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Eating For Weight Loss - A Handy Guide

By Simon Caddy

Making a few small changes to the way you eat through the day can yield big results for your weight loss.

Trim the fat

Cut down on foods high in saturated and hydrogenated fats – butter, hard margarine, fried fatty foods, fatty meats, burgers, pastry dishes, cakes, biscuits, puddings and chocolate. Choose leaner meats, skinless poultry and fish instead of fatty meat, and use less oil in cooking.

Start the day with breakfast

Don’t even think about skipping breakfast. People who do are more likely to over-eat later in the day and pile on unwanted pounds. When you start your day off with a healthy, filling breakfast, you dramatically increase your chances of eating healthily throughout the day. You also fuel your body, so you feel happy and energised for the rest of the day. Various weight loss studies have shown that you eat a filling high-fibre breakfast you’ll eat 100-150 fewer calories for breakfast and lunch.

Pack Lunch

Bring your own lunch from home – you’ll have more control over how many calories you eat in your weight loss regime. A study found that people who eat in restaurants daily consume 300 calories more a day than those who prepare their own food.

Start with salad, fruit or soup

Eating a low-fat salad or a dish of fruit as a starter can cut the number of calories you eat in your main meal by 12% according to a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (Rolls et al., 2004). All that fibre and water takes the edge off your appetite so you eat less of the higher calorie foods. Starting your meal with a bowl of chunky soup can cut your calories by 20%, and get you real weight loss results.

Plan Ahead

Plan your meals for the whole week. Making a shopping list before you go shopping means that you’re more likely to stick to it, and planning ahead means you won’t get home from work tired and hungry, only to discover there’s nothing healthy in your fridge.

Be size-wise at mealtimes

Stuff yourself with carbohydrate before bedtime and you definitely won’t burn all the calories you’ve taken in. Go easy on the pasta and potatoes and increase the vegetables, fresh fruit and lean protein. Replace half of your usual portion of pasta with vegetables and you won’t eat any less food, just fewer calories. As a guide, a healthy serving of pasta or rice should be around 60g / 2oz (dry weight) and a serving of potato around 150g / 5oz, or the size of two eggs.

Veg out

Aim for 3-5 portions of vegetables a day. Vegetables can help you feel full without boosting your daily calorie intake. Three generous sprigs of broccoli contain just 45 calories, about the same as a nibble (one square) of chocolate. Broccoli binds to fat in the body, helps to remove it, and aids your weight loss efforts.

Slow Down

You’ll eat 15% fewer calories (and really kick your weight loss into overdrive) if you sit down and slow down your meal rather than eating on the go. Studies show that people eat up to 15% more calories when they rush at mealtimes. Scoffing your meal means that your hypothalamus – the part of the brain that senses when you are full – doesn’t receive the right signals and explains why you may feel hungrier sooner.

Get fruity

Eating more fruit is one of the best things you can do for your health. Aim for 2-4 daily portions. Place at least two portions of fruit – apples, grapes, cherries, whatever fruit you like – on your desk. Promise to eat them before you leave work. The effect on your blood sugar levels also boosts your weight loss to new levels, no matter what time of day it is.

Drink wisely

Unsurprisingly alcohol is the diet downfall of many people. A bottle of wine totals about 500 calories, so you can undo a whole day’s good behaviour in just one boozy night. Alcohol can encourage fat storage. It’s high in calories and puts undue stress on the liver. Alcohol calories can’t be stored and have to be used as they are consumed – and this means that calories excess to requirements from other other foods get stored as fat instead. This takes you from weight loss to weight gain, so limit your intake.

By putting all of these ideas into action you will boost your weight loss dramatically!

About the Author:

Simon Caddy has been a qualified Boxercise, Kick-Boxercise and Cardio-Kickbox instructor since 2005, and delivers several classes each week across a 20 mile radius from his home in Caerphilly, as well as using it in one-to-one sessions with his clients. For more information about these classes or one-to-one sessions, please visit SimonCaddy.com