Most fear that they won’t be able to eat until they are satisfied anymore if they want to lose weight. This could not be further from the truth. A well designed diet focuses on you eating more (!) nutritious and filling food like lean protein and lots of veggies and fruit.
So, try to adopt a mindset of MORE, not LESS. More protein, fruits and veggies – less crap.Many of my clients report that they actually feel more satisfied, simply by making the right food choices!
1. Keep your meals simple, but not too simple!
Keep your meals simple. Use only a few ingredients to add not too many calories but still make sure you actually enjoy eating them. One of the biggest reasons we overeat is when we are faced with too much variety.
This is exactly what happens during a buffet.
We get a fear of missing out and our brain tells us we need to try to consume every delicious food in sight. So find the sweet spot of still making your meals diverse enough to be tasty, yet don’t add so many ingredients that your appetite increases.
For taste, you can always use salt, pepper and awesome stuff like paprika and herbs which make a world of difference if used properly!
2. Make your life sweeter: Sucralose!
There is a lot of controversy about artificial sweeteners with some claiming it causes cancer.
The thing is that virtually all sweeteners are perfectly fine to consume in „normal“ quantities.
There might be negative health effects from consuming hundreds of cans of diet drinks every day – but by then you’ll likely have other problems. The cheapest and best tasting sweetener by far is pure sucralose powder.
It is 600 times sweeter than sugar, has ZERO calories and you cannot tell the difference between normal sugar and sucralose. You can use it for teas/coffee and even yogurt, soups and sauces.
3. Drink a glass of water before, during and after your meal
Not only do we often mistake thirst for hunger, but drinking water along with our meals makes our stomach literally fuller faster from the volume of the fluid. So make sure you have a glass of water nearby at every meal.
4. Out of sight out of mind
Keep calorie dense unhealthy food as much out of your reach as possible. Especially don’t keep it at home. In a moment where you are stressed out and tired, you are very likely to consume it – unless there is none there.
5. Pay attention to your plates!
If you want to get really fancy, you can start using smaller plates can make it seem to your brain like you ate more food, since it estimates how much you eat compared to the plate you eat your meal on.
It also seems to Imply those tricks and I assure you they will make your life a lot easier when it comes to losing weight in a sustainable way.
-Thomas
Sources
Raynor, H. A. (2012). Can limiting dietary variety assist with reducing energy intake and weight loss? Physiology & Behavior, 106(3), 356–61.
Piqueras-Fiszman, B., Alcaide, J., Roura, E., & Spence, C. (2012). Is it the plate or is it the food? Assessing the influence of the color (black or white) and shape of the plate on the perception of the food placed on it. Food Quality and Preference, 24(1), 205–208.
