Are you a “self-confessed” foodie who absolutely loses “self control” around delicious delights, and hence think dieting to lose “extra” weight is not your cup of tea? Foodies (only those who want to reach a certain number on the weighing scale), you should absolutely read this post because it will help you change your mindset towards both food and weight loss. Love for food need not be love for unhealthy food, neither would you need to develop a disdain towards food in general in order to reach your goal weight. Most weight loss diets wrongly promote food deprivation and crash dieting as the only means to shed extra layers of fat, and that’s what prevents most foodies from even trying to make an attempt in that direction. However, in reality, a correct weight loss diet would actually encourage you to eat healthy and eat really well and that’s the concept Rati Beauty diet follows – putting you on the right kind of food without food deprivation or crash dieting. So, let’s find out how foodies can lose weight without losing interest in food.
1. Portion Control: Portion control is an essential aspect, not only to lose weight but also to maintain optimum health and to prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. Portion control also puts one into calorie deficit, which is absolutely necessary to target extra fat. If you are clueless on how to portion control, here are “10 Tips to Portion Control Food for Weight Loss.”
2. Eat Slowly and Chew Properly: When you eat quickly, without practicing mindful eating, the body does not get enough time to register satiety and one can easily overeat. When you eat too fast, your brain doesn’t get the signal to stop once you are full. This means that you often eat more than you actually require. Another interesting fact is that the brain takes about 20 minutes to register that you have eaten food and by slowing down, you can actually reach satiation point during the eating process itself and stop yourself from piling on extra pounds.
3. Be Active and Stay on your Feet for Most Part of the Day: Leading a sedentary lifestyle is the root cause of many health problems and obesity is just one of them. Just being up and about throughout the day can be healthier for you than doing a rigorous workout. Simple changes in your daily routine, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, doing household work like laundry and cleaning, and standing and walking while talking over the phone really make a difference. So, get active and manage at least 10,000 steps in a day. A little leg work also would help a great deal – walking, jogging, running, climbing stairs are a few examples.
4. Swap Unhealthy Food with Healthy Options: Revise your food choices. Order salads and healthy dishes in your favourite restaurants if you are a food lover. Instead of tasting fried snacks or tasty high-calorie mocktails, try vegetable soups; instead of ice cream, try Greek yogurt, instead of packaged juices – sip on fresh juices. Make these little things because they do make a big difference. Also, do read about “50 Healthy Food Swaps That Every Foodie Should Try.”
5. Practice Yoga: It’s one of the most effective exercise forms to stay fit and healthy. Fix body aches, burn fat, speed metabolism by practicing simple yogasanas every day. It will be beneficial not just for your body but mind too.
6. Drink More H2O: Drinking water helps boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste and acts as an appetite suppressant. Drinking it before meals can make you feel fuller and therefore helps to cut significant amount of calories. Also, drinking more water helps your body stop retaining water, leading you to drop those extra pounds of water weight.
7. Put a Stop to Frequent Snacking: Frequent snacking can absolutely hamper your weight loss goals because every time you snack on something, insulin spikes up, and frequent spikes triggers conversion of excess calories as fat, particularly around the belly and hip area. Follow scheduled meal and snacking timings, and stick to them. A few bites here and there, one or two biscuits during breaks, and a bite into a slice of pizza may not seem much, but they all do add calories. Check out the perfect meal and snack timings on Rati Beauty app to fix frequent snacking.
8. Cheat Meal is a Must: This is something you should follow. Reserve guilty treats for cheat meals so that you can adhere to your weight loss diet better. On your cheat day, just consume your favourite food and then restrict yourself on all the other days.
9. Have your Last Meal at 7 PM: Having an early dinner is a good idea because the food gets digested better and the calories get utilized since metabolism is still high, and you would sleep better with a lighter tummy.
10. Have a Protein-Rich Breakfast: Protein is a nutrient that is hugely beneficial for losing weight, because it keeps one feeling fuller for longer, curbs appetite, and helps burn more calories (due to its theromgenic properties).
11. Switch Refined Carbs with Complex Carbs: Food items such as sugar, candies, white bread, pizza, cookies, cakes, burgers, pizza, chocolates, etc. have refined carbs that spike insulin levels and encourage conversion of extra calories to fat molecules. Refined carbs can hamper fat burning, especially tummy fat. Switching to complex carbs can accelerate the whole fat-burning process, so make that important switch right now to brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole wheat, quinoa, beans, legumes, cereals.
12. Avoid Sodas and Artificial Drinks: Soft drinks and aerated drinks are loaded with sugar and empty calories that can lead to quick weight gain. Thus, the best way to lose weight is to avoid them completely.
13. Eat Only Healthy Fats: Swap unhealthy fats with healthy fats with omega-3 fatty acids that help mobilize fat out of fat cells. Avocados, eggs, nuts, fish oil, olive oil, ghee are some food items where you can find ample healthy fats.
14. Practice Water Preloading: Water preloading is a healthy and almost effortless way to aid weight loss. In this strategy, experts recommend to sip on 500 ml of plain water half an hour before each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Such a quantity of water before the meal will significantly stretch your tummy and as a result, there would be lesser release of the hunger hormone “ghrelin.” This means you would feel full with less food and fewer calorie intake. It is an effective strategy to tackle overeating. It’s a fact that most of us do not consume enough water through the day, and most of the times, we are just thirsty and not really hungry. Frequent hunger pangs are most probably caused due to dehydration and if you can provide your body with more H2O, you can lose weight rather effectively.
So, foodies, if you are thinking about losing weight, start implementing these tips. 🙂
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