17 Diet Tips That Actually Work and Don’t Suck
Are You Tired of Weight Loss Tips That Do Not Work?
Let’s face it, losing weight is the hardest thing you have probably ever tried to do in your life, isn’t it? You are not alone, because over 34% of Americans are now obese, and the problem is getting worse.
The reason that obesity is on the rise is because there is so much information out there that is simply not helping you lose a pound. I’m sorry, but “spice up your taste-buds against boredom” is not a very helpful weight loss tip. But those kind of tips and tricks are mostly what you find when searching for legitimate things that you can do to lose weight and be healthier.
No more!
Would I be right to assume that the only way you are going to lose weight is if you have some real steps you can take and some real tips you can start using today to start shedding some extra weight? Of course that’s what you need, and now I am going to give it to you.
17 Diet Tips That Actually Work
I’m sure you have seen countless posts online about “diet tips” that really don’t have anything to offer you if your goal is to actually lose weight, right? So what I am going to do is look at some of these tips that are not too helpful, and replace them with tips that WILL help you lose weight. Of course you will have to put in a bit of effort, but you will soon see how easy weight loss can be once you have good information.
Weight Loss Tip #1
No: Drink diet soda to save calories
Why? Drinking diet soda will not help you lose a single pound. Not only that, but drinking the chemicals in a typical diet soda can have serious vascular risks that can lead to stroke!
Yes: Drink water with your meals because it is the life force of the human body and you can’t live without it. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day helps to flush toxins out of your body, as well as aids in digestion, lubricates joints and cools your body down among a ton of other things that are vital to just being alive.
Weight Loss Tip #2
No: Avoid eating too much fruit because fruit has sugar
Why? Yes, certain fruits do have a lot of sugar but they are also loaded with vitamins and nutrients. Can you say the same about that cake you are thinking of eating? And no, a pineapple upside down cake is not the answer either if you are wanting to be healthier. Pineapple especially is loaded with potassium, vitamin B-6, Vitamin A, calcium, magnesium and a lot of other great nutrients that your body can use.
Yes: If you want to put late night snacking to rest for good, there is one awesome way you can do it. Don’t fight the urge to have a snack if you really want one, just have the right snack! A really great orange or a ripe pineapple are my favorite sweet-tooth snacks that I eat whenever I feel like it. Pineapple has a lot of natural sugar, and I promise you that if you get a great one it will satisfy your need for something sweet.
But don’t worry about the amount of sugar in a piece of pineapple or an orange. That orange you are eyeballing may have around 13g of sugar which is a little bit, but not quite 44g that you will find in most any soda. The fact that we live in a society where eating a piece of sweet fruit is considered bad is beyond words insanity.
Note: Just because pineapple or other juicy fruits that are high in sugar are safe does not mean you can eat limitless quantities of them! As with anything in life, a snack for these purposes is equal to a serving…not an entire pineapple tree.
Weight Loss Tip #3
No: Only eat when you are hungry
Why? Because this is not practical advice. Human beings sometimes want to eat just for the sake of eating, so why not take that “weakness” and turn it into a strength?
Yes: Eat great foods if you are simply bored and feel like eating something.
I know this is taboo, but it doesn’t have to be. Should you eat a pizza or a 46oz steak just because you are bored? Of course not! But have you ever just wanted a snack just for the reason that you want a snack? Everybody goes through this, and there is no reason to ignore it and try to pretend you don’t want to eat. Have a handful of raw, organic cashews or an apple or some celery and organic peanut butter (unsweetened) for a snack and you will not do your body one bit of harm.
Have you ever heard of a single human being dying of too many vitamins and nutrition in their body? Probably not, so there is no reason to starve yourself just because some “expert” doctor has told you to only eat when you are starving! Keep in mind, most doctors spend a very short time in medical school learning about nutrition, and some doctors are obese themselves anyway. I’m not saying don’t listen to your doctor, but getting ALL of the facts will go a long way for your health.
There is no better doctor for YOUR health than YOU!
Weight Loss Tip #4
No: Don’t eat after dinner, or allow yourself to have a small amount of low-fat ice cream or 100 calorie pack of cookies.
Why? Counting calories and fat is not a great way to ever lose any weight in the long-term. “Low calorie ice cream” is loaded with sugar which is the main reason there is an obesity epidemic in this country (world). Americans are consuming over 150 pounds of sugar each year, and disease and obesity are running at full-steam right now in our society.
Yes: After dinner if you feel like you want something to really make you feel satisfied, you can have an awesome cashew ice cream shake. None of the ingredients in this shake will make you feel bloated, and none of them will contribute to weight gain! Oh, and these shakes are insanely good!
If anyone tells you that you “can’t” have dessert, make one of these shakes and go on about your day 100% guilt-free.
Weight Loss Tip #5
No: Eat smaller meals more often for weight loss.
Why? If you are eating the wrong foods, this is terrible advice. A large pizza has the same amount of calories and sugar in it regardless of whether you eat 12 pieces at a time or 1 piece 12 times a day!
Yes: Eat fresh vegetables and fruits as much as you want during the day. You can not overdose on carrots or any other whole food that gives your body the nutrients it is starving for. But does every single thing you eat have to be a fruit or vegetable?
NO! There are endless foods you can eat like quinoa (keen-wa), organic salsa and quinoa tortilla chips, wheatberry salad and a million other great foods that will be fine to eat as a snack during the day if you get hungry. It is so important to get out of the mindset that eating is bad.
Eating bad food is bad, but eating great food can be great!
Weight Loss Tip #6
No: Eat lean meats such as pork or chicken because they are lower in calories and fat
Why? Counting calories or fat grams is not going to help you lose any weight, at least not in the long-term of your life. Chicken and pork may be leaner than other meats but that does not make them healthy foods. There are links between meat consumption and cancer that are important to realize. If a food is low in saturated fat does that automatically mean that it is healthy for you? Of course not.
Yes: Eat a whole foods plant based diet. You have never in your life witnessed such automatic and effortless weight loss that will happen to you the second you cut meat (and all other animal based products) and sugar out of your diet. Counting calories and fat grams makes no difference, because when you feed your body the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it is absolutely starving for right now, your body will respond.
And what I exactly mean by respond is shed extra weight and feel better. If you are a meat eater, then eating these leaner types of meats is better than red meats, but they are not a miracle cure for weight gain as many people will have you believe.
Weight Loss Tip #7
No: Spice up your food to make you feel more satisfied
Why? While spicing up food is perfectly fine, it will do nothing for weight loss. If this were true, don’t you think that we could all just eat Thai food for every meal and be fit and healthy? Pure and simple, adding spices to your food does nothing to address the real issues with weight gain.
Yes: Feel more satisfied by eating foods that fuel your body and cause you to shed extra pounds. Have you ever truly been satisfied at the end of any meal, or is there always this feeling like you didn’t deserve something so good — and now it is going to cause you to gain even more weight. It doesn’t have to be this way! If you eat a serving of Greek quinoa salad or have a delicious home-made 3-bean vegan chili you will feel both full and satisfied. The satisfaction comes from knowing that you ate something that was delicious, nutritious and will not do a single thing to cause your body to think about gaining weight.
Weight Loss Tip #8
No: Order children’s portions in restaurants
Why? While this seems like a good idea on the surface, it will ultimately not be much help. Just like eating 1 piece of pizza 12 times a day will not help you, eating a smaller portion of pizza at a restaurant will not do much to help your weight loss efforts. The human body isn’t looking for smaller portions of the wrong food — it is looking for huge portions of the best food you can find.
Yes: If you are at a restaurant, find something on the menu that is not going to turn instantly into sugar in your body or meat if possible. Chicken fingers with fat-free ranch dressing is honestly a terrible thing to eat for your health and weight. Many restaurants want to be able to feed health conscious people too, so if you look at the menu you can always find something that is at least better than the other choices.
I do understand restaurant eating is very hard when you are trying to lose weight. The fact that the only alternatives that can often be found are “low calorie” options like grilled chicken and cooked-to-death vegetables, at least those options are a tiny bit better than the 72oz steak and molten cake for dessert. If you eat a lot of your meals at restaurants you will have a hard time finding much that is going to fuel your body.
But on occasion if you will be at a restaurant and don’t want to skip eating, you should be able to find something that is better than the rest of the choices. As long as you understand that a child’s portion of awful food will not help your efforts you are off to a great head start.
Weight Loss Tip #9
No: Eat whole grain bread instead of white bread
Why? While whole wheat breads and pastas are slightly better than the bleached white versions of the same foods, they are still lacking in the nutrients that your body is looking for to become and stay healthy. Enriched breads have vitamins (that are mostly missing because of the processing) which have been added to them. Or you can eat something even better!
Yes: Sprouted grains. What is sprouted grain? Very simply, the grains are allowed to sprout as if they will give new life to more grains. This process allows the products made from them to be rich with nutrients that white and wheat breads are missing. If you are someone who can not live without bread, you will be happy to know that sprouted grain breads are delicious and do not taste like sawdust, no matter what your neighbor says.
** Note ** Sprouted grains can still have gluten in them, so if you are allergic to gluten or are avoiding it for any health reasons, even sprouted grains will not be a great option for you.
Weight Loss Tip #10
No: Walk 20 minutes a day to shed those extra pounds
Why? Before anyone has me arrested for saying that exercise is bad for you, continue reading! Walking ANY amount or doing ANY exercise each day has a ton of awesome health benefits. From stronger lungs and muscles to weight loss, every aspect of exercise is healthy and should be done by anybody looking to live a healthier life.
That being said, it is not the only factor. Remember what I was talking about with eating 1 slice of pizza 12 times a day? This is the same idea. If you are eating an entire pizza daily and walking you are missing the point. Simply walking (or running, or weight lifting) will not make you healthy. It may help you lose weight, but I can assure you that weight loss will be tough to accomplish and the results will not last if your diet remains unchanged.
At one point I was running about 10 miles a week and not eating great — even though I really thought I was. And my weight loss during this time was 0.0 pounds per week. When you fill your body with foods that do not fuel it, but only satisfy it temporarily you have 100 times tougher of a time getting rid of extra weight. Your body wants essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients. You can not feed it sugar, bleached flour and fatty meat and expect to still be healthy even if you run marathons.
Yes: Walk/run/jump or get any other type of exercise daily in addition to a diet as low as possible in sugar, meat and processed foods and watch extra weight melt off of your body. I lost over 70 pounds without doing hardly any exercise (because of my schedule), but I guarantee that if I had been running like I was when I wasn’t eating great the weight would have come off even faster than it did.
Thin Does Not Equal Healthy!
Weight Loss Tip #11
No: Switch to low-calorie foods such as 1% or skim milk and low calorie versions of your favorite food.
Why? Remember earlier when we were talking about sugar? If you eat foods that are labeled low calorie or reduced calorie there is a very good chance that sugar has been added to those foods. When manufacturers take out some of the fat in your favorite foods they taste terrible. So the only way to get most of society to eat these processed food choices is to add sugar to them so that you don’t miss the fat that has been taken out.
Yes: Forget about low calorie food, and forget about calories altogether. It doesn’t matter how many calories are in an apple, carrot, broccoli, grapes, watermelon, cashews, lentils or any other plant-based food. This can not be stressed enough, but when you feed your body what it is craving and give it those nutrients it can not live without then the rest takes care of itself.
I couldn’t tell you how many calories I eat in a day and I don’t even care. I eat whenever I feel hungry (or bored sometimes) and I never gain weight anymore. In contrast, when I ate low-fat or low-calorie foods I struggled with my weight just like you probably do, am I right?
Weight Loss Tip #12
No: Drink plenty of water before meals so that you feel full, and will then eat less.
Why? This is terrible advice because it is a trick, and tricks do not work in weight loss. If you have to trick your body into being more full just so that you don’t overeat, then you are likely not eating the right foods or looking at the bigger picture. If you follow advice such as this, you will end up with a feeling like you are not in control of your weight unless you drink a gallon of water before every meal.
Make no mistake, you should always drink plenty of water, but to quench your thirst and lubricate your joints and give life giving water to your cells — not to make your stomach think it’s full.
Yes: Drink water as part of your constant daily living. Forget about soda and diet soda because those choices are either loaded with sugar or fake sugar, which is even worse for you.
Weight Loss Tip #13
No: Eat at the table, not on the couch
Why? If you are eating pizza and cookies with a side of ice cream, what difference will it make if you eat it at the table? This is not a tip or even remotely good advice because there are too many ways that it can be misunderstood. If you want to eat a bunch of junk food at the table you can go right ahead, but if you are planning on losing a single pound of weight and being a healthy person this will not be good advice to follow.
Yes: Prepare a delicious and nutritious meal with a variety of cooked and uncooked foods that are loaded with the vitamins and nutrients that will allow your body to lose weight faster than you ever imagined. Eat at the table with your family and have a great time, but do it in the smartest and healthiest way possible.
Weight Loss Tip #14
No: Eat one less bite per meal and lose 8 pounds a year (avg 75 calories per bite)
Why? This is one of the worst weight loss tips I have ever seen. If you can’t guess, I love talking about pizza, so let’s use pizza once again for this example. If you were to eat 7 pieces of pizza in one sitting, minus one bite do you think you will still lose 8lbs a year? Of course not — you will end up gaining 50 pounds because that one bite means nothing if you do not eat the right foods!
Yes: Eat every single bite of food on your plate, and go for seconds or thirds if you want. Of course this ONLY applies if you are eating foods rich in life-giving nutrients and vitamins. There are simply not any ways to use shortcuts to continue eating food that is making you sick and overweight and still lose weight. I understand more than anyone how much fun it would be to eat pizza for every meal and leave off one bite and still lose weight, but it will not happen.
Weight Loss Tip #15
No: Eat soup instead of higher fat food options.
Why? If you always assume that soup is going to be a healthy choice you will be sadly mistaken. Soup from a can or in a restaurant is typically going to be loaded with salt, sugar and MSG and does not make a healthy alternative most of the time.
Yes: Eat soup, but make it from scratch. A homemade vegetable soup with lentils, vegetables and even some wheat berries will stick to your ribs and you can eat as much of it as you like without fear of “cheating” or gaining a pound.
Weight Loss Tip #16
No: Burn more calories than you take in
Why? While using pure mathematics to lose weight can work, it is not going to do anything for your long term weight loss unless you stick to it 100% of the time, for the rest of your life. The idea here is that 1lb is equal to 3,500 calories. So to lose one pound of fat, you need to burn that many more calories than you are taking in. So in a week if you ate 21,000 calories, but you burned off 24,500 calories, you would in theory lose 1 pound.
This is simply not how it works, and it will not work for you. The human body is much too complex to be figured out by using simple math like this. Besides that fact, let’s talk about pizza again if you don’t mind. Let’s say that every week you eat 21,000 calories of pure pizza goodness. And then you go to the gym for 6 hours a day and you manage to work off 24,500 calories.
Do you really think you will lose weight effortlessly doing this? Does this sound like a fun week at the gym? Will you have terrible health, and be at risk for diabetes and a ton of other health concerns even if you do manage to lose weight?
Yes: Eat a huge bowl of 3-bean vegan chili, or a mixed green salad with any salad dressing you can buy that does not have any added sugar or chemicals. Eat an apple with organic peanut butter for breakfast. Eat a wide range of delicious fruits and vegetables that are in season right this second.
When you follow these simple tips your body will get the message. It will not have to struggle to let go of the extra weight, because it will be getting the nourishment it needs so badly. I will repeat this over and over so that it sticks into your head–feeding your body with the best foods our planet has to offer makes weight loss effortless!
Weight Loss Tip #17
No: Eat low calorie or low fat foods to lose weight
Why? This is the most flawed advice in weight loss in my opinion. What does “low fat” or “low calorie” really mean? First of all, have you seen how much of this type of food is in your grocery store? It’s everywhere right? OK, so if low calorie foods are everywhere, why is obesity still rising?
Because in order to make that low calorie or low fat food not taste completely disgusting, food manufacturers add sugar to it. Whether it’s cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, agave, splenda or any other type of sugar it makes no difference. “Organic sugar” will still cause your body to gain weight, so you do not want it–and low fat foods are loaded with it.
Yes: Eat foods that are not labeled “low fat” or “low cal” but eat foods that are naturally low in fat, calories and sugar. Almonds, cashews, quinoa, fruit, vegetables, beans, greens, salad, lentils, peanut butter and a million other foods are delicious, and not filled with any added sugar that will cause you to gain weight.
Bonus Tip: Avoid all diets that have a trademarked name or any other fad type of diet. This may seem like common sense, but there are just tons of diet books and programs and apps for your phone to the point of insanity. You must understand the word diet means a few things. It meas the food that you consume on a daily basis, and it means the program you put yourself on in an effort to lose weight by depriving yourself and following tips that will not help you.
The second that you eat a “diet” rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, seeds and other plant-based foods that are 100% nutritious for your body you no longer will have any need to diet ever again. You can throw away your bathroom scale and forget about ever counting a single calorie, because you will not be gaining weight.
