The Top 8 Eating Tips to Lose Weight
Everywhere we turn, there’s advice on what to eat to lose weight. Cut out all carbs, throw a stick of butter in your morning coffee, and say goodbye to all dairy are some elements of current fad weight loss eating plans. These extreme diets may help some people jump start a weight loss regime, but they aren’t practical in the long run. To lose weight, you need to follow a healthy diet plan that includes all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals your body needs. To help, here are the top eight tips on what to eat to lose weight:
Focus on superfoods
A good list of what to eat to lose weight includes superfoods1—foods that pack a more powerful nutritional punch than others. As you cut calories, it’s important to make sure foods you eat provide maximum vitamins and minerals. Superfoods include garlic, beans, fish, leafy greens, almonds, avocadoes, salmon, honey, berries, broccoli, spinach, and yogurt.
Follow a Mediterranean diet
According to research2, the Mediterranean diet is the best dietary move you can make, both for weight loss and for slowing the aging process.3 A Mediterranean diet includes olives, guacamole, grilled calamari, fish, and olive oil.
Eliminate sugar wherever you can
A recent study published in JAMA4 found people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and processed foods and instead concentrated on eating lots of vegetables and nutrient-rich foods lost significant amounts of weight over a year. Beyond the obvious places, like cake and ice cream, sugar lurks in foods like salad dressings, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and bread. To avoid it, do the following:
- Look for sugar aliases on ingredients labels. These include high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose or other words ending in “ose,” molasses, dried cane syrup, brown rice syrup, or honey.
- Instead, go for foods that are unsweetened or have no sugar added. Stay away from artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sorbitol, which can still stimulate weight gain.
- Instead of adding sugar to your cereal or coffee, throw in a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, or another spice instead. As a bonus, cinnamon5 has been shown to help control appetite and regulate blood sugar.
Avoid processed foods
In addition to cutting sugar, subjects in the JAMA4 study also eliminated processed foods. A good way to cut out processed foods in your diet is by paying attention to snacks. Instead of chips, crackers or cheese curls, go for raw nuts, seeds, and fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits.
Eat unlimited vegetables
You simply cannot eat too many vegetables. They are low in calories and high in nutrients, making them the perfect elements of a weight loss eating plan. Slip in vegetables at every meal, even breakfast. Make a smoothie with frozen blueberries, spinach, papaya and banana. For lunch, eat an arugula salad topped with snap peas and carrots. At dinner time, eat a stir fry with broccoli and red, yellow, and green peppers. The key is making a conscious effort to get veggies into your healthy diet plan wherever you can.
Bring on the beans
Aim for about ½ cup of beans and legumes per day, or about three cups per week. Toss a handful of white beans onto your lunchtime salad. Instead of mayonnaise, spread hummus (mashed chickpeas) onto your sandwich. Replace half the amount of ground beef in your chili recipe with extra black or kidney beans.
Eat early in the day
People who succeed at losing weight and keeping it off tend to stop eating a few hours before going to bed. In a study6 published in the International Journal of Obesity, subjects who ate their main meal of the day before 3:00 pm lost significantly more weight than those who ate later in the day. This was true even when they ate about the same number of calories as the later eaters over the five-month study.
Pile on the berries
For disease-fighting power coupled with a weight loss eating plan, you can’t get much better than berries.7 Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries are low in calories and high in disease-fighting and anti-aging compounds called antioxidants. Be creative to get berries into your healthy diet plan. Have a berry and yogurt parfait for breakfast, a salad topped with strawberries and salmon for lunch, and chicken topped with mixed berry chutney for dinner.
**The information contained above is presented in summary form only and intended to provide broad consumer understanding and knowledge of various healthcare topics. It should not be used in place of a visit, call, consultation or advice of your doctor or other healthcare provider. You should discuss any dietary changes or supplement usage with your doctor, and should not discontinue any prescription medications without first consulting your doctor.
