10 Weight Loss Success Strategies - Part 1 of 2

Weight-loss success is much more likely if you follow some important behavioral strategies in addition to the choices you make for every meal. Based on my many years of experience working with hospital patients and the clients in my private practice, I've identified 10 Success Strategies that go a long way toward helping people stick to a weight-loss plan.

These strategies are simple—no need to reorganize your life to fit them in. Just start working them into your daily routines, and before you know it, you'll be much better positioned for weight loss success

Success Strategy #1: Eat within the first hour of awakening

When you are at rest, your body wants to conserve energy, so your metabolism slows down. Just as you shut off the lights when you sleep, your body turns down many of the processes involved in metabolism. When you wake up, you want to turn everything up and start burning calories and fat as soon as possible. That's why I recommend eating breakfast within one hour of waking up.

By eating a nutritious, energy-revving breakfast, you are jump-starting your metabolism. When you add healthy food to your tank, so to speak, you prime your engines and get them ready to go, go, go for the day, so you can do everything that you have to do as well as those things you want to do, while feeling energetic.

Despite what you may have heard or read, it still stands that if you skip breakfast, you're telling your body to stay in conservation mode. You're setting yourself up to feel tired, lethargic, and irritable. When no fuel comes into your tank, your body starts thinking about holding on to calories and fat rather than burning them because it doesn't know when more food will come. This is absolutely not the way you want to start your day. Even if you don't feel like having breakfast, push yourself to have something—an apple, an orange, some yogurt, maybe a glass of vegetable juice. Something is better than nothing.

Success Strategy #2: Eat early and often

Many people follow this kind of daily eating plan: They either skip breakfast or have a small bite in the morning. They go light on lunch. Then their hunger roars like a starved lion in the middle of the afternoon, at which point they start eating sweet/salty junk food. Then at dinner, thinking they didn't really eat much during the day, they help themselves to giant portions of their evening meal, followed by dessert and bowls of ice cream and chips while sitting around watching TV for a few hours before bed.

This is not the way to eat.

It's much better for your body to eat early and often. That means having a healthy, lean, green breakfast; a morning snack to keep your metabolism humming; a healthy lunch; an afternoon snack; and a dinner that's smaller than you're probably used to, with a small snack in the evening. Ideally you should eat the bulk of your calories at breakfast and lunch.

Researchers have found that people who consume most of their calories before 3 p.m. are more likely to be successful at weight loss than those who pile on the calories later in the day. And get this: It takes 24 hours for your blood sugar to stabilize after a late-night meal. Eating earlier gives your body plenty of time to burn up calories and stabilize your blood sugar before you get into bed.

Success Strategy #3: Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night

We Americans are an exhausted bunch of people. Although sleep researchers recommend 7 to 8 hours per night, studies show that 30 percent of us get fewer than 6 hours of sleep a night. 

Being chronically tired truly interferes with your health. Lack of sleep is associated with higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity, and cancer. In fact, studies show that getting fewer than 5 hours of sleep per night is associated with a higher body-mass index. The more sleep-deprived you are, the higher your risk of obesity. Insomnia causes hormonal changes and cravings for carbohydrates. And when you deprive yourself of adequate sleep, fatigue lowers your ability to resist trigger foods. Instead of eating, try taking a power nap for a bigger, more effective payoff.

Nighttime sleep even has an effect on daytime hunger, influencing the production of the hormones that regulate appetite. When we're over-tired, we tend to eat more than we do when we are well rested. Overall, people who sleep less appear to weigh more. Be sure to get your 7 to 8 hours a night. If you're having trouble sleeping, see your doctor; you may have a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea.  

Success Strategy #4: Eat snacks that are no larger than your closed fist

Incorporating snacks into your daily meal plan is a helpful way to prevent hunger. But in order to stay on track, you have to make sure your snacks are a reasonable size. One of the eas- iest ways to do this is to eat snacks that are no larger than your closed fist.

The exception to this is free foods (leafy green vegetables, which contribute few calories) and calorie-free beverages, such as coffee and tea. For example, a closed fist holds about half an ounce (1 tablespoon) of nuts. But remember, I'm talking about a closed fist, not an open palm.

Success Strategy #5: Drink half your body weight in water

Drinking water helps fill your stomach and boosts your body's metabolism, so fool yourself into drinking more water. It also keeps you hydrated, which is important because often we mistake thirst for hunger, leading us to eat high-calorie snacks when all our bodies really want is a glass of water. To figure out how much water to drink, divide your weight in half. If you're 160 pounds, aim for about 80 ounces (10 8-ounce glasses) per day. Liquids such as unsweetened coffee, tea, and seltzer can also count in your daily tally.

But keep in mind that caffeinated beverages, though acceptable, are also diuretics, meaning the caffeine dehydrates your body and makes you pee. A good way to offset this effect is to drink a glass of water for each cup of coffee or tea you consume. Make the water ice cold, because drinking cold water revs up the metabolism even more. Your body has to work harder to stabilize its temperature and, in so doing, burns more calories for you. Winner!

To add pizazz to water and seltzer, make grape-cubes. Place a grape or two in each section of an ice cube tray, and then fill with water. Once they're frozen, pop these grape-cubes into water for a refreshing, tasty drink. This works for cut pieces of almost any of your favorite fruits. Think pineapple, mango, berries, peaches, nectarines, and melon.

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Adapted from Lose Your Final 15