Thread: Smart Diet Tips

I found the answers from yahoo health on the most common questions of people who wants to start losing weight.

I Can Only Handle One Diet Change Right Now. What Should I Do?

1. Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that, then add an extra serving until you reach 8 to 10 a day.

2. Eat at least two servings of a fruit or veggie at every meal.

3. Resolve never to supersize your food portions—unless you want to supersize your clothes.

4. Make eating purposeful, not mindless. Whenever you put food in your mouth, peel it, unwrap it, plate it, and sit. Engage all of the senses in the pleasure of nourishing your body.

5. Start eating a big breakfast. It helps you eat fewer total calories throughout the day.

6. Make sure your plate is half veggies and/or fruit at both lunch and dinner.


Are there Any Easy Tricks to Help Me Cut Calories?

7. Eating out? Halve it, and bag the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage, and dessert.

8. When dining out, make it automatic: Order one dessert to share.

9. Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.

10. See what you eat. Plate your food instead of eating out of the jar or bag.

11. Eat the low-cal items on your plate first, then graduate. Start with salads, veggies, and broth soups, and eat meats and starches last. By the time you get to them, you'll be full enough to be content with smaller portions of the high-calorie choices.

12. Instead of whole milk, switch to 1 percent. If you drink one 8-oz glass a day, you'll lose 5 lb in a year.

13. Juice has as many calories, ounce for ounce, as soda. Set a limit of one 8-oz glass of fruit juice a day.

14. Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.

15. Keep a food journal. It really works wonders.

16. Follow the Chinese saying: "Eat until you are eight-tenths full."

17. Use mustard instead of mayo.

18. Eat more soup. The noncreamy ones are filling but low-cal.

19. Cut back on or cut out caloric drinks such as soda, sweet tea, lemonade, etc. People have lost weight by making just this one change. If you have a 20-oz bottle of Coca-Cola every day, switch to Diet Coke. You should lose 25 lb in a year.

20. Take your lunch to work.

21. Sit when you eat.

22. Dilute juice with water.

23. Have mostly veggies for lunch.

24. Eat at home.

25. Limit alcohol to weekends.

These are some great tips sasa, thanks for sharing this with us. At first starting to cut down on craving is really difficult, but when you get used to it, it really feels nice. I feel lighter and more healthy. I eat vegetables but not that much. Now I make sure that I have more of them and more fresh fruits. And I really eat a heavy breakfast but a light lunch and dinner. I eat in between meals too so to avoid getting too hungry. I eat cereals or oatmeal to make me feel stuffed and it really works

Yeah these are great tips. Finally deciding to cut down on your food intake is difficult but eating several meals a day instead of the standard 3 times a day meal is better because you avoid getting too hungry and consume less amount of food when you eat.

Another tip is for you to not stock up high fat, high calorie snacks. If your family wants them, you can just store them out of sight. If you don't see them, you won't be thinking of them or tempted to eat them.

Use mustard instead of mayo.

This is one of the best way to cut down on calories. One tablespoon of mayo is around 100 calories while one tablespoon of mustard (yellow) is 11 calories. That's a difference of 88 calories.

Try chewing your food at least 30 times before swallowing them and put your meal in small size plates. It's a trick really. It makes you think that you are eating more (but you're actually not).

I use trick number 20 a lot. I make my own lunch and take them to work. I also start my day with big breakfast. My meal during lunch is moderate and my dinner is light. Good advise viktoria. Switching to mustard saves at least 88 calories? That's a lot. That's at least one snack already or one medium sized fruit. Thanks fo all these tips

Why not share the recipe instead of sharing the link to The Diet Solution Program?

Originally Posted by viktoria

Yeah these are great tips. Finally deciding to cut down on your food intake is difficult but eating several meals a day instead of the standard 3 times a day meal is better because you avoid getting too hungry and consume less amount of food when you eat.

There are other advantages to eating more frequent meals.

One is that the energy required to digest food is one of our largest energy expenditures so if you keep the meals low in calories (think raw vegetables and other high fiber foods) your body will burn more fat for energy than it is getting from the food you just ate. Keeping your gut digesting throughout your day with frequent, small meals keeps that energy expenditure operating all day long.

The other advantage is that smaller meals allow your stomach to shrink so you will feel satisfied faster. It may take a few days for your stomach to shrink so be patient and pay close attention to the signals it gives you on when it is full. You will be surprised how little food it eventually takes to satisfy your cravings.

great tips drheil. I eat 3x a day because i'm used to it but I keep my calories in check. Viktoria has a point. Eating several times a day would make you less hungry. i tried it before but I always switch back to eating 3x a day.