Losing weight can be a daunting task, but you don’t need to resort to crash dieting to achieve your weight loss goals. Crash dieting not only fails to provide you with proper nutrition, but is also ineffective for maintaining your weight loss. Instead, I’ve always advised my patients to make small changes to their lifestyles to achieve their desired body image while being rewarding with life-long results. Try incorporating my top 10 scientifically based tips into your life to help you lose weight and get healthy.
1. Keep a journal
Writing down your daily food intake, physical activity, and body weight helps you stay focused on achieving your goals. Journaling is a powerful tool that also helps you identify poor nutritional habits and factors that may lead to inactivity. By identifying such patterns, you can make small changes to your eating habits and activity levels to ensure success.
Tip: Be very detailed. Record not only what you consumed, but also in what amount and at what time of day. In terms of physical activity, record type of exercise, duration, and intensity level. The more detail you record, the more information you have to make effective changes to your lifestyle. Try to make at least one significant improvement in both your diet and activity level for best results.
2. Exercise daily
Exercise helps you lose weight by not only burning calories, but also by boosting your metabolism and suppressing your appetite. Most authorities recommend 60 minutes of exercise per day. But there’s no need to fret! Of those 60 minutes, only 30 minutes needs to be vigorous activity. The remaining 30 minutes can easily be accomplished through daily living, such as walking the dog or taking the stairs to work.
Tip: Taking a brisk walk after dinner not only helps you accomplish your daily exercise, but also helps you digest and metabolise your food more efficiently. Add resistance training to your exercise regime to burn extra calories and build metabolism-boosting muscle.
3. Always eat breakfast
Eating breakfast can actually help you lose weight! In fact, research studies suggest that those who eat breakfast lose more weight than those who skip breakfast. Why? While you sleep your metabolism (the rate your body burns calories) slows down and doesn’t speed up until you eat. The longer you wait to eat, the less calories your body will burn. Kick start your metabolism by eating a balanced breakfast!
Tip: Include a high quality protein such as scrambled egg whites in your breakfast to feel more satisfied and full until your next meal.
4. Don’t skip meals
Eating regularly helps you balance your calorie intake throughout the day, and helps you prevent imbalances in your blood sugar levels. Skipping meals often leads to bingeing and a spike in blood sugar levels that signal your body to store fat. Stabilize your blood sugar levels by eating regularly and free yourself from food cravings and obsessions.
Tip: Instead of eating 3 big meals, try to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. These small frequent meals provide even greater balance to your blood glucose levels. However, be aware of eating 5-6 large meals. Use your journal to keep track and control the volume and type of food consumed during each meal. Try substituting 2 small meals with my Complete Lean Meal, a delicious and nutritious smoothie (chocolate or vanilla).
5. Eat a colourful variety of fruits, veggies, and whole grains
Colourful produce and whole grains contain almost no fat, very few calories, essential dietary fibre, and a wealth of vitamins and minerals. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is essential to ensure consumption of the vast array of nutrients required for optimal health.
Tip: If you find it difficult to obtain your required nutrients from your diet alone, try taking a high-quality multi-vitamin supplement such as my Essential Multi-Vitamin. This not only helps provide the vitamins and minerals that may be lacking from your diet, but also boasts specific formulas to help support body systems such as your bones, joints, and vision. If you think years of poor diet have resulted in built-up waste, try my Digestive Detox System to help cleanse and promote a healthier digestive system.
6. Feel full with protein
According to former Harvard University researcher Thomas Halton, Ph.D., co-writer of a review of 50 satiety studies in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition, protein is the most satiating nutrient. By eating more high-quality protein, you can feel full faster and for a longer period of time. This may be attributed to the fact that the digestion and absorption of protein takes energy than that of carbohydrates and fat.
Tip: Avoid sources of protein that are high in fat. Choose lean, high-quality protein such as egg whites, fish, skinless chicken, beans, and nuts.
7. Stay hydrated
Yes, adequate consumption of water can help you lose weight. The liver is normally responsible for the conversion of stored fat into energy. Unfortunately, the liver is also responsible for picking up slack for the kidneys. If there is insufficient water available for the kidneys to work properly, the liver is forced to help out and thus cannot metabolize fat as efficiently as it could. Drinking plenty of water helps ensure optimal productivity from the kidney, allowing the liver to metabolize stored fat efficiently.
Tip: Drink plain, room temperature water for optimal results. Avoid sugar-loaded beverages such as pop and juice, as well as dehydrating beverages such as tea and coffee.
8. Enlist support
Getting support from family and friends is one of the best ways to maintain your new eating and physical activity habits. Find a buddy with the same goals as you, and motivate each other to adhere to healthy behaviours such as eating healthy and staying active. Surround yourself with positive people that encourage you to achieve your goals and you will find success.
Tip: Don’t have a buddy? Go to parks, gyms, and health-food stores to meet people with similar goals and lifestyles.
9. Be patient, don’t give up
According to the surgeon general, the average adult gains 1-3 lbs per year. With this in mind, it is no surprise that losing this weight and keeping it off will take more than just a couple weeks. Losing weight at a steady rate of 1-2 lbs per week is the most successful approach and will help ensure long-term weight loss.
Tip: If you ever get frustrated and want to give up – don’t. Instead, stay focused on your motivating factor, whether it be fitting into your skinny jeans or lowering your blood pressure. Always keep that goal in mind to stay motivated – the feeling of achieving it will be truly gratifying.
10. Reward yourself
To stay motivated and boost your self-esteem, provide yourself with incentives to choose from when you achieve milestone goals. Set goals such as 5 or 10 lbs and reward yourself when you accomplish them.
Tip: Don’t use food as a reward. Instead, treat yourself to a day at the spa, a new pair of shoes, or tickets to your favourite game.
I always love to hear from my customers. Please email me at drho@drhonow.com to let me know how these tips work for you or if you have any questions.