How to Lose Weight when Dieting

There are several avoidable mistakes that are easily made when dieting. Being aware of these pitfalls can help your diet work better for you. Make these changes and see your scale drop the numbers!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 
    
   Avoid the Diet Soda

   One of the most common mistakes made when dieting is to think that diet sodas will aid in loosing weight. Recently my doctor told me research has proven that the taste system of our bodies determines how many calories are in the foods we are eating. Then the body decides how the calories should be used. False sugars give false signals, making it difficult for the body to determine how much food the body needs to eat. So diet drinks can cause you to gain weight. Water is always the best option.

2. 
    
   The No Sugar Added Labels

   Cutting down on sugars is obvious to any dieter. But most of us do not consider those products with added sugars. There are many foods that we think are not sweet that have added sugars. Take time to read the labels. Look for, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, brown sugar, honey, and molasses. The higher these words are on the ingredient list the more of it there is in the product. Look for labels that say no added sugars.

3. 
    
   Eating Lite!

   How large is your plate? Not how much food is on your plate? Eating off small plates will allow eating less. You have a better chance to stop and recognize you are full sooner. Eating from a carton or bag is dangerous. You never can gage how much you have eaten. A good practice when eating a meal take a break half way through and see if you are still hungry.

4. 
    
   Maintaining your desired weight.

   The bummer: as you loose weight the less calories you need to take in to sustain your new weight. It is important to track your weight loss with how many calories you are taking in if you are trying to loose more weight. And even more important keep track of how many calories you are taking in to maintain your desired weight.

5. In the eighties I can remember being so concerned about counting carbs. We were all doing it. The problem was we didn't define the carbs. Today as a society we have lowered our fat intake replacing it with simple carbohydrates like white breads and pasta which digest quickly and stimulate the body to produce insulin, which can lead to weight gain. Complex carbs are good to intake. Whole grains and fruits and vegetables. Fats are important but the kind of fats are what need to be looked at. The monounsaturate fats like avocado and nuts, rather than the saturated fats found in butter and ice cream.