Quick Diet Tips

 

Lean - Mean Diet Tip

Losing weight and keeping it off is a lifetime battle. Diet should not be a nasty 4 letter word. Diet is just what you habitually eat or drink. If you eat more calories than your body burns......YOU GAIN WEIGHT. Eat less calories than your body burns....YOU LOSE WEIGHT. And if you eat the same amount of calories then you NEITHER GAIN OR LOSE WEIGHT. It's that simple. There's no magic formula or rocket science to losing weight.

 This diet tip web page will give you a quick overview of healthy ways to lose weight. Here are some easy things you can do to gradually change your eating habits to healthy ones:

Cut your portions

Start by having a rule.....NO SECONDS. Also reduce your portion of food by a third. The best way to do this is take your normal portion of food and put back one third. You don't have to waste the food, just wrap and refrigerate for another day or give a second helping to other family members.

Eat less fried foods

There are great ways to prepare your foods without frying. See "Low Fat Cooking" and other related online articles. If you just can't do without your fried chicken (or fried anything) then eat them half as much. If you eat fried chicken two times a week then eat it once a week. You can cut your calorie intake by as much as 40% if you eliminate fried foods to once a week. That saving in calories means you'll lose weight.

There are great ways to prepare your foods without frying. See "Low Fat Cooking" and other related online articles. If you just can't do without your fried chicken (or fried anything) then eat them half as much. If you eat fried chicken two times a week then eat it once a week. You can cut your calorie intake by as much as 40% if you eliminate fried foods to once a week. That saving in calories means you'll lose weight.

Limit your choices of food

I know.....THAT'S BORING!!!! Let me testify, I lost 40 pounds by eating the same foods everyday. Now, for this to work, you need a well planned diet. Assuming you planned a good diet, eating the same foods limits your calorie intake everyday without the possibility of more calories sneaking in. Also, you train yourself to eat at the proper times with no long periods between meals. Limit your choices for a few weeks and check the scale. You won't lose an enormous amount of weight but you are developing good habits to keep the weight coming off.

Limit juices and sodas

Real fruit juices may be more nutritious but they're loaded with calories. Soda's are also loaded with calories. Drink at lease 8 cups of water which is what your body really needs and cut other liquid consumption by half.

Move around more

You don't need to exercise to lose weight but it sure helps. By moving around more you expend more calories per day. People who stand all day versus those who sit burn much more calories per day because the body requires more calories to stand than to sit. Moral of the story is stand instead of sit (when reasonable), walk at every opportunity. Park further away in the lot and walk more. Look for ways to move around more so you can burn more calories. Keep in mind, strenuous exercise will not necessarily make you lose weight. Jogging for an half hour burns about 300 calories but a Snicker Bar could offset the jog. It all depends on your diet.

Find a friend and have a contest

Contests between friends can greatly motivate you to lose weight. Find one or more people who are trying to lose weight and have a contest. Make the contest last a month to see who loses the most weight. Of course, everyone should weigh in at the same time. This works better with 4 or more people but the idea is to support and motivate each other. Be there to support each other. Keep one another accountable to good eating habits and exercise.

Set a reasonable goal of losing 4 pounds per month

Despite all the hype, your body can shed about one pound per week maybe two at best. Miraculous claims of losing 7 pounds in a week is nonsense. Your body metabolism doesn't work miracles. It's only capable of burning between 1800 - 3000 calories per day for the average person. If you ate nothing all week (obviously not a healthy thing to do) you could only lose a few pounds in a week. A healthy, well balance diet (DON'T STARVE YOURSELF....that creates other problems) will help you lose about a pound per week.