10 Secrets About Your Metabolism

Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight

Weight loss is tricky business. Obviously what you eat has a huge impact on your health and body weight. But anyone who has ever tried to modify their diet for the sake of losing weight knows it isn’t so simple.

Most of us understand intuitively that broccoli is healthier than cookies. We can talk about sugar, fat, gluten and antioxidants all day, but that doesn’t change the fact that cookies taste good and you still want to eat them. Any weight loss plan that simply tells you what to eat and neglects why you make the choices you make is unlikely to help you in the long run.

Nutrition knowledge is important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. The real secret is understanding your behaviors and motivations at their roots, and using this information to have a meaningful impact on your health. In this sense, good health starts in your brain, not on your plate.

The first thing you need to understand is that we don’t have as much control over our food decisions as most of us assume. We tend to believe that we can call on willpower anytime we wish and use it to order a salad instead of a burger, and if we fail to do so it is our own fault. However, self-control is not something we can simply turn on or off, and as a result the process of decision making––particularly when it comes to food––is much more complex.

Approximately 20 percent of the calories we expend daily are used by our brains. Because brain activity is so costly, things like self-control and decision making cannot be relied on indefinitely. As a result, willpower is a limited resource.

Like a muscle, willpower becomes fatigued when exercised too frequently. All the decisions you make throughout the day deplete your willpower, and when you start running out of steam your ability to choose healthy food over more convenient food rapidly diminishes.

Ironically, increasing your blood sugar can help restore willpower to some extent. But finding a healthy way to raise blood sugar in a state of depleted willpower can pose quite the dilemma. Tired brains find it much easier to just grab a cookie.

The way our brains cope with the willpower conundrum is to automate as much of our decision making as possible. It does this by creating habits. Habits are specific behaviors that occur in response to a trigger or cue. They are also always associated with some kind of reward, which in turn reinforces and strengthens the trigger.

For example, a buzz in your pocket is a cue to reach down, grab your phone, pull it out and glance at the screen. The information you see causes a bit of dopamine to be released in the reward center of your brain. We humans love novelty, which is why most of us have a reflexive response to checking our mobile devices when we receive a notification. This is how habits are born.

Once established, habits occur automatically without expending any willpower or mental effort. Scientists have estimated that up to 90 percent of our daily food decisions occur as a result of habits. This saves our brain energy for more difficult decisions where habits cannot be used.

How can this knowledge help us lose weight?

For one thing, it shows that willpower is not particularly reliable as a means to achieve lasting weight loss, and we’re better off spending our efforts creating healthy habits.

It also teaches us that any habit we wish to develop needs to impart a meaningful reward in order for it to stick. You can probably guess that some vague promise of future thinness is not sufficient––the reward for any habit needs to be immediate and tangible.

This means that in order to achieve long-term weight control you need to find healthy foods you actually enjoy eating, physical activities you like doing, and spend your time making these as convenient and accessible as possible.

Fabulous news, right?

Using willpower for restrictive dieting is difficult and incredibly unpleasant. We can all let out a collective sigh of relief that it doesn’t actually work. To achieve true success in health and weight loss, we’re better off quitting diets altogether and focusing on building healthy habits we enjoy.

Try starting with something as simple as breakfast. Warm muesli with a splash of almond milk and cinnamon only takes two minutes to prepare and is absolutely delicious. Invest in a pedometer and challenge yourself to reach 10,000 steps a day. Setting and achieving an attainable goal is a very powerful reward, and is one of the reasons so many people love videogames.

Since our brains are easily overwhelmed, don’t try to develop too many habits at once. Work on just two or three habits at a time, and build from there. Habits take anywhere from two weeks to six months to take root, but on average about two months. Start with the easiest ones and work your way up. Once you’ve built enough good habits, your health will take care of itself.

To learn how to stop dieting, build healthy habits, and make life awesome check out my new book Foodist.

Originally published May 6, 2013.

Source: http://summertomato.com/use-your-brain-to-lose-weight/

An Easy Trick to Cut Calories Without Even Trying

Calories matter in weight loss. Current diets focus on protein, older diets focused on carbs, and who knows what future diets will focus on. But at the end of the day, calories do matter in weight loss.

Although I didn’t count calories very often when I was losing weight, I had a very good sense of how many calories were in a serving of foods because I was an avid label reader and measured my portions until I knew exactly how much food was in a serving. I call this calorie awareness.

For example, I knew that a serving of Ritz crackers was five crackers and had 80 calories, a serving of ice cream was 1/2 cup and had about 120 calories, and a serving of grapes was 1 cup and had about 100 calories.

The easy trick I used to cut calories was to cut portion sizes.

For example, this plate of pasta probably has 500 or 600 calories between the sauce, the noodles, and the fake cheese sprinkled on top. If you cut the portion in half, you’ve cut the calories in half.

This trick comes in very handy if you are having a meal like the one pictured above. High calorie foods can blow your diet faster than a Mississippi minute because they are so incredibly calorie dense.

Whenever I eat at a restaurant and order a standard entree, the first thing I do when the food comes is divide the high calorie foods in half. I leave the steamed vegetables and salad alone, but the entree, the bread, and any other higher calorie foods get chopped in half first thing. (And even then, I may not eat all of it.)

Automatic calorie control — provided I don’t go back and eat the rest.

When I’m at home, I simply serve myself the right portion from the beginning so I don’t have to make any calorie cuts. I know which of our family’s standard dishes are higher in calories than the others, and make sure to serve myself a smaller portion of those particular foods. For instance, when I make Asian stir fry, I have a tiny amount of rice and lots of vegetables. And if I make vegetarian lasagna, I have a lot of salad and a little bit of the main dish.

Using portion sizes to cut your calories is a sure-fire way of reducing how many calories you consume without feeling totally deprived. If you choose to eat an occasional dessert, using this trick to cut calories can help you enjoy that dessert or “off-limits” food without blowing your diet or feeling guilty.

The key for this technique is knowing what foods are calorie dense and that takes some research. Don’t just guess. Use the USDA Nutrient Data Labs search function,Sparkpeople, or MyFitnessPal to develop your own calorie awareness.

Over time, this will become second nature and is a technique that you can use whether you are losing weight or trying to maintain your weight. It’s part of the reason I have been able to maintain my weight for almost 16 years. Calorie awareness, portion control, and exercise. It works.

Source: http://blog.fittothefinish.com/2014/03/an-easy-trick-to-cut-calories-without-even-trying/

100 Painless Ways to Cut 100 or More Calories

Reaching your fat loss goals may be easier than you think. To lose a pound of fat a month, all you need to do is cut 100 calories a day from your diet, assuming the intake and expenditure of all other calories remains the same. That’s because a pound of body fat is equivalent to about 3,500 calories. So if you cut 100 calories a day for 31 days, you’re cutting 3,100 calories – or about a pound.

Wait… a pound a month? Isn’t that a little slow? Well, mounds of research indicate that you’re more likely to keep weight off if you lose it slowly. Besides, losing a pound a month doesn’t require drastic changes in your eating habits. It can be as simple as eating two egg rolls with your Chinese stir-fry instead of three. Here are 100 painless ways to cut 100 or more calories a day. As a bonus, they all reduce fat or sugar, which means, calorie for calorie, you’re getting more vitamins and minerals:

• Spread 1 tablespoon of all-fruit jam on your toast rather than 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter.
• Replace 1 cup of whole milk with 1/2 cup of nonfat milk.
• Eat 2 poached eggs instead of 2 fried eggs.
• Replace 1/2 cup of granola with 2 cups of Cheerios.
• Instead of using whole milk and eggs to prepare 2 slices of French toast, use nonfat milk and egg whites.
• Snack on an orange and a banana instead of a Snickers candy bar.
• Munch on 35 pretzel sticks instead of 1 ounce of dry-roasted peanuts.
• Replace 1 cup of sweetened applesauce with 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce.
• On your lamb-and-vegetable kabob, replace 2 of the 4 chunks of meat with fresh whole mushrooms.
• Dip an artichoke in 1 tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise instead of 1 1/2 tablespoons of regular mayonnaise.
• Steam your asparagus rather than sauté it in 1 tablespoon of butter or oil.
• Instead of a 5-ounce glass of wine, opt for cherry-flavored sparkling water.
• For a chewy snack, have 1/2 cup of dried fruit rather than 9 caramels.
• Replace 3 slices of bacon with 3 slices of Light & Lean Canadian bacon.
• Eat a Lender’s egg bagel instead of a Sara Lee egg bagel.
• Select 1 cup of home-style baked beans instead of an equal serving of baked beans with franks.
• Replace 2 biscuits with 2 dinner rolls.
• When making a sandwich, use 2 slices of Roman Light 7-grain bread instead of Pepperidge Farm wheat bread.
• Eat 1/2 cup of steamed fresh broccoli instead of 1/2 cup of frozen broccoli in cheese sauce.
• Make a burrito with 1/2 cup of fat-free refried beans and 1 ounce of nonfat cheese instead of the same amount of traditional refried beans and cheese.
• Replace an apple muffin with a high-fiber English muffin.
• Reduce a typical serving of chocolate cake (1/8 of a two-layer cake) by one-third.
• Switch from 1 cup of whole-milk hot chocolate to 1 cup of steamed 1% milk flavored with a dash of almond extract.
• Replace 1 cup of caramel-coated popcorn with 2 1/2 cups of air-popped popcorn.
• Switch from 1/2 cup of yogurt-covered raisins to 1/2 cup of plain raisins.
• Snack on 1 cup of nonfat plain yogurt instead of 1 cup of custard-style yogurt.
• Top your celery sticks with 2 tablespoons of fat-free cream cheese instead of 3 tablespoons of regular cream cheese.
• Replace 2 fried-chicken drumsticks with 2 roasted drumsticks and a cup of peas and carrots.
• Instead of eating 5 chocolate-chip cookies, savor the taste of 2.
• Lighten your 2 cups of coffee with 2 tablespoons of evaporated nonfat milk instead of 2 tablespoons of half-and-half.
• Replace a 12-ounce can of cola with a 12-ounce can of diet cola.
• Thicken your cream sauce with 1 percent milk and corn starch instead of a roux of butter and flour.
• At the appetizer tray, choose 4 fresh raw mushrooms instead of 4 batter-fried mushrooms.
• Use 2 tablespoons of fat-free sour cream instead of regular sour cream (on baked potatoes or in stroganoff). If done twice in the day, 100 calories will be cut.
• Reduce the size of your steak from 4 1/2 ounces to 3 ounces.
• Grill a cheese sandwich with nonstick cooking spray instead of margarine.
• Replace 1 cup of chocolate ice cream with 2/3 cup of nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt.
• Snack on 2 ounces of oven-baked potato chips instead of regular potato chips.
• Instead of topping your salad with an ounce of croutons, get your crunch from 1/4 cup of chopped celery.
• Instead of 1 cup of macaroni salad, eat 3 1/2 cups of spinach salad with 2 tablespoons of low-calorie dressing.
• Cut the peanut butter on your sandwich from 2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon.
• Serve your turkey with 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce instead of 1/2 cup.
• Order a sandwich on cracked wheat bread instead of a croissant.
• Complement your hamburger with 1 1/4 ounces of oven-baked tortilla chips instead of a side of fries.
• Split an apple Danish with a friend rather than eat the entire thing.
• Order 2 slices of cheese pizza instead of 2 slices of pepperoni pizza.
• Grab a Dole Fresh Lites Cherry frozen fruit bar instead of a Sunkist Coconut frozen fruit bar.
• Snack on 1/2 cup of fruit cocktail canned in water instead of 1 cup of fruit cocktail canned in heavy syrup.
• Switch from 1 cup of fruit punch to 1 cup of sparkling water flavored with 2 teaspoons of concentrated orange juice.
• Instead of eating garlic bread made with butter, spread baked garlic cloves on French bread.
• Rather than snack on 1 cup of grapefruit canned in syrup, peel and section 1 small grapefruit.
• Dip your chips in 1/2 cup of salsa instead of 1/2 cup of guacamole.
• Switch from 1/2 cup of Frusen Gladje butter pecan ice cream to Breyers butter pecan ice cream.
• Use 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise in your tuna salad instead of 2 tablespoons.
• Hold the tartar sauce on your fish sandwich, and squeeze lemon on it instead.
• Replace 3 fish sticks with 3 ounces of grilled halibut.
• In sandwich spreads or salads, use 3 teaspoons of dijonnaise instead of 4 teaspoons of mayonnaise.
• Use 2 tablespoons of light pancake syrup instead of 2 tablespoons of regular syrup.
• Top your pasta with 1 cup of marinara sauce instead of 1/2 cup of alfredo sauce.
• For each serving of pasta salad you make, reduce the oil or mayonnaise by 1 tablespoon.
• Replace 1/2 cup of peaches canned in extra-heavy syrup with 1/2 cup of peaches canned in water.
• Prepare 1/2 cup of steamed peas and cauliflower instead of frozen peas and cauliflower in cream sauce.
• Cut back on sampling during cooking. The following “tastes” have 100 calories: 4 tablespoons of beef stroganoff, 3 tablespoons of homemade chocolate pudding, 2 tablespoons of chocolate-chip cookie dough.
• At an Italian restaurant, snack on a large breadstick instead of a slice of garlic bread.
• Eat a 3/4-cup serving of pudding made with skim milk rather than a 1-cup serving of pudding made with whole milk.
• Choose 1/2 cup of brown rice instead of 1 serving of frozen rice pilaf with green beans or 1 serving of frozen Oriental rice and vegetables.
• Compliment your sandwich with 3/4 cup of split-pea soup instead of 1 cup of chunky bean and ham soup.
• Replace 3 tablespoons of strawberry topping on your ice cream with 3/4 pint of fresh strawberries.
• Pass on the second helping of mashed potatoes.
• Eat 3 grilled prawns with cocktail sauce instead of 3 breaded and fried prawns.
• Make a pie crust with 1 cup of Grape-Nuts cereal, 1/4 cup of concentrated apple juice and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, instead of using a traditional graham-cracker crust. You’ll save 100 calories per slice.
• Replace 8 sticks of regular chewing gum with sugar-free chewing gum.
• Snack on a papaya instead of a bag of M&Ms.
• Substitute 3 ounces of scallops for 3 ounce of lean beef in your stir-fry.
• Rather than spread 4 tablespoons of cream cheese on two slices of raisin bread, dip the bread in 1/2 cup nonfat apple-cinnamon yogurt.
• Munch on 1 cup of frozen grapes instead of an ice cream sandwich.
• Rather than drink a strawberry milkshake, make a smoothie of 2/3 cup of low-fat milk, 1/2 cup of strawberries and 1/2 a banana.
• Replace 2 brownies with 2 fig bars.
• Eat 2 meatballs instead of 4 with your spaghetti.
• On a hot day, quench your thirst with a glass of ice water with lemon or mint instead of a can of light beer.
• Eat 1/2 cup of black beans instead of 3 ounces of roast beef.
• Replace 1 1/2 tablespoons of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread with 1 1/2 tablespoons of Nucoa Smart Beat margarine.
• Choose 1 serving of vegetarian lasagna instead of lasagna with meat.
• Eat 2 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars instead of 2 Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts.
• Drizzle 3 tablespoons of low-calorie French dressing on your salad instead of 2 tablespoons of blue cheese dressing.
• Replace 1 large flour tortilla with 1 six-inch corn tortilla.
• Eat a turkey sandwich instead of a chicken salad sandwich.
• Choose 4 1/2 ounces of tuna packed in water instead of 4 1/2 ounces of tuna packed in oil.
• At Burger King, have a Whopper Jr. Sandwich with regular fries instead of a Whopper With Cheese Sandwich.
• Order your Quarter Pounder without cheese.
• At Jack in the Box, eat a regular taco instead of a super taco.
• Fix 1 cup of turkey chili with beans rather than regular chili with no beans.
• Use 1 cup of fat-free cottage cheese instead of regular cottage cheese.
• Order a sandwich with barbecued chicken instead of barbecued pork.
• Replace 1 cup of corn with 1 cup of carrots.
• Reduce your helping of turkey stuffing from 1 cup to 2/3 cup.
• Have a single scoop of ice cream instead of a double scoop.
• Replace 2 ounces of corn chips with 2 ounces of SnackWell’s wheat crackers.
• Eat 1 hot dog at the baseball game instead of 2.
• Shred 2 ounces of fat-free cheddar cheese on nachos instead of regular cheddar.

Elizabeth Somer

Source: freeweightloss.com