getting slim tips

Real advice that works

Have you tried diets, workout plans, calorie calculators—even natural health products or pills to lose weight? If so, you’re not alone. A whopping 80 percent of Canadian women want to lose weight and 58 percent feel pressure to be thin or shed pounds, according to a recent Ipsos Reid survey sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada. And with good reason: we know excess pounds can raise our risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and more. A scientific analysis published in a February 2008 issue of Lancet, for instance, linked excess body weight to 20 different types of cancer, including endometrial and gallbladder cancers. Fortunately, winning the battle of the bulge may be easier than you think. Just take it one meal at a time, with these research-tested tips in hand.

1. Enjoy a three-course breakfast—and a one-course dinner

A UK study of 6,764 men and women aged 40 to 75 determined that those who ate the most calories at breakfast gained the least amount of weight, regardless of the total number of calories consumed during the rest of the day. Looks like brekkie truly is the most important meal of the day!

2. Ask questions about all menu choices and toppings

Just because one sandwich on the menu skinnies in at under eight grams of fat, that doesn’t mean they all do. We tend to apply a health halo to all menu items in restaurants that we consider healthier, such as Subway, says Dr. Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam). “Dressings, condiments, mayo – they all add up,” he adds.

3. Drop the salt shaker

University of Helsinki researchers speculate that the increase in salt intake in the U.S.— a rise of approximately 55 percent from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s—may be behind the North American obesity trend. Their rationale: salt-induced thirst leads us to quaff down more sweetened beverages. Slake that dry throat with water or unsweetened drinks and go easy on the salt instead.

4. Stop guesstimating the calories of your entire meal

You’re more likely to make an accurate calorie tally if you judge your individual meal components and then add them up mentally. Dr. Wansink’s frightening advice for accuracy? “Take your estimate and double it.”

5. Savour more whole grains

Filling fibre in whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice and whole-wheat bread is not only linked to lower weights, it can also reduce belly fat and blood-vessel inflammation that boosts the risk of heart disease, according to a 2008 Pennsylvania State University study.

http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/weight-loss/11-secrets-to-getting-slim/6/