If you are looking to start on your weight loss journey, then you’ve come to the right place. The tips below will help jump start you onto a road of shedding pounds and dropping inches. The weight loss process does not happen overnight. You need to start incorporating these ideas into your life and you will start to lose pounds.
Eat less on your diet while tricking your mind into thinking you are eating more, simply by downsizing to an 8″ salad plate for your main meals. Smaller servings can seem pretty skimpy when sitting on a larger dinner plate and might signal deprivation to your brain. Switch those same servings to a cozy salad plate and you have the sense of enjoying a more robust meal. If you can convince your mind that you just had a normal meal, then your stomach won’t be too far behind!
If you want to get a handle on weight loss, it’s important to understand the concept of nutrient density. Traditionally, nutrient density has been spoken of in terms of nutrients per unit of weight or volume, i.e. calories per ounce, etc. Of far more use, however, is to think of the nutrient density in terms of nutrients per CALORIE. Measured by that standard, a head of romaine lettuce, which has about 100 calories, is many times more loaded with nutrients per calorie than almost any other food. It’s just that most of us don’t think of eating an entire head of romaine lettuce. These findings, based on research suggest that focusing on the most nutrient-dense foods (by calorie, not by weight) will help people lose the greatest amount of weight.
When trying to lose weight, share. Restaurant meals can contain an enormous amount of calories. If you split your meal with someone you both can consume less calories. You can even put one-half of your dish in a restaurant to-go container as soon as it’s served, or ask your server to do it before it’s even brought out. Either way, you’ll only eat half of what is served.
To lose some extra weight, you should consider eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables every day. An adult should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Start the day with orange juice and sprinkle your cereal with pieces of fruit. Make sure your lunch and dinner contain a serving of vegetable each and if you need to snack, choose a fruit.
If you want to eat better, you should eat a healthy breakfast. Skipping breakfast is definitely not a good thing. A good breakfast should contain a fruit, a serving of dairy and some fiber. You can eat a banana, a bowl of healthy cereal and some yogurt. You could also, drink a glass of orange juice, eat a couple of pieces of toast and some cream cheese.
Learn techniques to handle the stress in your life. When bodies feel stressed, they go into a state of defense and hold on to fat and extra calories. Your body takes a huge toll when you are stressed out. Staying calm and avoiding stressful situations will help you lose weight.
Do not avoid any kind of extra exercise that you can get throughout the day. Little things such as walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator or not fighting for that close parking spot the store can burn extra calories! Every step that you take throughout the day counts towards calories and those extra pounds.
In the same way that you need to monitor what you eat when trying to lose weight, you also need to weigh yourself regularly. This is because you need to give yourself reason to set and achieve goals in order to stay motivated. Be sure to record your starting weight so that you’ll know how far you have to go. Also, how often to weigh is up to you. Some people recommend daily weighing, but most would agree that since weight can go up and down so dramatically from day to day, it’s actually discouraging to weigh too often. A less stressful approach would be to weigh in once every 1 or 2 weeks – or even once a month.
Eat frequently during the day but consume smaller amounts of healthier food. Eating healthy foods frequently, can keep you feeling full and satisfied. This will help you to resist the, sometimes, overwhelming temptation to grab that cupcake at the office snack bar. Just make sure your choices are always healthy ones.
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.
You need to personally get seven to nine hours of sleep a night for your body’s metabolism to be geared properly towards burning fat. When you get tired, you should take breaks and then rest some. If you think getting fewer hours of sleep will help you lose weight, think again. That is not the case. If you care for your body and maximize your rest, you lose weight easier.
Know your grocery store and the layout. If you are aware of the areas in a particular store where the items you are trying to avoid are displayed, then you can create a game plan on how to get the things you need without walking by the things you want and being tempted to buy them.
All that is left to do now is get started. The tips above will provide you with a strong basis on which to start on your way to losing weight. It is not an overnight process, so don’t get discouraged if you aren’t seeing results as quickly as you would like. Just make sure to get up and do something everyday and keep at it and you will start shedding the pounds.
