Weight Loss Tips

Losing weight can be difficult for many people. The most effective weight loss tips are often simple and easy to follow suggestions on how you can overcome many dieting pitfalls. The misinformation that is floating around about weight loss and dieting is enormous these days.

The key to good weight loss tips are that they need to contribute to consuming less calories and increasing the calorie burn rate for most people. Small changes in food choices, lifestyle, and even portions can add to any diet plan success. And be aware that even the word diet can be a problem for some people. The reason is that you should really work towards creating healthy eating habits, not frequent diets to lose weight.

Diet plans can be helpful to get you jump started on losing weight but for long term success in controlling your weight, you need to change your current eating habits. Diets are usually a short term solution for a long term problem. Easy weight loss tips can help most to keep the weight off over the long haul.

Any good weight loss tip should apply to the long term solution. Try to always keep in mind that radical changes are difficult to maintain, so small changes that don't require so much effort are usually easier in both the short and long term. Weight loss and healthy living is not a sprint, it's a marathon.

We've organized the best weight loss tips into 3 different categories. Each category can provide ways to help you lose weight using a few small changes to your daily eating habits. No radical or craziness, and most are just common sense tactics to help you slowly but surely lose weight.

We try and update our best tips often from both visitor suggestions and our own experience. And it is amazing how someone can suggest something entirely new that works, so check back often.

Long Term Tips (change eating habits)

When you decide to adopt a weight loss plan, be sure to include your long range goals. Once you loose the amount of weight desired, it's just as important to figure out how to maintain your new weight. So changing your eating habits will help a lot in long term maintenance efforts.

Although there are many effective weight loss diets, almost all successful ones abide by these 5 rules.

  1. If you fail, don't abandon your efforts. Never give up.
  2. Don't punish yourself, absolute denial is not necessary.
  3. Multiple meals per day are more beneficial than the standard 3.
  4. Figure out how to work exercise into your daily routine.
  5. Watch out for carbs and sugar, choose the lower fat items.

Watch what you eat but don't just focus on your diet, try to eat healthy. Making good choices will work forever, and can greatly improve your health.

Don't cause yourself undo stress over eating the wrong thing. Try to change your eating habits gradually and realize that small changes add up. Don't panic and punish yourself if you run off the tracks. Just swing back into your plan and move forward.

The key to any plan is that you must burn more calories than you take in every day or lower your daily calorie consumption. If you really want that dessert, plan on burning extra calories by extending your exercise.

Leave notes on kitchen appliances, cupboards, pantries. Put alternatives in the notes to help motivate and give you a choice.

You don't have to have an absolute count of calories, a running total will work. It's impossible to accurately count restaurant items anyway, so just use a best guess and move on.

A good goal to start with is one pound per week. Don't set unrealistic goals and set yourself up for failure. One pound a week is great over a long period of time and will allow anyone to achieve their goals. 

Daily Eating Tips (calories, fat, food)

Two American drink favorites, coffee and tea, combined with sugar are damaging to any diet. Caffeine can increase insulin in your body and reduce burning of stored fat. Throw in the sugar most people add and what little calories you may burn will be the sugar, not the fat. And if you put any kind of dairy product in your coffee or tea, it can add up to 100 calories easy. Try reducing caffeine by 50%.

Speaking of caffeine and sugar, most soft drinks are loaded with both. So make sure you count them in your 50% reduction in caffeine intake. 

Eat slower! Allow time for your stomach to signal you it's full. Plus most digestive problems can be eliminated by eating slower and thoroughly chewing your food, and drinking more water with meals. 

Eating foods without sugar or fat can take away some of the taste and enjoyment of your meals. One good way to compensate is to use more seasoning like any kind of pepper, garlic, herbs, and spices. Many spices are very good for your digestion.

Don't skip meals, burning fat is all about eating too. Five or six small meals allows you more fat burning time and keeps your metabolism up.

Only eat when you're hungry, ignore the clock. Small meals every 3-4 hours is better for your digestive process.

If you like chocolate, go with the dark varieties rather than the milk flavored. Dark chocolate has more antioxidant properties and small amounts are actually good for you.

The best portion control trick (especially with restaurants that serve way too much food) is to eat half and take home the other half to eat later. And you'll save on your grocery bill too.

Use apple cider vinegar on vegetables. Apple cider vinegar has many beneficial effects and is known to prevent high blood pressure and for breaking down fatty deposits.

Sugar is to your weight loss goals as Darth Vader is to the rebellion. And it is every where you look. Because sugar can make anything tasted good, food manufacturers add it to everything so you'll like it and buy more. In the 1970s a new sweetener, corn fructose, was developed. It too is sugar regardless of the name.

All fat is not bad! In fact we all need a little fat in our daily diets such as essential fatty acids, Omegas 3, 6, and 9 are good for you. Good Fats:  Monounsaturated MUFAs, or monounsaturated fats can lower cholesterol, including LDL cholesterol, the bad kind; while increasing HDL cholesterol, the good kind. Nuts such as almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and peanuts contain MUFAs. Avocados, olive and canola oils, also contain MUFAs. Polyunsaturated  Polyunsaturated fats also lower LDL cholesterol. Salmon and fish oil, as well as soy, safflower, corn, and sunflower oils have polyunsaturated fats. Bad Fats: Saturated Fats Saturated fats increase LDL cholesterol, the bad kind. Saturated fats can be found in most animal products as dairy, meat, eggs and some seafood. A few plant foods can also be high in saturated fats like palm kernel, palm oil, and coconut oil.  Trans Fats Trans Fat, a product of our scientific community, created to make food last longer and work better in the food production process. Hard stick margarine, vegetable shortening, microwave popcorn, fast food French fries (although a few large fast food chains have recently switched to MUFAs) most contain Trans Fats. Recently many producers of packaged foods have eliminated Trans Fats and now state so on the labels, which is a very good thing.

Like a glass of wine or an alcoholic beverage at night with dinner? So do I but it can add some calories. One way to reduce the caloric intake is to mix equal parts of wine with water (I have one glass serving but break it into two glasses - half water - after a day or two you don't even notice). Same with the hard liquor, use a half of shot in two instead of one with full shot.

Exercising Tips (burning more calories)

There is a huge debate on the best time of day to exercise. Some say the morning is the best since you are less likely to skip the workout and you start burning fat first thing in the day. Others say that you will burn more fat if you exercise late in the day or early evening. I say the best time is when you have the time and will do it.

When doing any kind of exercise, raise your level of activity for short bursts. This is called Interval Training and is supposed to be very effective for weight loss and burning more calories. It also helps raise the cardiovascular effect of any exercise routine.

Any daily exercise is good for losing weight. That being said, never push yourself beyond any physical limits. If you have any type of medical condition or are on medication, always check with your doctor before starting any exercise routines.

Try to work your exercise into your daily routine, do something you like, do it with others, take your pet. Do what ever you can to make it enjoyable and something you look forward to rather than a forced participation.

Start any exercises out slow and warm up gradually. 

If you hurt yourself or feel any pain - that's from anywhere - stop immediately and seek medical help. Never take a chance with any chest pains or signs of labored breathing.

Walking, dancing, jogging, swimming, bicycling (stationary or real), sport activities like tennis, basketball, softball, etc. can all help you burn more calories and not even know you are exercising.

Sitting at a desk all day? Get up and stretch every hour, tap your feet, walk around on your coffee breaks, park far away from entrances, take the stairs.

Hourly Calorie Burn Rate (not exact but a good rule of thumb) 240 - Bicycling - 5 mph 240 - Walking - 2 mph 275 - Swimming - 75 yds lap per minute 320 - Walking - 5 mph 400 - Tennis 410 - Bicycling - 10 mph 500 - Jumping Rope 500 - Swimming - 150 yds lap per minute 740 - Running - 5 mph 920 - Running - 7 mph

Any of these weight loss tips can contribute to better health and eating habits. Little changes, one at a time, can make a huge impact on losing weight. No matter which diet plan you may use, these tips can help you achieve your weight loss goals. And if you have easy weight loss tips you'd like to contribute, please send us an email.