Many people who want to lose weight tell me that they simply eat less in the hope that it will work. Disillusionment usually follows after a few weeks: if it works at all, then only in the short term. The pounds you've painstakingly starved off will be back on faster than you'd like! If your goal is also to "lose weight successfully", then try my 10 strategies below as an alternative.
Weight loss myths
Arecarbohydrates fattening? Yes and no. They are important sources of energy for the body and brain. However, it depends on which carbohydrates you eat. Wholemeal products have more fiber and keep you full for longer.
Fat also makes you fat - no, because here too it depends on which fat you eat. Omega-3 is very important for the human body, while too much omega-6 (e.g. from fried food) really makes you fat.
Skippingbreakfast makes you slim? No, because it has been proven that a person who skips breakfast eats more and unhealthier for the rest of the day than someone who eats a nutritious and good breakfast.
Light productsare healthier? Light only means that a single nutrient has been reduced by at least 30 %. However, sometimes the missing flavor carrier fat is replaced by sugar, which does not make the food in question any healthier.
Alcohol makes you fat. This is true because alcoholic drinks are high in calories and also keep the liver busy breaking down alcohol, thus blocking the effective breakdown of fat.
Lose weight healthily: It works with these tips!
1) Stick to "real", natural food
If you eat "real", natural food, you will find that you simply get full faster and stay full for longer. My tip: Eat mainly vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fresh meat, eggs and fish if you like. Avoid artificially produced, preserved and refined foods whenever you can.
Now you're probably thinking: "I already knew that, it's nothing new." But do you?
Do you really not eat ready-made products? And do you even know why convenience products undermine our efforts to eat less? Convenience foods usually contain artificial additives or flavorings, flavor enhancers and sugars such as maltodextrin or glucose syrup.
All these ingredients make us feel hungrier, less full for less time and also cause us to crave unhealthy foods. One reason for this is that they cause high insulin levels in the body and insulin is known as the "fattening hormone". Another reason is that convenience foods are not complete, natural foods and the body recognizes that it is lacking nutrients when it gets these foods. And the hunger you feel is actually your body crying out for the missing nutrients.
2) Eat breakfast, and the right kind
Time is often short in the morning. If you prefer to sleep 30 minutes longer and leave the house without breakfast? See if you don't get hungry at 9 or 10 a.m. and then compensate with something small like a croissant or fruit yoghurt. Or whether you get so hungry by lunchtime that you eat a huge portion at lunch, including dessert.
And what should I eat in the morning?
Answering this question would probably take up a whole article of its own! But this much can be revealed: as low in sugar as possible, high in protein and also filling, for example a chia muesli with apple and cinnamon. Or be inspired by other recipes for a healthy breakfast here on our blog.
3) Take advantage of the suppression effect
Our human brain works in such a way that we usually crave what we can't have all the more. If I forbid myself something, then I want it even more! That's why I recommend that instead of thinking "I need to eat less of ... eat less of ...', make a resolution to eat more of the right foods. Keep the focus on all the great foods that you are "allowed" to eat instead of concentrating on what you "have" to do without.
In this case, the right foods are mainly vegetables and fruit that contain a lot of water and few carbohydrates. This is because we can eat a lot of vegetables in terms of volume and still not consume many calories. Try to arrange your plate so that half of it is filled with vegetables and half with salad. "Dense" foods with a low water content, such as bread, rice or pasta, should only be side dishes and take up a small proportion of the plate.
Rule of thumb: 1 serving spoonful of side dishes is enough. The more of the "good" foods I eat, the less space is left for the "unfavorable" ones. This is what I call the displacement effect.
4) Drink enough water
Sometimes we confuse the signal for hunger with the signal for thirst. So my tip if you feel hungry: drink a glass of still water first and wait a few minutes to find out if you are still hungry. Another benefit: sufficient hydration will help you think more clearly and improve your concentration. And if you're well hydrated, your organs will work optimally.
This increases your metabolism, allowing you to burn more fat. I've had clients who have only started to lose weight since they started drinking enough water! Water really is a "killer criterion" for losing weight. And by water, by the way, I mean still water. Unflavored.
The trick with drinking is to drink a few sips at a time regularly throughout the day rather than gulping down half a liter all at once. And if you're the kind of person who doesn't like water (yes, there are such people!), then experiment with different types of water: performance water, low-mineral water, mineral-rich water, etc. until you find one that works for you. Until you find one that works for you.
If your goal is to lose weight, try drinking 30ml of water per kilogram of body weight.
5) Avoid sugar and other sweets as much as possible!
I know. This strategy is extremely unpopular and not always easy to implement. But it is actually THE strategy par excellence if you want to lose weight. want. This is because sugar increases your insulin levels and insulin prevents fat loss and promotes fat storage. So it's not primarily about the amount of calories in sweets, but about their effect on the body!
Sugar also increases inflammatory processes in the body, suppresses the feeling of satiety, robs micronutrients and much more. My tip is: Eat a sugar-free breakfast in the morning. Don't drink any sweet drinks (not even artificially sweetened or "zero" drinks), no fruit juices and make your own desserts (e.g. cucumber and mint ice cream), then you'll be able to control the amount of sugar you use. And stay away from artificial sweeteners, because they increase the feeling of hunger and there are more and more critical voices saying that artificial sweeteners make us fat. You can find more tips on how to give up sugar in a separate article.
The main problem with giving up sugar is that sugar is an addictive substance. And that's why you often have to deal with it like an addiction: complete withdrawal.
6) Eat enough good fat
This may seem a little strange. But our body needs fat to break down fat! Fat is often unfairly demonized because it has more calories than protein and carbohydrates. But good fatty acids are vital for your heart. Good fats from fish, nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, eggs and avocados, for example, increase your energy and supply your brain. This increases your ability to think and prompts your body to use the stored fat as fuel for your metabolism.
Fat also signals to your brain that enough food is being consumed, which makes you feel full more quickly.
7) Take 3-5 deep breaths before you eat
Eating often has a calming effect on us. Sometimes we even eat just to calm down after a stressful situation. Get into the habit of taking 3-5 deep breaths before eating to calm yourself mentally and physically. This strategy tricks your subconscious into thinking you are relaxed.
If you then start your meal, the food is no longer needed to calm you down, so you can eat more slowly, chew well and realize when you are full.
8) Eat only 3 times a day
If you follow strategies 1-7, you will notice that the satiety effect of your meals works very well. We don't have to eat all the time to have enough energy during the day! At no time has man eaten as much in between meals as he does now, and at no time has man moved as little as he does now.
If you want to lose weight, don't eat between meals! The positive side effect of this is that your digestion will also benefit if it doesn't have to work all the time or is even overly strained by constant food replenishment!
9) Sleep yourself slimmer
Studies have shown that people who sleep longer burn more fat. Among other things, this is attributed to the fact that short sleepers burn more of the produce the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin, which contributes to weight gain. This alone is reason enough to understand the importance of sleep.
My tip: Allow yourself at least 7 hours of sleep per night for 14 days. Turn off your computer, cell phone or tablet one hour before going to bed and don't use your cell phone as an alarm clock! Your bedroom should remain free of cell phones and other electronic devices so that you can enjoy a healthy night's sleep.
10) Get to know your body!
The basic need for calories varies greatly from person to person. In addition, the need for nutrients decreases after a certain age. Also check your hormone balance: a lack of thyroid hormones, for example, can lead to obesity.
11) Sitting is the new smoking
Exercise boosts your metabolism. It doesn't always have to be strenuous sport, but often just going for a walk helps. Not primarily with the aim of burning calories, but to find a balance to all the sitting. If you are active in the fresh air and have fun at the same time, for example with friends, you may not even think about food anymore. Losing weight with sport can be an important pillar of healthy weight loss. The only important thing is that you enjoy the sport you are doing.
12) Stick with it
It's not the starting that's the hardest part, it's often the sticking with it. Sometimes I hear very disappointed and sometimes even reproachful statements that you can lose weight with the right diet, but that you will quickly put it back on if you don't stick to it. So let's be clear about this: if you put on weight before losing weight with your diet and then eat the same as before after losing weight, you will put on weight again! This is simply nothing more than logical.
This means that you can only lose weight and then keep it off if you stick to it. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can never eat a piece of chocolate, a dessert, a glass of wine or a pizza again. But it does mean that you have to acquire new habits that you can then stick to in the long term.
Healthy weight loss with the right foods
Enjoyment and pleasure are very important when eating. This is also possible with healthy foods. Here are a few (of many) healthy foods that may inspire you:
- Wholemeal products
- fish
- vegetables
- oatmeal
- Natural yogurt (low fat)
- nuts
- chia seeds
- cinnamon
You can find healthy recipes to make here:
- Tofu scrambled eggs
- Quinoa porridge
- Gluten-free pancakes
- Kale chips
- Salad in a jar
- Cauliflower rice
- Pak Choi
- Baked apple dessert
- Homemade chocolate
Losing weight and detoxification
People who want to lose weight often think of detoxifying the body in the form of a detox cure. It is generally about ridding the body of toxic substances. Of course, this goes well with losing weight, as you then take a closer look at your own body and health.
Lose weight healthily: Try it out and get into action
So those were 10 strategies to help you lose weight successfully. But perhaps my most important tip: don't believe what someone else tells you about nutrition. Instead, try it out for yourself, become an explorer of your own body. Because as the Roman philosopher Lucrezius said:
"One man's food is another man's bitter poison."
Of course there are general principles for losing weight. But as we all react differently to food, have our own genetic make-up and are in our own unique circumstances, it is important that you find your own personal approach that works for you. The responsibility for your health and your body is always yours.
And now it's your turn!
Let me know in the comments: Were these strategies useful to you? Which of these tips would you like to implement? Do you have any tips of your own for us on how to lose weight successfully? And what is the biggest challenge that prevents you from implementing these tips?
