How to Drink Bouillon Before a Meal to Lose Weight

Available in the soup isle of any grocery store, bouillon is a quick, simple and inexpensive item to help you reach your weight-loss goals. Drinking a cup or bowl of bouillon broth before each meal can help curb the hunger that often overwhelms the willpower to eat healthy. Once the gnawing hunger is gone, you can slow down, make healthy choices and stick to smaller portions.

Things You'll Need

• Bouillon cubes
• Water
• Cup or Bowl

Instructions

Lose Weight with Bouillon

1. One of the biggest reasons for diet failure is that the more hunger increases, the more it begins to outweigh our resolution to stick with low-calorie, highly nutritious foods. What is one surefire resolution? Quench hunger before sitting down to eat. Drinking a cup of beef or chicken bouillon can help you fill up fast, allowing you to stick to healthy choices and portions.

2. The 20-minute rule: It takes about 20 minutes for food to actually reach your stomach. Upon entering the stomach, the sides of the stomach stretch, signaling hormones to be released to tell your brain that it is full. But 20 minutes is a long time when your hunger leads you to high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Drinking bouillon in liquid form is satisfying to the taste, and also can reach your stomach quickly, curbing that 'starving' feeling much faster.

3. The Volumetrics approach: Developed by Dr. Barbara Rolls and adapted to the Jenny Craig program, Volumetrics stresses the use of non-starchy vegetables, high-fiber fruits and broth-based soups to satisfy hunger without adding a great deal of calories. Starting each meal with a cup of bouillon falls in line with these dieting tips.

4. The bouillon cleanse: Some diets recommend a 'cleanse' before starting the core of the eating or exercise program. A cleanse can rid your system of toxins and impurities and prevent cravings for sugar or carbohydrates. For the "bouillon cleanse," drink a glass of water with one tablespoon of lemon juice first thing in the morning, with a glass of bouillon an hour later. Drink a cup of bouillon before lunch and dinner, continuing this practice for a total of three days.

5. Chicken or beef bouillon cubes can be found in the soup aisle of any grocery store. Bouillon cubes also can be purchased in bulk quantities at wholesale stores or online.

Tips & Warnings

• Although bouillon cubes have no fat and only about 10 calories, they can be high in sodium, so check the labels.

• Bouillon should be used as a filling agent. It provides little nutrition, so a proper diet is important for weight loss. A healthy rate for weight loss is one or two pounds per week.