If you’re trying to drop a few pounds fast, these expert tips will make it easy for you to lose the weight quickly.
1. Write down what you eat
Do it for one week and you will lose weight. People who keep food diaries wind up eating less food than those who don’t.
And, new research suggests logging what you eat is one of the most effective and easy ways to lose weight.
Just watch out for weekends: One study found people tend to consume an extra 115 calories per weekend day, primarily from alcohol and fat.
2. Get an online weight loss buddy
Researchers found that online weight-loss buddies help you keep the weight off. Those who had several friends within the online weight loss community nearly doubled the percentage of weight lost compared to those who didn’t have friends in the program.
3. Get a weight loss mantra
You’ve heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you keep focusing on things you can’t do, like resisting junk food or getting out the door for a daily walk, chances are you won’t do them.
Instead (whether you believe it or not) repeat positive thoughts to yourself. “I can lose weight.” “I will get out for my walk today.” “I know I can resist the pastry cart after dinner.”
Using meditation can be another tool—mindfulness meditation was shown to help reduce binge eating and emotional meaning.
4. Stick strictly to water after breakfast
At breakfast, go ahead and drink a half cup of orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda.
The average American consumes an extra 145 calories a day from soft drinks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s nearly 53,000 calories a year—or 15 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.
5. Eat three fewer bites of your meal
…or one less treat a day, or one less glass of orange juice. Doing any of these can save you about 100 calories a day, and that alone is enough to prevent you from gaining the two pounds most people mindlessly pack on each year.
6. Watch one less hour of tv
Or none at all. A study found the more that study participants watched television, the more they ate—and the more unhealthy food choices they made.
Sacrifice one program (there’s probably one you don’t really want to watch anyway) and go for a walk instead—in even just 15 minutes, you’ll reap some amazing benefits from walking.
7. Wash something thoroughly once a week
Whether that’s a floor, a couple of windows, the shower stall, bathroom tile, your car, a 150-pound person will burn about four calories for every minute spent cleaning.
Scrub for 30 minutes and you could work off approximately 120 calories, the same number in a half-cup of vanilla frozen yogurt.
8. Wait until your stomach rumbles before eating
It’s stunning how often we eat out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration—so often, in fact, that many of us have actually forgotten what physical hunger feels like.
If you’re hankering for a specific food, it’s probably a craving, not hunger.
If you’d eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you’re truly hungry.
Learn how to recognize these feelings mistaken for hunger, then find ways other than eating to express love, tame stress, and relieve boredom.
9. Eat in front of a mirror
One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly one-third. Having to look yourself in the eye reflects back some of your own inner standards and goals, and reminds you of why you’re trying to lose weight in the first place.
10. Spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down the stairs
Walking of any kind is one of the best and easy ways to lose weight, but stairs in particular work wonders for weight loss.
Research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that stairs training in short bursts, for two to 10 minutes a day, helps lower cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health—allowing you to train even more.
11. Avoid prepared foods
… that lists sugar, fructose, or corn syrup among the first four ingredients on the label.
You should be able to find a lower-sugar version of the same type of food—especially foods that often contain hidden sugars, like salad dressing or pasta sauce.
Also, avoid partially hydrogenated foods, and look for more than two grams of fiber per 100 calories in all grain products.
Finally, a short ingredient list means fewer flavor enhancers and empty calories.
12. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite
At the table, sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, you’ll give your gut microbiome time to alert your brain that you are no longer in need of food.
13. Throw out your fat clothes for good
Once you’ve started losing weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit, and fill your closet with clothes that do. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back may serve as an incentive to stay fit.
14. Shut your kitchen after dinner
After dinner, wash all the dishes, wipe down the counters, turn out the light, and, if necessary, tape closed the cabinets and refrigerator.
Late-evening eating increases the overall number of calories you eat, studies found.
15. Take a walk right after dinner
A small study found that walking right after you eat can increase weight loss over holding off on a walk for an hour.
16. Make one social outing a week active
Pass on the movies and check out the views of a local park instead. Not only will you sit less, but you’ll be saving calories because you won’t chow down on that bucket of popcorn.
Other active ideas: a tennis match, a guided nature or city walk (check your local listings), a bike ride, and bowling.
17. Get a fitness tracker
Are you feeling like you need to move more? On average, sedentary people take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining weight; adding more than that is one of the easy ways to lose weight—and the 10,000 step ideal is definitely in your reach.
18. Use smaller plates
Instead using regular dinner plates that range these days from 10 to 14 inches (making them look empty if they’re not heaped with food), serve your main course on smaller salad plates (about 7 to 9 inches wide). Instead of 16-ounce glasses and oversized coffee mugs, return to the old days of 8-ounce glasses and 6-ounce coffee cups. That will discourage you from stuffing your plate—and your stomach.
19. Eat 90 percent of your meals at home
You’re more likely to eat more—and eat more high-fat, high-calorie foods—when you eat out than when you eat at home. Restaurants today serve such large portions that many have switched to larger plates and tables to accommodate them. And research shows that food prepared at home is usually nutritionally better than that restaurant meal.
20. Don’t eat in a large group setting
A study found that we tend to eat more when we eat with other people, most likely because we spend more time at the table. But eating with your significant other or your family, and using table time for talking in between chewing, can help cut down on calories.
21. Order the smallest portion of everything
If you’re out and ordering a sub, get the six-inch sandwich. Buy a small popcorn, a small salad, a small hamburger. Again, studies find we tend to eat what’s in front of us, even though we’d feel just as full on less.
22. Eat water-rich foods
A body of research out of Pennsylvania State University finds that eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption.
Other water-rich foods include soups and salads.
You won’t get the same benefits by just drinking your water, though (but you will get other benefits of staying hydrated).
Because the body processes hunger and thirst through different mechanisms, it simply doesn’t register a sense of fullness with water (or soda, tea, coffee, or juice).
23. Bulk up your meals with veggies
You can eat twice as much pasta salad loaded with veggies like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes for the same calories as a pasta salad sporting just mayonnaise.
Same goes for stir-fries, omelets, and other veggie-friendly dishes. I
f you eat a 1:1 ratio of grains to veggies, the high-fiber veggies will help satisfy your hunger before you overeat the grains.
Bonus: Fiber is highly beneficial for preventing constipation, which can make you look bloated.
24. Avoid white foods
There is some scientific legitimacy to today’s lower-carb diets: Large amounts of refined carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain.
Limit your intake of sugar, white rice, and white flour; swap them for whole-grain breads and brown rice.
Several studies have found that eating more whole grains makes you more likely to weigh less.
25. Try hot sauce, salsa and cajun seasoning
They provide lots of flavor with few calories, plus they turn up your digestive fires, causing your body to temporarily burn a few more calories. Choose them over butter and creamy or sugary sauces.
26. Eat fruit instead of drink juice
For the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you can enjoy an apple, orange, and a slice of watermelon.
These whole foods will keep you satisfied much longer than that box of apple juice, so you’ll eat less overall.
And research has shown that there’s no difference in the impact on your body between drinking fruit juice and drinking a soda or other sugary drink.
27. Get most of you calories before noon
Studies find that the more you eat in the morning, the less you’ll eat in the evening. And you have more opportunities to burn off those early-day calories than you do to burn off dinner calories.
28. Brush your teeth after every meal
That clean, minty freshness will serve as a cue to your body and brain that mealtime is over.
