Lose weight: 10 tips from successful people

lose weight
10 simple weight loss tips from people who have made it

by Stephanie Pingel
2/4/2022 9:01 am

If you want to lose weight, you are faced with a large mountain of possible methods: from WW to slimming while you sleep to the 5:2 diet, the offers are almost endless. But even if most people start out motivated, many find it difficult to stick with it and actually reduce their weight in the long term. So what to do? The portal boredpanda.com once asked those who have actually successfully lost weight – and the users revealed which simple tips actually helped them. Here are the best:

1. Don’t demonize food

It’s not about good and bad food. Try to incorporate lots of fruits and vegetables into your daily routine, but if you want a donut and it fits into your daily calorie count, eat the damn donut. Don’t demonize food. Learn about nutrients, drink plenty of water, and exercise.

2. Banish eating from the couch

Who doesn’t know it: You sit on the couch in the evening, watch an exciting film and reach for chips or popcorn at the same time. Be sure to banish all food from the couch! Prefer to eat at the table and arrange the food nicely on a plate. This helped me to eat more consciously and with more pleasure, which also made it easier for me to listen to my feeling of satiety and stopped eating when I was full. I’ve lost almost 100 pounds in just over a year.

3. Forget escalators and elevators

Avoid escalators and elevators. I always took the stairs! When I started losing weight, I was working on the sixth floor. I had to go to work earlier than usual just so I could take the stairs in peace and get to the top without sweating profusely. In the first eight months I lost 20 kilos and now run a half marathon several times a year.

4. Only do sports that you enjoy

Stop forcing yourself to go to the gym if you hate it. Find a type of exercise that you enjoy. I gave up the gym – it makes an incredible difference in motivation! I’ve lost 30 pounds just doing what I enjoy such as hiking, biking, yoga, swimming and kayaking. Now I love to move and can’t wait for my next workout because it doesn’t feel like a workout anymore.

5. Skip lemonade

Forget the lemonade – seriously! I decided to do this after eventually drinking a can almost every lunchtime. After the first two weeks I had lost five kilos! And I had lost interest in it. That was years ago and meanwhile, lemonades and other sweetened drinks are simply too sweet for me.

6. Buy smaller plates

Buy smaller plates. This will help you eat smaller portions. Voluntarily loading smaller portions onto large plates is difficult for many, however a smaller plate looks full with the same portion. This can have a big psychological effect: you still emptied the whole plate, but you actually ate less than usual.

7. Be patient

Patience is not a virtue for nothing. Losing weight – especially if it’s a lot – takes time, which you should give yourself. I lost a good 30 kilos, but it took about 16 months and I had to constantly work on myself. It was always a maximum of 500 grams less per week.

8. Check your friends

Break up with friends trying to sabotage your goal. If you have arrived at about 90 kilos after a long loss and supposed friends claim you’re getting too skinny if they don’t try to help you.

9. Allow yourself to fail

Become comfortable with the thought that you will fail at times. It took me two years to really get into weight loss and lose 110 pounds. I still have 25 kilos ahead of me and it took a few months before I really started to work on myself again. Making mistakes is part of moving forward—the process isn’t linear.

10. Follow the 70 percent rule

Eat only 70 percent of your meal at first. Then take a break, for example chatting with your neighbor at the table and drinking water. You will notice how the hunger subsides because you are actually already full. And no, that doesn’t mean that you should throw away the leftover food! Just save the leftovers and eat them later.

Source used: boredpanda.com

Bridget