ins, and issues, and don’t forget the occasional pep talk.
2. Drink Water
This might be the easiest — and most effective — diet tip ever. A recent three-month study conducted on 40 overweight adults between the ages of 55 and 75 found that drinking two cups of water before each main meal helped partici- pants lose 44 per-
cent more weight than those who followed the same diet but didn’t drink the water. In fact, they lost 15.5 pounds in 12 weeks.
That’s it! Just drink two cups of water before each meal and you’ll feel fuller, consume less food and sugary drinks, and lose weight. Tally your intake: Brenda Davy, a nutrition researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and senior author of the study, suggests doing what the test participants did. Hang a check sheet in a visible place, such as the refrigerator, and mark your water consumption. This will not only serve as a reminder, but it will help you keep track, too.
3. Keep a Food Journal If you simply write down every- thing you eat, you can drop twice as many pounds as someone who doesn’t, according to a study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research. And the more detailed the list is, the more you’ll lose. Recording what, when, and how much you eat helps because it enhances
your awareness of what you put in your mouth, and it increases your accountability, McManus says. Getting it down: You can go low-tech with a pen and notebook, or
try online tools and cellphone appli- cations that make recording what you eat super simple.
Many smartphone apps include calorie and other nutritional infor- mation to help you make more informed choices. (Try Daily Burn or LiveStrong’s Calorie Tracker.) Make food journaling part of your routine and record immediately after each meal, so you don’t forget all the little bits and pieces you’ve ingested — every morsel counts.
4. Get Enough Sleep Not getting enough sleep might
make you irritable, but according to a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, it might also make you hungrier — and heavier. Study participants who slept 5½ hours per night lost more muscle and less fat than those who slept 8½ hours per
night.
The sleep- deprived par- ticipants also had higher levels of the
hormone ghrelin, which triggers hunger and promotes fat retention. Catch some Zs: Although you
might seem fi ne on fi ve or six hours of sleep, research shows that’s just not enough. Get the seven or eight hours your body needs. Turn off the
5 DIETING 5 DIETING
DON’T stock up on sweets and fatty foods for other members of your family. You’ll be tempted to cheat on your diet, and the treats aren’t doing them any favors, either.
DON’T cut out an entire food type such as carbohydrates or fat, McManus says. Your body needs a variety of nutrients to operate optimally. “Avoid any drastic approaches.”
television, don’t drink caffeine after lunch, and buy yourself earplugs or a sleep mask if you need to block out any distractions.
5. Read Food Labels
If you read the nutritional con- tents of food before you toss it in your shopping cart, you’re more likely to lose weight than those who don’t read them — and even more than those who exercise but don’t read food labels, according to a
study published
in The Journal of Consumer Affairs. If
you pair exercising with label reading you further increase your likelihood of weight loss.
What to look for: The No. 1 thing to check, says McManus, is portion size, followed by calories in relation to portion size. For instance, a package of crackers may say it con- tains only 100 calories. But the label will reveal that the package contains 2 ½ servings. So if you eat the entire thing, you’re up to 250 calories. When it comes to fats, pick prod- ucts that are low in saturated fat (2 g or less) with zero trans fats. And look for foods that are high in fi ber (5 g or more) and low in added sugars (10 g or less) as well.
DON’T eliminate your favorite food. If you’re a chocoholic, for example, treat yourself to a small piece of dark chocolate a few days a week to minimize cravings and avoid binges.
DON’T skip meals. Not only will you overeat at your next meal, but you will have slowed your metabolism, which is the rate at which you burn calories, making it harder to shed weight.
DON’T severely limit your caloric intake in the hopes of losing weight quickly. “It takes time to change eating habits and the results may not be immediate,” McManus says.
SEPTEMBER 2011 / NEWSMAX MAXLIFE 103
WATER, LABEL, COUPLE/ISTOCKPHOTO / JOURNAL/RICK LEW/FOODPIX/GETTY IMAGES
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