Nutritionists tell us that slow and steady is the best strategy for losing weight – and that following five simple rules can help us lose weight safely while staying fit and avoiding undue hunger.
From Women’s Health Magazine come these straight-up rules for slimming down:
- Don’t skip breakfast – Eating a nutritious morning meal actually jump-starts your metabolism and encourages the pounds to drop off. Choose a breakfast that’s high in protein and fiber – such as unsweetened cereal or an egg and whole wheat toast – to keep you full and give you energy for hours.
- Make a change to see a change – If your habit has been to eat whatever appeals to you, determine to make habit changes. You can start by following the 80-20 rule developed by personal trainers: make a conscious effort to choose foods wisely 80 percent of the time and allow only the occasional splurge.
- Healthy foods don’t mean all you can eat – Nuts, nut butter, avocados, sweet potatoes, orange juice, brown rice — these foods are all highly nutritious, but that doesn’t mean they’re void of calories. You need to be aware of healthy serving sizes, even for foods that are super good for you.
- Calories in can’t exceed calories out – Losing weight is about simple math: you have to cut out or burn 500 calories a day to lose one pound a week. So if you burn 250 calories on a morning run, you’ll still need to cut out 250 calories from your diet that day. Don’t get in the mind-set that a workout gives you a free pass to splurge, because you’ll end up taking in more calories than you burned, which will result in weight gain instead of weight loss.
- Don’t slip back into bad habits – Once the weight is gone, you may be tempted to reinstate that soda at lunchtime instead of sticking to the water you replaced it with while dieting. Remember that losing weight and keeping it off is a forever lifestyle change – not just something you do until you reach your goal.
