If you’ve ever seriously tried to lose weight before, you probably know all about what you should and should not eat, but do you know all about what you should and should not be doing? Changing some of your behaviors and using certain tools are just as important as a good diet when it comes to succeeding at weight loss. Incorporating these 4 simple tips into your weight loss regimen might just give you that extra oomph you need to keep the scale moving in the downward direction.
– Keep a food diary. Writing down everything you eat and drink might seem like a chore, but a research study by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research has shown that doing it can nearly double your weight loss and help you keep it off. Each diary entry should include the name of the food or beverage, the serving size and the time of day you ate it. Additionally, calculating the amount of calories, fat and fiber for each entry can be helpful when reviewing your total intake for the day.
– Rank hunger before you eat. Eating because of boredom, depression or other emotional hardships might make you feel better in the short-term, but it is no good for your waistline in the long-term. Combat emotional eating by ranking your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10 before you eat anything (1 means you are absolutely stuffed and 10 means you’re starving). You shouldn’t eat unless you are at least a 3 or 4. The optimal time to eat is when you are between 4 and 8. Letting your hunger go above 8 can increase your risks for overeating or binge eating.
– Mealtimes are for eating only. Sure, it can be fun to have a delicious meal while you are watching your favorite TV show, but, unfortunately, this is not so good for your weight loss goals. Watching TV, reading, talking on the phone or surfing the internet while you eat takes your attention away from your meal. This distraction is bad because it may cause you to be inattentive to satiety clues, and it makes it hard to really enjoy your food. Make mealtime about eating, not your favorite TV show.
– Eat slowly. Have you ever been told to chew 20 times before you swallow your food? Well, that doesn’t just make digestion easier, it can make weight loss easier, too. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain saying it is full. So, chewing your food well and eating slowly helps provide enough time for your brain to recognize satiety clues before you over-stuff yourself with food. You can also try to put your fork down between each bite to prolong your eating time.
Resources
Kendall Krause, Keeping Food Diary Doubles Weight Loss, ABC News International