Trying to shed a few extra pounds? Don't worry that you'll have to starve yourself or do grueling workouts. Studies show that these efforts may shave off the pounds quickly, but they are not the route in long-term weight loss. Surprisingly, the best way to take off the weight is by making small, barely noticeable adjustments in the way you eat and live. Here are ten simple strategies that can help melt away your fat forever.
1. Stop skipping meals. Slashing one meal per day from your meal seems like a logical way to peel off a few pounds. For instance if you stop eating breakfast typically 500 calories), you'll cut 3,500 calories in several days, roughly the amount needed to burn off one bound.
Trouble is, what miss at one meal you often more than make up for at the next. In a recent study found that breakfast eaters consumed a diet lower in fat and having breakfast may reduce the impulse for snacking on high - calories, high off foods.
Obesity specialist Dr. C. Wayne Callaway says skipping any meal can lower metabolism, which normally speeds up to help digest food. Let's say your body at rest burns 1600 calories daily. If you skip breakfast, you use up 80 fewer calories per day. But if you eat breakfast, your sluggish metabolism revs up to burn those 80 calories. After about 15 months you could burn an extra 35,000 calories, the equivalent of ten pounds.
2. Go vegetarian twice a week. Dr. Dean Ornish at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, made headlines when he found the diet and life - style changes could help reverse atherosclerosis, the formation of fatty build - up on the arterial walls. But Ornish also discovered that the low - fat vegetarian diet he prescribed to help unclog arteries can trim waistlines as well. During the first year of his study, patients lost an average of 22 pounds.
This outcome was unexpected because most of the patients were eating more. Dr. Lee Lipsenthal, an Ornish colleague, explains it this way:"A candy bar and a bunch of fresh broccoli have roughly the same number of calories. After eating the candy bar you probably won't feel full. But you'll feel stuffed if you eat the broccoli."
Luckily, you don't need to become a full-time vegetarian to lost weight. Start by replacing meat in two meals per week. Two meatless meals a week could save you 550 or more calories per week - ten pounds in 16 months.
3. Follow the one - to - one rule. A lot of fat - free and reduce - fat foods have high calorie count. Don't take the low - fat label as a license to eat.
The solution is to employ the one - to - one substitution rule. That is, when you replace a regular brownie with a fat - free one, eat the same portion - not a bigger piece. If you cut back each day from four fat - free sandwich cookies (200 calories) to two (100 calories) or pass on a second scoop of fat - free ice cream (100 calories), you can lose ten pounds in 10 or 12 months.
4. Don't cut too many calories. You must eat less to lose weight, but don't go overboard on cutting calories. Otherwise the body senses impending "starvation," slows down metabolism and conserves energy by functioning on fewer calories. This "fuel efficiency" mode will make it harder for you to lose weight.
How few is too few calories? To prevent a metabolic slow down, you'll need to take in at least enough daily calories to meet the energy demands of your body at rest. Dr. Callaway offers these simple formulas to estimate your resting metabolic rate - that is, the number of calories your body needs each day to function at rest.
For man, multiply your height in inches by 12.7, and multiply your weight in pounds by 6.3. Combine these two numbers, then add 66. Next, multiply your age by 6.8. Subtract this figure from the above total to arrive at your resting rate of metabolism.
For woman, multiply your height in inches by 4.7, and multiply your weight in pounds by 4.3. Combine these two numbers, then add 55. Next, multiply your age by 4.7. Subtract this figure from the above total to arrive at your resting rate of metabolism.
Anything below the figure you arrive at is likely to slow your metabolism; anything too far above, and you're eating more calories than you need.
Another way to find your proper calorie level is to keep a food diary. Pick up an inexpensive calorie counter at the bookstore and keep track of how much you eat. Then cut back 50 or 100 calories each day. Eventually you'll find a calorie level that will promote slow, steady weight loss - and you'll be able to shed ten pounds in 12 or 24 months.
5. Beware of finger foods. It's Monday and you're already had breakfast. But how much difference can two minidoughnuts (120 calories) at office really make? On Tuesday you filch a few cream sandwich cookies(160 calories) before supper. And so it goes, all week long. You might not think twice about eating these snacks, but snitching just 100 extra calories a day can make you gain ten pounds in a year.
If you can't give up finger food, why not replace high - calories item with low - calories ones? Ready - to - eat body carrots(4 calories each), celery(6 calories per stalk) or air - proper popcorn (30 calories per cup) are some options. If you eat 75 fewer calories a day, you can lose ten pounds in about 16 months.
6. Dance the night away. Many people think of dancing as a social activity. But dancing is also an aerobic exercise that burns calories. So instead of going out for dinner and movie, why not try ballroom dancing or the lambada?
Do ballroom dancing (with burns 200 calories per hour) for two hours every weekend, and you'll peel off ten pounds in about 21 months. But if you do the lambada or the twist (350 to 400 calories per hour), it will take you take you just eleven and a half months to shed the weight.
7. Consider your condiments. Use mustard instead of mayonnaise on your sandwich, and cocktail sauce instead of tartar sauce with seafood. These minor substitutions can contribute to significant weight loss.
A few years ago, when U.S. Navy chefs offered low - fat menus aboard a destroyer, overweight sailors on the special diet lost an average 12 pounds over six months. Instead of putting butter on the mashed potatoes, for example, chef used powdered butter - flavored substituted. Instead of frying chicken in oil, they baked the chicken with fat - free condiments - a splash of lemon juice and a dash of herbs.
Even one simple condiment change can make a big difference. That switch from mayonnaise (100 calories) on your sandwich every day to mustard (15 calories) can shave off 85 calories - a ten - pound weight loss in 14 months. Serving those few table - spoons of cocktail sauce (32 calories) instead of tartar sauce(140 calories) results in simple calories savings.
8. Eat slowly. The average person wolfs down a meal in 12 minutes. But that can lead to overeating. "It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to signal the brain the body is full," explains Thomas Wadden, an obesity researcher. Scarf down your lunch in ten minutes, and you don't give the body time to recognize it's no longer hungry.
At the outset of study by wadden and his colleagues, female dieters were secretly timed as they ate a test meal. Then participants were instructed to take smaller bites, chew slowly and put eating utensils down between bites. After 28 week the dieters who ate the slowest (adding about four minutes onto a meal) had lost the most weight.
By slowing down at supper, you might eat two slices of pizza (563 calories), or a small burger and fries (480 calories) instead of a quarter - pound burger with large fries (870 calories). You could easily knock out 300 to 500 calories a day and lose one - half to one pound per week - a ten - pound weight loss in three to five months.
9. Right - size your portions. "Keeping exact tabs in how many calories you eat every single day may not be practical for everyone," says dietitian Kristine Funk. "But you still have to pay attention to how much you eat."
Indeed, researchers at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City found that overgenerous portions were at the root of many unsuccessful weight - loss attempts. Some obsess volunteers in their study estimated they ate a little more than 1,000 calories per day, yet they were actually eating twice as much.
The portion sizes available today may be partly responsible. The bagel, for example, is touted as a low - fat breakfast pastry. But most shops carry only one size - extra large - which has only 300 calories, roughly the same as five slices of toast. Similarly, a delicatessen sandwich generally contains five to seven ounces of meat. Rather than a realistic two or three ounces.
Every once in a while, for a few days, read labels and use measuring cups and diet scales to keep tabs on the amounts you are eating. After you're back on track, you will find it easy to estimate appropriate portion sizes.
How much weight will you lose? Let's assume you're currently underestimating how much you eat by 10 percent. If you're a woman and think you're eating about 1,500 calories a day, assume you eat about 1,650. Measure portions to keep intake at 1,500 calories, and you'll save 150 calories a day - ten pounds in eight months. A man who assumes he is eat about 2,000 calories a day could be eating as much as 2,200. Monitor portions and stick to 2,000 calories, and you'll save 200 calories per day - ten pounds in six months.
10. Skip late - night munches. A key obstacle to dropping extra pounds is after - dinner snacking. "If you're had a tough day at the office or trouble with the kids, you may eat more than normal to unwind," says medical researcher John Foreyt. He suggests you plan evenings so you're away from tempting situations. Take an adult - education course or go for a walk around the neighborhood. If you can't distract yourself from eating, try noshing on a low - calorie snack like a piece of fresh fruit.
Cutting out a few fistfuls if potato chips (300 calories) or a candy bar (250 calories) could save you close to 600 calories per week. In six weeks, you'll have lost one pounds; in 13 months you'll have lost ten.
Taken individually, any of these ten strategies can help with weight loss. While the result will be slow in coming, they will stem from the behavioral changes that are easy to live with. And that's the real secrete to weight - loss success - changing the habits that made you gain weight in the first place.
You had to mention the source!!
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