Weight Loss Tips

Tips for Successful Weight Loss

Check out our tips for healthy weight loss if you want to lose weight safely. There is no need to starve or go hungry. Simply be more aware of what you eat, reduce your intake of fat and sugar, and fill up with vegetables and fruit. Here’s how:

Write down everything that you eat or drink that contains calories, even if it is just a splash of milk in your coffee. You do not need to count the calories. Simply writing everything down will help you to see when those sneaky high calorie foods are creeping in and sabotaging your fast weight loss.

Make your own meals instead of relying on TV dinners and other packaged foods. Food manufacturers add salt, sugar, and preservatives to everything, which does little to control our appetites.

Include at least two servings of vegetables in every main meal (not counting potatoes), or add a large salad with low-fat dressing. Aim to eat more green, leafy vegetables. Fresh vegetables will help you to feel full and satisfy your body’s need for vitamins and minerals, reducing cravings.

Cut your fat intake in half. Since you are not eating packaged foods any more, it is easy to do this. Measure the oil that you use for cooking and only use half as much. Spread butter very thinly. Switch to low-fat milk. Cut visible fat off meat before cooking, and refrain from eating the skin.

Have sweet treats containing sugar no more than three times a week. If you are a sugar addict, you may find this difficult at first but you will soon have much more appreciation for the sweetness in fruits and vegetables, and fast weight loss may be your reward.

Indulge yourself with plenty of fresh fruit. Grapes, cherries, berries, apples, mangoes, and bananas are delicious replacements for the unhealthy deserts that most of us eat. Try them chopped into low-fat sugar-free yogurt.

Choose food that you can chew, and eat it slowly, putting down your fork between bites. Go for brown rice instead of white, whole fruit instead of juice, chunks of whole foods in your soup. The added fiber will fill you up and help the body to eliminate waste, and the act of chewing will make you feel more satisfied with your meal.

Plan your meals and your shopping. Think ahead and make a list of what you will need, and then stick to it. To make this easier, never go to the grocery store when you are hungry.

When you eat, just eat. Sit at the table, even if it is just for a snack. Do not eat while doing something else at the same time (watching TV, driving, reading, checking email). If you eat with others, of course you may talk, but try to avoid bringing up heavy or contentious subjects at meals. Heated discussions are not good for digestion and will not help your weight loss efforts.

Drink Water! What better way to quench thirst than drinking a glass or more of water? Forget the fizzy drinks, sweetened fruit beverages, milkshakes, and iced teas. Compared to other drinks, water has no calories and cools your body. Drink 16 ounces of water before every meal. In a recent study that included 48 adults aged 55-75 years that were divided into two groups showed that drinking water before a meal enhanced weight loss. One group drank 2 cups of water before their meals and the other did not. All of the subjects ate a low-calorie diet during the study. Over the course of 12 weeks, water drinkers lost about 15.5 pounds, while the non-water, drinkers lost about 11 pounds. If you like, you can squeeze fresh lemon for a zesty taste.

Exercise! “The key is getting exercise whenever you can – whether it’s morning, afternoon, or evening,” says Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, chief exercise physiologist of the American Council on Exercise. “Your goal is to move your body as much as possible.” Research has shown that exercising in the morning is the most effective way to promote weight loss. One study of overweight women between the ages of 50 to 75 showed that those who engaged in consistent morning exercise (about four hours a week) slept better than those who exercised less. The evening exercisers had more trouble falling asleep – even if they fit in the four hours a week.

Bryant explained the connection of sleep and weight loss: “We know that if you have poor quality sleep, it influences certain hormones that control appetite. It is possible that by exercising in the morning — instead of evening – the exercise affects the body’s circadian rhythm (your internal body clock) so you get better-quality sleep. Good sleep helps control the hormonal balance that helps control appetite.”

In another study, they found that people who exercised in the morning fared better in reaching their goals than those that put it off later in the day. One explanation was that those that put exercise off to later in the day were more prone to not exercising. Things came up or they were to fatigue from the days activities to exercise. When you exercise the first thing in the morning, you start your day off right by jump-starting your metabolism and you are less likely to put it off or skip it.

Goals! Set realistic goals that follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) formula. A smart goal should focus on your desired outcomes such as losing weight, reducing inches etc. Once you have your goal in mind you need to ask yourself one simple question. Am I truly committed to losing the amount of weight that I have set for myself? If you have put some serious thought into this and your answer is yes then you are well on your way.

Now remember losing weight will not be a hard concept for you to grasp. You will just need to put forth a lot of effort as well as discipline to reach your goal. You will have to exercise and will need to remove all the junk food you have lying around, replacing it with healthy alternatives that are low in calories. These are all great steps to beginning your weight loss routine.

Weight loss is achievable with will power, proper diet, water intake, and exercise. Follow these simple weight loss tips and you will benefit from them.

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