By Monique Bartlett
June 19, 2013 Edition
The key to weight loss is finding the right balance of what you eat, what you think, and what activity you do. Finding the right balance helps you to decrease your calorie intake, increase your metab- olism and stops self-sabotage. Here are 5 ways you can find weight loss success.
1. Eat more often
Skipping meals or waiting too long be- tween meals can slow your metabolism
and results in overeating later in the day. It’s best to have 3 small meals and 1-2 snacks throughout the day. You will feel more satisfied and eat less. You should plan to eat at least every 3-4 hours.
2. Watch portion sizes
Appropriate portion sizes are still quite misunderstood. Most North Americans are eating 2-3 times the recommended portion sizes. Restaurants are notorious for giving extremely large servings of food. Eat half of the food on your plate and take the rest home for lunch the next day. Studies show that when people are given large portion sizes, they eat up to 56% more calories without realizing it.
3. Increase your fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are not only packed with vitamins, minerals, and an- tioxidants, they are also loaded with fi- bre and are low in calories. This is one of the most important changes you can make to your diet. When you fill your plate up with fruits and vegetables you eat less of the higher calorie foods.
4. Eat only when you’re hungry
Our bodies have an innate weight man- agement mechanism. When you feel full it is time to stop eating. Every time you eat past full you are taking in more calo- ries than your body needs which will re- sult in weight gain. It’s common for all of us to do this from time to time. Listen to your body, it will tell you when you are physically ready for food and when you are ready to stop eating.
5. Exercise regularly
it is important to include both cardiovas- cular and weight bearing activity into your routine. Cardio helps you to burn the fat and weight bearing activity helps to increase your metabolism. Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn in a day. By adding three to five pounds of muscle you could actu- ally burn 100 – 250 additional calories a day.
The key is to make small chang- es which in the end will give you results. Don’t try to change everything all at once. Change one thing at a time until you master it and then work on the next change. Change how you feel about food and exercise and you will get the results that you desire.
