A quick guide to weight loss
Quick-fix diets are never the solution to sustainable weight loss. CHOICE Magazine gives you healthy tips to help you lose weight.
Tips for sustainable weight loss
Coming to grips with your own body and making the best of what you’ve got is a safer bet than yet another failed diet. But if you do choose to diet, give the pills and potions a miss and follow our diet tips.
- Aim to lose weight slowly — lose more than a kilo a week and you’re probably losing water and muscle, not fat.
- Set achievable goals — if you’ve got a lot to lose set smaller goals along the way, such as seeing a reduction in your blood pressure, or buying just one new item of clothing when you’re partway to your goal weight.
- Opt for a healthier lifestyle — eating lots of fruit and vegetables and taking regular exercise, rather than punishing yourself with a strict diet.
- Don’t aim for unachievable body-shape goals. Pear-shaped people who lose weight usually become smaller pears. A supermodel’s body lurks inside very, very, very few people, no matter how much weight they lose.
- Focus on where you can cut the fat in your diet — do you spread too much on your bread; eat lots of fried snacks; not cut the fat off your meat? Small changes are easier to stick to.
- Fill up on fruit, veges, cereals and bread — just don’t add fatty toppings or spreads.
- Try to listen to your body — are you really hungry or just bored or sad? Maybe you can do something enjoyable other than eat — or just get active round the house or garden to take your mind off it.
- Don’t talk yourself into a ‘healthy food tastes boring’ frame of mind. Experiment with healthy choices to find out what you like.
- Exercise is the most important thing you can do — find time for yourself each day to be more active.
- Become acquainted with food labels — hidden fats and sugars may be lurking in your favourite foods.
- Don’t be taken in by fast-talking sales pitches, secret ingredients or wonder foods. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
This article is referenced from CHOICE On-Line Find out more about healthy eating.
