Before I get into the best way to lose weight, I would like to share some helpful weight loss tips I have learned through my journey. Do you think you have to do something really radical and punishing to lose weight and keep it off? Just the opposite is true! It's actually the small, simple changes you make that have the most dramatic and lasting results. I know this firsthand, having tried every diet on earth and yo-yoed for years before discovering that weight loss doesn't have to be grueling, depressing or discouraging. Even though thinking of how to lose weight can be daunting. It in fact can be easy, fun, painless and permanent. To lose 1 pound, you have to create a deficit of 3,500 calories. By incorporating easy ways to cut or avoid 250-500 calories a day, you can lose 1/2-1 pound a week, or 26-52 pounds a year. Here are five tips for losing weight that I have found helpful. Create a 200- to 300-calorie deficit per day using these five tips and watch the pounds melt off!
1. Cook with nonstick pans and spray. Make every meal in a nonstick pan, and you'll automatically save 100 calories every time by eliminating the butter, margarine or oil used to grease the pan. When saut?ing or frying, simply coat nonstick pans with a spritz of vegetable oil cooking spray (0 calories). Always use fresh, full-flavored ingredients, and you won?t need fattening butter or oil to add flavor. Talk about a painless way to fat loss!
2. Savor each bite. Eat more slowly to let it register in your belly -- it takes your stomach 20 minutes to send "full" signals to the brain. You'll save 100 calories each time you stop eating when you're almost full instead of eating until you're stuffed (about 200 calories a day).
3. Eat by the clock. Believe it or not, the biggest cause of bingeing is under eating. Your body gets hungry every three to five hours, so you need to eat five to six healthful, low fat mini meals daily to stay full and curb cravings. Cut nighttime snacks and say adios to 15 pounds a year; have a fruit snack instead of a vending-machine snack and subtract 20 pounds; plan meals ahead and knock off 22-30.
4. Use the dilution solution. Love regular soft drinks but hate the pounds the sugar packs on? (A 32-ounce soda has about 400 calories!) Do as my friend Linda does and cram your cup with ice every time you have a soda, and you'll drink at least half as much. For Linda, that meant consuming about 200 fewer calories every other day. After a period of time her taste buds adapted. All she really wanted was sparkling water. By making this one simple shift from soda to sparkling water, she cut 400 calories a day. What a simple way to get to her diet weight!
5. Defrost the freezer. Forget all the nasty things you've heard about frozen dinners! Supermarkets stock hundreds of low fat and delicious frozen meals -- from meatloaf and mashed potatoes to Thai and Indian cuisine. Just add vegetables and fruit to boost nutrients. You'll save 300-500 calories every time you prepare a frozen dinner instead of ordering fast food or cooking a high-fat meal. Enjoy four frozen dinners a week and lose a minimum of 18-30 pounds a year.
