How to successfully follow a diet?
Following a diet is not always easy: restrictions, frustrations, temptations and loss of motivation are often there. To put the odds on your side, and no longer live a diet as a chore that we would have done well, here are some tips for successfully following a diet.
Tip # 1 : Set Achievable Goals
With the approach of the start of the school year, summer or the new year, magazines often display miraculous diets in front pages, promising the possibility of losing many pounds in record time. These promises are often unrealizable and when they are plausible, they involve dietary restrictions that are extremely harmful to the body. It is better to avoid this type of diet and opt instead for a diet emphasizing dietary diversity (to avoid any deficiency ) and allowing gradual weight loss – 1 kg to 1.5 kg maximum per week.
Tip 2 : the role of loved ones
Relatives are often a support during a diet. But if they are not aware, they can on the contrary become real “push-to-vice”, without knowing it, and offer high- calorie foods or drinks , without knowing that they will be so many temptations. It is also better to warn those around you (spouse, parent, friends, colleagues) and make them allies. They will thus be able to offer their help on a daily basis, through welcome attentions or encouragement.
Tip 3: Seek advice from a healthcare professional
There is diet and diet. As mentioned above, certain restrictive or exclusive diets ( cabbage soup diet , cucumber diet ) can cause significant damage to health. Moreover, these diets are often ineffective in the long term and encourage the yoyo effect , because they slow down the metabolism . Also, to succeed on a diet, it seems preferable to approach a health professional, such as a nutritionist . or a dietitian, or even their general practitioner. He will be an undeniable help and will be able to develop an effective diet program, not dangerous to health and adapted to the metabolism of the person wishing to lose weight. It is better to rely on sound advice than to throw yourself headlong into a strange and certainly harmful diet.
Tip # 4 : Plan Meals for the Week
To be successful on a diet, it can be helpful to establish a weekly meal plan . This trick makes it possible to plan slimming menus in advance and to shop accordingly. Thus we are less tempted to deviate from this “line of conduct”, once it is inscribed in black and white. Other substantial benefits of planning your meals: better calorie control , the pleasure of creating tailor-made meals… and better management of your food budget!
Tip 5 : better prepared races
Once the weekly meal plan is done, it’s a matter of sticking to it. To do this, nothing beats the development of a shopping list, precise and in line with diet meals. This little trick allows you to better control your purchases and, consequently, what you put in your cupboards and fridge. We are less tempted to buy “extras” when everything is written and planned. In addition, it is essential to go shopping on a full stomach. Indeed, hunger has been proven time and time again to influence behavior. A high level of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) increases the attraction for foods with high caloric density (1) . Also, before going to the supermarket, it is better to bite into an apple, a few sticks of vegetables or eat a little fromage blanc … Satisfying and low-calorie foods!
Tip # 6 : Cook Yourself
Being on a diet means saying goodbye to prepared meals and home deliveries and reinvesting in your kitchen. For a successful diet, nothing beats homemade. In addition, preparing your own meals is better for your health, more effective for losing weight (because you control the addition of fat and salt ), often tastes better and, what is more, is economical. A diet is not necessarily synonymous with a boring mono-diet: by going back to cooking, you can test new ingredients, vary the seasonings ( spices being excellent substitutes for salt) and thus prepare delicious dishes, low in calories but tasty. .
Tip # 7 : Stay hydrated throughout the day
To be successful on a diet, you need to drink water regularly . Moreover, popular wisdom says that “hunger is an unknowing thirst”. An adage that is rightly based on science: indeed, the cerebral receptors of hunger and thirst are the same. Food cravings are often sensations of thirst that are misinterpreted. Also, it is better to drink a large glass of water or a cup of tea than to swallow anything and jeopardize your diet. In addition, drinking throughout the day optimizes the effects of the diet: drainage of the body, prevention of water retention, better digestion.
Tip 8 : stop relying on your scale
When you are on a diet, you are often tempted to weigh yourself constantly, to see possible results. Only the weight can vary depending on a large number of factors: time of weighing, state of intestinal transit, menstrual cycle , propensity to retain water . Moreover, the weight displayed on the scale is not always a good indicator of health and/or thinness, especially when we know that muscle weighs more than fat. To become fully aware of your progress, and succeed in your diet, it is more meaningful to take your measurements . They will be much more revealing of the progress made and will thus constitute an additional motivation!
Tip # 9 : Exercise
Weight loss is 70% diet and 30% physical activity . Also, to succeed in your diet, sport seems essential. The best solution to indulge in it to your heart’s content: choose a sporting activity that appeals to you. The diet is already restrictive. If the sports sessions are also, there is little chance of carrying out your diet. Of course, cardio activities are more effective for losing weight: cycling or elliptical trainer, rowing machine, running or brisk walking are all recommended sports. But if you are keen on another sport, such as dance, home fitness or swimming, these activities are also very effective in losing weight. To this sporting activity, which must be practiced regularly to bear fruit, it is important to add daily movement, such as, for example, favoring trips on foot or by bicycle rather than by car.
Tip 10 : be tolerant of yourself
Losing weight permanently is a complex process, as much as the body can be. You can lose weight quickly at first and then stagnate. The reverse can also happen. The important thing is to rebalance , to establish new eating habits over time and, after an attack phase, to reintroduce small pleasures: a square of dark chocolate for dessert, a gourmet snack (banana and peanut, frozen yoghurt…). If we have made a difference, we must not self-flagellate. It is better to have enjoyed it, and gently re-attack your diet the next day. The success of a diet is above all based on patience and tolerance towards oneself.
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.