Restrictive diets do long work long-term. As a Registered Dietitian, my specialty is making weight loss easy and painless. Most professional dieters, people who have been dieting for years, have a hard time giving up their diet-mentality. When I teach them about the simple lifestyle choices for permanent weight loss, THIN CHOICES, they often state, This is too easy, it cant work. The reason that it does work is that you need to feed the body regularly to lose weight and cannot ignore true hunger. You cant starve a fat cell. Here are eight of my top strategies to raise your metabolism for almost effortless weight loss:
1. Eat something within the first hour of waking up. It can be as little as two crackers. Coffee alone does not count. This will wake up your digestive system and get your body to start burning calories.
2. Eat a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. This will help keep the fire of your metabolism stoked and prevent you from getting too hungry before your next meal. Ideally, you should always eat something at your first sign of hunger and stop eating once you are no longer hungry. If you picture your stomach as your bodys gas tank, it should always remain between and full.
3. Eat a total of 8-10 fruits and vegetables everyday (one serving = the size of a tennis ball). One blended smoothie and one large salad will easily get you to this goal. Consuming this volume will provide your RDI for fiber, improve your cholesterol level, reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease and displace many other high-fat foods in your diet. This is the easiest way to easily lose weight and improve your health.
4. Limit your intake of beverages that have more than 100 calories to two per day. This will include soda, beer, wine, lemonade, hot cocoa, etc Research shows that calories consumed from beverages will not replace other calories in your day. For example, if you drink a mocha cappuccino with 500 calories, you will not automatically cut 500 calories out of your food intake later in the day.
5. Drink two 32-ounce sports bottles filled with water everyday. Ideally, your sports bottle will have a straw, as it will help you drink it faster. You should be finished drinking the water at least 4 hours before going to bed so that you are not waking up to go to the bathroom. Your body requires water to break body fat down into a usable energy source.
6. Stop eating at least three hours before going to bed. Your body is preparing for fasting mode and does not need any extra calories while you sleep. If you always go to bed at 10p.m, your cut off time for eating is 7p.m.
7. Move your body for 30 minutes at least 5 days per week. You can walk 10 minutes, three times. You can march in place to your favorite sitcom. You can do pretty much anything other than just being busy or working. Adding isometric (squeezing) exercises you can do while sitting at a desk or in a car to tighten flabby areas. You can do leg lifts while brushing your teeth or lunge your way to the bathroom.
8. Get a good night sleep on a regular basis. Research shows that sleep deprivation (as little as two nights with 5 hours or less sleep) will increase the bodys production of the hormone greylin (appetite-stimulant) and decrease the hormone leptin (satiety hormone). This will cause an increase in your appetite and you will find that it takes a greater volume of food to be satisfied. Most people think you need to devote hours each day to preparing meals and exercising, yet you can make these activities a part of your simple daily routine. With the addition of just a few of these daily choices, most will find that they can increase their energy level and lose weight without restrictive dieting. Please let me know if you have any questions for me. |
