top ten weight loss tips from a newby

[Hazool]

Hello all
name is hazel and i run and own a boot camp in the mountains of Bulgaria I am a personal trainer, yoga teacher and i am have recently qualified as a tapping practitioner and passion is cross country mountain biking. I never stop learning and love coming to forums to pick up new tips and trends in the fitness world.

but first i would like to pass on top ten tips for weight loss

1. Eat slow use your mind!
Did you ever notice that thin people take an awfully long time to eat their food? Eating slowly is one method that can help take off pounds. That's because from the time you begin eating it takes the brain 20 minutes to start signaling feelings of fullness. Fast eaters often eat beyond their true level of fullness before the 20 minute signal has had a chance to set in. The amount of calories consumed before you begin to feel full can vary significantly depending on how quickly you eat. So...
 Slow down by putting your knife and fork down between each mouth full.
 Take smaller bites and enjoy and savor every tasty morsel.
 Aim to chew each bite 50 times, sounds a lot but give it a try for the first half of the meal!
 Are you in the clean plate club? This is something we pick up from our parents. Always leave something on the plate no matter how small it is.
 Use a small plate at home to trick your mind into good portion size without trying.
 You know when you are full as your food loses its taste; start to take notice of this every time you eat.

2. Listen to your body signals; that quite voice inside.
Your body knows when you are ready for nourishment. We have learnt to over ride the subtle signal due to life style and clever media signals. Use this scale to lock into the right time to stop and start eating.
1. Ready to faint with hunger.
2. Stomach growling.
3. Hungry.
4. Starting to feel hunger... but not due to boredom .
5. Neutral.
6. Satisfied.
7. Food loses its individual taste.
8. Full
9. Stuffed
10. I feel sick!
Its time to eat round about level 3 and stop at level 7. Simple!
Top tip when you feel you are at level 3 drink a glass of water wait 15 mins and if you still feel at level 3 than enjoy your food.
3. Keep a diary for triggers that hinder weight loss
Keeping a food diary can be a huge asset in successful weight loss. Devote some time each day to record what you have eaten and how much, your hunger level prior to eating, and any feelings or emotions present at the time. A food diary can provide a large amount of self-awareness. It can identify emotions and behaviors that trigger overeating, foster greater awareness of portion sizes, and help you discover your personal food triggers. Study any patterns that emerge from your food diary and identify where you may be able to make more healthful changes. A food diary provides an added benefit of keeping you focused on and committed to your goals.

4. Stay focused on being healthy, not on becoming thin
Many people become more successful at long term weight loss when their motivation changes from wanting to be thinner to wanting to be healthier. Change your mindset to think about selecting foods that will help your body's health rather than worrying about foods that will affect your body's weight. Refer to you G.I. (Glycemic Index) list.

5. Find out why you overeat
All too often overeating is triggered by stress, boredom, loneliness, anger, depression and other emotions. Learning to deal with emotions without food is a significant skill that will greatly serve long term weight control. Chronic over-eaters and "emotional eaters" can be significantly helped by learning new behavioral skills. You can also seek help with behavioral and emotional eating issues from a licensed counselor or psychologist.

6. Lose weight slowly with small changes
Try to remember that "losing 15 pounds in two weeks" is nothing to celebrate. It is important to realize that the more quickly weight is lost, the more likely the loss is coming from water and muscle, not fat. Since muscle tissue is critical in keeping our metabolism elevated, losing it actually leads to a decrease in the amount of calories we can each day without gaining weight. Fat loss is best achieved when weight is lost slowly. Strive for a weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds per week. One pound of weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. By making small changes like eliminating 250 calories a day from food and expending 250 calories a day from exercise, you can lose one pound (of mostly fat) per week.


7. Best weight loss plan: substitute foods instead of eliminating them
Replace processed food for fresh. Your palette may have to adjust but it takes only 15 times to become a good habit and undo a bad.

8. Go easy on yourself.
We all have good and bad days, forgive yourself is you slip up and regain yourself the next day. No food is ever out of bounds so enjoy every moment of it if you do choice to be decadent. Life is for living after all, the less negative pressure you put on yourself the easier the journey to fitness will be.

9. Weight training
Weight training is significant to weight loss. The basic equation is this: the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you will burn. A Tufts University researcher showed that a group of women who followed a weight loss diet and did weight training exercises lost 44% more fat than those who only followed the diet. While aerobic activity can help burn calories, muscle's where it's at when it comes to giving your metabolism a significant daily boost even at rest. It may help you to think in terms of “losing fat” instead of “losing weight.” This means changing your body’s muscle to fat composition ratio so that you have less fat and more muscle. Since muscle weighs more than fat, losing weight (by what you see on the scale) should not be the sole measurement of your progress. How your body looks, how your clothes fit and how you feel are all great benchmarks of success.


10. High Protein, Low Carb
A strategic diet and nutrition plan will consist of foods that provide the proper nutrients so that you become healthier, more energetic, and more able to shape up effectively through muscle toning or body building….all while losing fat. High protein, low carbohydrate, moderate to low fat diets with plenty of vegetables done in small frequent meals are generally recommended to attain any long term reliable fitness results. Calorie Loss = Fat Loss; The basis for body fat loss is expending more calories in exercise than you take in through eating and drinking. 3500 calories equals one pound of fat. The reverse is also true. Using 3500 calories will cause a reduction of one pound of fat. Therefore, to effectively lose fat, you must restrict your calorie intake (not too much!) and increase your calorie output.