Physical fitness is gaining importance in the new millennium. The Body Beautiful is an eternal quest. Everyone is in constant search of weight loss tips.
2015 has given fitness enthusiasts many ways to hack the dieting process successfully and stay in shape. These 25 suggestions are easy for any weight watcher to follow.
25 Great Diet Hacks of 2015
1. Positive lifestyle changes
Film producer and self-help expert Stephen Richards once said that if a person does what he fears most, he can do anything. One needs such courage, and positive thoughts, to lose weight.
The first way to get a grip on the dieting process is to make positive dieting changes gradually. If you try to do make all these changes at once, you will soon find yourself giving up altogether.
Start with a simple change, such as eating two meals with vegetables instead of one. Do this until you feel ready to make another change, such as avoiding fatty meat.
2. Sleep
Voice actor Thomas Dekker described sleep as the golden chain which ties health and body together. It behooves all to agree.
Getting more sleep can do wonders for your fitness level. Sleep affects your metabolic rate. Research shows that functioning on little sleep lowers metabolism and disrupts the body’s hormones.
A study by Eve Van Cauter et al measured the ghrelin levels of its subjects before and after two days of sleep deprivation. Ghrelin, which lines the stomach’s walls, stimulates hunger and thus, weight gain. The study reported a marked increase in ghrelin after the two days of sleep deprivation were up. It showed effectively that sleep is directly related to lower metabolism and weight gain.
3. Adapting to your environment
It is natural to eat more during social events. People tend to serve richer, more delectable food at such times. They are also more likely to heap their plates.
Social environments have more impact on your health and fitness than you realize. “Once-in-a-while” deviations from your diet may happen more regularly than you imagine. Make it a point to eat out of smaller plates at social events.
4. Avoid overeating
An old saying advises all food lovers to stop eating when they are 80% full. The best way to avoid overeating is to learn to react to the signals that your body is sending you.
Learning to stop eating when you are comfortably full is an acquired skill. You can tell how full you are if you listen to the signals sent from your brain to your stomach. Your stomach receives the signals when you are comfortably full. It takes about twenty minutes for the body to accept these signals. To give yourself time to sense them, chew and savor your food.
Being comfortably full does not mean not continuing to eat. You should stop eating when your hunger is 80% satisfied.
5. Healthy eating
An effective diet hack is to eat healthily. Vegetables, apart from improving your digestion, have a myriad of antioxidants.
They are also filled with fiber. Fiber is a password that will allow you to hack the dieting database. Research suggests that fiber boosts mood.
A study by Professor Andrew Smith of Cardiff University showed that volunteers who took fiber experienced better cognition and were less irritable.
To add, eat lots of protein. Make it the main part of a meal, with fruits and vegetables. This increases energy expenditure.
6. Eat a hearty, healthy breakfast
A good breakfast is an indispensable diet hack. Do not skip it because you will snack later. Breakfast boosts dopamine, which triggers feelings of reward.
When deciding how much to eat, it is wise to remember Francis Bacon’s adage “Eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince for lunch and a peasant for dinner. “ Make breakfast, a precursor to the rest of the day, a fuller meal. Have less food at lunch and even less at dinner.
7. Avoid drinks with sugar
An evergreen diet hack is to avoid drinks with sugar. Sugared drinks age cells quickly. They promote obesity and shorten your telomeres, which are DNA components that decide your lifespan.
Studies found that drinks with sugar shorten lifespans. Research by the University of California showed that participants who drank more soda had shorter telomeres than those who did not. Telomeres are also associated with other chronic diseases like aging and cancer.
8. Snack on nuts or seeds
Go nuts over nuts. Nuts and pumpkin seeds make filling, high protein snacks. Chewing on them helps you to curb your appetite and calorie intake.
9. Bag your lunch
Home cooked meals are a simple, yet effective diet hack.
With fewer calories, a home cooked meal is healthier. Prepare your lunch instead of relying on take-away sandwiches which have lots of calories.
10. Have variety
Variety is the spice of life, and is an important diet hack.
Healthy food is not necessarily boring. Add variety to your chicken by preparing it in a way which others are new to. Try online recipes and experiment with new flavors.
11. Avoid energy drinks
A diet hack, not necessarily related to weight loss, is to avoid energy drinks.
Energy drinks, meant to improve day-to-day functioning, cause insomnia. While they raise performance by 3-7%, they also interrupt sleep. A study on US servicemen reported that those who drank 3 to 4 energy drinks per day were more likely to report sleep problems than those who consumed one to two drinks.
A better option is aiming to eat foods with a low glycemic index as it will help sustain your energy levels for longer without the spikes.
12. Go fishing
Teach a man to fish, and you will save him for life.
Taking in fish is another way to get a grip on the dieting process. Eating boiled fish may improve brain functions. The Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Rhode Island Hospital conducted a study on 619 men and women taking fish oil supplements. Researchers divided the subjects into two groups and put them through memory tests. The group that took fish oil supplements scored higher on these tests.
13. Avoid comfort food
A familiar diet hack is to avoid comfort food. Favored muppet Miss Piggy, child like but wise, once advised her viewers never to eat more than they could lift. Your body needs unnecessary energy to lift the weight that junk food leaves behind.
Everyone is aware that burgers, fries and fried chicken, high in triglycerides, are major causes of weight gain. This aside, comfort food is not that comforting. One study involved showing students sad films. They consumed comfort food while watching these films. The study found no improvement in their comfort levels.
Check out this video on some lazy snack alternatives
14. A glass of wine
Red wine, associated with enjoyment, is a surprising diet hack. Drinking in moderation, it has definite health benefits. Founder of milk Pasteurization Louis Pasteur dubbed wine a most healthful, hygienic beverage.
Red wine has Resveratrol, a compound that greatly benefits men. It builds endurance and helps to develop skeletal muscles. A study found that this compound increased endurance in rats.
Moderate amounts of red wine reduces the risk of heart disease. A Canadian study found that two 5 ounce glasses per day lowered the risk of developing atherosclerosis, a condition which occurs when plaque blocks arteries.
Resveratrol slows cancer cell development as well. A French study found that this compound slowed cancer cell production. Scientists consider it an effective anti-cancer agent.
15. Try the Slow Carb diet
Tim Ferriss first popularized the Slow Carb diet when he mentioned it in his blog, How to lose 20lbs of Fat in 30 days without doing any exercise.” He claimed to have lost 25 lbs of body fat in six weeks.
This diet involves eating foods that do not raise a person’s glycemic index, or blood sugar level. Carbohydrates and sugars fit this description.
The diet is proven to increase weight loss and muscle mass. With blood sugar lowered, there is less strain on the pancreas. This low-cost diet is easy to follow. Tim recommends that those on it should eat the same delicious meals that they are certain have few carbohydrates.
If this diet is the weight loss hack for you, take in more proteins, legumes, vegetables and nuts. Although you should consume more protein, avoid dairy, as milk protein causes a spike in insulin.
16. Intermittent fasting
Spiritual writer Adalbert de Vogue mentioned that fasting makes his afternoons happy.
Going through periods of fasting improves blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. It also removes trigylcerides from the blood.
Cells break down and metabolize excess proteins that build up over time. Fasting also removes waste from cells, a process known as atophagy. This offers protection against diseases.
Periodic fasting protects you against cancer as well. Researchers have discovered that it has a direct effect on tumors. They split GF1 mice into two groups, feeding one group regularly and the other on alternate days. GF1 are mice that tend to develop tumors. Mice fed on alternate days did not develop lymphomas.
Intermittent fasting increases your brain’s power. It improves various brain functions. Researchers discovered that it increases new cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that relates to injury. Rats maintained on a fasting regimen showed an increase in neural cells. Further studies on rats have also shown that it slows Alzheimer’s disease.
Intermittent fasting can also lengthen your lifespan. Charles L Goodrick and his research team divided Wistar Rats into two groups, feeding one daily and the other on alternate days. Researchers measured their DNA and found that fasting intermittently increased the lifespans of these mice considerably.
17. Watch your iron levels
An important diet hack is to take in lots of iron, found mainly in the liver. Iron is responsible for forming hemoglobin, the protein that binds to oxygen and carries it though the body. Cells die without oxygen.
A lack of iron, according to Dr. Mercola, causes fatigue and decreases immunity. It also increases the body’s propensity for anemia.
18. Drink Matcha green tea
“I love coffee, I love tea…I love the java jive and it loves me.” Composer Ben Oakland probably had green tea in his mind when he wrote his jazz swing hit, Java Jive.
Matcha green tea is a diet hack which is now in vogue. High in antioxidants, it protects the skin against harmful UV rays. It also protects you from life-threatening maladies. Matcha green tea has five times as many antioxidants as other food. It contains catechins, an antioxidant which has cancer fighting properties.
The amino acid L-Theanine, found in matcha green tea leaves, produces alpha waves in the brain. This induces calm, without drowsiness. The ingredients in this green tea, uniquely blended, increase your endurance.
This green tea burns fat four times faster than on average, without side effects. It lowers LDL (low-density lipoprotein), or good cholesterol, while raising HDL(high density lipoprotein), the bad cholesterol which the body needs less of. Hardly medicinal, it has a wonderful flavor and is easy to consume.
19. Stock up on healthy fat
When it comes to taking in fat, less is more. Fat is a diet hack that is trending, though it is only healthy fat, in moderate amounts, that you should stock up on.
Good fat can help your body reach optimal composition. Omega-3 acids, which comes from salmon, make the body sensitive to insulin.
Omega 3 acids increase lipolysis, or fat-burning. They also support thyroid function. The thyroid regulates body fat, and makes it easier for the body to lose it.
Omega 3 fatty acids are high in HDL, which promotes a good balance of estrogen and testosterone. This makes it easier to build a lean physique.
20. Eat out of small plates and drink out of small glasses.
Looks deceive, even when it comes to food. An unexpected, yet common-sense diet hack is to eat out of a plate instead of a bag. Not seeing food may make you consume more of it than you intend to. To add, eat out of a small plate, which will make you think that you are eating more than you really are.
If you have a fetish for sweet drinks that is difficult to control, drink out of a tall glass. Studies show that people pour more liquid into shorter instead of taller glasses.
21. Take care of your appearance.
At times, a simple diet hack is the one which works best. Looks always make the man, and also help to make your diet effective.
Wearing stylish clothes makes you feel attractive. An insignificant action like dressing in a way which makes you feel slim pushes you towards your diet goals.
These diet hacks will help you to turn your body into a work of art.
22. Put a mirror on your fridge
Completing the phrase “mirror, mirror, on the wall is child’s play. You should, however, mount the mirror on the wall instead of your fridge. This will prompt you to stick to your weight loss goals.
23 . Put your dressing on the side
Gravy and sauces are where most calories hide. A helpful diet hack is to have them on the side. This gives you more leeway to control your calorie intake.
24. Make effortless food substitutions
Good news is that you can scream for ice-cream without feeling the pinch. Making quick food substitutions eases the dieting process. Substitute your favorite dessert with delicious non-fat yogurt..
25. Drink more water
“Water, water, everywhere…..and all the boards did shrink.” -Samuel T Coleridge Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was right is saying that water shrinks boards at sea. It decreases your weight too.
A study by Dr. Amanda Daley of the University of Birmingham found that water reduces weight substantially, and benefits the body greatly. Most weight loss programs extol the benefits of water. Drink 8 cups of it a day to lose weight in a simple way.
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