How to Lose Weight: 20 Fast, Easy Tips

You know the drill when it comes to losing weight: take in fewer calories, burn more calories. But you also know that most diets and quick weight-loss plans don't work as promised. If you're trying to drop a few pounds fast, these expert tips will make it easy for you to lose the weight quickly.

1. Write down what you eat for one week and you will lose weight.

Studies found that people who keep food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don’t. Watch out for weekends: A University of North Carolina study found people tend to consume an extra 115 calories per weekend day, primarily from alcohol and fat. Then cut out or down calories from spreads, dressings, sauces, condiments, drinks, and snacks; they could make the difference between weight gain and loss.
Need major weight-loss motivation? Here’s the secret weight-loss advice used by the folks on The Biggest Loser and other reality shows.

2. Add 10 percent to the amount of daily calories you think you’re eating

If you think you’re consuming 1,700 calories a day and don’t understand why you’re not losing weight, add another 170 calories to your guesstimate. Chances are, the new number is more accurate. Adjust your eating habits accordingly.

3. Get an online weight loss buddy to lose more weight

A University of Vermont study found that online weight-loss buddies help you keep the weight off. The researchers followed volunteers for 18 months. Those assigned to an Internet-based weight maintenance program sustained their weight loss better than those who met face-to-face in a support group.

4. Get a weight-loss mantra

You’ve heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you keep focusing on things you can’t do, like resisting junk food or getting out the door for a daily walk, chances are you won’t do them. Instead (whether you believe it or not) repeat positive thoughts to yourself. “I can lose weight.” “I will get out for my walk today.” “I know I can resist the pastry cart after dinner.” Repeat these phrases and before too long, they will become true for you.

5. After breakfast, stick to water

At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year—or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.

6. Eat three fewer bites of your meal

…or one less treat a day, or one less glass of orange juice. Doing any of these can save you about 100 calories a day, and that alone is enough to prevent you from gaining the two pounds most people mindlessly pack on each year.

7. Watch one less hour of TV

A study of 76 undergraduate students found the more they watched television, the more often they ate and the more they ate overall. Sacrifice one program (there’s probably one you don’t really want to watch anyway) and go for a walk instead.

8. Wash something thoroughly once a week

Whether that’s a floor, a couple of windows, the shower stall, bathroom tile, or your car, a 150-pound person will burn about four calories for every minute spent cleaning. Scrub for 30 minutes and you could work off approximately 120 calories, the same number in a half-cup of vanilla frozen yogurt.

9. Wait until your stomach rumbles before you reach for food

It’s stunning how often we eat out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration—so often, in fact, that many of us have actually forgotten what physical hunger feels like. If you’re hankering for a specific food, it’s probably a craving, not hunger. If you’d eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you’re truly hungry. Find ways other than eating to express love, tame stress, and relieve boredom. 

10. Sniff a banana, an apple, or a peppermint when you feel hungry

You might feel silly, but it works. When Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, tried this with 3,000 volunteers, he found that the more frequently people sniffed, the less hungry they were and the more weight they lost—an average of 30 pounds each. One theory is that sniffing the food tricks the brain into thinking you’re actually eating it.

11. Stare at the color blue

There’s a good reason you won’t see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: it functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating.

12. Eat in front of mirrors and you’ll lose weight

One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly one-third. Having to look yourself in the eye reflects back some of your own inner standards and goals, and reminds you of why you’re trying to lose weight in the first place.

13. Spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down stairs

The Centers for Disease Control says that’s all it takes to help you shed as much as 10 pounds a year (assuming you don’t start eating more).

14. Walk five minutes for at least every two hours

Stuck at a desk all day? A brisk five-minute walk every two hours will parlay into an extra 20-minute walk by the end of the day. And getting a break will make you less likely to reach for snacks out of antsiness.

15. You’ll lose weight and fat if you walk 45 minutes a day, not 30

The reason we’re suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating.

16. Don’t buy any prepared food

that lists sugar, fructose, or corn syrup among the first four ingredients on the label. You should be able to find a lower-sugar version of the same type of food. If you can’t, grab a piece of fruit instead! Look for sugar-free varieties of foods such as ketchup, mayonnaise, and salad dressing. Also, avoid partially hydrogenated foods, and look for more than two grams of fiber per 100 calories in all grain products. Finally, a short ingredient list means fewer flavor enhancers and empty calories.

17. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite

At the table, sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food.

18. Throw out your “fat” clothes for good

Once you’ve started losing weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back will serve as a strong incentive to stay fit.

19. Close the kitchen for 12 hours

After dinner, wash all the dishes, wipe down the counters, turn out the light, and, if necessary, tape closed the cabinets and refrigerator. Late-evening eating significantly increases the overall number of calories you eat, a University of Texas study found. Stopping late-night snacking can save 300 or more calories a day, or 31 pounds a year.

20. Walk before dinner and you’ll cut calories AND your appetite

In a study of 10 obese women conducted at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, 20 minutes of walking reduced appetite and increased sensations of fullness as effectively as a light meal.

Source: RD

How lighter weight in a week?

Weight Loss

Is a heavyweight and obesity of the biggest challenges facing many people, so it has become the question is how to lose weight in a very short period of some finds that the answer is impossible, because the diet needs to be a long period of time and exercise as well, so it was necessary for the professionals to devise ways the methods by which to lose weight in a short period, and will be in this article show how to reduce weight in a week.

Weight loss in one week

First day: It is today considered preparatory to the rest of the week, and you only need to eat fruits of all kinds except bananas, grapes, mangoes, and must be a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe, for lost fluids compensation in the body, and pointed out some research to eat watermelon alone in this day will lose one kilogram of weight, it is necessary not to never feel hungry if meals were distributed properly throughout the day, and should drink ten glasses of water.
Second day: The day of vegetables, and you can eat whatever is available, including whether raw or cooked, provided they do not use any kind of fat during cooking, you can start the day with potatoes boiled, they contain complex carbohydrates provide the body with energy sufficient throughout the day, and should drink ten glasses of water as well.
Third Day: This day is a combination of the first and second day, day of fruits and vegetables, you are allowed to eat all the species except what has been blocked in the past two days, as eating bananas, grapes, mangoes or frying vegetables, and will not feel hungry on this day because it is full of benefits and vitamins, It must also be drinking ten glasses of water.
 Day Four: you are not allowed on this day only eating a banana and milk, you are able to eat ten grains of bananas and four glasses of milk throughout the day through divided into meals, and get a better result, use yogurt low-fat, or replace the yogurt or sour milk .
Day Five: The nature of the food on this day will be different entirely, you can eat one small rice dish, and six tomatoes throughout the day, and will produce a body larger than uric acid amounts when you eat tomatoes, so do not need to drink a doubling of the water is greater than the amounts the first two days, in order to get rid of tomatoes salts that have been addressed.
Sixth day: you can in this day eat one small dish of rice, as well as all types of vegetables, without limitation, and you should not forget to drink water, because it is the most important companion in the process of losing weight.
Seventh day: the last day in the accursed, and you can eat one small rice, vegetables, fruit juice, fresh dish, emphasis must be placed on the orange juice because it is useful largely for health, and will be a beautiful end of a full week of dieting. NOTE: After the completion of the diet during the week, you can in the morning of the eighth day, put yourself on the scale again, and you will notice that your weight has been the lack of a clear, as it would seem obvious when you look at yourself in the mirror