Dieting is almost always followed by rapid weight gains. If you really want to lose weight, you must overhaul your eating habits. This approach is called behavior dieting.
Here are some very helpful behavior dieting techniques:
1. Become committed to weight loss. Involve your friends and family members in your efforts. A good source of social support can be found at programs such as Overeaters Anonymous https://oa.org/ or Take Off Pounds Sensibly https://www.tops.org/. There may also be more sites available online.
2. Exercise! We can’t stress this enough. No diet can succeed for very long without an increase in exercise. Because exercise burns calories! To lose weight you must use more calories daily than you consume. Add activity to your day in any way possible. Whenever you can, use the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk to the store, if you can, instead of driving. Try bike riding if possible. Take walks or jog moderately. The object is to eliminate 200 extra calories every day. The more you frequently and vigorously exercise, the more weight you will lose (Jeffrey & Wing, 2001).
3. Learn your eating habits by observing yourself and keeping a “Diet Diary.” Begin by making a 2-week record of when, where and what you eat. Add the feelings and events that occur just before and just after eating. Is anyone encouraging you to over-eat? What are your most dangerous times and places that you over-eat?
4. Learn to weaken your personal eating cues. Once you have learned when and where you do most of your eating, just avoid those situations. Try restricting your eating to just one room. Do not read, study, watch tv, or talk on the phone while eating. Be mindful of what you are doing in order to eat.
5. Count calories but don’t starve yourself. To lose weight you must eat less. Counting calories allows you to keep a daily record of your calorie intake. If you have trouble eating a little less every day, try dieting 4 days per week. People who diet intensely every other day lose as much as those who diet moderately everyday (Viegener, Et al, 1990).
6. Develop techniques to control the act of eating. Begin by taking smaller portions. You should bring to the table only what you plan to eat. Put away all other food before leaving the kitchen. Eat slowly and sip water between food bites. Leave food on your plate and stop eating before you feel completely full. Avoid extra large servings at fast-food restaurants. Saying “super-size me” can often make you “super-sized” (Murray, 2001).
7. Avoid snacks! It is generally better to eat several small meals a day than three large meals (Assanand, Pine & Lehman, 1998). If you have an urge to snack, set a timer for 20 minutes and see if you are still hungry then. Dull your appetite by snacking on vegetables, water, coffee or tea.
8. Chart your progress daily. Record in your Diet Diary: your weight at about the same time each day, an accurate number of calories and, whether you met your daily goal. Set realistic goals by reducing calories gradually. Losing about a pound per week is realistic and not harmful. But remember, you are changing habits, not just dieting. Diets don’t work!
9. Set a threshold for weight control. Maintaining weight loss can be more challenging than actually losing the weight in the first place. It is easier to maintain weight loss if you set a re-gain limit of 3 pounds or less. In other words, if you gain more than 2 or 3 pounds, you immediately begin to make corrections to your eating habits and amount of exercise (Brownnell, 2003).
10. Be patient with the program. It can take years to develop new eating habits. You can expect it to take several months before you see changes, Don’t forget you are changing your eating behavior, not dieting. If you are unsuccessful with these techniques you might find it helpful to seek assistance of a psychologist familiar with behavioral weight loss techniques.
If you or anyone you know experiences any physical problems while doing any exercising or while following any of our exercise examples, consult your doctor as soon as possible.
Good eating and good luck.
This report is not a diagnosis. We hope this information can guide you toward improving your life.
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