable. If you have tried and did not lose weight before, you'll believe that diets don't work for you. You're probably right: ancient diets do not work---at least not in the long term. However, there are plenty of small however powerful ways that to avoid common dieting pitfalls, achieve lasting weight loss success, and develop a healthier relationship with food.
The key to successful, healthy weight loss
Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is straightforward: If you eat a lot of calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.
Since 3,five hundred calories equals about one pound of fat, if you chop 500 calories from your typical diet every day, you may lose approximately one pound every week (five hundred calories x 7 days = three,500 calories). Straightforward, right? Then why is weight loss so laborious?
All too usually, we have a tendency to make weight loss much more troublesome than it wants to be with extreme diets that leave us cranky and starving, unhealthy lifestyle selections that undermine our dieting efforts, and emotional eating habits that stop us before we tend to start. However there's a higher means! You'll be able to lose weight while not feeling miserable. By making sensible decisions every day, you can develop new eating habits and preferences that will leave you feeling happy---and winning the battle of the bulge.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #1: Avoid common pitfalls
Diets, especially fad diets or “quick-fix” pills and plans, often set you up for failure because:
- You feel deprived. Diets that
cut out entire groups of food, such as carbs or fat, are simply
impractical, not to mention unhealthy. The key is moderation.
- You lose weight, but can’t keep it off.
Diets that severely cut calories, restrict certain foods, or rely on
ready-made meals might work in the short term but don’t include a plan
for maintaining your weight, so the pounds quickly come back.
- After your diet, you seem to put on weight more quickly.
When you drastically restrict your food intake, your metabolism will
temporarily slow down. Once you start eating normally, you’ll gain
weight until your metabolism bounces back.
- You break your diet and feel too discouraged to try again.
When diets make you feel deprived, it’s easy to fall off the wagon.
Healthy eating is about the big picture. An occasional splurge won’t
kill your efforts.
- You lose money faster than you lose weight. Special shakes, meals, and programs are not only expensive, but they aren’t practical for long-term weight loss.
- You feel lost when dining out. If the food served isn’t on your specific diet plan, what can you do?
- The person on the commercial lost 30 lbs. in two months—and you haven’t. Diet companies make a lot of grandiose promises, and most are simply unrealistic.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #2: Put a stop to emotional eating
We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. If we did, no one would
be overweight. All too often, we turn to food for comfort and stress
relief. When this happens, we frequently pack on pounds.
Do you
reach for a snack while watching TV? Do you eat when you’re stressed or
bored? When you’re lonely? Or to reward yourself? Recognizing your emotional eating triggers can make all the difference in your weight loss efforts:
- If you eat when you’re stressed, find healthier ways to calm yourself. Try exercise, yoga, meditation, or soaking in a hot bath.
- If you eat when you’re feeling low on energy, find other mid-afternoon pick-me-ups. Try walking around the block, listening to energizing music, or taking a short nap.
- If you eat when you’re lonely or bored,
reach out to others instead of reaching for the refrigerator. Call a
friend who makes you laugh, take your dog for a walk, or go out in
public (to the library, mall, or park—anywhere there’s people).
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #3: Tune in when you eat
We live in a fast-paced world where eating has become
mindless. We eat on the run, at our desk while we’re working, and in
front of the TV screen. The result is that we consume much more than we
need, often without realizing it.
Counter this tendency by practicing “mindful” eating:
pay attention to what you eat, savor each bite, and choose foods that
are both nourishing and enjoyable.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #4: Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber
To lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories. But
that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to eat less food. You can fill up
while on a diet, as long as you choose your foods wisely.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #5: Indulge without overindulging
If you’ve ever found yourself polishing off a pint of ice cream or
stuffing yourself with cookies or chips after spending a whole day
virtuously eating salads, you know how restrictive diet plans usually
end. Deprivation diets set you up for failure: you starve yourself until
you snap, and then you overdo it, cancelling out all your previous
efforts.
In order to successfully lose weight and keep it off,
you need to learn how to enjoy the foods you love without going
overboard. A diet that places all your favorite foods off limits won’t
work in the long run. Eventually, you’ll feel deprived and will cave.
And when you do, you probably won’t stop at a sensible-sized portion.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #6: Take charge of your food environment
Your weight loss efforts will succeed or fail based largely on your
food environment. Set yourself up for success by taking charge of your
food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods are
available.
- Eat early, weigh less. When you
eat—as well as how much—may also affect your weight. Early studies
suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and
fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds. Eating a larger,
healthy breakfast can jump start your metabolism, stop you feeling
hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the
calories.
- Serve yourself smaller portions. One
easy way to control portion size is by using small plates, bowls, and
cups. This will make your portions appear larger. Don’t eat out of large
bowls or directly from the food container or package, which makes it
difficult to assess how much you’ve eaten. Using smaller utensils, like a
teaspoon instead of tablespoon, can slow eating and help you feel full
sooner.
- Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.
You will be more inclined to eat in moderation if you have thought out
healthy meals and snacks in advance. You can buy or create your own
small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a
schedule will also help you avoid eating when you aren’t truly hungry.
- Cook your own meals. Cooking
meals at home allows you to control both portion size and what goes in
to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more
sodium, fat, and calories than food cooked at home—plus the portion
sizes tend to be larger.
- Don’t shop for groceries when you’re hungry. Create a shopping list and stick to it. Be especially careful to avoid high-calorie snack and convenience foods.
- Out of sight, out of mind. Limit
the amount of tempting foods you have at home. If you share a kitchen
with non-dieters, store snack foods and other high-calorie indulgences
in cabinets or drawers out of your sight.
- Fast for 14 hours a day. Try to
eat your last meal earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the
next morning. Studies suggest that this simple dietary adjustment—eating
only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long
break each day—may help you to lose weight.
Healthy dieting and weight loss tip #7: Make healthy lifestyle changes
You can support your dieting efforts by making healthy lifestyle choices.
- Get plenty of exercise.
Exercise is a dieter’s best friend. It not only burns calories, but
also can improve your resting metabolism. No time for a long workout?
Research shows that three 10-minute spurts of exercise per day are just
as good as one 30-minute workout.
- Turn off the TV. You actually
burn less calories watching television than you do sleeping! If you
simply can’t miss your favorite shows, get a little workout in while
watching. Do easy exercises like squats, sit-ups, jogging in place, or
using resistance bands or hand weights.
- Drink more water. Reduce your
daily calorie intake by replacing soda, alcohol, or coffee with water.
Thirst can also be confused with hunger, so by drinking water, you may
avoid consuming extra calories.
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