Shedding Extra Weight? A Few Tips That Can Help
“I’m on a diet”. Do those words sound familiar? It is proven that “diets” do not work for long term weight loss. When you go on a diet, you tend to starve yourself, but your body needs food to produce energy. What you need is a lifestyle change, not a “diet”, to lose weight and keep it off.
When you are trying to lose weight, you should eat more frequent, smaller meals. When you do this, rather than eating a couple of big meals, you will find yourself less hungry and more in control of cravings. When you are in control, you will be a lot less likely to over-eat.
Reading food labels diligently, will get you on your way to food loss. Make a habit of reading the labels before you eat or purchase a product, paying special attention to the serving sizes. You’ll be surprised to realize just how many calories you are consuming in some of your favorite snacks. It’s a lot easier to say no to a treat when you know just how bad it is for you.
A great way to lose weight is to eat a big breakfast and smaller lunches and dinners. This way, you take in the 2000 calories you need each day, but the bulk of them are in the morning. This means that those calories can be burned off during the entire day. If you eat a big dinner though, those calories just sit there and your body turns them into fat instead of burning them off.
Packing a lunch will keep you from packing on those pounds. Take some time in the evening or the morning before work, to put together a healthy lunch to take to work with you. Bringing in your own lunch will keep you from falling prey to the high calorie items that you will end up with, at your local drive thru.
By replacing unhealthy snack foods, such as salty chips or crackers and sweets, with healthier altvernatives, such as fruit, one’s diet will be much better. By choosing snacks with a better nutritional value, one can limit the amount of food items eaten that are unhealthy and unproductive for losing weight. This will increase weight loss.
A great way to lose weight is to keep a protein bar with you at all times when you go somewhere. Preparing a sandwich can be a hassle sometimes. Having a protein bar handy can be very convenient. All you have to do is peel the wrapper and you’ve got yourself a healthy meal.
Skip the mayo on sandwiches. Try mustard instead. Mustard will add more flavor and cut a lot of calories. Mayonnaise might be your favorite condiment, but it just adds calories and fat to the food you eat. Using mustard can help to lower the fat and calorie content in your meals. Cut out simple calories by ordering or making all foods without mayo, too.
Try joining a weight loss program to make it easier for you to lose weight. Many people find that they have much more success sticking to their decision to lose weight if they have a support group around them. Try becoming a member of a group in your area, like Weight Watchers, TOPS or Jenny Craig.
Sometimes it’s easy to lose motivation to exercise. One way to prevent this is to find a friend to workout with. Being on an exercise “buddy system” helps to keep boredom at bay and can give you you a feeling of accountability. If you and your friend don’t currently have a workout routine in common, it may be a great time to try something new, like karate or a zumba class.
To lose weight, you need to be moving. Every person should be getting an average of 10,000 steps per day. Purchase a pedometer to make sure that you are putting those steps in. If you are not, you will know right away to step it up a little and get moving.
Interested in losing a couple of inches around your waist? Then try losing a couple of inches around your dinner plate! People who eat the same amount of food on a smaller plate – so the plate appears full, versus on a larger plate, so the plate has a lot of extra room – report feeling more full.
If you’re on a diet and are looking for something to replace those hours of TV you usually watch, try checking your local area for live music shows, theater shows and other entertainment opportunities. Instead of driving, make sure you walk there. And if you can’t walk there, at least park a few blocks away and actively finish your trip.
As you can see, it is important to eat. You need to make a lifestyle change in order to lose weight and keep it off. Food offers nutrients that are important to maintaining your body. No diet will offer you the nutrients your body needs. Only a lifestyle change will give you what your body needs and wants, and will help you lose weight.