14 Little-Known Weight-Loss Tips

“Look…the soda’s not for me, OK?”

These have worked for lots of my patients.  Take what works for you and discard the rest.

1. Plan on grocery shopping, meal preparation, and taking meals to your workplace.
2. Keeping a record of your food consumption is often the key to success.
3. Accountability is another key.  Do you have a friend or spouse who wants to lose weight?  Start the same program at the same time and support each other.  That’s one of many ways to have accountability.
4. If you tend to over-eat or snack too much, floss and brush your teeth after you’re full.  You’ll be less likely to go back for more anytime soon.
5. Eat at least two or three meals daily.  Eat breakfast every day.  Ignore the diet gurus who say you must eat every two or three hours.
6. Eat slowly and allow yourself time to enjoy your food; you’ll be a better judge of when your’re full.
7. Don’t eat while watching TV.
8. Give yourself a specific reward for every 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of weight lost.  Consider a weekend get-way, jewelry, new clothes, an evening at the theater, a professional massage, etc.  Choose the reward in advance, to give you something to work toward.
9. Don’t start a diet during a time of stress.
10. Maintain a consistent eating pattern throughout the week and year.
11. If you know you’ve eating enough at a meal to satisfy your nutritional requirements yet you still feel hungry, drink a large glass of water and wait a while.  Or try a sugar-free psyllium fiber supplement: three grams of fiber in 8 oz (240 ml) of water.
12. Weigh yourself frequently: daily during your active weight-loss phase and during the first two months of your maintenance-of-weight-loss phase.  Weekly thereafter.
13. Be aware that you’ll probably regain five or 10 pounds (2.3 or 4.5 kg) of fat now and then.  That’s normal.  Just get back on your original weight-loss plan for a month or two.
14. Tell your housemates you’re on a diet and ask for their support.  You may also need to tell your co-workers and others with whom you spend significant time.  If they care about you, they’ll be careful not to tempt you off the diet.

Indispensable?  OK, maybe that’s a little over the top.  But each of these tips has  proven indispensable to at least one of my patients.

Steve Parker, M.D.