It’s January and, that means a lot of dingleberries guaranteeing that this will be the year they will finally lose that gut and get in shape. According to staticbrain.com, 21.4% of people’s resolution in 2017 was to lose weight /eat healthier.
A lot of them gave up within weeks of starting. One of the main reasons why these resolutions don’t make it to February has to do with the fact that people don’t know how to stick to their healthy diet and therefore give up. But fear no more, my little grasshopper! I got you!!
Are you struggling to lose weight? “The complete fat loss guide” teaches you how to lose weight and how to keep the pounds from ever coming back.
13 tips on how to stick to your healthy diet
1. Eat more fiber
Fiber has a shit ton of benefits. One of them is the fact that it allows you to feel fuller faster and keep you satisfied for a more extended period, and it has a sizeable thermogenic effect. More fiber means that your body uses a lot of calories to (around 30%) digest fiber.
2. Have high calorie/refeed days
Refeeds are planned days in which you would eat more calories than usual, usually to maintenance calories. Refeeds are a great strategy to enjoy your weekends and still lose weight.
How to implement high-calorie days:
Let’s use Michelle’s data to walk you through the process.
- Michelle has to eat 1874 calories per day. She is planning for a weekend getaway and would like to eat a few more calories.
- She would multiply the number of calories she eats times 7 (days of the week) to find out how many calories she needs to eat in a week to lose weight.
- 1874 x 7 = 13,118
- During her weekend getaway, Michelle would like to eat at maintenance (2,702 calories per day).
- 2,702 x 2 days = 5,404 calories.
- She would then subtract her weekly calories by the number of calories she will be eating on her weekend.
- 13,118 – 5,404 = 7,714 calories remaining for the rest of the week.
- Now divide the remaining calories by five days.
- 7,714 ÷ 5 = 1,543 calories per day.
3. Don’t go hungry
Just because you want to lose weight doesn’t mean you have to go hungry. If you are hungry, you have to eat! Simple as that. Yes, even at night.
4. Start slow
If you are a person that drinks nothing but soda, you can start by reducing the amount of soda you drink and replacing it with water. That helped me lose about 30 lbs in 2 months to get ready for basic training. Just don’t go all “gung-ho” from the start. That will reduce the chances of achieving your goals.
5. Meal prep
Meal prep is a great way to help you with portion control. Also, you know what ingredients are in your food. That doesn’t mean that all you can eat is bland, boiled chicken or God forbid, a salad, ugh. Spice it up. We have a lot of tasty, healthy recipes in our meal prep article.
6. Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry
Researchers have found that people who go grocery shopping hungry bought more high-calorie foods than those who weren’t hungry. Have a snack or even a full meal before buying groceries. As a bonus, you’ll be saving money, and you’ll save yourself from eating all those unwanted calories.
More healthy diet tips:
7. Avoid gimmicks
If it sounds to good to be true, that’s because it is. Crap like weight loss teas are a perfect example of this.
There’s ZERO evidence these things promote weight loss, ZERO! Most of them are made with Senna leaves, which are a laxative. So, if you want to poop your brains out, then by all means (but please don’t).
8. Know your motivation (why are you doing it?)
Do you want to look good? Want to make an ex-jealous? Do you want to be able to play with your kids? Find that motivation and sink your claws into it Scar to Mufasa style “long live the king.”
9. Don’t eat food you don’t like
Studies show that when people restrict sugar, they often crave it even more than they usually would—thus making it harder to stick to their diet. Get rid of all them stashed cookies and candy your ass is hiding around the house. (1)
While when compared to other popular diets, flexible dieting has a higher success rate with maintaining weight loss. (2)
10. Track your food
A study looked at why obese people weren’t losing any weight despite “only” eating 1,200 calories. (1)
The researchers looked at their metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and found no irregularities. Everyone’s metabolic rate and TDEE fell within 5% of their predicted values.
These participants not only overreported the number of calories they were burning by 51% (251 calories). They also underreported the number of calories they were eating by a whopping 47% or 1,053 calories per day.
We are very bad at estimating how many calories we eat. Tracking your calories solves this problem and puts you on the right track to reach your fat loss goals.
11. Are you bored or hungry?
A three-part study by Moynihan et al. looked at how boredom influenced eating behavior (2):
In study #1, participants used a diary to record their mood for a week. The researchers found that when in a state of boredom, the participants eat more food than when they were not bored.
In study#2, 79 students completed a low versus high dull task. After the study, the students in the high-boring group wanted to eat more unhealthy foods compared to those on the low-boring group.
In study#3, 44 students watched either a sad or boring video. The participants were given a choice of snacks while watching the videos—those who watched the boring clip eat more unhealthy snacks than those who watched the sad video.
12. Don’t do it alone
Ask some Asshole to keep you accountable. Having a friend or significant other embark on a healthier lifestyle with you. It will be a lot easier than doing it by yourself.
Bonus tip to follow a healthy diet
13. Eating “low-fat” or “diet” foods
Most of these foods are loaded with sugar to improve their taste. These foods make you hungrier, which, of course, makes you eat more or, even worse, gives you a false sense of security that you can eat more because you are eating “healthier.”
Following a healthy diet doesn’t have to be a pain in the ass. Follow these tips on how to stick to your healthy diet, and pounds will come off and never return.