1. Drink lots of water-64 oz per day (eight glasses). Try to avoid
sweeteners, sweeten water with fresh berries or use lemon to
add flavor instead. Avoid both sweetened and diet soda, they do
not rehydrate and contain toxic chemicals. Drinking a glass of
water, tea, or broth 30 minutes before a meal has been shown to
promote weight loss.
2. Get quality lean protein in your diet. Egg protein, cottage cheese,
whey protein are most bioavailable (easiest for your body to
absorb). Beans are also an excellent source of both protein and
fiber. Protein is needed for your body to put on lean muscle. A
serving of protein is roughly the size of the palm of your hand.
3. Fiber-minimum of 25 grams per day for women, 38 for men. It is
important to get both water soluble fiber (ex-pectin in apples) and
insoluble (ex-fiber from wheat bran). Fiber enhances blood sugar
control, and keeps you feeling full to reduce the number of
calories you eat per day. Most people have to take a fiber
supplement to get this much fiber, start slowly, a 1-2 mg
supplement before meals and at bedtime, working up to 5 mg at
these times provides 20 mg fiber per day.
4. Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, 6-10 servings per day.
Fresh is best, but frozen is an option when fresh is not available.
Avoid canned fruit and vegetables which lose a lot of nutrients in
processing. Canned vegetables also contain a lot of sodium.
Liners of cans are also lined with BPA, a toxic chemical that has
been banned from baby bottles in the U.S. due to its toxicity.
5. Eliminate processed food from your diet, often full of chemicals,
fillers, refined sugar, and trans fats that promote weight gain and
make your heart less healthy. Be careful; the box may say “0 g
trans fat/serving” but if the label has “partially hydrogenated” in
the ingredients list, there is trans fat. Crackers, margarine,
cookies, boxed cake mixes often contain trans fats.
6. Reduce refined sugar intake (white sugar). Avoid artificial
sweeteners, with the exception of Stevia. You may use honey,
maple syrup, or agave syrup to sweeten drinks or food; these are
lower on the glycemic index so they do not cause a large increase
in your blood sugar.
7. To lose two pounds per week, you need to cut back by 500-1,000
kcal/day. Only drop those calories one week at a time. (For
example, a male who is eating 3000 kcal/day should go down to
2500 for the first week, then 2000 the next week.) Do not lower
your daily caloric intake below 1200 kcal per day, this promotes
muscle mass loss. There are lots of free online resources to track
what you are eating, the number of calories eaten, fat grams, etc.
One example is myfitnesspal.com
8. Low to moderate intensity exercise mobilizes fat. With moderate
intensity exercise, you are sweating, but still able to carry on a
conversation. You need a combination of
endurance/cardiovascular exercise (walking/biking etc) and
resistance exercise (bands, light weights) for weight loss and
maintenance of weight. Depending on the type of exercise, you
burn more calories for a few hours afterward. Resistance exercise
builds muscle mass to increase your metabolism.
9. If you are trying to lose weight, consider utilizing a quality meal
replacement once per day, such as Ultrameal. Be careful of the
ingredients in the meal replacement. No more than 200 calories
per shake, at least 15 grams of quality protein (whey or soy best),
and at least 3 grams of fiber per shake. Make sure it contains no
high fructose corn syrup or sucrose (table sugar). Fructose is fine
for a sweetener; this is the sugar derived from fruit and is lower
on the glycemic index. Avoid meal replacements with artificial
sugar as these often stimulate appetite and lead to weight gain.
10. Be wary of weight loss supplements, both with ephedrines and
ephedrine free. These do increase metabolism but also can lead
to tremors, high blood pressure, liver damage, and stroke.
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