The best, most sustainable weight loss happens when you create a healthy calorie deficit between how many calories you consume and how many you burn.
As easy as that sounds, for most of us, it’s anything but easy. If you enjoy your food, completely changing your diet and/or drastically reducing how much you eat is an invitation to weight-loss disaster. And if you actually liked exercising to burn more calories, you’d be on the treadmill right now, right?
Increase Your Calorie Deficit with These Easy Diet Hacks
Taking a few simple steps towards creating a calorie deficit will help you begin in a way that is easier and more comfortable for you. Try one or more of these ideas to get started.
Water Your Fruit Juice
If you read the labels on your fruit juice packaging, you’ll see that they are very high in sugars. Some have the same or more than sugary soft drinks. To reduce how much of that sugar you consume, and all the calories that go with it, try filling your glass halfway with juice and topping it off with water.
Yes, it’ll take a little getting used to, but it’s more flavorful than plain water, and you instantly cut your sugar intake in half. If it’s too bland, try using more juice and less water.
Check the Fast-Food Calorie Counts
Hopefully, you already do this to some extent. The regulations enacted to list the number of calories for each item on restaurant menus are very helpful for everyone in making healthier choices.
But if you find those lower-calorie options not among your favourites, keep looking. You may be able to spot choices that are very similar, but significantly different in calories.
One example is a McDonald’s Big Mac Meal versus their Cheeseburger Combo. The Cheeseburger meal comes with two cheeseburgers, so you get the same number of hamburger patties (and twice the cheese!). But the Big Mac Meal packs 1,080 calories versus 830 calories for the Cheeseburger version. That’s over 30% more calories in the Big Mac meal.
In case that doesn’t sound like much, you would need to run nonstop for 30 minutes to burn off the extra 250 calories in the Big Mac meal.
Eat Before You Have a Meal
If you’re “absolutely starving” before tucking into a meal, you will tend to eat faster and eat more food than if you weren’t quite so famished. By eating a snack of healthy, filling food, like a banana, a handful of peanuts or a boiled egg, you will be less likely to overeat during the meal.
The nutrition consultants at your nearest Herbal One location are ready with personalized meal plans and nutrition counselling to help you healthily lose weight for the long term.
To learn more about how to lose weight and keep it off, check out our recent post, “What to Do Instead of Dieting for Sustained Weight Loss”.