Six Tips for Losing Weight Without Fad Diets

Monday – start diet. Tuesday – break diet! Wednesday – plan to start again next Monday. If this is you, it’s probably time to get off the diet roller coaster and make some bigger changes to the way you eat, drink and think about food.

Here are six tips to help you get started.

1. Improve your diet quality score

When trying to lose weight, it might be tempting to quit carbs or another food group altogether.

But to stay healthy, you need to meet your requirements for important nutrients like iron, zinc, calcium, vitamins B and C, folate and fiber. These nutrients are essential for metabolism, growth, repair and fighting disease.

Our review of diet quality indexes used to rate the healthiness of eating habits found that eating nutritious foods was associated with¹⁾Aljadani, H., Patterson, A., Sibbritt, D. et al. Diet Quality and Weight Change in Adults Over Time: A Systematic Review of Cohort Studies. Curr Nutr Rep 4, 88–101 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-014-0115-1 lower weight gain over time.²⁾Fung TT, Pan A, Hou T, Chiuve SE, Tobias DK, Mozaffarian D, Willett WC, Hu FB. Long-Term Change in Diet Quality Is Associated with Body Weight Change in Men and Women. J Nutr. 2015 Aug;145(8):1850-6. doi: 10.3945/jn.114.208785.

Improving your diet quality means eating more fruit and vegetables, tofu, nuts and seeds, legumes, dried beans, and whole grains.

2. Mum was right – eat your veggies

Fruit and veg are high in fiber, vitamins and phytonutrients, but low in total calories. So eating more can help you manage your weight.

A study of more than 130,000 adults found that those who increased their intake of fruit and vegetables over four years lost weight. For each extra daily serve of vegetables, there was a weight loss of 110 grams over the four years. It was 240 grams for fruit. Small, but it all adds up.³⁾Bertoia M. et.al. Changes in Intake of Fruits and Vegetables and Weight Change in United States Men and Women Followed for Up to 24 Years: Analysis from Three Prospective Cohort Studies. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001878

Drilling down to specific fruit and veg gets interesting. Increasing cauliflower intake was associated with a four-year weight reduction of about 620 grams, with smaller reductions for capsicum (350g), green leafy vegetables (230g) and carrots (180g). The reduction was 620g for blueberries and 500g for apple or pears.

It was not good news all round, though. Corn was associated with a weight gain of 920g, peas 510g and mashed, baked or boiled potatoes 330g.

3. Limit your portion size

If you are served larger portions of food and drinks, you eat more and consume more calories. That sounds obvious, yet everybody gets caught out when offered big portions – even when you’re determined to stop when you’re full.⁴⁾Rolls BJ. What is the role of portion control in weight management? Int J Obes (Lond). 2014 Jul;38 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S1-8. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2014.82.

Research shows offering larger portions leads adults and children to consume an extra 600 to 950 kilojoules (150-230 calories). This is enough to account for a weight gain of more than seven kilograms a year, if the calories aren’t compensated for by doing more exercise or eating less later.⁵⁾Hollands GJ, Shemilt I, Marteau TM, Jebb SA, Lewis HB, Wei Y, Higgins JP, Ogilvie D. Portion, package or tableware size for changing selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Sep 14;2015(9):CD011045. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011045.pub2.

4. Watch what you drink

A can of soft drink contains about 600 kilojoules (150 calories). It takes 30-45 minutes to walk those calories off, depending on your size and speed. Children and adolescents who usually drink a lot sugary drinks are 55% more likely to be overweight.⁶⁾Hu FB. Resolved: there is sufficient scientific evidence that decreasing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption will reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases. Obes Rev. 2013 Aug;14(8):606-19. doi: 10.1111/obr.12040.

Switch to lower sugar versions, water or diet drinks. A meta-analysis of intervention studies (ranging from ten weeks to eight months) found that adults who switched had a weight reduction of about 800 grams.⁷⁾Morenga L T et.al. Dietary sugars and body weight: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK116814/

5. Cue food

Our world constantly cues us to eat and drink. Think food ads, vending machines and chocolate bars when trying to pay for petrol or groceries. Food cues trigger cravings, prompt eating, predict weight gain and are hard to resist.⁸⁾Boswell RG, Kober H. Food cue reactivity and craving predict eating and weight gain: a meta-analytic review. Obes Rev. 2016 Feb;17(2):159-77. doi: 10.1111/obr.12354. They can make you feel hungry even if you are not.⁹⁾Jansen A, Houben K, Roefs A. A Cognitive Profile of Obesity and Its Translation into New Interventions. Front Psychol. 2015 Nov 27;6:1807. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01807.

Try to minimize the time you spend in highly cued food environments. Avoid food courts, take a list when you go to the supermarket and take your own snacks to places where highly palatable food is advertised, like the movies. This will reduce autopilot eating, which sabotages your willpower.

6. Resist temptation

A treatment for food cue reactivity is called exposure therapy.¹⁰⁾Schyns G, Roefs A, Mulkens S, Jansen A. Expectancy violation, reduction of food cue reactivity and less eating in the absence of hunger after one food cue exposure session for overweight and obese women. Behav Res Ther. 2016 Jan;76:57-64. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2015.11.007. With the help of a psychologist or health professional, you expose yourself to the sight and smell of favorite foods in locations that commonly trigger overeating, like eating chocolate when watching TV. But, rather than eat the chocolate, you only have a taste without eating it.¹¹⁾Jansen A, Houben K, Roefs A. A Cognitive Profile of Obesity and Its Translation into New Interventions. Front Psychol. 2015 Nov 27;6:1807. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01807.

Over time, and with persistence, cravings for chocolate reduce, even when cues such as TV ads or people eating chocolate in front of you are present.

You can also draw on your brain’s own self-management skills to resist temptation, but it takes conscious practice. Try this food cue acronym, RROAR (remind, resist, organized alternative, remember and/or reward), to train your brain to resist temptation on autopilot.

When you feel yourself pulled by cues to eat or drink:

• Remind yourself that you are the boss of you, not a food cue.
• Resist the tempting food or drink initially by turning your back on the cue. (This gives you time to think about next steps.)
• Have a pre- Organized Alternative behavior to use against food cues. Grab a drink of water, walk around the block, check your phone messages, read, take a walk in the opposite direction. Diversion works.¹²⁾van Dillen LF, Andrade J. Derailing the streetcar named desire. Cognitive distractions reduce individual differences in cravings and unhealthy snacking in response to palatable food. Appetite. 2016 Jan 1;96:102-110. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.09.013.
• Remember what your big-picture goal is. Do you want to eat better to help you feel better, reduce medications, lower blood pressure, improve diabetes control or manage your weight?

You can add another R for Reward. Financial incentives help change behavior. Each time you complete your organized alternative behavior put $1 in a jar. When it builds up, spend it on something you really want.

You need a plan

The journey off the diet roller coaster needs a cunning plan. Here’s how you can put it all together.

1. Start by assessing your diet quality using the Healthy Eating Quiz.
2. Next, plan weekly meals, drinks and snacks. Write a grocery list and buy extra fruit and vegetables.
3. Swap to small plates, cups and serving utensils. You’ll serve and eat less without thinking.
4. Aim for half your plate covered with vegetables and salad, one-quarter protein (legumes, if meat, then lean) and one-quarter grains or starchy vegetables (potato, peas, corn).
5. Change your food environment to avoid constant prompts to eat.
6. Minimize the places you allow yourself to eat and drink to reduce food cue exposure (not in front of TV or computer, at a desk, or in the car).
7. Keep food out of sight (unless it is fruit and vegetables). Store in opaque containers.
8. Remove workplace food displays, such as food fundraisers.
9. Plan driving and walking routes that do not take you past fast-food outlets or vending machines.
10. Prerecord TV shows and fast-forward food ads.

This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.