Diet Tips

Here is a selection of diet tips and tricks that I've used to help myself stay on a diet. Some of these things are very simple and very commonsense, but I've found that some people just don't realize the little tricks of the dieting trade. So here is a few tips that you can use in your dieting:

1. Eight, 8 oz. glasses of water everyday, this is a common diet tip and most people know this, yet they still don't drink enough water during the day. There are some very important reasons for drinking water, first off, its zero calorie, zero chemical, zero caffeine, and the ideal thing to curb your appetite. Drinking water will flush out the bad toxins in your body, will get your kidney's working, and even help your metabolism speed up a little. Drinking water also takes up space in your stomach, it reduces the cravings just a bit, and will make you feel a little more full when you do eat your calories for the day. If you want an added benefit from water, make sure you drink cold water, this will speed up your metabolism a bit and make you burn up a few extra calories. Remember that when you are losing weight, the fat that you are losing sometimes has stored toxins in it, drinking water will help flush out those toxins.

2. Keep track of your progress. Its very easy to break your diet if you don't monitor what you eat during the day. Get yourself a little journal that you write down what you've eaten, the calories you've eaten, and what type of workout you've done for the day. By keeping track of the calories, you'll make sure that you don't go over a certain caloric amount during the day. Also tracking your workout will also show you the areas that you've improved in, trust me, its great inspiration to see how far you've come. Keeping a journal of your progress is very important, because it shows you in some tangible way that you are making progress.

3. Variety may be the spice of life, but it also can be the downfall of a good diet. When doing your grocery shopping, if you don't buy junk food or foods that are bad for you, it makes it that much harder for you to break your diet on the spur of the moment. Its much harder to resist the temptation of a chocolate bar if its sitting right in front of you. Remove unnecessary temptations, if you only have healthy foods in the house and low cal foods, then it would be that much harder to break your diet.

4. Smaller meals throughout the day rather then larger meals. If you eat smaller meals throughout the day, your metabolism will stay at a higher rate and you won't feel as hungry throughout the day. Just having all your calories at one sitting will doom you to that hungry feeling and if you have that hungry feeling you'll be a little more apt to break your diet. If you have a series of smaller meals, you'll be able to feel slightly full at different moments of the day, there will be less time you have to "do without" and you'll feel better for it. Your body will also process smaller meals better and subsequently burn off the calories quicker.

5. Eat negative calorie foods, you can see the list in the Negative Food Section of this website. These are foods that you can eat in any quantity and not feel guilty about eating them. They work in a negative calorie way and are allowed to be consumed whenever you want.

6. Fat burning foods, yes, some foods will speed up your metabolism, for a list of those foods visit my other website: Fat Burning Foods

7. Eat to live, don't live to eat. Yes, I've always hated when someone said that statement to me, but in truth, its an important lesson to learn. The reasons we eat certain foods or indulge in certain junk foods is often far from being hungry. Some people eat to comfort themselves, some people eat for the pleasure of eating, the taste, texture, etc, but you really have to ask yourself, what should be the function of food in my life. You want to shift the focus of food as entertainment to food being what fuels your body, too much is bad and your body won't function properly. Changing your attitude towards food is important if you want to succeed in any diet.

8. Exercise, as I said in the exercise section, its important to add muscle to your body,why? Because muscle burns up calories 18 times faster then fat does on your body. So, add more muscle, your metabolism is increased, and you can burn off more calories per day.

9. Plan ahead - the fast food industry banks on people's need for food on the go, if you take the time to prepare your breakfast, lunch and dinner, you become a little more in control of your daily caloric intake. While you can eat at fast food places, most of the menu is off limits to you, if you are going to a fast food place, know what foods are okay for you to eat, know how many calories are in the food, how many grams of fat, etc. Don't just assume that this sandwich that you get will be a certain number of calories, its important that you know the exact amount of calories. Also, if you are going to a restaurant, think ahead of what you want to eat there, remove that temptation and stick to exactly what you planned on eating before going to the restaurant.

10. Soups, YAY for soups, this is one of my favorite things to eat while dieting. It takes a long time to eat, its filling, its low calorie, and its good for you. There was a study a few years ago that stated soup added to a diet will speed up your metabolism and reduce the hunger cravings. There are two things to look out for, creamy soups (higher in calorie) and the salt level in soups. Unfortunately, most canned soups are also high in salt, so take that into consideration when eating soup.

11. Reducing the fats that you eat during the day, but also being aware of the myth of no-fat foods. Lowering the amount of fats in your diet just makes good sense. Fat is denser and less likely to fill you for a sustained period of time, also, fat and cholesterol is not a heart healthy solution (there are some healthy fats, see the fat burning food site). Be aware of the "no-fat" "low-fat" products they have in the store. The way they usually make these items low-fat yet tasty is by adding more sugar. Just because something says low-fat doesn't mean that you can't gain weight from it. Another thing, if you substitute fatty foods with vegetables, you'll find that you feel fuller because of the fiber levels in fruits and vegetables.

12. Eat slowly. I know that sometimes you have to rush your food down because you're late for work or late for an appointment, but if you eat slowly you will enjoy the food more, you will feel a little more satisfied, and your body can honestly tell you, "Hey, I'm full, no need to finish that whole plate of food" if you eat to quickly your body doesn't have time to send you the message that you're full and you end up eating more.

13. Most of all, if you do break your diet one day, get right back on the diet, Do not go on a weak of breaking or longer. It just makes it that much harder to get motivated to start up again. We are only human, people will break their diets from time to time, but its okay to break it one day as long as you get back on your diet the next day.

These are just a few tips for dieting, I'll be adding more as I get more responses from people on the topic of dieting and diet tips. Please check back soon, I'll be adding more to this section regularly.