Eating Tips to Help Lose Weight

Eat less, more often

Yes, that's right!  Eat smaller meals more often.  This will help increase your metabolism and after a while your stomach will feel fuller sooner because it is used to less food.  Eat a large breakfast then plan a small, healthy snack mid morning.  Eat a medium sized meal for lunch such as a salad and a piece of fruit.  Followed by a healthy mid afternoon snack.  Then, your evening dinner should be your smallest of the three main meals with little or no carbs.   Watch you don't consume too many or too less calories though.  A typical person requires 1800 to 2000 calories per day depending on age, gender, and daily activities.

Drink a glass of water between meals and snacks to help boost your metabolism.  If you are hungry in the evening, make it a very small snack and it should not be less than a few hours before bedtime.  Take a multi-vitamin daily to help supplement your nutrients.  If you are working out heavily, taking a super B complex in addition to your multi-vitamins can help turn the food you eat into energy.

Don't eat before bedtime

Eating snacks less than 3 hours before bedtime can cause you to gain weight.  Any food consumed during this time results in calories being stored as fat vs being consumed by the body.  After you have your last snack, try washing your mouth out with water to remove any salts or flavors that remain.  These can give you urges to eat more.  Instead of a late night snack, try drinking a glass of water or a cup of green tea.

Low Carbohydrates and fats, more protein

Cut down on the amount of carbohydrates and fats you consume and increase the amount of protein.  This is tough because carbs are in basically everything, especially breads.  You can try eating that burger or lite hot dog without a bun.  Eat a salad instead of a sandwich.  Lettuce basically has very few calories and fills you up.  Be careful however, you don't want to eliminate carbs totally, you need them to get energy especially if you are working out daily.  Just cut them back, not out of your diet!


Drink plenty of water

Water is the body's best friend. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water daily to increase your metabolism.  An increase in metabolism helps burn fat faster. There are also other benefits to drinking water in addition to filling your stomach and increasing your metabolism.  If you get tired of drinking water, try substituting with a cup of green tea on occasion.  Green tea in addition to being an anti-oxidant, has properties that help increase metabolism and burn fat.  If you are not crazy about the caffeine, there are plenty of decaffeinated varieties of green tea available.

Drink less alcohol

Have you ever noticed that you have gained weight during a time you were drinking alcohol more than usual?  Not a coincidence.  Alcohol is metabolized by the body as acetic acid and a portion of that is stored as fat if your body does not burn it off immediately.  So if you are drinking lots of wine, liquor, or beer, especially non-lite beer and are not working out heavily, you most likely will discover a weight gain.  Alcohol also helps your body retain water, which will contribute to weight gain. 

Work Out

Having trouble eating healthy? Starting a work out program will actually help you stick to a healthy diet.  Overall, you feel healthier when you work out and subconsciously you do not want to "waste" your work out, so you tend to eat healthier.  It is much easier to pass up those goodies when you stop and think of how hard you work out and you don't want to be doing it for nothing. The bottom line is burning more calories than you consume will burn that weight away.