15 Easy Ways To Lose Weight

15-ways-to-lose-weight

A very important aspect to preparedness is your health. Without it, your quality of life suffers. Many people in our modern world today are considered overweight, and by shedding some of those pounds would become better prepared for what life brings them by having more energy and physical ability to cope.

Here are 15 easy ways to lose weight…


 
Treat high-calorie foods as a garnish or trimming. Instead of a bowl of ice cream, make a spoonful of ice cream the garnish on a bowl of fruit. Instead of eating lots of chips, pair them with salsa. Sprinkle a little cheese with a lot of salad. Get the idea?

Make water your primary drink. Instead of soda or juice, drink water. Lots of calories can be saved by avoiding sweet drinks. Water will quench and help trigger more of a sense of fullness for your thirst than sugary drinks.

Walk for 45 minutes a day. 45 minutes is better than the typically suggested 30 because to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating.

Downsize your dinner plates. The less food put in front of you, the less food you’ll eat. The more food in front of you, the more you’ll eat — regardless of how hungry you are. So instead of using regular dinner plates that range from 10-14 inches, serve your main course on salad plates (about 7-9 inches wide).

Serve your dinner restaurant style. Food served on plates rather than family style (food served in bowls and on platters on the table). When your plate is empty, you’re finished; there’s no reaching for seconds.

Put out a vegetable platter. Eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption.

Use vegetables to bulk up meals. Every knows it… eat your vegetables. You can eat twice as much pasta salad loaded with veggies like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes for the same calories as a pasta salad with just mayonnaise. Add vegetables to make a fluffier, more satisfying omelet without having to up the number of eggs. Etc..

Avoid white foods. Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, you should eat plenty of whole grain breads and brown rice.

Eat cereal for breakfast. Instead of bacon and eggs, consider high-fiber, low-sugar cereals. Avoid reaching for sugary cereals – you know the ones… (e.g. Cap’n Crunch, etc..)

Avoid processed food that lists sugar, fructose, or corn syrup among the first four ingredients on the label. Ingredients on a food label are listed in the order of their quantity. Look for sugar-free varieties of foods.

Eat slowly. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to fullness signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite. Sip water frequently.

Eat only when you hear your stomach growling. We eat far too often out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration. If you’re yearning for a specific food, it’s probably a craving, not hunger. If you’d eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you’re truly hungry.

Get up and walk around the office or your home for five minutes at least every two hours. Stuck at a desk all day? A brisk five-minute walk every two hours will add-up to an extra 20-minute walk by the end of the day. And getting a break will make you less likely to reach for snacks.

Switch from regular milk to 2%. If you already drink 2%, go down another notch to 1% or skim milk. Each step downward cuts the calories by about 20 percent. Once you train your taste buds to enjoy skim milk, you’ll have cut the calories in the whole milk by about half and trimmed the fat by more than 95 percent.

Get most of your calories before noon. The more you eat in the morning, the less you’ll eat in the evening. And you have more opportunities to burn off those early-day calories than you do to burn off dinner calories.

 
Ideas sourced from common sense and from around the Internet

21 Comments

  1. I am so hungry right now!! These are actually great tips. A few minutes walking here and there do add up.

  2. Great tips, except for two.

    Avoiding protein rich foods for breakfast is not the best approach to losing weight, and is counter to the tip about consuming the majority of calories before noon. Kick starting your day with a hearty breakfast is more conducive to weight loss than substituting cereals. I’m not talking about a “big” breakfast, just a breakfast rich in protein. If you insist on cereal, choose one rich in protein such as oatmeal.

    Waiting until your stomach is growling indicates you have waited until you are extremely hungry to eat. This is bad for two reasons…1) when you are that hungry, you are less capable of controlling intake, and will more than likely eat more than you should, and 2) extreme hunger can actually trigger your body to store fats as a survival mechanism. It is much better to eat smaller portions of the right foods on a regular, and more frequent, schedule, than it is to wait until you are hungry enough that your stomach is growling.

    1. You make very good points.

      The cereal for breakfast tip was primarily meant towards those who are trying to lose some weight and may often have a fat loaded breakfast and/or one which is high in sugar. Personally I now avoid (but not always) eggs, bacon, sausage and the like – because of the cholesterol, and anything too high in sugar. These days my breakfast often consists of 1/2-cup oats with a cup of boiling water with some raisins, dried cranberries or other such fruit related ingredient thrown in. Once in awhile a fiber cereal… Now and again I will treat myself to pancakes or waffles with maple syrup (now I’m getting hungry…)

      I agree with you that the reality of waiting until your stomach growls is an indication that you should have better managed your meal planning, however my intent there was towards those who eat for other reasons – out of anxiety, stress, etc.. Simply trying to point out that some people eat too much (too often) for reasons other than your body needing to eat.

      1. Sorry, but you don’t need to worry about cholesterol in food. Worry instead about the real killers: trans fats, sugar, HFCS. Pastured eggs are one of the healthiest foods out there. So is grass-fed beef.

        1. Grains are also overrated. Seems like the author needs to do a bit more research beyond the USDA Food Pyramid.

        2. Cholesterol in foods doesn’t equate to higher cholesterol in your body. Levels become elevated due to inflammation, which is caused by the things I just mentioned.

        3. Just like fat in foods doesn’t equate to fat in your body. Yup, that makes perfect logical sense. Thanks for clearing up the confusion.

        4. sorry to be a “chit” disturber, but your sarcasm may just be misplaced….

          in the world of fat and cholesterol etc, seems like times are a changing, and it seems like the new times agree with Matt R.

          Have read at least two articles lately by Cardiologists who state they now have also done about turns.

          also, as to what raises your body measure of cholesterol, some surprises there too.

          Coffee. Raises. Cholesterol.

          First research articles I stumbled across, stated any coffee – instant/drip/ and all others raised cholesterol. (it is something in the coffee called “Cafestol” (((In fact, cafestol is the most potent dietary cholesterol-elevating agent known, said Dr. David Moore, professor of molecular and cellular biology at BCM, and Dr. Marie-Louise Ricketts, a postdoctoral student and first author of the report)))

          Other research I have read since pretty much lean towards instant coffee and drip being safe, suggesting it is just French press and boiled coffee is culprits.

          however, have to say, years back, I was a very heavy drinker of drip and instant coffee. had a slightly elevated cholesterol. for a time I thought I would give up coffee, and did for about a year. somewhere in there had cholesterol test again, and my cholesterol had dropped seriously, to the point it was very low. only difference in my life was the absent instant/drip coffee.

      2. With you on the oatmeal. I do like to add cinnamon and brown sugar also. I often use dehydrated apple chips ( I have trees ) or walnuts too.

  3. Higher protein diets are better , lower those carbs , lower sugars also , more vegetables and salads . Have had a weight problem all my life , this seems the best way for weight lose for me and some others . Be prepared and ready. Keep your powder dry.

  4. Most people have trouble losing weight and for them most diets are in fact counter-productive. That is if you eat less you are hungry and you will spend far more time thinking about eating and you will be more likely to cheat on your diet. Most of us can diet for a limited period of time and lose some weight. But let’s say you lose 20 lbs and you meet your goal what happens then? For 99% of us we go back to eating “normal” and in a few weeks to months gain back our 20 lbs. This is because if you are past your mid 20’s your body weight is determined by your genes unless you are in some unusual or exceptional situation (like training for a marathon or living through a famine). You can fool around with gaining or losing 5-10 lbs or so but for the most part bigger weight differences will require that you make substantial changes to your everyday routines and if you want to keep the weight off those changes must be permanent. So if you are a desk worker you could become a cowboy on a working racnh and probably quickly reach a perfect weight for your height and age. Or you go on a restricted 1500 cal diet and reach a desired slimness that would require maintaining that restricted diet to keep your new sleek weight. It can be done but for most of us it simply cannot be maintained. We are not going to become cowboys or live on 1500 cal diets for the rest of our lives. To make matters worse our bodies are imbued with the ability to hold onto stored fat and this ability becomes improved and honed as we encounter food insecurity. That is if you go on a restricted diet your body will fight back and try to store more fat then it did when you were eating 2400 calories a day. And the more times you go through the cycle of losing and then gaining back weight the stronger that natural body resistance to losing weight gets.

    If you are merely heavier then you wish you were (that is you weighed 170 in your senior year in high school and you weigh 190 today). Then do not “diet” but rather choose better foods while still eating more or less normal. But at the same time increase your activity level by walking, jogging, daily gym visits or even changing jobs to a physical type job. For most people this will work and you will become closer to your “ideal” weight.

    If on the other hand you weighed 170 (or for that matter 250) in high school and you weight 250 or more today then you have a metabolic problem or more correctly you are genetically predisposed to be obese. You cannot “fix” this easily. If you are a totally committed individual then a combination of serious dieting and excercise will work but will require a lifetime of commitment to maintain. Even then you probably will never reach the elusive “ideal” weight for your height and age. You will (most likely) be healthier and look better but it will forever be a long hard slog to get there and maintain it. Another option is to change your lifestyle and diet modestly and reduce your weight modestly in an attempt to slow and even slightly reverse your weight. A small but more easily maintained diet and excercise program that might be easier for most people to stick with but that also offers modest benefits.

  5. The Paleo diet has really good science behind it.

    In fact, it is has shown to be extremely healthy versus neurological diseases like alzhiemers and ms. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321471/
    (The link attached is to an article that lists a bunch of medical studies)

    I have been on it for a couple months. Lost 25lbs, got blood test results today and the Dr was so impressed he wanted to know what I was doing.

    And the best part is, it isn’t like a “diet”, it is just a different way of eating. And fits many of the tips in the article and comments, like high protein at breakfast, avoiding white stuff, avoiding processed sugars, etc.

  6. All good tips. The “eat slowly” is very true. It is a scientific fact that it takes that time to register in your brain that you have eaten that food.

  7. There is NO “easy” about weight loss.

    If you can’t do strenuous exercise (I can only walk due to spinal issues, and I do, 4-5x a week) it’s difficult and damned depressing. Plus one gets tired of always having to be careful. It’s so hard to take off a pound and it’s so easy for it to return.

  8. Weight loss is first about calories. What goes in your mouth minus what your body consumes for staying alive and what you burn through exercise.

  9. Losing weight has never been my problem, rather, it is gaining and keeping weight on. I have a particularly lean build and simply cannot gain weight. I eat five times a day, very reasonable portions, and I try and maintain balance in my diet.

  10. It is so easy for people to tell someone or advise someone how to lose weight. Each person is different and has different needs and physical abilities. If you have certain health issues there are certain things you can and cannot do.

    Best thing to do is make an appointment with your doctor and discuss your options. Don’t read things on the internet and self diagnose.

    1. Obviously, no advice can apply across the board to every single individual on the planet. I’m pretty sure we’re talking in generalities here, and there are basic principles being discussed that do apply to our species at large. If you have a medical condition impacting your weight, then you need to see a doctor for reasons other than just your weight. However, to suggest that all weight issues require medical intervention, is just silly.

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