As soon as people find out
I'm a nutrition professor and registered dietitian nutritionist, they pick my
brain for weight loss tips that
really work. What do I tell them? Adhere to the old adage, "Eat breakfast
like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper," since emerging
research confirms the pattern's benefits.
In a fascinating study
published in the journal Obesity,
for example, researchers at Tel Aviv University studied how changing the timing
of meals would impact weight loss. In essence, they wanted to see if swapping a
high-calorie dinner with a high-calorie breakfast – while keeping the total
daily calories the same (1,400) – would impact weight loss. It did. Over the
course of 12 weeks, the women who ate the high-calorie
breakfast (700 calories) and low-calorie dinner (200 calories)
lost about 19 pounds on average, while the women who ate the same foods but
backloaded their calories lost about eight pounds. Weight aside, the
higher-calorie breakfast group also lost twice as many inches around their waists
than the higher-calorie dinner eaters.
While flipping your daily
calorie intake is my favorite weight-loss tip, there are plenty of other
helpful tricks out there. Here are my registered dietitian nutritionist
colleagues' picks:
1. Shed pounds with pulses.
Cynthia Sass, author of
"Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches With Pulses," is
all about beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas (aka pulses)
for weight loss. She recommends adding a half-cup serving of them to breakfast,
lunch or dinner. Sass says this affordable superfood has been shown to increase
fullness and satiety, delay the return of hunger and lead to eating fewer daily
calories without trying. Pass the chickpeas, please.
2. Stress less.
Let's face it: When you're
feeling stressed, you tend to seek comfort with the aid of your two best
friends, Ben and Jerry. To beat this habit, Toby Amidor, author of
"The Greek Yogurt Kitchen," recommends looking to
exercise to release your stress. She also supports taking a few minutes of
"me time" daily, which can include reading a book or just taking a
warm shower. If the stress is too much, Amidor recommends seeking the
assistance of a certified therapist.
3. Strategically step on the scale.
Bonnie Taub-Dix,
creator of Better Than
Dieting and author of "Read It Before You Eat It,"
suggests you make peace with the bathroom scale. In fact, she wants you to use
it to your advantage by weighing yourself on Fridays and Mondays. Why? Taub-Dix
has found that if your weight is up on a Friday, you'll be less likely to go
overboard with calories on the weekend – especially if you know you're going to
be weighing in on Monday. If you weigh yourself on a Friday and your weight is
down, it may motivate you to curtail the weekend
splurging for an even better Monday morning weight check.
4. Eat more to weigh less.
Keri Gans, author of
"The Small Change Diet" wants you to concentrate on eating
more to lose weight. Huh? What she means is rather than negatively focusing
on all the foods you think you shouldn't be eating to shed weight,
focus on what you should be eating more of in your diet. For example,
ask yourself, "Have I eaten any fruit today?" Or, "Does my
dinner plate include a veggie?" According to Gans, the more healthy stuff
you include on your plate, the less room there is for the not-so-healthy foods.
I call that smart plate allocation.
5. Do the carb swap.
Leslie Bonci,
owner of Owner Active
Eating Advice, advocates carbohydrate swapping to control calories.
She suggests devoting 20 to 30 percent of your plate to the carbs you enjoy. In
other words, choose rice or pasta or potatoes or wine or dessert.
This allows you to discriminate rather than eliminate.
6. Be a food snob.
Kathleen Zelman, the
director of nutrition at WebMD,
wants you to be picky when you
eat something. She recommends that if you don't love a food
after taking the first bite, don't eat the rest of it. In other words, don't
waste your calories on tasteless foods; eat only what you love instead.
7. Always have a plan B.
As a busy working mom and
the author of the blog Better is the New Perfect, Elizabeth Ward understands that
everyday life often gets in the way of your best weight-loss intentions. That's
why she highly recommends having a plan B up your sleeve. For example, when
stormy weather prevents you from exercising outdoors, find a way to be physically
active in your house – even if that means moving the living
room chairs, downloading a variety of Beyonce music and strutting like one of
her backup dancers.
8. Ditch the fad diets.
According to Kara Lydon,
author of "Nourish Your Namaste," research suggests that chronically
following fad diets may actually make you gain weight over the long haul. Lydon
wants you to forget the cleanses, detoxes and weight loss gimmicks that never
work. Save your money and focus instead on making healthy lifestyle changes
such as honoring your
hunger, feeling your fullness and choosing satisfying foods that
will nourish you mentally and physically.
9. Mind your mindfulness.
Sarah-Jane Bedwell, host of
"Cooking with
Sarah-Jane," is all about mindfulness for weight loss. She says
research shows that mindful eaters eat
less and claim their meals are more satisfying than people who do not eat
mindfully. Here are Bedwell's four steps to mindful eating:
Eat sitting down, since people eat more and tend to make less healthy
choices when they're standing.
Eat your food off of a plate rather than out of a bag or box.
Eat only when you are truly physically hungry and not for emotional
reasons.
Eat without distractions such as the TV, a tablet, smartphone or
computer.
10. Journal your successes.
Writing down your food
intake (including portions) and physical activity is a great way to promote
weight loss, according to Elisa Zied, author of "Younger Next Week." She says being aware and accountable
to yourself can be a great first step to help you identify sabotaging habits
and replace them with beneficial habits to ultimately achieve and maintain long
term weight loss.
