This article does not recommend a foolproof diet to lose weight or tell you what to eat and in what amounts. I am not a nutritionist and do not have the expertise to do so, nor would I dream of venturing (and, as always, I urge you to seek only competent professionals in such cases).
This article contains suggestions on habits you could make your own because they could bring you many benefits. It is an article about common sense at the table and in nutrition rather than a diet. In short, these are tips that are easy to apply and have a measurable result in the long run. Do not expect sudden transformations; instead, you will gain benefits in the medium to long term. The beauty is that these are rules you can apply without much effort, always remembering that habits are the building blocks of behavior and that changing them will practice big changes to your life.
1. Eat a lot
Before jumping for joy, however, it is best to specify what is meant by “a lot”: it can mean “quantity” or “volume.” In fact, there are many foods that are not particularly caloric and fill the stomach greatly because of their volume: think salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, yogurt. These are foods that are low in calories but fill you up. And they are perfect for snacks!
2. Use the geometric deception trick
It is most important and very helpful to carefully choose the size of the plate where you eat. The smaller it is–the less you will eat. It seems obvious but there is a logical and geometric explanation.
3. Limit water during meals
Drinking while eating has no contraindications, except that of “flushing” the mouthful too quickly, making it easier to swallow. The consequence is that you risk eating too fast and more. On the other hand, if you linger in chewing you get a twofold benefit: you initiate digestion or facilitate it since you reduce the food into a paste that is more easily digested by your stomach, and then you taste the food better since by eating more slowly you will also eat less of it.
4. Eating with the wrong hand
Or, in other words, reverse the hands you normally use to eat. Do you use the right? Do it with the left. Again, you’ve probably figured it out by now, the trick is to eat more slowly and thus facilitate digestion even while assimilating less food.
5. Swap your favorite foods for less caloric ones
When you think of sausage, pork sausage immediately comes to mind. Yet there are several equally nutritious but lower-calorie alternatives: for example, chicken, turkey, rabbit or even vegan alternatives.
6. Eat protein
Assuming that all nutrients are crucial for a complete and balanced diet, we often forget about protein or consume less than necessary. In addition to being essential for rebuilding muscle tissue worn down by training, from a metabolic point of view, protein digestion requires more work of the stomach, and therefore consumes more calories than carbohydrates. The result is that more calories are consumed to digest tot grams of protein than for a similar amount of carbohydrates, and the hunger pangs are also longer removed because the stomach is busy processing them.
7. Avoid alcohol
Obvious, isn’t it? Alcohol is an insidious enemy of fitness: did you know, for example, that its caloric intake is almost twice that of sugar (7 calories versus 4 per gram)?
When you take it, beyond the deleterious effects it causes on your liver (which has to metabolize it) and on the transport of oxygen to the cells of your body, you are ingesting a substance that is only slightly less caloric than fat (9 cal/g).
Alcohol in modest amounts also has positive effects on sociability and mood, but in excess it loads the body with toxic substances that it struggles mightily to transform, when and if it succeeds fully.
Limiting its use or eliminating it, we know, is not easy if there is a predisposition or difficulty controlling its consumption. What can be easily done instead is to replace it with harmless or indeed, healthy beverages such as tea, herbal tea or flavored water. Sometimes you are a slave to the act of drinking or the habit of tasting something in your mouth, and the good news is that lots of healthy drinks can get you over this problem.
8. Get moving (and rest)
“Thank you very much,” I can hear you thinking it! It is at least as obvious as it is true that this is one of the most neglected councils in the world. So many people go through a diet of deprivation and sacrifice without associating movement with it and are then surprised that it does not bring results, or not the ones they hoped for.
No dietary regimen works without supporting and helping with the other two elements of the triad: training and recovery/rest. Training makes you burn excess calories or wisely use the one you have on hand (which, for the sedentary life we all lead on average, is always too many!) and recovery allows the body to rebuild its tissues in the resting phase.
There are many reasons why a diet does not work: because it is unmanageable physically and psychologically, because it is wrong for one person and perfect for another, because it is not combined with adequate exercise. What is certain is that certain eating habits can go a long way toward correcting certain misbehaviors, without being punitive.
There is no need to suffer doing one of the most beautiful things in the world, and that is eating.
(partially inspired by“8 weight-loss hacks that helped me cut my body-fat percentage nearly in half – and maintain it“)