Are we ever satisfied with our weight? Maybe we want to lose it as we are overweight, perhaps just tone up, or avoid gaining more. Then there are the ‘skinny’ people that have an accelerated metabolism who battle to put weight on, and finally there are those that look like they have the perfect athletic body, do no exercise and eat what they want, better known as ‘Skinny Fat’ (medically known as metabolically obese normal weight) a phrase used to describe people who look fit and healthy on the surface yet, due to lack of exercise and poor diet, have an abundance of health problems brewing beneath it.
The weight that’s best for you depends on a number of factors; height, bone structure, body type and possibly genetic factors.
1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. This means that to lose a pound a week, you need to “lose” 3,500 calories a week, which works out roughly to be 500 a day. The easiest way to do this is through a combination of exercise and diet. Here are a few tips which may surprise you that can hep you lose those extra pounds;
Eat Snacks!
To help you lose weight you should eat snacks! Eating healthy snacks between meals helps prevent you overeating during meals, and it also keeps your blood sugar level balanced throughout the day, which in turn helps sustain energy levels.
Eat your favourite foods!
We all think to lose weight or tone up we need stop eating all our favourite foods, as normally they are high in calories or fat, but evidence shows that cutting our favourite foods out altogether only makes us miserable, then we develop a craving for that food and end up binging on it.
Make small changes
All we need to do is make some small changes – for instance we can still eat our favourite food, but half it – so instead of two chocolate biscuits just have one. Try changing from full fat milk to semi skimmed milk. Cut down a little on carbohydrates – for example have less pasta, rice or potatoes – as these easily convert to fat if overeaten. Try having extra vegetables instead as these are lower in calories and are mostly carbohydrate free. Small changes are easier to make, but they will give you results and will help you to quickly adapt to smaller portions.
Eat more slowly
Try eating slowly, chew your food and fully take on the flavours. Did you know it takes approximately 20 minutes for your brain to receive the signals from your stomach that you are full?
Use a smaller plate
Also try using a smaller plate at meal times, as your portion will appear bigger. It’s proven that you’ll feel much more satisfied than if you had used a larger plate with the same size portion, as you are tricking your tummy with an optical illusion.
