This article provides you with 20 healthy weight loss tips. When you want to lose weight you need to make sure that you do it the healthy way and in a way that it will not cause any problems to your physical or psychological health.
Everybody, very well knows the basic principles for weight loss: less food, more exercise. It may sound easy but the exhaustive pace of everyday life makes it almost impossible to achieve.
After a full day in the office, nobody is enthusiastic about the idea of a green salad or boiled chicken for dinner. Not to mention that two-hours running on the treadmill is not a good idea either.
The bad news is that you never lost ten pounds in three days-which means that you should be prepared to start a weight loss process that will take time and effort.
The good news is that there are some healthy weight loss tips that can help you lose weight without having to fall into hunger or adapt to “drastic” solutions with disappointing results.
This article presents 20 tips that will help you get the body you always dreamed off in a fast and healthy way, and it will also help you maintain this weight for a long time.
Tip #1. Drink lots of water
We often confuse thirst with hunger, leading to load our body with unnecessary calories when what we really need is a glass of cold water. If you prefer, you can add some lemon slices to the jug of water for extra flavour or to drink tea with fruit flavour but no sugar. It is a simple and healthy trick that will help you a lot in your weight loss efforts.
Tip #2. Think about what you can add to your diet, not what to remove
Set a goal to try and consume the recommended 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. This will ensure that your body takes the necessary fiber, while fighting hunger. You must also not forget the many benefits of vegetables for your health and disease prevention.
A good way to eat more vegetables is to mix them with the food. For example you can have vegetables in your rice or soups, in chicken as salads or in pasta. This is better than eating them on the side.
Eating more vegetables is a healthy habit that once you get used to it you will not realise that you are doing it.
Tip #3. Eat only when you are hungry
Many times, our desire for food is not due to real hunger but due to other several psychological factors. Hunger is the message of our organism to tell us that we need fuel, so if the desire for food is not due to hunger the food will not make us feel better. On the contrary we will feel worse because of the extra unnecessary calories we will consume. It is also a not healthy habit because it does not offer anything and will help you destroy your weight loss efforts.
Try to reduce the portions of your meals and increase their frequency. Notice after each meal if you feel bloat or tiredness so as to understand when you feel real hunger and when you eat because of other factors.
Tip #4. Avoid after dinner snacks
The most dangerous time to destroy your weight loss efforts and diet is after the last meal of the day, when you lie down in front of the TV with a pack of chips or a box of crisps and biscuits. This is the time that you eat out of a habit without really being hungry.
If you cannot resist the temptation of a small “sin” after a long day, obtain healthy snacks such as low-calorie cereal bars or ice cream without sugar and fat and allow yourself to have one per day. When you get used to this try to further reduce the calorie load with a cup of tea with no calories.
Tip #5. Enjoy your favourite foods
To completely avoid your favourite foods will not create the desired results since the feeling of deprivation leads to exaggeration. Think the last time you did not eat a chocolate for a month and the quantity consumed when you decided that you are ‘allowed’ to eat chocolate.
Instead of excluding from your weight loss program and diet foods you really enjoy, be sure to buy them in smaller amounts and to eat them less often, once or twice a week. Moreover, the expectation is what makes the satisfaction greatest.
Tip #6. Do not be too strict on your weight loss program
When you need to exit your diet for a while, walk to the cafe serving the best waffles, or organize a night out with friends. For even better results do not buy sweets or other snacks for home- instead replace them with plenty of fruits and limit these night outs to one per week. Thus, you will not have to worry that you will give up to the temptation while you are at home.
Tip #7. Eat several small meals during the day
Weight loss is the result of eating fewer calories than those we burn. When, however, we are constantly hungry this is not easy at all. Research shows that people who eat 4-5 meals a day find it easier to control their appetite and weight.
Apply this method for your own weight loss program. Try to divide the calories you consume during the day in many small portions. Make sure that you consume as much as possible calories before noon, with the evening meal being the last time you eat in a day. This is not only good for your weight loss efforts but it is also a healthy habit because it gives enough time to your body to function the ‘burn’ process properly.
Tip #8. Spicy food!
Add seasoning’s or hot spices in your food, which will enhance the taste and make you feel that you eat more.
The meals enhanced by tasty spices will stimulate your taste and create a sense of satisfaction, without actually eating more.
When you want something sweet, choose a hot caramel flavour with cinnamon or ginger. It gives you for some time the sweet flavour you need, with fewer calories.
Tip #9. Fill the kitchen with healthy and easy meals
The easy-made meals or snacks that are prepared quickly solve a lot of your problems (cooking time, preparation time etc) and lead you a step closer to weight loss success. These will prevent you from ordering something from a fast food restaurant or to order pizza, because you can within 5-10 minutes prepare your own healthy meal.
Such healthy foods include:
Frozen vegetables
Ready, purified salads
Canned vegetables (tomatoes, beans)
Arab pies of bread or wholemeal toast
Slices of boiled turkey (for toast)
Low-fat cheese
Black rice (quick boil)
Tip #10. Order kids meal!
When eating out, you can order an individual pizza or a small sandwich. In this way you keep the calories low and the quantities consumed controlled.
Another trick is to use smaller plates. This helps the portions look larger and if by looking at them you mind is satisfied, then most likely your stomach will also be satisfied.
Tip #11. Eat season fruits and vegetables
If you do not like certain fruits or vegetables, this is possibly due to the fact that you eat them when they were out of season. This makes them almost tasteless and odourless. In contrast, season fruits and vegetables are more delicious and less likely to disappoint you. They are tasty and healthy and help weight loss!
For example, strawberries, which are naturally sweet, sprinkled with a little cognac, or low-fat yoghurt and accompanied with canned fruits, are one of the best desserts you can enjoy without guilt.
Tip #12. Replace the fried potatoes that accompany your meal with grilled vegetables
Eating fewer fried potatoes, pasta or bread and more vegetables, will help you a lot in your weight loss efforts. Experts say even that you can save 100-200 calories if you reduce the amount of fat and starch foods to your plate and increase that of vegetables.
Tip #13. Find alternative ways to manage stress
Sometimes in our life, we are faced with situations that create us a lot of stress. Instead of looking to food for comfort, prepare some inedible healthy tactics to fight stress that work equally well.
Experts suggest to read a book, listen to music, write a diary, to practice deep breathing, meditation, or you can browse an album with photos of your loved ones.
Tip #14. Exercise a lot and keep fit
It may sound weird, but it is wrong to use the exercise as a means of punishment for yourself because you eat a lot, or in order to win the right to eat more. That is why many people say they hate exercise.
Instead, focus on how beautiful you feel, how much better sleep you have at night, and how much more energy you have when you exercise. Physical exercise is good for you whether you are trying to lose weight or not. See, therefore, exercise positively and try to make it your second nature.
Tip #15. Adopt the standards of the Mediterranean diet
It is a fact that the Mediterranean diet is a standard for any form of diet. The purpose is to include the Mediterranean diet in your weight loss program and diet.
The ingredients are simple. Use virgin olive oil as often as possible, preferably in salads with fresh vegetables, eat legumes one to two times a week and replace meat with fish, so that you do not consume meat more than once per week.
Tip #16. Avoid alcohol
Especially during the summer, excessive alcohol consumption should be avoided, as it is causing increased urination and dehydrates the body, not to mention the calorie load that alcohol has. Prefer lots of water and natural juices that will not give you a lot of extra calories and above all they are healthy.
Tip #17. Prefer fish and seafood
Especially in the summer you should eat light. The main concern is replacing meat with fish. Therefore you should prefer fish instead of meat, which will provide you with the necessary feeling of satisfaction, but with fewer calories and in a healthy way.
Avoid, therefore, fried food and prefer fish and seafood. Some ideas for fish meals are: mackerel, mullet, red snapper, bonito, perch, sardines, crops, rock, sea bream, and grouper.
Tip #18. Treat constipation problems
In their efforts to start a diet, many individuals experience constipation problems, which, apart from the adverse effects on the body, also affect the weight loss process.
Two basic steps you must follow to address this problem is: the daily consumption of more fiber, which have the capacity to contribute to the greater mobility of the gut, and the increased consumption of liquids, helping to correct the metabolic function. So you should increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables like oranges, apples, pears, plums, broccoli and greens.
Tip #19. Do not exclude from your diet any food group
Many of the “active” weight loss diets you will find support the exclusion of certain groups of foods such as carbohydrate-or fat-from your diet. This, according to nutritionists, is a big unhealthy mistake, as the body needs all nutrients-vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fiber, proteins, etc., which recruits from the different levels of the food pyramid.
Thus, carbohydrates such as bread and pasta, and meat and olive oil should not be missing from our diet, as they provide our body necessary nutrients and also have several benefits, ranging from disease prevention and the proper functioning of the metabolism, to high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3), helping to reduce cholesterol levels.
Tip #20. Eat a good breakfast
Some people when they are trying to loose weight they make the mistake of not eating breakfast. Avoiding breakfast is not a good idea at all because your will feel hunger during the day and at the end you will consume more calories during your meals. Not eating breakfast will also help you to eat snacks, in order to fight your hunger and at the end the calories you consume are more. In fact, research shows that people who eat breakfast every morning are more likely to maintain normal weight and they also find it easier to adapt to a healthy weight loss program.
To succeed in your weight loss efforts is up to you. This article gave you 20 healthy weight loss tips that can help you lose weight in a fast, healthy and efficient way.
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this part should be ignored: “meat… should not be missing from our diet.
Did you know there are millions of healthy (and not overweight) vegetarians in this world? Not to mention they have lower rates for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. Also, meat is significantly more calorie-dense than non-meat alternatives such as beans, soy, and Mycoprotein (Quorns(tm)).
Furthermore, completely removing alcohol isn’t necessary. A beer or a glass of red wine from time to time isn’t going to prevent you from losing weight. In fact, red wine is proven to be a good health additive.
This guide is slightly misinformed, and seems to be a bit restricted to the author’s personal beliefs.
Russell,
thank you for your comments.
regarding meat…at tip 15 and 17 it clearly states that meat should be replaced by fish where possible and limited to once per week. It is very true that there are millions of healthy vegetarians in the world. Being vegetarian is a personal choice and a very healthy one. The point here is for those that want to eat meat and also want to loose weight they can reduce meat consumption (and replace meat with fish or other seafood) but they do not have to completely remove meat from the diet (if they prefer to eat meat of course).
about alcohol, it is suggested to “avoid excessive alcohol consumption ” and not to completely remove it from your diet.
very helpful and most common tips but made in very proper format. Thanks for the great info. I found this article on propeller, and also propelled it. just great to have the info.
Great Tips thanks, quite right that water should be at number 1, is it so easy to acheive and its a true miracle. Water makes you feel full its a fact.
Cheers
Hey great info!
I’ve also been doing some research into Tip # 2 of yours and found that the FDA has stated that the American diet, even if one is on organic foods, does not have the 40-something nutrients that your body actually needs, so as a result everybody should be on suppliments.
Then I was researching all the suppliments and found that most of them, especially multi-vitamins, are a once-a-day pill which is actually not at all helpful to the body, because the body cannot completely obosrb a day’s worth of vitamins/nutrients at one time, so they should be spaced out throughout the day in smaller doses. I think it is the same basic idea of ideally, one should eat many smaller meals instead of three large meals in a day.
Have you read much on that? I’ve actually been getting onto a new system that was designed by a Nobel Prize Loriet in Nutrition and Biochemistry that I’ve actually been having amazing results with; I am using it more for weight gain (building muscle mass) and weight maintenance since I’m a marathon runner and workout every day, but I know some people who are on their weight-loss nutrition plan who have had some amazing results, many lost 30 pounds in the first month, and I’ve heard a ton of stories of losing 50-80 pounds and having kept it off for 9 years.
It’s some pretty interesting stuff. If you’d like more info on it I’d love to shoot it your way, just give me an email at AlexiDouvas@gmail.com and we can talk more!
Wishing you a healthy new years!
I like these tips. I’m overweight and building up my plan. I weigh 250 LBS. I’m not rich, so I can’t splurge on the health foods. Exercise and fruits are my only helper, but these help.
Agreed on most cases, but why replace meat with fish? I definitely think you should diversify your source of proteins, with both fish and other meats, including pork, beef, game, etc. not just chicken breasts. Fat from properly reared animals is very beneficial.
Well, i’m only thirteen and i way almost 300 lbs. I way 40 lbs more that my dad. The tips will work out great. it will make me feel better about myself. i like these. i decided this diet becasue i hate being made fun of. it will surely help me become more noticd and hopefully popular. 🙂
I do 4 to 5 small meals a day. That really works and I’ve lost 17 pounds within half a year with that strategy.
So many tips. It is going to be hard to take into account each and everyone of these 20 tips. Nevertheless, great tips on loosing weight such as treating constipation.
It is extremely important that you realize that your body should be working properly from the inside as well as the outside. Treating constipation is a part of weight loss, it surprises me that people do not relate this problem to their lack of weight loss despite hard efforts.
#20 should be right there under #1. Within the 1st week of my new plan to loose the weight I ‘ve lost 3lbs and that has been as a result of increased water intake and inlcuding breakfast which I never consumed before (not a morning person ;)). Small gradual changes do make a huge difference.
Great tips-I have lost 150 pounds over 3 years, slow and steady 🙂 My biggest tip for anyone looking to lose weight is adopt new patterns. Swapt out bad patterns for good ones and always plan your meals out so you always have a game plan. Good luck!
the eating in the morning isnt true cause when i dont eat in the morning im not hungry all day i eat a little snake at lunch and a meal at night or its the other way around meal for lunch snake at night. when i do eat breakfast im hungry all day and eat all day so there for you would gain more weight eating in the morning if it is going to make you eat all day?
Its easy for me to follow these helpful healthy tips! I just watch what i eat. If i know before a chow down that this wil only hurt me and not help i dont bother. For instance, i dont eat potatoes, and bread, and pasta. if i do its in small portions. i perfer wheat bread, wheat pasta, and eat a palm full of potatoes, I dont eat candy, drink soda (pop), or eat until im full. i portion everything and try not to over do it.
I can’t remember where, but someone told me that drinking caffeine tricks your body into thinking its hungry when its thirsty. since I managed to get off caffeinated drinks, i have been so less hungry!!
One that should be there to anyone attempting a diet is to make your own work lunches and avoid the canteen as you will invariably make a healthier lunch for yourself. It really works. The water and breakfast tips really work and once you get exercising it becomes addictive and you want to keep pushing yourself. Have lost 21lbs in 11 weeks and am feeling fitter sleeping better my appitite has reduced and no longer crave the chips like I used to.
I really like this website. I’m overweight and trying to find motivation to get my butt in gear to exercise and eat healthy. This website gives me a ton of great ideas. I’m just going to keep reading and hopefully, I will get busy soon with some lifestyle changes. Thank you!
hmmm these tips are helpful!!! thnx ppl 😀