I hate the word dieting.
I hate it as much as I hate using the word ‘weight’ when referring to getting lean and dropping bodyfat.
But let’s face it, if I had used any other title for the article, the chances of you clicking on it would have gone waaayyyyyy down.
So, sometimes you must bend the rules a bit to get what you want.
That is exactly what this article is all about.
It’s about 5 ways that you can tweak things in your current nutrition to reduce your calorie intake and help yourself to get leaner, burn more fat and lose more ‘weight’.
If you want to get in shape for Christmas, our Christmas Countdown Challenge starts on October 29th.
If you want to get in shape for the festive season, click the link below and get signed up now.
The tips below aren’t special, they have no magical properties and you won’t have to do anything drastic to see some results.
The one thing you will have to do however, is try them.
You also will have to try them for longer than a week, let’s be realistic here, I’m not giving a diet, I’m showing you how you can implement some small steps so you can see some success, while still eating the same foods you already eat.
Let’s get to it;
1. DRINK WATER.
Yeah, everyone knows that you probably should drink more water throughout the day, (you really should), but that’s not what this is about.
It’s about where you will be drinking the water that will help.
Right before each meal, drink half a pint to a full pint of water.
The water will fill your stomach and make it harder to over eat at that meal.
Do this at each meal and you will save some calories from this simple fix.
2. USE SMALLER PLATES
We have the tendency to overfill our plates. This wouldn’t be an issue if we didn’t have the tendency to also eat everything that is on the plate.
Eating less can be disheartening for some as they feel that they are depriving themselves.
By using smaller plates when having your meals, you are eliminating this feeling of depravation by ‘tricking’ yourself into thinking that you are having a full plate of food at every meal. You are, but you are eating smaller portions by default.
3. INCREASE YOUR PROTEIN AND VEGETABLE INTAKE.
Protein is very hard to overeat, by increasing this you will under-eat on the more calorie dense foods.
Increasing your vegetables at each meal will do the same thing.
Vegetables are lower in calories than starchy carbs so you can over-eat on vegetables and not worry about going over on your calories.
Also, like the water, eating your protein rich foods and your vegetables 1st at each meal will also prevent you from going over on your calories at each meal.
You don’t have to change anything, just eat these along with the water and you will find that you are less able to over eat on anything else at that meal.
4. SWITCH YOUR DRINKS.
You could be taking in excess calories through your fluids without even realising that you are doing it.
A simple fix to this is to swap your current drinks for the lower calories options or calorie free options.
Switch your milk to semi skimmed or fat free.
Switch sugary drinks to their calorie free counterparts.
Switch the sugar you add to tea and coffee to calorie free sweeteners.
Switch flavoured coffees to regular americanos.
5. INCREASE YOUR NEAT.
Your NEAT is the activity that we do throughout the day while not exercising.
It usually equates to around 30% of our total calorie burn throughout the day and is always higher than the calories we burn during exercise.
The issue at the moment is that we are becoming more sedentary due to our jobs and daily lives being more focused on online activities.
So, to combat this, get a step tracker and aim for 10k+ steps per day.
This will increase your NEAT and will keep you aware of your inactivity throughout the day.
If you struggle with some of the things mentioned above and you find it hard to get motivated to change them, my ‘HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING’ seminar will teach you everything you need to know to get success with your weight loss without having to turn to restrictive diets.
It’s on this Thursday night at 7pm here in Letterkenny.
