Diets work until they don’t. If you can’t maintain your diet in a certain way forever, you won’t see lasting results. But where does that get you if you want to lose weight? Unlike a restrictive diet, making these changes can help you lose weight and keep it off.
Here are five habits that can help you ditch your diet and lose weight forever.
1. Get a baseline
Think about what you ate yesterday. Can you recall everything? If you don’t know what your eating habits are, you can’t change them. Try writing about what you eat in a journal, using an app like MyFitnessPal, or taking photos of your food. Doing this tracking can be tedious, but it can also help you identify where to start making small, lasting changes.
By choosing one of these habits to track, you can make it automatic over time. Your habits can then build on each other to create lasting weight loss. If you find tracking tedious, remember that you don’t have to keep track of everything you eat forever, but for many people, it’s a good place to start.
2. Work with a nutritionist
It’s not a habit in itself, but working with an expert like a registered dietitian can help you make a change and create a habit to stick with. Otherwise, how do you know what changes to make after you’ve tracked your food? The danger of relying solely on calorie counting apps is to fall into a “calories in, calories out” mindset where you think that if you eat less and exercise more, you’ll lose weight. Instead, it often backfires, leading to a restrictive binge cycle that doesn’t set you up for long-term success. “Your body is not a mathematical equation. It’s more of a biological project,” says registered dietitian Dr. Megan Kober, a nutrition addict . Kober educates women on how to burn fat by focusing on hormones and metabolism instead of calorie counting.
A nutritionist is able to work fully with you, teaching you how different foods are digested in your body, how much you should eat to lose weight, and how to enjoy them all in a balanced way.
3. Cook half the vegetables
Follow the MyPlate or Healthy Plate framework at most lunches and dinners: 30/200 Vegetables, Whole Grains and Protein. A cup of vegetables has about <> calories and a cup of pasta has calories. You need a calorie deficit to lose weight, but the quality of your calories also matters. Vegetables are high in fiber, which aids weight loss by slowing digestion and keeping you full for longer. Excess fiber is not stored as fat, unlike extra protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Fiber also slows the post-meal spike in insulin, the hormone that signals to store excess sugar as fat.
A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that focusing on eating just 30 grams of fiber a day cut nearly as much weight loss as the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease Diet, which includes eating more fruit , vegetables, whole grains and fatty fish to reduce sugar, alcohol and fat. In other words, instead of focusing on changing a few areas of your diet, change just one: fiber intake. Most Americans consume only 11-15 grams per day, but 25-35 grams per day is recommended.
Other fiber reinforcement ideas? Add side salads to dinner, mix spinach and mushrooms into pasta, sauté broccoli in a peanut sauce, blend vegetables into smoothies or roast them in olive oil. The more colors and varieties the better.
4. Start the day with a balance of protein, fiber, and healthy fats
To eat breakfast or not to eat breakfast? Research has been mixed. A 2019 meta-analysis published in the BMJ found that eating breakfast was associated with weight gain and a greater intake of total calories throughout the day.
Intermittent fasting — where people fast for 12-16 hours overnight, often skipping breakfast — has also been linked to weight loss, the study was published in Nutrients . But don’t skip the brekkie just yet. Eating white toast with jam isn’t the same as scrambled eggs with spinach, and not all studies differentiate the type of breakfast. While intermittent fasting can lead to weight loss, studies show it doesn’t lead to more weight loss than an overall calorie deficit.
The most important thing is to include fiber, protein and healthy fats with your first meal of the day, whether it’s 7am, 10am or 12pm. Eat when you’re hungry, don’t wait until you’re hungry or you’ll overeat. Aim for 10 grams of fiber and 15-20 grams of protein with your meals. Protein inhibits ghrelin, the hormone that tells you you’re hungry, and increases the satiety hormone.
A study published in the journal Randomized Controlled Trials compared eating eggs for breakfast with bagels found that after eight weeks, the group that ate eggs had a 61% lower body mass index, a 65% loss in body weight and a 34% reduction in waist circumference.
Try throwing together your morning eggs with spinach and stuffing them into pita bread for easy on-the-go. Or, have an egg and avocado toast on whole grain bread. If you don’t want eggs, try a bowl of plain Greek yogurt with berries. Another quick meal is Microwave Quick Peanut Butter and Berry Sauce on Toasted English Muffins. This muffin is packed with protein, fiber and fat to get your day off to a good start.
Skip refined carbs, like white toast and sugary cereal, which can spike blood sugar and insulin, sending the body into fat-storing mode instead of fat-burning mode.
5. Exercise
Research published in Advances in Cardiovascular Disease tells us that exercise, without changing diet, does not lead to sustainable weight loss. Changing your diet without exercising can lead to weight loss, but research shows you may regain the weight. Your calorie intake needs to decrease as you lose weight, because a smaller body doesn’t need as many calories as a larger body, says a study published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology. Also, your metabolism slows down as you lose weight.
A review of studies published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics tells us that changing your diet and exercising together is the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off. The National Weight Control Registry — a database of people who have lost 30 pounds and kept it off for a year or more — reports that 90 percent of its members exercise an hour a day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week.
Researchers published in Clinical Gastroenterology Best Practice and Research recommend 30-60 minutes a day for weight loss and 30-90 minutes a day for weight maintenance.
The exact amount and type vary from person to person and your goals.
Cardio or strength training?
The short answer is a bit of both. Aerobic exercise, such as running and spinning, burns a lot of calories during training, but usually revs up your appetite, causing you to eat all the calories you burn. Walking counts as aerobic exercise and probably won’t make you feel hungry — and you’ll feel anxious when you’re hungry.
Resistance training – lifting weights or using your own body weight – builds muscle, which increases your daily calorie burn. The body continues to burn calories for 24 hours after strength training, an effect known as excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC). Resistance training can also promote fat burning. But you probably won’t see a change in scale. Five pounds of muscle weighs the same as five pounds of fat, but muscle takes up less room.
Bottom line on workouts: Include a mix of cardio and strength exercises, aiming for 30-60 minutes per day, with at least 15-20 minutes of strength training 2-3 times per week.
How to Move On After Losing Weight
“When building a weight loss habit, start small,” says Spendlove. “Habits can build on top of each other over time, so that your new habits become automatic before adding new things. This way, the habits that help you lose weight become second nature, so you don’t have to over time And think about them. We like that instead of constantly thinking about food and exercise!
weigh yourself once a week
Research published in Obesity Reviews found that self-monitoring of weight and food was linked to maintaining weight loss. It’s not for everyone though. Seventy-five percent of members of the National Weight Control Registry continue to weigh in once a week.
Checking the numbers on the scale each week can help you stay on track and correct yourself before your pants feel too tight. but remember,
“Our weight fluctuates by 2-4 pounds each day based on how much we eat, drink, and even the time of day, so [weighing daily] can be misleading. Other important indicators of progress are getting stronger during workouts and getting better clothing. fit, or compare photos before and during weight loss,” says Dr.
track food again
If the numbers on the scale start to go up, consider tracking your food again for 1-2 weeks and make changes accordingly.
mixed sports
If you’ve been doing a lot of strength training, add cardio, and vice versa. Increase the frequency, duration, or intensity of your exercise. Once your body gets good at doing something, it doesn’t burn as many calories anymore – namely picking up some heavier weights!
find someone to hold you accountable
Most of us know what to do; we just need help to do it. If you feel stuck or unmotivated, find a friend or professional who can put you on track. Take a fitness class or hire a trainer. Other people tend to push us harder than we push ourselves.
You can lose weight and keep it off by focusing on making small changes and creating new habits, not just eating less and exercising more. Track your food and progress, find someone to hold you accountable, and be patient. It’s been a journey!
