For many, losing weight involves a roller-coaster ride of fad dieting, ditching favourite foods and embarking on a strict exercise regime.
However weight-loss and maintaining a healthy weight needn’t mean drastically overhauling your lifestyle and counting calories. In fact, making smart, simple choices is often the key to shaping up and keeping your body healthy.
Nutrition tip one – Hide your weaknesses
If there’s a particular snack or treat that causes your healthy eating habits to slide, make a conscious effort to hide them from view. According to a study published in the Journal of Marketing, people are more likely to overeat small snacks and treats from transparent boxes and packages than from opaque ones. It’s OK to indulge every now and then, but making sure you do not go overboard is key.
Nutrition tip two – The one in 10 rule
The one in 10 rule is the ratio of fibre to carbohydrate in unprocessed wholegrain foods – for every 10 grams of carbohydrate there should be at least one gram of fibre. This will ensure you get the right amount of nutrition, and less of the sugar, sodium and trans fats that are found in processed carbohydrates without this ratio.
Nutrition tip three – Boost flavour to reduce calories
A leading study in the journal, Flavour found that we eat bigger quantities of foods that have a less distinctive smell, so adding herbs and spices to your dishes will trick your mind into thinking you’re eating something rich, without any of the fat or calories.
Nutrition tip four – Chill pasta to reduce fat
Putting pasta in the fridge to chill after cooking is a great way to reduce calories. This is because the drop in temperature changes pasta into ‘resistant starch’, which is harder for the body to digest. Furthermore, a study published in the journal, Nutrition and Metabolism found that adding resistant starch to a meal can help promote fat oxidation.
Nutrition tip five – Drink lots of water
Nutritional guidelines recommend eight glasses of water a day, but what many people don’t realise is that hydration is key for maintaining a healthy weight. This was highlighted in one particular study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, which showed after drinking approximately 17 ounces of water, participants’ metabolic rates increased by 30%. Therefore, drinking about six cups of water a day could see you burn an extra 17,400 calories a year. This equates to a loss of 5lbs.
