4 Weight Loss Secrets That Really Work

ID-10055408Over 88% of Americans are not at their ideal weight. You don’t have to fall into this large group. Instead, follow these four secrets to lose weight and keep it off for good:

Weight Loss Secret 1: Get full with the fewest calories.
Learn which foods contain the fewest calories, and eat more of those particular foods.  You count the foods, rather than the calories. For example, fat has over twice the calories, ounce for ounce, than protein or sugar.  If you fry something, you will be adding about a third more calories by doing so.

Vegetables and fruits have the fewest calories for the amount of food you consume.  Make vegetables the center point at meal time, rather than meats.  It may not sound very appetizing, but after you develop this secret into your lifestyle of eating, it will surprise you, how you become accustom to having vegetables as a basis of your meal rather than meat.  Plus, over time, your desire for the foods you think will be impossible to give up right now, will decline greatly.  Your desire for a thick juicy steak will drift out of the “urgent desire” part of your brain.

If you don’t believe me now, I just ask you to try for an eight-week period and watch it happen. You are just addicted to the foods you enjoy so much.  You can change that addiction to something healthier.

Weight Loss Secret 2: Manage the portions of what you eat.
Portions fall into two categories.  One is when you order from a menu, and the second is when you have the choice of what you place on our own plate at home.  At home, the situation is controllable — you simply inform yourself that you are going to place a small portion on your plate and go sit down and enjoy your meal — and that is all you eat. But, when you’re at a restaurant, here are four options when ordering from a menu:

1. If with your spouse or friend, and the two of you can agree on a particular entrée, order a kitchen split. Ask for one entrée to split between the two of you.

2. If eating alone, you can simply request that the kitchen place half of the meal into a take-home container.  That way, you have something to eat at home for lunch or dinner the next day, or you place it in your refrigerator and find it there a week later and end up throwing it away.  That’s okay too – it’s better than eating it all that initial evening.  Some restaurants will even let you order a half portion.  The charge will be a little more than half price, but at least you aren’t getting the entire large amount.

3. You can order from the appetizer menu, and add a couple of vegetables on the side.  Also, a salad and appetizer is not a bad combination.

4. Leave food remaining on your plate. This may feel impossible when you remind yourself that you are paying for the whole plate of food and it tastes so good. If you end up in this situation, at least give it the best try you can.  Do the ten-minute factor and stop eating for ten minutes while you order a cup of coffee and sit there and talk with your friends.  That way, you still have your food that you can always return to if you are still hungry ten minutes later, but I assure you, nine times out of ten, you won’t eat another bite.

Weight Loss Secret 3: Adopt a rule of no snacks and no dessert.
Controlling your eating of snacks is one of the most significant aspects of weight loss you will learn to manage.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking you will eat less at mealtime if you snack between meals. Don’t get trapped into thinking snack calories subtract from meal calories.  Begin at home and in your office, by removing the snack temptations that most Americans go for.  Remove them from your cupboard, fridge, shelves, and from your office.  Don’t let your eyes even have to glance at them when you open a door or a drawer.  A big part of temptation is sight.  Get the snacks out of the way and out of your vision.  In weight loss mode, desserts are a mute point.  Just sit there and enjoy the company of your friends while they eat their desert and you have your coffee or tea, or just chat.  No calories from liquids while in weight loss.

Secret 4: Don’t eat extra bread.
Whole grain breads are absent of saturated fats, which is good.  But they do contain calories. Think of breads as sugar.  Most people can relate sugar to extra calories, and that is basically what that bread represents — extra calories.  Resist eating the bread brought before the entrée.  It is 100 percent extra calories.  You will eat the same amount of your main meal whether you eat the before meal bread, or not.  If you still want the bread after finishing your meal, then eat it.  Your odds of eating the bread at the end of your meal versus at the beginning, is one in a hundred.  Try it.

 

 

 

 

“Measuring” photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net