No More Diets: 10 Practical Weight Loss Tips From an Expert
Are you tired of counting calories and following strict diets to lose weight? If you want to shed pounds for good, you’re not alone. In fact, nearly 1 in 3 adults are overweight.
Losing weight doesn’t have to be daunting if you focus on simple but powerful strategies. The best approach? Healthy lifestyle changes.
To lose weight, you need to:
- Make better food choices to nourish your body
- Eliminate processed foods
- Eat in a calorie deficit
There are a million diets out on the internet that don’t work because they are overly restrictive and hard to maintain for a long period of time. Instead of focusing on fad diets and pills, seasoned personal trainer and health coach Chris Freytag offers 10 expert tips and strategies to help you achieve your weight loss goals in an approachable way.
1. EDIT Your Food Choices
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Rearrange those four letters in the word “diet” and “edit” what you eat instead! Editing means making better food choices, being smarter about what you will eat, what you will eat less of, and what you might cut out altogether.
The focus is on gradual changes and mindful eating—not crazy elimination diets, intermittent fasting, or tedious calorie counting.
Ultimately, it’s about feeling in control of what you eat. Instead of saying you are “on a diet,” you’re making better choices to help improve your overall health.
When you make smarter food choices, you naturally end up eating fewer unhealthy foods, ultimately reducing your overall calorie intake. You will find that your relationship with food and your choices become a lot easier when you ditch the diet mentality!
2. Embrace a Healthy Lifestyle Mindset
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It’s important to accept that successful weight loss takes time. Remember, it’s a process, and you’ll need to have patience and a positive mindset.
Make your ‘why’ for eating healthy about deeper, more meaningful things. Reducing blood sugar, reducing cortisol, and improving cholesterol and blood pressure are all great examples. But your why should be unique to you!
Remember that how you feel is directly correlated to what you put in your mouth.
Food is fuel, and what you eat and the nutrients you get or don’t get into your body will affect how you feel, think, and act every day.
The best weight loss plans are foiled when the only motivation is weight loss. Make it about deeper reasons and think about how healthy eating can improve every aspect of your life.
3. Use the 80/20 Rule
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Use the 80/20 rule when it comes to eating. Eat healthy 80% of the time, and give yourself 20% wiggle room.
Some days, you will do better than others, and that’s perfectly okay! You don’t have to become the perfect clean-eating human. If you have a bad day, wake up tomorrow and reset your mindset.
Lean your life toward healthier choices, but be compassionate and kind to yourself when you make less-than-stellar choices. Skip the mentality of “I’m on a diet, or I’m not.”
The 80/20 rule is about moderation, not perfection.
4. Watch Your Portions
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If you take in too many calories—more than your body needs or can burn—you will gain weight. To lose weight steadily and keep it off, you need to eat fewer calories and watch your portion sizes.
So, what’s the difference between portions and servings?
- A portion is how much food you choose to eat.
- A serving is a standard amount (or guideline) used by food companies to determine how much to eat and the calories and nutritional content of food.
Think about it—one of your portions could be several servings! The key to weight loss may not be eliminating your favorite foods but just eating less food overall.
Portion Size Rules of Thumb
Most restaurants serve up big platefuls of portion distortion—a mega plateful of pasta or a steak the size of your dinner plate. But those are way too often more than we need.
Use these guidelines to size up your portions more accurately:
- The size of your fist = A medium fruit, one cup of whole grains
- The size of your thumb = One ounce of cheese
- The tip of your thumb = One teaspoon of butter, oil, or nut butter
- A deck of cards = One serving of meat, poultry, or fish
- One cupped handful = One serving of cereal
- Two golf balls = one serving of mashed potato or ice cream
You can easily cut back on hundreds of calories a day when you watch your portions. As you readjust to smaller portions, your body will learn to reset that feeling of fullness.
5. Eat More Protein
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As you age, it’s necessary to increase your protein intake—especially for women.
Protein is an important part of your strategy for losing weight without dieting. Eating protein at every meal can increase feelings of fullness, reduce hunger, and help you eat fewer calories.
When it comes to feeling full, eating protein can help reduce the ghrelin levels in your blood. Ghrelin is a hormone produced by your stomach and is often called the hunger hormone. Consuming adequate protein each day can help control the release of ghrelin in your body, keeping you feeling fuller longer.
Some good examples of protein-rich foods include chicken, turkey, meat, fish, yogurt, lentils, quinoa, eggs, protein powder, nuts and seeds.
6. Eat More Fiber-Rich Foods
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Fiber-rich foods also enhance weight loss by increasing fullness, helping with digestion, reducing calorie intake, and stabilizing blood sugar.
Popular examples of fiber-rich foods include:
- Whole grains (quinoa, oats)
- Legumes (beans, lentils)
- Fruits (apples, berries)
- Vegetables (broccoli, spinach)
- Nuts and seeds (chia seeds, almonds)
Just like adding protein to every meal, adding fiber-rich foods is also key to your weight loss efforts.
7. Use a Calorie Tracking App
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A calorie-tracking app like MyFitnessPal can be a valuable tool for trying to lose weight without dieting.
Calorie tracking apps come with loads of benefits, like:
- Improves accountability. Enhances weight loss efforts by promoting awareness, accountability, and informed decision-making regarding dietary choices.
- Encourages mindfulness. Helps encourage better food choices and portion sizes, fostering a greater awareness of daily calorie intake.
- Monitors macronutrients. It allows users to monitor not only calories but also macronutrient intake, ensuring a balanced and nutritionally sound diet of carbohydrates, fats, and protein.
- Highlights patterns. Supports behavior change by highlighting eating patterns and areas for improvement, empowering individuals to make healthier choices.
- Helps with meal planning. Assists in meal planning and preparation, making it easier to adhere to dietary goals and resist impulsive, less healthy food choices.
- Fits many lifestyles. Fits seamlessly into various lifestyles, providing flexibility and helping individuals make informed choices in different situations.
- Educational resource. Helps users understand the calorie content of different foods and promoting long-term, sustainable habits.
8. Drink More Water
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This may be the easiest tip for losing weight without dieting! There are so many reasons to drink more water daily.
Some surprising benefits of staying hydrated include:
- Regulates your appetite. This is often disguised as hunger. Better yet, drinking water before meals promotes a feeling of fullness, reducing overall food intake.
- Supports your metabolism by aiding in the breakdown of fats and calories.
- Replaces high-calorie beverages, reducing total daily calorie intake.
- Ensures proper hydration for effective workouts, contributing to weight loss efforts.
- Facilitates the absorption of essential nutrients from food.
- Supports kidney function in eliminating waste and toxins from the body.
9. Move Your Body More
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Although proper nutrition is necessary for weight loss, physical activity will make it more successful. You can’t have a healthy lifestyle without pairing the two together!
We all have 24 hours in a day, and what you choose to do with those hours can make all the difference. If you can, try to make time to exercise!
If you are not currently exercising, start small—even a 10-minute workout can get your heart rate up and engage your muscles. Allow yourself to choose some form of movement that you like to do so you will stick with it.
Muscle building is an important factor in maintaining an enjoyable lifestyle as you age. You need strength and balance to perform daily activities. (These are our favorite strength training moves for women over 50.)
Of course, don’t forget about the importance of getting your heart rate up by walking, running, swimming or whatever form of cardio you like.
Quick Exercise Tips from a Fitness Expert:
- Partner up with a friend or family member and keep each other accountable.
- Remind yourself of how good you feel after you finish a workout.
- Build up your commitment to exercise (and your health) every time you keep your appointment. Self-discipline is like a muscle!
10. Get More Sleep
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Adequate sleep is crucial for weight loss because it influences various physiological and hormonal factors.
Here are just a few of the amazing things getting enough sleep can do for your body:
- Hormone regulation. Sleep regulates hormones like leptin and ghrelin, which control hunger and fullness. Poor sleep can lead to increased ghrelin (an appetite stimulant) and decreased leptin (an appetite suppressant), promoting overeating.
- Supports metabolic function. Sleep supports optimal metabolic function, ensuring efficient energy utilization and preventing metabolic slowdown, which can occur with sleep deprivation.
- Helps with stress. Sleep promotes better stress management and reduces cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol, associated with sleep deprivation, can lead to increased body fat.
- Improves energy levels. Sleep enhances energy levels and overall physical performance, encouraging regular exercise and adherence to a fitness routine.
- Reduces cravings. Sleep improves impulse control and reduces cravings for high-calorie, sugary carbohydrate foods, which are often sought out for quick energy boosts.
- Supports muscle recovery. Sleep supports muscle recovery and maintenance, crucial for an active lifestyle and effective weight loss through exercise.
Check out these 15 science-backed tips to get better sleep.
Understanding the Basics of Weight Loss
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Weight loss can seem like an overwhelming task, but it all comes down to consuming fewer calories than your body needs. By doing so, your body taps into its stored body fat for energy, leading to weight loss.
While diets are often centered around eliminating food groups, fasting, and special supplements, there are alternative approaches to losing weight while still enjoying your favorite foods.
Here are a few of the key takeaways for understanding the basics of how weight loss works:
- Reducing portion sizes can help prevent weight gain and promote weight loss.
- Focusing on consuming nutrient-dense foods can be more impactful than specific diets.
- Practicing mindful eating can help avoid overeating.
- Staying hydrated throughout the day can help reduce cravings and boost metabolism.
- Regular physical activity, such as strength training, walking, or dancing, can help burn calories and increase muscle tone.
While all of these tips are important individually, they are all intertwined. To lose weight, try incorporating a combination of these tips into your daily lifestyle.
Remember, being on a diet is not the best weight-loss strategy! Creating a healthy lifestyle of clean eating and movement is the long-term answer to losing extra unwanted pounds. Plus, you’ll achieve better overall health and well-being, too!
