Tips For Weight Loss

Make sure you don’t skip breakfast. If your body doesn’t have the fuel it needs as your day starts, it’s metabolism will be on the prowl to solve this starvation issue throughout the day. Convince your body that there’s no shortage by having a quick healthy breakfast.

Give your body at least 3 to 4 hours before bedtime to complete digestion. You’ll sleep better, and lose weight faster.

Keeping track of what you eat will help you be realistic about your weight loss goals. Just write down everything that you eat, with approximate quantities. If you don’t know the calorie value of the food, that’s okay. At first, it’s more important not to be fooling yourself if you’re snacking every few minutes. A food journal will also help you detect patterns of unhealthy foods. Sharing your food journal with your weight loss doctor is your choice, but the more information he or she has, the more likely they are to be able to help you reach your goals.

Most fried or breaded food is extremely unhealthy. If you have a habit of eating these types of foods frequently, you’re almost guaranteed to have health problems. These foods are laden in oil and fat that cause weight issues and heart disease.

If your goals around weight loss list a certain number of pounds, and then end there, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Successful weight loss involves a certain amount of lifestyle change, in order to develop and maintain a healthier new lifestyle. Consider setting goals around healthier eating habits, recreational activities, and of course – regular exercise.

Fresh food is good for you. Fresh vegetables contain more nutrients and fewer chemicals in their canned or preserved equivalents. Try to get in the habit of eating some vegetables raw.

Skipping a meal won’t help your diet. In fact, it has the opposite effect. Make sure you have a meal bar handy so that you never need to skip a meal.

Tea and coffee are not so bad by themselves, but if you add cream and sugar to each cup, it can really add up to a lot of extra weight over time. Perhaps you can choose a natural sweetener such as Stevia, or better yet, learn to drink them black.

There’s a big difference between healthy snacks, and junkfood snacks. Planning ahead to make sure that healthy snacks are available will help you to avoid grabbing a quick junkfood snack on the run. Packages of raw vegetables make excellent snacks.

Indulging your sweet tooth generally means that you’ll have even more cravings for more sweet foods, and every time you eat a sweet treat it’s probably going to add weight. Try to balance your short-term cravings with the vision of your long-term goal. If you must have chocolate, choose a high quality cacao rich dark chocolate, which will have a minimum of added sugar.

Water has no calories. Most of us are under-hydrated, so unless you have a medical reason for limiting your water intake, try to drink more fresh pure water. It will help you feel fuller, and you’ll be less likely to reach for more food. In addition, it will help flush wastes from your body. You’ll feel better and your skin will look clearer and healthier.

Many fruit juices have additional sugar added, and even those that are hundred percent pure juice contains so much natural sugar that they can unbalance your system. If you must drink fruit juice, get in the habit of watering it down, by adding at least 50% clear pure water to each class. A better choice would be to eat fresh fruit, instead of drinking fruit juice. That way you’ll get extra fiber, which will help you feel fuller, and help you digestion. Of course fresh fruits are also an excellent source of vitamins.

As soon as you wake up, drink a full glass of cool water. Add a squirt of lemon if you’d like. This will help hydrate your body and flush your digestive system. Drink a Glass of Water before Each Meal. A glass of water before each meal will help you naturally feel fuller.

Drinking sugar-laden colas and fizzy drinks is not compatible with your weight loss goals. Change this habit by substituting chilled herbal teas, fresh water, or carbonated water.

Walking is a gentle and effective exercise that almost anyone can do, and of course it burns calories. It also helps strengthen your body’s muscle and bones, and helps your circulatory system. For most people, it has the added benefit of reducing stress. Stay on the lookout for opportunities to walk just a little more throughout your day. Perhaps you can choose to park further from the entrance of a store, or take the stairs to or from a parking area.

Many of us undermine our weight loss efforts by sitting down in front of the TV after dinner with a bag of chips, a box of cookies, or other high calorie snacks. It’s more of a habit than a response to hunger. Either plan low-calorie weight loss snacks for this time, or change your habit to a cup of caffeine-free tea.

Dietary changes can cause constipation problems, and there are three basic steps that can help you adjust. First, drink more water and eat more fiber. High-fiber vegetables include broccoli and greens. High-fiber fruits include oranges, apples, pears and plums. If that’s not enough, consider taking a magnesium citrate or other magnesium supplement.

This is another habit change piece. It helps, in fact, to choose smaller plates as well. Put smaller portions on smaller plates. If you need more, you can always make the choice to get another helping. Since many of us were trained as children to eat what’s on our plates, make sure you don’t put more than you need there.

Recent studies have indicated that the polyphenols and catechins in green tea contribute to an increase in basic metabolism, which will help you burn more fat.

When cooking meats, barbecuing is a better choice than frying as there will be less fat in the resulting cooked meat. However, be careful of sugar- laden BBQ sauces.

Because vegetables are low in fat, sugars, and calories, and often high in fiber, they make excellent healthy snacks to help you lose weight. Buy organic if you can, or at least go organic when purchasing the “dirty dozen” most contaminated forms of produce.