Kate Fodor
Sunday, April 29, 2012

Eating less, but not losing

Trying to slim down and feeling frustrated?

If you’re giving it your all but the number on the scale still isn’t budging, you may be sabotaging yourself in spite of your best intentions.

Here are a dozen dieting don’ts to help save your weight-loss efforts.

You eat fake foods

We admit that prepackaged weight-loss products like shakes and bars are convenient, but they may not be helping you to lose weight in the long run.

“You never feel satisfied after you eat something like that, because it’s just a bunch of processed stuff,” says Manuel Villacorta, a registered dietician and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

There are lots of healthier, more filling options with the same or fewer calories, like a cheese stick or a serving of plain nonfat Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries.

You burn the midnight oil

Sure, you need to log time at the gym, but to lose weight, you also need to log time in your bed.

Skimping on sleep, especially sleeping less than five or six hours a night, can slow your metabolism and cause hormonal changes that hurt your weight-loss efforts.

Being tired may also make you eat more. One recent study found that people who are sleep-deprived consume a whopping 500 extra calories a day.

You exercise too much

Yes, you read that right. Exercise is important, but Villacorta maintains that being too focused on it can backfire.

“People think that if they exercise they will magically lose weight, and then they get frustrated,” he cautions.

In fact, about 80% of dieting time and energy should be focused on nutrition and 20% on exercise, he says. “If I have a client who’s exercising six times a week, sometimes I’ll cut that in half and have them spend the extra hours shopping and planning meals.”

You always choose the salad

Contrary to popular belief, heading for the salad bar may not be your best option.

Salads may not contain enough carbohydrates to help control hunger hormones, according to Villacorta. He suggests a healthy soup and sandwich instead, or tossing a serving of brown rice, lentils, or garbanzo beans into your greens. And beware of high-calorie salad bar additions like blue cheese and candied walnuts.

Add enough of those and “you may as well just have a burger,” he says.

You’re a high-calorie health nut

Just because a food is healthy doesn’t mean you can eat a mountain of it.

Switching from white bread to whole wheat bread, eating nuts instead of chips, using olive oil instead of butter —these are all healthy changes. But they aren’t low-calorie substitutions, so portion control is still key.

You eat too early

Popular wisdom says not to eat in the evenings, but that may not make sense unless you turn in extra early.

“People eat at 6:00 and stay up until 11:00 or midnight, so their bodies are naturally asking for fuel again,” Villacorta says. “I tell people to aim to eat 70% of their calories before dinner and 30% at dinner, but it doesn’t matter how late dinner is.” Healthy eating in the evening can prevent a late-night binge on ice cream or cookies.

You’re a loner

Remember the buddy system from your kindergarten field trips? It works for dieting, too. Studies show that support from friends and family increases the likelihood that women will lose weight.

If you can’t get what you need from your nearest and dearest, other forms of support—including advice from a weight-loss counselor or encouragement from online buddies—can also do the trick.

You never snack

To keep your metabolism at its peak, you need to eat every three to four hours.

“People think they need to eat less frequently, but really they need to eat more often, in smaller amounts,” Villacorta advises. “There’s no real reason you need to think in terms of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

You don’t have a diary

One large-scale study found that keeping a daily food journal doubled the amount of weight participants lost.

Researchers speculate that simply writing down what you put in your mouth makes you more accountable and cuts your daily calories.

Create your own food log or use one of the many available for free online.

You don’t like water

Substituting water for sugary sodas and even for juices can make a major dent in your daily calorie count. Drinking water may also help you manage your appetite.

In one study, people who drank two glasses of water before eating a meal consumed up to 90 fewer calories.

You skip breakfast

There’s lots of evidence that people who eat breakfast tend to have healthier weights, so start the day right by making time for a morning meal.

Experts say whole-grain cereal is one of the best breakfast choices for dieters.

It’s quick and easy, too—so there goes the excuse about not having time before work.

You hate to cook

Restaurant meals are frequently more caloric than home-cooked ones, so dust off your apron and hunt down some healthy recipes.

When you do eat out, consider splitting a meal with your date or asking the water to serve you half of your meal and have the other half boxed up to go.

Original Article:

By Camille Noe Pagan

If weight loss came in a pill, the list of side effects might include “May cause shortness of cash” and “Some users experience a loss of friendships.” After all, that’s what happens when you spend half a paycheck on healthy food and pass up happy-hour invites so you can avoid the bar snacks. And those side effects aren’t just misery inducing, they’re self-defeating too: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who turned these pitfalls into excuses were up to 76 percent less likely to lose weight than those who figured out ways around them. This advice will help you battle the bulge without missing a beat of your life.

Lose Weight, Not Friends

Ever notice that the day you announce you’re starting a new diet, your friends go AWOL? Here’s why: Cutting calories causes your level of serotonin (a feel-good brain chemical) to nosedive, leaving you cranky and unpleasant to be around.

To keep your serotonin levels in check, figure out how many calories your body needs based on your activity level. And make sure those calories are split evenly among protein, whole grains, and produce at every meal.

“Unbalanced meals—made entirely of refined carbs, for example—cause blood-sugar fluctuations that make you irritable,” says Caroline M. Apovian, M.D., director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center.

Apovian also recommends adding omega-3 fatty acids to your diet, because research shows that they may fight depression and slow digestion, which helps you stay full longer. (Try eating two or three three-ounce servings of salmon a week, or adding a tablespoon of olive oil, canola oil, or flaxseeds into your daily meals.)

Lose Weight, Not Money

When you’re on a diet, you expect your stomach to be on the empty side—not your wallet. But researchers at the University of Washington found that the cost of healthy, nutrient-dense foods like whole grains and lean meats has increased nearly 30 percent in the past four years, while candy and soft drinks have gone up only 15 percent.

One money-saving tactic: Eat less meat. “Meat is one of the priciest items on a grocery bill, and most Americans eat more of it than they should,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and the author of The Flexitarian Diet. Plus, meat is a source of excess calories and saturated fat.

Most women can slash around 15 percent of their daily calories by sticking to one or two servings of meat a day, estimates Blatner. Fill the void with fiber-rich foods like beans, oatmeal, and brown rice, plus hearty veggies like portobello mushrooms and eggplant. All of these will fill you up for a fraction of the calories and cash.

Lose Weight, Not Time

In a recent study, 41 percent of women cited “not enough time” as the reason they don’t eat better. Spending just an hour or two on the weekend shopping for a week’s worth of healthy meals and getting a jump-start on the prep work (cutting veggies, making marinades) will save you time and pounds in the long run. A survey by the CDC found that almost 40 percent of people who lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off planned their weekly meals.
“When you don’t map out your meals, you’re too tempted to grab whatever’s nearby, which is often high-calorie junk,” says Elizabeth Ricanati, M.D., founding medical director of the Lifestyle 180 Program at the Cleveland Clinic.

Lose Weight, Not Muscle

If you drop weight without lifting any, you risk shedding muscle tissue instead of fat. Muscle takes more than twice as many calories to maintain, and it keeps your metabolism revving at peak calorie-burning speed, so it’s important to hang on to it, says Donald Hensrud, M.D., an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
Your best strategy is to eat lots of protein and strength train for 20 to 30 minutes two or three times a week. Protein will fuel those workouts and help you maintain lean muscle, says Hensrud. Eat at least three or four servings of two to three ounces of protein-rich beans, soy, fish, lean meat, poultry, or low-fat dairy every day.

Lose Weight, Not Your Lifestyle

Watching your waistline doesn’t mean you have to become a recluse who spends every spare moment on the elliptical machine. In fact, an all-or-nothing approach is counterproductive. “Many women make changes they’ll never be able to stick with—like eating nothing but raw food or vowing to go for a run at 5 a.m. every day—and set themselves up for failure,” says Hensrud. “Total deprivation doesn’t work.”

He advocates skipping extreme regimens in favor of small changes. When he asked a group of overweight study subjects to make several small lifestyle shifts—such as eating breakfast, having as many veggies as they’d like with each meal, and watching TV for only as long as they’d exercised that day—they dropped an average of eight pounds in two weeks. “When you combine a bunch of little strategies, the cumulative effect can be huge, and you won’t feel as if you’ve given up your entire life to be slim.”

Original Article: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/diet-rules?cm_mmc=Yahoo_Health-_-Your%20Body%20On___%20A%20Detox-_-Article-_-Weight%20Loss%20Tips%20That%20Don’t%20Suck