weight loss

Before you even begin to attack a weight-loss plan, it pays to remember this: You are not fat. You have fat. Losing weight isn’t about blame or shame; it’s simply another achievement to accomplish, like training for a race or finally cranking out 10 push-ups. “Dieting is like any other skill — you have to buckle down and work at it,” says therapist Deborah Beck Busis, Ph.D., the diet program coordinator at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and a coauthor of The Diet Trap Solution. “As long as you act in a smart, reasonable way, you’ll ultimately get where you want to be.”

To help you reach your goal weight and maintain it, we examined the latest research and talked to top experts to compile the 10 tenets for weight loss that have been proved to deliver results.

“Thinking of a diet as something you’re on and suffering through only for the short term doesn’t work,” Beck Busis says. To shed weight and keep it off, you need to make permanent changes to the way you eat. It’s OK to indulge occasionally, of course, but if you cut calories temporarily and then revert to your old way of eating, you’ll gain back the weight quicker than you can say yo-yo.

Use it to lose it.

Working out burns calories and fat and boosts your metabolism by building muscle. But those trying to lose weight are notorious for overestimating the number of calories they burn and underestimating the amount they take in. Unfortunately, your system is biologically programmed to hold on to extra pounds, says Louis Aronne, M.D., a professor of metabolic research and the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. That means when you start exercising, your body senses the deficit and ramps up its hunger signals, according to a review of weight-loss studies. If you’re not diligent, you’ll eat everything you burn and then some.

Use it to lose it.

Use it to lose it.

When you feel the urge to eat, use the HALT method, Bazilian suggests. Ask yourself, Am I really hungry? Or am I angry or anxious, lonely or bored, or tired? If you’re still not certain, try the apple test. “If you’re truly hungry, an apple should seem delicious; if it doesn’t, something else is going on,” says Robin Frutchey, a behavioral therapist at Johns Hopkins University Weight Management Center. In that case, give yourself a pep talk instead of a snack. “If hunger isn’t the problem, food isn’t the solution,” Beck Busis says. “There are a lot of other ways to deal with boredom or anxiety — like going for a walk, hitting the gym, or texting a friend — and those things have zero negative consequences.”

Clean up your diet. Swap in whole, unprocessed foods, including vegetables, lean protein, and healthy fats that will fill you up and give you the biggest nutritional bang for your calorie buck. In a few weeks, as your brain starts receiving regular hunger and fullness signals once again, you’ll notice that you feel less hungry overall and naturally start cutting back on the amount you eat, Dr. Aronne says.

While you’re at it, log each meal. Keeping a daily food diary (there are tons of apps for this) leads to significant weight loss because it makes you accountable, research shows. One study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people who kept daily food records lost about twice as much weight as those who didn’t.

Here’s why eating the three Ps regularly will help you drop pounds.

Protein fills you up. You need it to build lean muscle, which keeps your metabolism humming so that you can torch more fat, Dr. Aronne says. People in a weight-loss program who ate double the recommended daily allowance for protein (about 110 grams for a 150-pound woman) lost 70 percent of their weight from fat, while people who ate the RDA lost only about 40 percent, one study found.

Produce is packed with filling fiber. “It’s very difficult to consume too many calories if you’re eating a lot of vegetables,” says Caroline Apovian, M.D., the director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center and the author of The Age-Defying Diet. Case in point: Three cups of broccoli is a lot of food, yet only 93 calories. (Fruit is another story. It can be easy to overeat and can contain a lot of calories from sugar, so be sure

to monitor your intake.)

Plant-based fats like olive oil and those in avocados and nuts are healthy and extra satiating. “Low-fat diets make people irritable and feel deprived because fat tastes good and keeps you full,” Dr. Apovian says.

Use it to lose it.

Aim to incorporate each of the three Ps into every meal and snack. People who eat protein throughout the day are able to keep weight off, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In addition to meat, poultry and seafood, good sources are beans, lentils, eggs, tofu, and yogurt. As for fat, keep portion sizes in check by measuring out salad dressing, oil, and nut butters (shoot for one to two tablespoons). Finally, eat veggies or a little fruit at every meal. People who did that consumed 308 fewer calories but didn’t feel any hungrier than when they didn’t eat more produce, a study in the journal Appetite noted.

Use it to lose it.

Depending on how much weight you need to drop and how much you currently eat, try to cut 500 to 1,000 calories a day through both diet and exercise, Frutchey advises. Limiting yourself to about 1,500 calories a day won’t leave you starving, but it will help you see motivating changes on the scale.

Sit down whenever you eat, preferably at a table. “If you ask someone to recall what she ate in a day, she’ll forget most of the food she consumed standing up,” Beck Busis says. Turn off the TV or computer, put down your phone, and look at your food. Smell it. Chew slowly, and don’t put another bite on your fork until you swallow. When women ate lunch this attentively, they consumed 30 percent less when snacking later than those who listened to an audiobook at lunchtime, according to a study in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Prioritize sleep, aiming for seven hours or more a night, which research shows helps lower stress. And make sure you’re getting quality zzz’s. If a snoring spouse or a fidgety cat wakes you up frequently throughout the night, you may end up getting the equivalent of just four hours of sleep, according to a study from Tel Aviv University. Keep pets out of the bedroom, and use a white-noise app to drown out snoring.

Use it to lose it.

We’ll reiterate: If you’re not strength training, start right now. Building muscle can raise your metabolism to help you overcome a plateau, Dr. Aronne says. To keep your body challenged and burning calories, incorporate new moves and more intense intervals into your workouts or add another sweat session to your weekly routine. Alternatively, cut an extra 100 calories or so a day from your diet. Now that you’ve lost weight, your body simply doesn’t need as much fuel. Still stuck? Try eating carbs last at every meal, after your protein and vegetables, Dr. Aronne suggests. His research shows that doing so will reduce your blood sugar by almost 40 percent. “Blood sugar influences weight,” he explains, “so this strategy could help.”

Related posts:

get free robux using amazing generator

We welcome you to the biggest social game stage in the portable games world. Roblox ongoing interaction offers a tremendous and exceptionally intelligent place where there is get free robux using… Read more

Beacon of hope

Most parents only want a few things for their child — health, independence and above all, happiness. But what happens when a mother is told her son won’t have any of these? That he should be… Read more

Hotels in India have private marinas or access to water sports facilities

There are several hotels in India that offer private marinas or access to water sports facilities. Here are a few examples: The Leela Goa — Located in Goa, this luxury beachfront hotel has a private… Read more