10 Fast Weight Loss Tips (We Tried Them!)

Tried-and-true tips

 Sick of chasing fad diets? Time to hop off the bandwagon and get some down-to-earth advice from people who have been there, done that.

Sure, we spend our days sifting through the latest research and asking super-toned celebrities about their workout secrets. At the end of the day, though, peeling off the pounds is just as challenging for us as it is for anyone else.

These 10 diet tricks aren't always easy to stick to, but they've worked for us.

Put away the (food) scale

"Portion control isn't about measuring; it's about ordering two appetizers instead of an entrée and cutting back on bread if you have pasta."

Stash fruit

"Keep fruit at work. It helps during the I-need-chocolate part of the afternoon."

Shake chocolate

"When I'm trying to drop a few pounds, I carry around a shaker cup of chocolate protein powder. If I'm ravenous, I add the water, and it fills me up so I don't eat something high-calorie instead."

Set limits, then go nuts!

"In the cafeteria I use a 4-by-4-inch Styrofoam box, and I put whatever I want in there. It's almost impossible to overeat."

Floss for dessert

"Brushing my teeth after dinner makes me less likely to eat again before I go to bed."

Take a 'before' photo

"Before I got in shape, a friend convinced me to take photos of myself wearing nothing but a sports bra and underwear. Anytime I fall off the wagon I look at those pics—that's all the motivation I need!"

Avoid liquid calories

"Cut out drinks with calories—juice, lemonade, and, hardest of all, after-work wine."

Break out the skinny jeans

"Wear something tight! It provides the extra bit of motivation to lay off the fries."

Pitcher this

"Fill a pitcher with water and cucumbers. It's pretty—and it feels like a treat."

Set aside leftovers

"Serve yourself, then immediately pack the leftovers in a Tupperware container and store in the fridge."

EFFECTIVE WAY TO BURN BODY FAT

Burning body fat is the fastest way for most people to get the body they want. Unfortunately, with all the confusing and incorrect information out there, most don't lose as much fat as they plan. Burning body fat doesn't have to be confusing or difficult. Just follow a few simple tips, and you will be on your way to the fit, toned body you want.

Step 1

Reduce your calories. Losing body fat all comes down to consuming fewer calories than you burn. Before you change anything, keep a diet log for about a week. Record everything you eat then use your calorie counter to find your caloric intake for each day. Take the average amount of calories eaten per day and subtract 500 calories. This is your new daily caloric goal which should put you on track for about a pound of fat lost per week.

Step 2

Limit starches. Starchy carbohydrates like pasta and bread, once eaten, convert quickly to blood sugar. When your body has more blood sugar than it needs for energy, it will store whatever it doesn't need as fat. Replace breads, pasta, and rice with vegetables, legumes and fruit. These slower digesting carps will give your body a more steady supply of energy, and allow you to burn, not store body fat.

Step 3

Spread your calories out. Eating small frequent meals will give you a steady supply of energy, eliminate mood swings, and raise your metabolism. By breaking your meals up into five to six little meals, you'll prevent your body from storing fat and stay in a burning mode all day.

Step 4

Train with intervals. Cardiovascular exercise is a great way to burn fat. To raise the fat burning effects of your cardio even more means interval training. This works best on a stationary bike. After a 10-minute warm-up, pedal as fast as you can against very high resistance for 30 seconds. Next, pedal slower at a moderate resistance for 60 seconds. Immediately go back to the 30 second sprint. Try to complete five sprints your first time out. Going back and forth between high and moderate intensity exercise not only burns more fat than steady state cardio, but also boosts your metabolism for hours after.

Step 5

Lift weights. Gaining muscle raises your metabolism, making it easier to burn fat. Use basic, compound movements like chest presses, rows, leg presses. Shoulder presses and pull-downs. Stick to three sets of 10 and train three days per week. You can train your abdominals every workout but keep in mind that crunches themselves do not burn abdominal fat. They only strengthen muscles of the mid-section.

4 Reasons You Don't Have The Body You Want

Allergies, Bad Habits and Even People That Can Hold You Back – And How To Beat Them

your diet is clean. You have a pantry full of supplements and haven't missed a training session in six months. Yet you still don't have the body you want.

This is a common dilemma. There’s a tendency to blame genetics or look at magazine covers and assume those folks are taking something not readily (or legally) available. But there actually are four reasonable explanations for why you are not progressing the way you’d like to be.

You're in a bad relationship

Bad relationships lead to stress, and there are few things worse for your body composition than stress. 

This applies to much more than romantic relationships. Overbearing parents and in-laws, an abusive boss, and needy co-workers, friends, and acquaintances, can stress out your system and cause you to hold onto fat, especially in the abdominal region. 

Cutting bad relationships can be difficult – sometimes impossible. You’re pretty much stuck with the parents and in-laws, and unless you switch jobs, the boss and co-workers aren’t leaving either. But make an effort to cut as many toxic people out of your life as possible and you will be happier and healthier for it.

You're Intolerant

This one is a real kick in the pants. You eat everything you’re supposed to - eggs, fish, lean meat, gluten-free whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables - and yet, you can't shake those last five pounds of fat. 

You could have a more stealth version of a food allergy: a food intolerance. Such an intolerance causes inflammation in the body. Not a full-blown, swollen-faced allergic reaction, but low-level inflammation that keeps your system from running smoothly. 

If your system isn't running correctly, dropping fat is the least of your problems. Eggs, nuts, soy, wheat and dairy are the "Big Five" when it comes to food intolerances but you can be intolerant to anything from garlic to parsley to pineapple to eggplant. And, chances are, the more you eat something (and people tend to eat the same things when on a fat loss plan) the more likely your body will become intolerant to it. I told you it was a kick in the pants. 

Things such as food intolerance tests (performed through blood work) and elimination diets can identify the culprits. Eliminating these foods might be all you need to jump start your training program.

You're Polluted

Remember Britney Spears? She wasn’t exactly a rocket scientist, but she might have been on to something when she sang, “You’re toxic!” 

Environmental toxins -pollution, cigarette smoke, cosmetics, metal tooth fillings, prescription drugs, and mercury in fish – are stored in fat cells, and have the potential to wreak havoc on your body. 

Since your body is smart, and prioritizes survival over ripped abs, it refuses to use these fat cells for fuel. Doing so would release these toxins into general circulation. Essentially, you are holding onto these fat cells so the toxins don't make you ill. 

So how do we get rid of these unwanted guests, become less toxic, and drop that last chunk of stubborn body fat? You could take measures ranging from infrared saunas, detoxifying foot baths, chelation therapy, all the way to liver and GI tract detoxifying diets. These methods can help you remove metals and toxins from your system. 

Such measures can be fairly dramatic depending on the source of the toxicity. Consult a specialist before taking on any type of intervention, to determine what, if anything, is appropriate.

You're not working hard enough

Just because you’ve been working out consistently doesn’t mean you are getting the most out of your training. If showing up is half the battle, the other 50 percent is the effort you bring to the gym. 

Most people do not realize what their bodies are capable of enduring. Are you leisurely working on a cardio machine while reading a magazine or talking on the phone? Do you continue to do the same workouts long after your body has adapted to them? 

If so, take a look at the folks in your gym who appear to be getting results. Chances are, they’re pushing themselves, working at a furious pace, and continually undertaking new regimes. 

There’s a reason those people have better body compositions than you do. It’s not by accident or genetics; they’re busting their asses – and you can too. 

You’ve already done the hard part by dedicating the time and showing up. Now just commit to working harder.

Lose Belly Fat

How to Lose Belly Fat with Home Remedies

There are many home remedies you can use to boost fat burn on your belly. Many of them will already be in your cupboard or refrigerator. The right foods can detox your liver and rev your metabolism, helping you to target belly fat. Belly fat is more than a cosmetic concern. It ups risk for a host of health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. Consuming fat-burning foods and spices will put you well on your way to trading in that rubber tire in the middle for a sleek torso.

Step 1
Remove the things in your diet that stress your liver and lower your metabolism, and reduce your calorie intake. A stressed liver cannot properly metabolize fat, says nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., author of "The Fat Flush Plan." Liver stressors include processed foods, too many carbohydrates in general, all forms of sugar, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, trans fats and soda. Cut 500 to 1,000 calories from your daily diet to lose 1 to 2 lbs. weekly, the safest and longest-lasting weight loss rate, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Step 2
Drink 100 percent cranberry juice or cran-water. Cranberries are high in organic acids that act as digestive enzymes. The enzymes work to gobble up little fatty deposits that get stuck in the lymphatics, Gittleman says. Mix a day's supply of cran-water with 8 oz. unsweetened cranberry juice and 56 oz. of water.

Step 3
Consume your omega-3 fatty acids. These target tummy fat, Gittleman says. Fish oil is one great source. Take 6g, which is an overflowing tablespoon, or eat salmon or mackerel twice a week. Also chomp on chia. This ancient super seed is high in protein, is a good source of B vitamins, has calcium and is a high source of antioxidants.

Step 4
Get gamma linolenic acid (GLA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) into your diet. GLA activates brown fat, often found in overweight people. Many people's bodies don't make GLA from its precursors-vegetable oils like safflower oil-so try a supplement. CLA aids the body in accessing and utilizing stored fat, particularly. This omega-6 fatty acid found in organic beef or can be taken as a supplement.

Step 5
Make monounsaturated fats another priority. MUFAs are omega-9 fatty acids that became important components of diet plans like the Flat Belly Diet following studies that show MUFAs rev body fat burn in the belly. MUFAs also are favored by the American Heart Association. The association recommends people replace trans and saturated fats with MUFAs. Cook with olive oil or try sunflower or safflower oil. Eat macadamia nuts, filberts, avocados and olives.

Step 6
Sip lemon or lime juice in hot water daily. These both invigorate the liver and help to liquefy fat, which aids in flushing it from your system more quickly. Getting enough water in general is important. Mild dehydration can cause your kidneys to call on your liver for help, reducing the liver's ability to burn fat. This can lead to fat deposits, often in the belly.

Step 7
Detox gently by drinking dandelion tea. Add 200mg each of milk thistle and the Oregon grape root to further detox. These supplements are gentle enough to use every day, Gittleman says.

Step 8
Eat thermogenic spices to rev metabolism including cayenne and ginger. Consume cinnamon as well as cloves and cardamom to stabilize blood sugar.

How to Lose Weight Quickly and Safely (for Teen Girls)

How to Lose Weight Quickly and Safely (For Teen Girls)

If you are "pleasantly plump" or if you want to shed a few pounds and start loving your body like you know you can, your goals are in reach. Use this plan as a start. If you want to make sure that the plan you are following is a healthy one, you may also want to check www.weightloss-stories.com, since there you can find a very detailed action plan that can help you lose about 8 pounds in 9 days and a few other success and motivating weight loss stories. Also read the steps below!

Steps

Part 1: Make a Diet

1) Start with your diet. For fast results, you must change your eating habits. Because you want fast results, you must make some changes. However, just because you want to lose weight doesn't mean you can't eat.

• In fact, you must eat in order to lose weight. Starving yourself causes your metabolism (the mechanism that burns fat) to go into hibernation, so that it can store up energy. This means that starving yourself is actually a really bad idea. You'll do harm to your body and wonder why you're not shedding pounds, even though you haven't eaten anything.
• It goes without saying, but you also don't want to develop an eating disorder. Anorexia and Bulimia are serious conditions that need treatment. If you think you might have an eating disorder, tell someone you trust and seek help immediately. No amount of weight loss is worth jeopardizing your health.

2) Know and understand the food pyramid. Knowing how many servings of different types of food you should eat in a day is essential for healthy weight loss. You will need to eat and drink the following:

• A glass of water or green tea before and after every meal to fill you up more so you don't eat as much and the second to help digest the food faster.[1]:
• Minimum 3 servings of fruit daily.
• Minimum 4 servings of vegetables daily
• 3-7 servings of protein[2] (meat, fish, etc.) and dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.) daily
• 3-5 servings of fats[3] (nuts, peanut butter, etc.) daily
• Eat carbs sparingly. Eating carbs and sugars will make weight loss harder.

3) Make menus for yourself. Know what foods you need not to eat and make healthy menus for yourself. Here are some suggestions on what you should eat.

• Breakfast Ideas: Toast with your favourite spread; a banana (high in potassium[4]!); cereal with skimmed milk and fruit, etc.
• Lunch Ideas: It's best to bring your lunch from canteen but should be less of fat as you can become overweight by consuming it, as that's always healthier than what you can buy at any canteen/tuck shop/cafeteria. Try a sandwich on wholegrain/wholewheat/multi-grain bread (Don't use white bread - it's bleached flour and contains very little nutrients) with lean chicken, ham or butter-fried egg (using butter to fry egg instead of oil); a salad with veggies (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, etc); a glass of milk; veggies (carrot sticks, celery, etc.
• Snack Ideas: veggies and fruit; natural yogurt and berries ; a handful of nuts; veggies (like carrots, beans, snow peas) and low fat dip.
• Dinner Ideas: One idea is: 1/2 veggies, 1/4 protein, 1/4 carbohydrates. If your parents make fatty foods for dinner, only have a little and make yourself a salad as well. If you're cooking for yourself here's some easy ideas: Some brown rice ( eating more lean meat than part carbohydrates helps); scrambled eggs; if you really can't be bothered, just make yourself a sandwich or eat some fish (it's high in omega 3 which is good for your brain).

4) Follow the basic rules of healthy eating:

• Breakfast: Carbohydrates, fat, dairy
• Lunch: Veggies, protein
• Dinner: Protein, veggies, carbohydrates (small portion)
• Snacks: Fruit, veggies, dairy, protein
• For each meal, make the veggies the main part, then the protein, then the carbohydrates. There can be dairy with every meal, too.
• A serving fits in the palm of your hand

5) Drink lots of water! You should try to only drink water and unsweetened tea if you're trying to lose weight. Water is the best liquid at keeping you hydrated and even helps keep your skin clear and zit-free!

• Plus, drinking only water means that you won't drink any sugar-water or energy drinks, which can contain up to 800 calories per drink. (Just think: half your daily calories in one drink!) Water is healthy, it tastes good, and it's an essential part of keeping you trim.
• If you find yourself hungry after every meal, drink a big glass of water or green tea (unsweetened) before each meal. It'll help fill you up and doesn't contain any extra calories.

6) Have it all, but in moderation. Don't cut anything out completely. Eat everything in moderation. Eat unhealthy things like red meats once a week or once a month - you'll enjoy them more anyway!

• The only thing that you should cut out (if you'd like) is fast food (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, etc.), sweets (chocolate, candy, chips, pop, etc.), and other junk food (soft drinks, burgers, soft serves, etc.)
• Fast food and sweets are not natural and are not healthy. Maccas soft serves are made from pig fat, KFC fries are fried in lard, and thick-shakes have pretty much no natural ingredients in them! Gross, right? It's all preservatives and additives. At the end of the day, you know what is good for you and what isn't.

Part 2: Dieting Ideas

1) Consider a low-carbohydrate (Atkins) diet. The theory is that overweight people eat too many carbohydrates. A diet rich in carbs causes the body to release insulin.[1] The body controls the insulin by producing glucose (sugar), which eventually gets converted into fat. The low-carb diet structures your meals around proteins, soy-products, vegetables, fruits and nuts to avoid this.

• While you want to limit the amount of carbs you eat, you don't want to completely cut them out of your diet. Try to have carbs at least 20% of the time. Your body does need glucose in order to function, and carbs are a good source for that.
• Foods that are allowed[2] as part of the low-carb diet:
• Unprocessed, high-protein meats, such as beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and turkey.
• Unprocessed, high-protein fish, such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and trout.
• Low-carbohydrate vegetables and leafy greens.
• Full-fat, unprocessed cow, goat, or sheep's milk cheeses.
• Any artificial, non-sugar sweeteners, such as Splenda or Stevia.
• Foods that are not allowed as part of the low-carb diet:
• Grains. No pasta, bread, cakes, or pastries.
• Fruits and fruit juices.
• Processed foods. These usually have added sugar in them.
• Starchy vegetables. No potatoes, beets, or corn.
• Sugar or margarine.

2) Consider a low-calorie diet. If you burn more calories than you take in, you'll lose weight. The low-cal diet means reducing your intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day for women. It is recommended if you want to lose no more than 2 pounds per week. It is not safe to attempt to lose more than 2 pounds per week unless under strict doctor supervision.

• Limit the amount of fat that you eat to between 35 and 60 grams per day. This means that fats should make up about 20% to 35% of your entire calories for the day.
• Aim to eat about 170 to 240 grams of complex carbohydrates like whole grains, vegetables, and fruits per day. This should make up about 45% to 65% of your entire calories for the day.
• Aim to eat about 55 to 95 grams of low-fat protein, which includes meat, poultry, and fish per day. This should account for about 15% to 25% of your total calorie intake for the day.

3) Consider a ketogenic (keto) diet. Keto diets are like low-carb diets in that you're trying to avoid eating carbohydrates by substituting fats and proteins into your diet. The difference is that Keto diets are higher in fat and lower in protein that the Atkins diet.

• Why fats instead of protein? If you eat too much protein, your body turns the excess protein into glucose, which is what you were trying to avoid in carbs in the first place. On the other hand, fats have no effect on blood sugar and insulin levels.
• Shoot to get about 70-75% of calories from fat, 20-25% from protein, and 5-10% from carbohydrates.[4] Limit the amount of carbs you eat to between 20 and 50 grams per day.
• Since being strict about how many carbs you eat is an essential part of the keto diet, it's important to understand how to count carbs correctly. Invest in a carb counter guide and study it.

Part 3: Exercise

1) Work exercise into your lifestyle. It shouldn't be a chore! Little changes make a big difference, and will keep the weight from coming back. Walk or jog to school instead of driving. Run with your dog. Do crunches during commercial breaks on TV. Cycle with friends/family.

• Plan your week. Have 3 days where you do intense exercise like running or a spin class at the gym. The other 3 days, do low-intensity exercise like a long walk. The other day is your day off.
• Don't spend your days sitting on the couch watching TV. Get off your butt and exercise! Fast weight loss will only be achieved with diet and exercise.

2) Make your exercises last. An exercise "session" should go for about 30 minutes to an hour. You should burn around 400 calories in a high intensity workout session. If you aren't sweating while doing a high intensity workout, you're not working hard enough. You're working hard enough if you're sweating profusely, breathless (not the whole time, but a good part of the time), and when you're done you can drink lots of water with no effort because you need it that badly.

• Stretch! Always, always, always stretch before and after you exercise. It's really hard to lose weight when you're injured. Stretching also helps your growing muscles not to bunch up so you might look like a weight lifter. If you did stretch right, it would have an effect of a ballerina.
• Do some weight training. Muscles burn calories by just being there. The more muscles you have, the faster you'll lose weight.

3) Invest in sports or hobbies that burn calories. Sports are great because they tap into our competitive energy, getting us to dig deeper than we normally would have. Don't worry about what people say, or whether you're "skilled" enough to join a team; just find a group of girls doing something that you're interested in and ask if you can join. Here are some sports that are big-time calorie busters:

• Spinning/elliptical trainer. Spinning or using the elliptical burns the most[5] calories for the average U.S. woman, who weighs 163 pounds. The average female burns 841 calories per hour spinning or doing the elliptical.
• Downhill skiing. According to the same source, downhill skiing is another great way to burn tons of calories, except skiing is generally considered fun, whereas spinning can be (wonderful, beautiful) hell. The average female burns 645-841 calories skiing per hour.
• Full-court basketball. Basketball, as we all know, requires good hand-eye coordination and the ability to run up and down the court. The average female playing basket blasts around 812 calories an hour.
• Competitive soccer. Soccer players are known for being among the most fit athletes in the world. No wonder: You're running up and down a really long field! Female soccer players burn 742 calories of grit and determination per hour.

4) Try yoga or Pilates. Deciding that you don't want to do a super-rigorous sport doesn't mean that you have no other options. Lots of girls and women prefer to do lower-intensity workouts such as yoga or Pilates. Both are good for calorie-busting, and leave you feeling refreshed and energized.

• Yoga is a series of stretching exercises that originated in ancient India. There are different kinds of yoga, each burning a different amount of calories:
• Hatha Yoga, where the student goes through a series of gentle exercises focusing on posture and breathing, can expect to burn 175 calories per hour in an average female.[6]
• Vinyasa Yoga, in which poses are tougher and linked together faster, can expect to burn 445 calories per hour in an average female.
• Bikram Yoga, where the room in which the yoga takes place is heated up to 105 degrees, burns about 635 calories in the average female.
• Pilates is a stretching and body conditioning routine that works the core. It was designed by a German in the early 20th century, and boasts over 10 million practitioners today. Pilates for beginners burns around 200 calories per hour[7], burning more as you advance in difficulty.

Fun Tips

1. Make sure that you get the right amount of sleep. Sleeping for at least 8 hours in the night and 2 hours nap in the day really makes a huge difference in losing weight.When the body gets enough time to kill all the fat and start over with a new portion in the body which seems to be a little healthy,losing weight will be much more easier.

2. Sleep in a dark room. Believe it or not this will make your weight get lost in a breeze. Getting to how it happens is that when every single part of the body is relaxed , it starts doing some body fixing business. Now this business takes place when the lights are off and , you sleep peacefully and have dreams. Waking up suddenly breaks the whole fat killing cycle and instead leads to fat producing.The system start acting the opposite.It's always best to wake up slowly,peacefully and at your own time. If you are aware of how much time you usually sleep,you should go to bed early to fill in those hours. Usually we wake up with alarms which is not good.It disturbs your body.So be sure to sleep at such a time in which you don't need alarms. Alarms are usually put on because we think that our big body is not responsible enough to wake us up. Don't worry,the body does not sleep for more than it needs.

3. Keep a glass of water beside you. We usually wake up due to thirst.That is because the body needs the water's energy so that it can kill even more of that fat. Try not to give a gap in fetching water.That can disturb your body and will make it difficult for you to sleep.

4.Sleep straight!! This is really important. Sleeping on either sides of the body makes it hard for blood to run around which also helps in weight loss.

5. When you are lying straight on the bed before sleeping,take deep long breaths and hold them for as long as you can.Don't breath in a hard way but do it slowly. This will act as a command for the body to make you sleep and start flushing down fats.

6. Have a nice sleep. Forget all those duties and test notes and just fall in to a deep slumber,a deep and peaceful one. The body isn't fit until it gets a nice sleep!! it is going to take about 3-4 days.

Tips

• Eat slowly and chew slowly. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to digest food.
• Try to replace soda with water, or apple juice. You can work that off very easily.
• Cut out the sugars (no hard/chewy candies, or chocolates pastries/cookies) to avoid your gaining the next 5 pounds.
• Link exercise with relaxation. If you are stressed or feeling badly about yourself, go on a long walk or go for a swim instead of crashing and eating a high calorie, non-nutritious/fattening snack.
• Eat breakfast. If you're not hungry in the mornings or if it makes you feel sick, only have a little bit and build up to more after a few days. Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, and therefore your weight loss. You must eat enough to keep from going into starvation mode while turning up metabolism to lose weight.
• Eat before you go out and don't take enough money to buy food while you're out.
• Don't eat out of boredom. Find something else to do; like exercise.
• Fitness will pay off in the long run, and it will actually make you feel much better/more satisfied than eating the bad fatty/sugary foods.
• Don't overdo the exercising because you will get sore and won't be able to continue for a few days consecutively.
• Buy a dress or a pair of jeans that are too small - now you have something to work towards.

Warnings

• Never try to lose weight too quickly. You'll just end up regaining all the lost weight.
• Puberty will cause you to gain weight, this is perfectly normal. Don't expect to look like a 12 year old when you're 15. Curves are a beautiful thing.
• If you are seriously overweight, you should see a doctor. This 'lifestyle plan' is only recommended for girls wanting to lose 10-15 pounds.
• Do not get pills. Also everyone goes through a chubby phase it is just a part of growing up!
• Weight does not all come from body fat, muscle adds in weight as well. Starving yourself will weaken your muscles and destroy/lower your metabolism, thus making you even unhealthier. Once you come to your senses, stop starving yourself, it will take a while for your metabolism to recover. Starvation means you would put on a lot of weight very easily when start eating normally for maintenance (when metabolism is lowered your body thinks it is going to die and defends itself by putting on weight at every opportunity).
• Don't expect to lose more than a kilo (2.2 pounds) a week. Any more than that is unhealthy. Having said that, you might just get a lucky week and lose 3 kilos. The next week you might not lose any. Weight loss is unpredictable and very hard.
• Consult a doctor before starting a diet; doctors will help you to choose the appropriate diet for your situation.

Diet Mistakes: 6 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

Are you dieting and not losing weight? More than likely, some common diet mistakes are tripping you up.

The truth, experts say, is that even when you're "on a diet," you may be eating a lot more calories than you think. There's often a disconnect between what we know we should do to lose weight, and what we actually do while trying to diet. 

For starters, stop thinking about dieting. Instead, take a look at those everyday habits that could be causing weight gain.  Going on a diet can create an obsession with food, heighten cravings, and lead to a "throw-in-the-towel-because-diets-don’t-work" mentality.

You might not realize just how quickly calories can add up.  An extra tablespoon of salad dressing can add 75-100 calories, an extra tablespoon of butter adds 102 calories, and that 1-ounce bag of chips with your sandwich at lunch adds 162 calories.  Eating while cooking, starting each day with a high-calorie coffee drink, finishing off the kids'  plates at dinner, or having one too many glasses of wine -- these are just a few of the sneaky habits that sabotage weight loss efforts.

Yet as quickly as calories can add up, they can be subtracted.  Becoming mindful of your diet mistakes -- the subtle ways that calories sneak into your diet throughout the day – can add up to real weight loss. 

Check out our list of common diet mistakes people make, and see if any sound familiar to you.

Diet Mistake No. 1: Racing to the Finish

There's no reward for finishing your meal in record time -- unless you're a contestant in a hot dog eating contest! Our hectic schedules have led many of us to adopt the unhealthy habit of rapid eating.

"We need to adopt more of the leisurely, European-style eating so that we can savor our food, taste every bite, and get the signal of fullness before overeating," says Tara Gidus, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Diet Mistake No. 2: Skipping Meals

Research shows that breakfast skippers weigh more than breakfast eaters.  There is a misconception that skipping breakfast -- or any meal -- saves calories. The truth is that most people who eat fewer than three meals usually end up eating more calories during the course of the day.

Strive for three meals a day. Always start your day with a healthy breakfast, but be careful to choose wisely.

"Even a low-fat muffin can have as many as 400 calories and 5 grams fat," says Joanne Lichten, PhD, RD, a nutrition consultant and the author of Dining Lean.

A healthy breakfast should contain both protein and fiber. An egg, a piece of whole-wheat toast, and half a grapefruit has only 250 calories and will keep you feeling full until lunch.

Diet Mistake No. 3: Too Many Liquid Calories

Liquid calories from alcohol, smoothies, coffee with cream and sugar, sweetened juices, teas, and sodas can really contribute to weight gain. One recent study found that Americans get approximately 21% of their calories from beverages.

"When you drink beverages, you don’t tend to compensate by eating less because most beverages satisfy thirst and don’t impact hunger," says Gidus.

Switch from calorie-laden beverages to water, club soda, skim milk, vegetable juices, and small portions of 100% fruit juice. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation, and choose lighter drink options.

Here are some calorie counts for common beverages:

12-ounce light beer: 110 calories

12-ounce regular beer: 160 calories

8-ounce coffee with cream and sugar: 30 calories

5 ounces of wine: 120-130 calories

6-ounce wine spritzer: 80 calories

16-ounce sweetened tea: 160 calories

12-ounce diet soda: 0 calories

12-ounce soda: 150 calories

20-ounce smoothie: 410 calories

Diet Mistake No. 4: Oversized Portions

"We have gotten used to huge portions at restaurants so when we are at home, we serve up the same size and think it is normal," says Lichten.

Experts suggest a few tricks to help you trim your portions:

Leave a few bites on your plate.

Use smaller plates and bowls.

Periodically check your portions with measuring cups.

Diet Mistake No. 5: Choosing Unhealthy Add-Ons

Not only have portions crept up in size, we also have a tendency to top off our "diet" salads and other favorite foods with high-fat toppings, like bacon, cheese, croutons, and creamy dressings.

And, at fast-food restaurants, "grilled chicken and salads are not always better than a burger," notes Lichten. "It all depends on the size and the toppings."

For example, the Burger King Tendergrill sandwich with honey mustard dressing has 470 calories while their Whopper Jr., with mustard instead of mayo, has only 290 calories. At McDonald’s, the Caesar salad with crispy chicken and creamy dressing totals 520 calories, while a Quarter Pounder weighs in at 410 calories.

Diet Mistake No. 6: Mindless Eating

"Eating amnesia" is the act of unknowingly putting hand to mouth, usually from a bag or box in front of the television, while reading a book. It can also happen at happy hour, or when you finish the last few bites on your child's plate.

"Resist the temptation to clean yours or anyone else’s plate," says Gidus. "Think about your waistline instead of the food waste."

Consider the calories in small portions of some of our favorite snacks, and see how quickly they can add up when portions are multiplied:

1 Twinkie: 150 calories

12 peanut M&Ms: 125 calories

1 ounce of French fries: 88 calories

1.5 donut holes: 100 calories

3 Hershey kisses: 75 calories

3 Oreo cookies:160 calories

15 tortilla chips: 142 calories

20 potato chips: 162 calories

And how can you kick the mindless eating habit?

"First, try to get out of the habit of always eating something while you are sitting and relaxing," says Gidus. "Try a cup of tea, glass of water, or chew a piece of sugarless gum. If you want a snack, portion it out of the bag or container."

5 Foods For Fast Weight Loss

While there’s no such thing as the perfect diet, there are key foods that research has shown can help you lose weight. These foods work in different ways and for different reasons, but all have in common that people who eat them as part of a weight loss plan lose more weight faster than those who don’t. Here are 5 foods shown in recent studies to help the pounds come off more quickly. More foods to come as the studies come out.

1. Pistachios

These nuts are the perfect snack for the weight-conscious because they’re high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Don’t be fooled by the “fat” label, either; the fat in pistachios is unsaturated fat, the brain- and heart-healthy type.

Calorie counts are misleading too; not all calories are created equal. Researchers from the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition followed two groups of people on identical low-calorie diets for 12 weeks. One group ate 240 calories worth of pistachios as their afternoon snack,  the other ate 220 calories worth of pretzels. The BMI (body mass indexes) of the pistachio group showed more improvement, and their cholesterol and triglyceride levels dropped as well. While shelled pistachios are more convenient, the longer amount of time required to shell them yourself makes the snack more satisfying.

2. Mushrooms

The rich, meaty taste and texture makes them an ideal meat substitute, and cutting out at least some of the meat in your diet can be a powerful weight loss strategy. Last week a research team from the Weight Management Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health demonstrated this effect in a study showing that substituting mushrooms for meat in one meal a day  resulted in a significant weight loss.

Researchers followed 73 participants, primarily 40-something women, for a full year in a randomized  trial and found that the mushroom group was consuming 173 fewer calories and 4.5 grams less fat a day, leading them to lose an average of 7 pounds each. Let’s note that this study was funded by the mushroom council; many weight loss food studies are, in fact, funded by groups representing producers and marketers of that food.

3. Yogurt

This one’s not news, but the research continues to come in. One of the most impressive studies on nutrition and weight loss, conducted by Darius Mozzafarian of Harvard and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found yogurt to be a surprisingly important factor distinguishing people who maintain their weight as they age and those who gain relentlessly over time.

Using data from the enormous Nurses Health Study, Mozzafarian and his team analyzed the eating habits of more than 120,000 people to find commonalities between those who gained weight as they aged, and those who maintained their youthful silhouettes. Of all the foods linked with weight loss, yogurt ranked the highest. (Potato chips and potatoes themselves came in the highest for weight gain.) Scientists don’t know yet why yogurt seems so consistently linked with thinness, but are looking into the possibility that the healthy gut flora promoted by yogurt’s beneficial probiotics may play a role. (It’s also possible, though, that yogurt simply tends to be a staple of the diets of health-conscious people.)

4. Oat Bran

Oat bran is a key element in the Dukan diet popularized by Kate Middleton, Jennifer Lopez and others over the past year. In the UK and Europe, where this diet is a high-profile fad, people carry oat bran around with them to comply with the diet’s very specific requirement of 3 tablespoons a day. The Dukan Diet has even branded its own oat bran and oat bran bars. Oat bran has been easy for continental dieters to adopt because oat bran bars have been in the purses of dieting French women for decades. (I remember trying the dry zweiback-like bran bars for sale in the diet sections of French pharmacies in the early 1990s and wondering how people could stand them.)

So what’s all the fuss, and does oat bran work as promised? In general, yes, but mainly due to benefits that you can replicate with other foods. Oat bran is very high in fiber, so it makes you feel full and aids in speedy elimination. Oat bran, like oats themselves, also absorbs fats, which is why it’s recommended by doctors to lower cholesterol. While you’re welcome to try oat bran bars and see if you like them, you can get much the same benefit by following my previous advice and eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every day.

5. Olive Oil

How can a fat help you eat less fat? Because olive oil is monounsaturated, making it a healthy part of the endlessly recommended Mediterranean diet. But more specifically because according to research at the University of Irvine,  the oleic acid in olive oil is transformed in the small intestine into a compound called OEA (full name oleoylethanolamide) that relieves hunger and suppresses appetite by sending signals to your brain telling it you’re full.

Dress all those healthy salads you’re eating as part of your weight-loss plan with olive oil, and you’ll be doubling the benefit of all those antioxidant-rich veggies. A full analysis of all of the health-boosting benefits of olive oil is available from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition here.