This easy guide will help you melt pounds gradually by changing your lifestyle, not banishing the fun from your life. Find out how to boost your metabolism, beat bloat, and more.
1. The "Protein" Way
Get 25 % of your calories from low fat protein.
Why try it: Protein will keep you fuller longer. When people cut calories, they tend to eat salad. Soon after, they are starving.
Action Plan
Add lean protein to meals and snacks. Aim for 90 grams a day and 1,400 calories total. A lot of people think protein means chicken, meat, or fish. But some of the best choices are dairy foods, beans, and nuts.
Your Protein Cheat Sheet:
- Roasted chicken breast (3 ounces): 26g protein, 140 calories, 3g fat
- Beef sirloin (3 ounces, trimmed of fat): 22g protein, 177 calories, 9g fat
- Cottage cheese, 1% fat (4.4 ounces): 15g protein, 89 calories, 1g fat
- Kidney beans (1/2 cup): 7g protein, 108 calories, 1g fat
- Cheddar cheese (1 ounce): 7g protein, 114 calories, 9g fat
- Almonds (1 ounce, about 22 nuts): 6g protein, 169 calories, 15g fatEgg,
- Hard-boiled: 6g protein, 78 calories, 5g fat
- Yogurt, Dannon Light & Fit (6 ounces): 5g protein, 60 calories, 0g fat
2. The "Three Change" Way
Ban 3 high calorie foods.
Why try it: Most likely there's a high cal coffee drink, hunk of bread, or piece of cheese in your day.
Action Plan:
Cut out these foods-
- Creamy, syrupy coffee drinks: A grande (16-ounce) low fat caramel macchiato has 240 calories and 7 grams of fat. Trade it for a tall skinny mocha (90 calories, 0g fat) and save 150 calories.
- Half a bagel: A typical bagel packs 300 to 400 calories. Lose half and cut 150 to 200 calories.
- One slice of cheese: Swap the cheddar on your sandwich for mustard and save 111 calories and 9 grams of fat.
3. The "Eat Breakfast" Way
Consume 300 calories at breakfast and your daily total will be about 100 fewer calories.
Why try it:
People who eat a morning bowl of cereal are less likely to become overweight than those who pass up their a.m. meal. Breakfast skippers tend to overeat at lunch because they're famished. They're also more likely to snack on high cal food all day, and justify it by saying, 'I didn't have breakfast.
Action Plan:
Try a rotation of these three healthy starts, which contain between 200 and 300 calories each.
- Power cereal: A bowl of high protein cereal or oatmeal (6 to 7 grams of protein per serving and no more than 200 calories), such as Kashi GoLean Crunch, with a half cup of fat free milk
- Egg sandwich: A toasted whole wheat muffin with one scrambled egg and half a slice of melted American cheese
- Yogurt parfait: A container of fat free yogurt with a half cup of berries and an ounce of almonds
4. The "Smart Snack" Way
Break up with the office vending machine. Bring a healthy treat from home instead.
Why try it:
You can still take a 3 p.m. snack break.
Action Plan:
Limit your afternoon nosh to 150 calories.
Here's what to eat for a:
- Chocolate fix: Try a 100-calorie pack of CocoaVia.
- Filling fix: Eat two cups of air popped popcorn (62 calories).
- Crunch fix: Have one cup of raw veggies (carrots and celery) with 2 tablespoons hummus (80 calories).
- Healthy fix: Munch an apple with an ounce of low fat cheese, such as one Laughing Cow Light cheese wedge (130 calories).
5. The "Eat More" Way
You can have as much as 30 to 35 grams of fiber every day.
Why try it:
You won't feel hungry. Fiber is the indigestible component of whole grains, fruits, nuts, beans, and vegetables. Because you can't digest the fiber, it will fill you up on its bulk with no calories.
Action Plan:
Keep total calories to 1,400 to 1,600, and get 35 grams of fiber a day from such foods as:
- Gnu Foods flavor & fiber bar: 12g fiber, 130 calories, 3g fat
- Fiber One cereal (1/2 cup): 14g fiber, 60 calories, 1g fat
- Pear (one medium): 4g fiber, 51 calories, 0g fat
- Raspberries (1/2 cup): 4g fiber, 32 calories, 1g fat
- Baked potato (one small, with skin): 3g fiber, 134 calories, 0g fat
- Whole grain bread (one slice): 2g fiber, 69 calories, 1g fat
6. The "Eat Three Fewer Bites Per Day" Way
A little bit of portion control can add up to a lot of weight loss.
Why try it:
Obese patients given a plate and cereal bowl marked for portion size were almost four times more likely to have lost at least 5 percent of their body weight after six months, a study found.
Action Plan:
Leave 3 generous bites of your breakfast muffin, lunch pizza, and steak dinner on your plate and you'll save between 50 and 75 calories at each meal.
7. The "Burn Fat" Way
Blast more calories in less time and fire up your metabolism with interval training.
Why try it:
Adding several short bursts of high intensity exercise to your walking routine can burn up to 100 calories more in the same amount of time. Doing challenging exercise also boosts your metabolism.
Action Plan:
Kick up your workout with this routine:
- Alternate walking at moderate intensity for 3 minutes with speed walking for 2 minutes.
- Do this for 30 minutes, then add 5 minutes of moderate walking at the end.
- Try it 5 times a week and you'll burn 500 more calories weekly than you would with a moderate walking routine.
8. The "Beat Bloat" Way
Sometimes feeling 10 pounds lighter is as good as losing it.
Why try it:
The foods that make you bloated- refined carbs, such as pizza, pasta, and white bread have empty calories. When they get stored in the body they attach to water. The more of them you eat, the more water you hold on to.
Action Plan:
- Trade white bread for whole grain.
- Trade white rice for brown.
- Trade crackers for fruit and yogurt.
- Eat a small meal before an important event; a large one can cause bloat.
- Go easy on the salt: High sodium foods can make your stomach pooch.
- And drink lots of water. Your body works more efficiently when hydrated.
9. The "Eat Your Favorite Foods" Way
When dining out, don't order the "healthy" choice if it's not what you want. Otherwise, you may end up eating more than if you'd just had some of what you craved.
Why try it:
Healthy food has calories, but we tend not to count them.
Action Plan:
Restaurant meals are higher in calories than home cooked ones. Dine out once a week (including takeout) instead of 3 times.
10. The "Sleep More" Way
People who get fewer than 7 hours of sleep at night have higher BMIs than those who get enough rest.
Why try it:
It's possible that just by sleeping more, you'll start to lose weight. First, lack of sleep spikes your levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that signals your system to hold on to fat for survival. Second, a well rested brain equals more energy for making smart lifestyle choices, such as having soup and salad for lunch instead of chicken fingers. You'll have fewer cravings for rich, fatty foods when you aren't sleep deprived.
Action Plan:
Turn off the TV and the computer and go to bed already! :)
