Welcome to The Lose Weight Diet's free list of weight loss tips. The purpose here isn't to just give you a big list of tips, but to also help you separate the useful tips from the useless ones.
I consider a weight loss tip to be anything that could in any way be helpful to a person looking to lose weight. It could have something to do with your diet plan or workout program, or maybe just the mental aspect of weight loss such as staying motivated and sticking to your diet. It could just be some way of improving your lifestyle so that it becomes more ideal for losing weight.
Really, any piece of information that could positively benefit someone trying to lose weight will be included on this list. Also, along with each weight loss tip will be sort of a "tip review." By that I mean I will include my own common sense opinion of the usefulness of that tip. You're welcome to disagree with this opinion of course, however in most cases you'll probably be thinking the exact same thing.
This list of weight loss tips will be updated on an ongoing basis, by the way. So, whenever something new pops into my head or somehow comes to my attention, I'll be sure to add it to this list.
Tip rating system:
A - Would probably be useful to everyone, and I myself do it.
B - Could be useful to some people.
F - Useless, or stupid, or unsafe, or any combination of the three.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
This is one of the most popular weight loss tips on this list. I've seen this one everywhere. But, let's be honest here... unless you live or work on the 400th floor, taking the stairs instead of the elevator isn't going to do much for you in terms of losing weight. Sure, you'll walk a little extra, and that's obviously always good. But uh, 1 or 2 flights of stairs a few times a week won't have much (if any) effect on the weight loss of most people.
Tip Rating: B
I gave this one a B instead of an F because I don't want to sound like I'm discouraging extra walking of any kind. Yes, walking is great for everyone. However, don't expect an occasional flight of stairs to make 20 pounds disappear.
Workout early in the day so there is less chance of missing your workout.
I do this, but not out of fear that I may miss my workout. However, I can see how this would happen to people. Something might come up, you might get tired, you might forget, who knows. What I do know is that there are more possible reasons for why a person would miss a workout at 6pm than there would be at 6am. Your alarm clock rings off, you eat, and you go workout. There's very little time in there for something to get in the way or for you to come up with an excuse. So...
Tip Rating: B
This weight loss tip has a lot to do with your schedule, though. I realize that a lot of people workout in the afternoon or at night because they just can't workout any other time. This tip is more for the people who have the option of getting their workout in early if they wanted to.
Keep a workout and diet log or journal.
I'm a big fan of this one. Progress is made by improving upon what you've already done. This applies to workout progress, too. Want to get stronger? Want to increase muscle? If so, you're going to need to make progress. To do that you're going to need to keep track of how much weight you lifted and how many sets and reps you lifted it for on each exercise. By knowing this information, you'll know exactly what you need to do in your workout the next time in order to improve on it.
Were you able to do a certain exercise for a certain weight for 8 reps? Next time try doing 10 reps of the same weight, or try adding 5 pounds and getting the same 8 reps. This type of progress is what causes muscle and strength gains, and it is only possible when you know exactly what you did the previous workout so you can improve it.
As you learned throughout The Lose Weight Diet, one of the most important parts of your weight loss diet plan is keeping track of how many calories and grams of protein, carbs and fat you're eating each day. No matter how great you think your memory is, keeping a log of it all (on paper, on the computer, on fitday.com, etc.) is the only way you'll be able to keep track of it as accurately as possible.
Tip Rating: A
There is no reason to not do this one. It's extremely important.
Plan and prepare your meals in advance.
You know what makes sticking to your diet real easy? When you plan what you're going to eat in advance and, if possible, have it ready for you. For example, I know I'll be eating egg whites as part of my breakfast every single morning. By knowing this I can figure out how often I need to buy eggs so they're always in the house. I never wake up wondering what I'm going to eat or if I'm going to find something I SHOULD be eating. I also know I'm going to eat tuna fish, whole wheat bread, brown rice, chicken breasts, nuts, vegetables, etc. every single day. I have it all ready and waiting at all times.
By planning what you're going to eat in advance and having it prepared for you when possible, you greatly lower your chances of eating something you shouldn't be eating.
Tip Rating: A
Everyone reading this needs to stay as strict and consistent as they can with their diet plan, and this tip helps that happen.
Sleep enough!
Hold on. If you're thinking "Wait, are you saying I can lose weight just by sleeping? AWESOME!!!!" you'd be slightly mistaken. Sleep alone will not cause weight loss. It will however help. There are a bunch of science-y reasons for this, and if you are in the 1% of people reading this who want to know those reasons, email me and I'll explain. If you're in the other 99%, just know that sleeping enough will indeed help your weight loss.
That's not all though. You know what it feels like when you're tired? You become lazy. You don't feel like doing anything. Well, when you're goal is losing weight, you can't be lazy and you can't feel like not doing anything. Sleeping enough will eliminate this problem.
Tip Rating: A
Yes, you just read "sleep enough" on a list of weight loss tips. This one is really as easy as they get. You have no excuse.
Keep junk food out of your house.
You know all of that really tasty junk food that is high in saturated fat and useless calories that serves no positive purpose other than being yummy? Good. Then you also probably know you shouldn't be eating any of it. One way to stop eating junk food is to stop putting yourself in a position to eat junk food. By having these types of foods in your house you are obviously going to be much more likely to eat it than if they weren't there. So... throw out/give away whatever junk food you have in your house now and don't buy anymore.
Tip Rating: B
This tip isn't for everyone. It's mainly for 3 types of people... those a little low in the will power department, those who eat when they're bored, and those who live alone or live with people who don't eat junk food. I mentioned the 3rd type because I know a lot of people live with family/friends who eat junk food all the time therefore making it impossible for you to just stop having it in the house. I know what that's like.
For me, I have the will power to not care or let it bother me at all. If you're like that too, great. If not, you have 2 choices. TRY to get like that, or try to convince the other people in the house to cut down on the junk food. Even if they don't care about weight loss, junk food is still unhealthy for them whether they are trying to lose weight or not.
Drink hot water.
They say drinking hot water instead of cold water will help speed up your metabolism and help you burn more calories.
Tip Rating: F
Stupid, stupid, stupid AND useless. I'm not saying that this isn't true. I'm not saying that hot water won't have a different effect on your metabolism than cold water. What I am saying is that any supposed benefit would be so slight that it would be a complete waste of time and effort to even give it another second of thought. These are weight loss tips, not time loss tips. If you want to lose weight, focus on your diet and your workout. If you want to burn your tongue, drink hot water.
Eat right AND workout.
Like I mentioned back in Phase 1 of The Lose Weight Diet, it is technically possible to lose weight through JUST your diet plan or JUST your workout. However, for best weight loss results and for best all around health, you should do it through a combination of both. This will also make it easier to keep the weight off once it's gone.
Tip Rating: A
What more needs to be said? Do both.
Set realistic goals.
No one wants to just lose weight, they want to lose it FAST. They want huge results... quickly. The only problem is, weight loss doesn't happen fast. Results don't come quickly. The reason you need to know this is because setting goals that can't be reached will make you very depressed and discouraged when you realize you didn't reach them. You are basically setting yourself up to fail.
Forget everything you've ever seen or heard. Every advertisement for a weight loss program, pill, machine, or product of any kind is lying to you. The people who claim to have lost huge amounts of weight in insanely short periods of time are lying to you. Those amazing before and after pictures are lies. Yes, really. Like I mentioned in the lose weight fast article, the only way you are going to lose 40 pounds in 1 month is if you have some sort of chainsaw accident.
When you set realistic goals, like losing 1 pound a week or losing 6 pounds a month or losing 60 pounds a year, goals that can actually be reached, you are setting yourself up to succeed.
(I'll admit that whole "setting yourself up to succeed" line was pretty lame, but really, it's true.)
Tip Rating: A
Weight loss is all about persistence. And, setting crazy goals that you can't reach and then not reaching them is an extremely common reason for a person to give up. To avoid that, set realistic goals.
Change how you eat your food.
This one is actually a compilation of similar weight loss tips all revolving around ways people trying to lose weight should eat their food to almost "trick" themselves into not eating more than they should.
For example, eat slower. The faster you finish your food, the more likely you are to eat extra food. Chew slowly. Put your fork down after every mouthful. Take a minute break in the middle of eating. Take smaller bites. Drink water before/during eating so you get full faster. Instead of starting off with your full serving amount, take half a serving and then go back for seconds. Use smaller plates. Etc., etc., etc..
Tip Rating: B
As much as I really want to give this one a giant F, I can't. You see, to me, this tip is stupid and useless. I know there are people out there who feel the same way. But, for every person like us there is probably someone else thinking "Ya know, if I took smaller bites it probably would feel like I ate more than I actually did." I can't really argue with that. If you think something will help you, go for it.
Workout on the same days, at the same times.
Working out is obviously an important part of weight loss. And, the best way to stick to your workout is to turn your workout into something that just gets done without really thinking about it. Make it a regular part of your life. You know how you just know to brush your teeth after you wake up? In that same way you should just know to workout. It needs to become part of your normal routine. The best way to accomplish this is to workout at the same times, on the same days.
If you workout on random days at random times you become more likely to miss a workout. If you train yourself to workout on a strict schedule, it will become much harder for you to break from that schedule. That of course means you won't miss workouts.
Tip Rating: A
This one obviously depends on your own personal schedule, but no matter what kind of schedule you have, you should try to workout on the same days of the week at the same times of the day. For me it's to the point now where I know what day it is by what I did in the gym that day. "What day is it? Oh right, I did chest and triceps. It's Monday." When your workout becomes such a regular part of your life, you'll see how hard to becomes to miss one.
I consider a weight loss tip to be anything that could in any way be helpful to a person looking to lose weight. It could have something to do with your diet plan or workout program, or maybe just the mental aspect of weight loss such as staying motivated and sticking to your diet. It could just be some way of improving your lifestyle so that it becomes more ideal for losing weight.
Really, any piece of information that could positively benefit someone trying to lose weight will be included on this list. Also, along with each weight loss tip will be sort of a "tip review." By that I mean I will include my own common sense opinion of the usefulness of that tip. You're welcome to disagree with this opinion of course, however in most cases you'll probably be thinking the exact same thing.
This list of weight loss tips will be updated on an ongoing basis, by the way. So, whenever something new pops into my head or somehow comes to my attention, I'll be sure to add it to this list.
Tip rating system:
A - Would probably be useful to everyone, and I myself do it.
B - Could be useful to some people.
F - Useless, or stupid, or unsafe, or any combination of the three.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
This is one of the most popular weight loss tips on this list. I've seen this one everywhere. But, let's be honest here... unless you live or work on the 400th floor, taking the stairs instead of the elevator isn't going to do much for you in terms of losing weight. Sure, you'll walk a little extra, and that's obviously always good. But uh, 1 or 2 flights of stairs a few times a week won't have much (if any) effect on the weight loss of most people.
Tip Rating: B
I gave this one a B instead of an F because I don't want to sound like I'm discouraging extra walking of any kind. Yes, walking is great for everyone. However, don't expect an occasional flight of stairs to make 20 pounds disappear.
Workout early in the day so there is less chance of missing your workout.
I do this, but not out of fear that I may miss my workout. However, I can see how this would happen to people. Something might come up, you might get tired, you might forget, who knows. What I do know is that there are more possible reasons for why a person would miss a workout at 6pm than there would be at 6am. Your alarm clock rings off, you eat, and you go workout. There's very little time in there for something to get in the way or for you to come up with an excuse. So...
Tip Rating: B
This weight loss tip has a lot to do with your schedule, though. I realize that a lot of people workout in the afternoon or at night because they just can't workout any other time. This tip is more for the people who have the option of getting their workout in early if they wanted to.
Keep a workout and diet log or journal.
I'm a big fan of this one. Progress is made by improving upon what you've already done. This applies to workout progress, too. Want to get stronger? Want to increase muscle? If so, you're going to need to make progress. To do that you're going to need to keep track of how much weight you lifted and how many sets and reps you lifted it for on each exercise. By knowing this information, you'll know exactly what you need to do in your workout the next time in order to improve on it.
Were you able to do a certain exercise for a certain weight for 8 reps? Next time try doing 10 reps of the same weight, or try adding 5 pounds and getting the same 8 reps. This type of progress is what causes muscle and strength gains, and it is only possible when you know exactly what you did the previous workout so you can improve it.
As you learned throughout The Lose Weight Diet, one of the most important parts of your weight loss diet plan is keeping track of how many calories and grams of protein, carbs and fat you're eating each day. No matter how great you think your memory is, keeping a log of it all (on paper, on the computer, on fitday.com, etc.) is the only way you'll be able to keep track of it as accurately as possible.
Tip Rating: A
There is no reason to not do this one. It's extremely important.
Plan and prepare your meals in advance.
You know what makes sticking to your diet real easy? When you plan what you're going to eat in advance and, if possible, have it ready for you. For example, I know I'll be eating egg whites as part of my breakfast every single morning. By knowing this I can figure out how often I need to buy eggs so they're always in the house. I never wake up wondering what I'm going to eat or if I'm going to find something I SHOULD be eating. I also know I'm going to eat tuna fish, whole wheat bread, brown rice, chicken breasts, nuts, vegetables, etc. every single day. I have it all ready and waiting at all times.
By planning what you're going to eat in advance and having it prepared for you when possible, you greatly lower your chances of eating something you shouldn't be eating.
Tip Rating: A
Everyone reading this needs to stay as strict and consistent as they can with their diet plan, and this tip helps that happen.
Sleep enough!
Hold on. If you're thinking "Wait, are you saying I can lose weight just by sleeping? AWESOME!!!!" you'd be slightly mistaken. Sleep alone will not cause weight loss. It will however help. There are a bunch of science-y reasons for this, and if you are in the 1% of people reading this who want to know those reasons, email me and I'll explain. If you're in the other 99%, just know that sleeping enough will indeed help your weight loss.
That's not all though. You know what it feels like when you're tired? You become lazy. You don't feel like doing anything. Well, when you're goal is losing weight, you can't be lazy and you can't feel like not doing anything. Sleeping enough will eliminate this problem.
Tip Rating: A
Yes, you just read "sleep enough" on a list of weight loss tips. This one is really as easy as they get. You have no excuse.
Keep junk food out of your house.
You know all of that really tasty junk food that is high in saturated fat and useless calories that serves no positive purpose other than being yummy? Good. Then you also probably know you shouldn't be eating any of it. One way to stop eating junk food is to stop putting yourself in a position to eat junk food. By having these types of foods in your house you are obviously going to be much more likely to eat it than if they weren't there. So... throw out/give away whatever junk food you have in your house now and don't buy anymore.
Tip Rating: B
This tip isn't for everyone. It's mainly for 3 types of people... those a little low in the will power department, those who eat when they're bored, and those who live alone or live with people who don't eat junk food. I mentioned the 3rd type because I know a lot of people live with family/friends who eat junk food all the time therefore making it impossible for you to just stop having it in the house. I know what that's like.
For me, I have the will power to not care or let it bother me at all. If you're like that too, great. If not, you have 2 choices. TRY to get like that, or try to convince the other people in the house to cut down on the junk food. Even if they don't care about weight loss, junk food is still unhealthy for them whether they are trying to lose weight or not.
Drink hot water.
They say drinking hot water instead of cold water will help speed up your metabolism and help you burn more calories.
Tip Rating: F
Stupid, stupid, stupid AND useless. I'm not saying that this isn't true. I'm not saying that hot water won't have a different effect on your metabolism than cold water. What I am saying is that any supposed benefit would be so slight that it would be a complete waste of time and effort to even give it another second of thought. These are weight loss tips, not time loss tips. If you want to lose weight, focus on your diet and your workout. If you want to burn your tongue, drink hot water.
Eat right AND workout.
Like I mentioned back in Phase 1 of The Lose Weight Diet, it is technically possible to lose weight through JUST your diet plan or JUST your workout. However, for best weight loss results and for best all around health, you should do it through a combination of both. This will also make it easier to keep the weight off once it's gone.
Tip Rating: A
What more needs to be said? Do both.
Set realistic goals.
No one wants to just lose weight, they want to lose it FAST. They want huge results... quickly. The only problem is, weight loss doesn't happen fast. Results don't come quickly. The reason you need to know this is because setting goals that can't be reached will make you very depressed and discouraged when you realize you didn't reach them. You are basically setting yourself up to fail.
Forget everything you've ever seen or heard. Every advertisement for a weight loss program, pill, machine, or product of any kind is lying to you. The people who claim to have lost huge amounts of weight in insanely short periods of time are lying to you. Those amazing before and after pictures are lies. Yes, really. Like I mentioned in the lose weight fast article, the only way you are going to lose 40 pounds in 1 month is if you have some sort of chainsaw accident.
When you set realistic goals, like losing 1 pound a week or losing 6 pounds a month or losing 60 pounds a year, goals that can actually be reached, you are setting yourself up to succeed.
(I'll admit that whole "setting yourself up to succeed" line was pretty lame, but really, it's true.)
Tip Rating: A
Weight loss is all about persistence. And, setting crazy goals that you can't reach and then not reaching them is an extremely common reason for a person to give up. To avoid that, set realistic goals.
Change how you eat your food.
This one is actually a compilation of similar weight loss tips all revolving around ways people trying to lose weight should eat their food to almost "trick" themselves into not eating more than they should.
For example, eat slower. The faster you finish your food, the more likely you are to eat extra food. Chew slowly. Put your fork down after every mouthful. Take a minute break in the middle of eating. Take smaller bites. Drink water before/during eating so you get full faster. Instead of starting off with your full serving amount, take half a serving and then go back for seconds. Use smaller plates. Etc., etc., etc..
Tip Rating: B
As much as I really want to give this one a giant F, I can't. You see, to me, this tip is stupid and useless. I know there are people out there who feel the same way. But, for every person like us there is probably someone else thinking "Ya know, if I took smaller bites it probably would feel like I ate more than I actually did." I can't really argue with that. If you think something will help you, go for it.
Workout on the same days, at the same times.
Working out is obviously an important part of weight loss. And, the best way to stick to your workout is to turn your workout into something that just gets done without really thinking about it. Make it a regular part of your life. You know how you just know to brush your teeth after you wake up? In that same way you should just know to workout. It needs to become part of your normal routine. The best way to accomplish this is to workout at the same times, on the same days.
If you workout on random days at random times you become more likely to miss a workout. If you train yourself to workout on a strict schedule, it will become much harder for you to break from that schedule. That of course means you won't miss workouts.
Tip Rating: A
This one obviously depends on your own personal schedule, but no matter what kind of schedule you have, you should try to workout on the same days of the week at the same times of the day. For me it's to the point now where I know what day it is by what I did in the gym that day. "What day is it? Oh right, I did chest and triceps. It's Monday." When your workout becomes such a regular part of your life, you'll see how hard to becomes to miss one.
