Beautiful woman measuring her waist - high key shot in studio (Gabi Moisa 2007)
Ever feel as if you are living on diet rollercoaster? You know, you start a diet and take some weight off, but inevitably those pounds creep back and then you diet again. As a dietitian who specializes in weight loss, I know how frustrating yo-yo dieting can be. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Lose and Learn
Be realistic about your goal weight and how much time it will take to get there. “Slow and steady wins the race,” as I say, and for healthy weight loss that means about 1-2 pounds per week. Learn what works as the pounds come off and you’ll discover the secret to keeping them off.
Keep a food journal
Keeping a daily food journal will help you establish healthy routines, learn from setbacks, and it will make you accountable for what you put in your mouth. A study by Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research found that people who kept a daily food journal lost twice as much weight as those who did not.
Skipping meals to save calories is a set up for failure. My clients actually lose weight eating more of the right foods – especially fiber-rich foods that are delicious, filling and low in calories. My book The Miracle Carb Diet shows how eating meals and snacks full of fiber can actually make fat and calories disappear.
Build muscle, boost metabolism
Cardio exercise is good for your head and heart, but lifting weights and resistance exercise are the best for shedding pounds. That’s because adding lean muscle boosts your metabolism even when you are at rest. Every extra pound of muscle burns another 45 calories per day, so if you add 10 pounds of lean muscle to your frame you’ll burn upwards of 400– 500 calories a day – enough to lose about a pound of fat every week!
Think thin
As weight comes off get rid of your baggy clothes. Keeping your old sweatpants and boyfriend jeans around leaves open the possibility that you may regain some weight. Why give yourself a Plan “B” when you should be rewarding yourself with some new clothes?
Live it up
My clients win at weight loss by following what we call the 90/10 Rule: Commit to eating well 90 percent of the year and you still have 10 percent - 36.5 days - to kick back and splurge a bit.
For delicious high fiber meal plans, recipes and tips on healthy eating, drinking and losing weight, check out my new book The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with Fiber!
Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, is a registered dietitian in New York City and author of the Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with fiber as well as the bestselling Follow Tanya on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and visit her website Ffactor.com.
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