Some of these tips are clearly aimed at those who have never dieted before nor ever realized that going to the gym is an undeniable component of healthy living. Some are aimed at people who have a difficult time with dieting, whether they’re seasoned bodybuilding or fitness competitors or just gym rats who want to stay in shape.
And others are aimed at offering sanity to those times when even Mr. Olympia is having a tough time on his diet. So, not all of them may be relevant to you; however, they’re all still relevant to someone. These tips can help you maintain the fruits of your hard work in the gym and still get to enjoy some well-deserved feasting.
Top Diet Tip 1: You Must Be Willling To Change
There’s no magic involved in getting your body to liberate stored fat. You must change the way you live and the way you eat. In other words, exercise your body and monitor and/or limit your intake of food. You must have an unwavering commitment to this fact or you will fail. Focus on dedicating at least six days of your week to monitored meals and daily exercise and you can pretty much eat whatever you want on the seventh day and maintain a very lean/toned body.
Top Diet Tip 2: Do Your Cardio
Forty-five minutes on a stair climber or treadmill with your heart rate at 70 percent of VO2 max will not only burn about 500 calories but also keep your metabolism elevated for up to six hours after exercise.
Top Diet Tip 3: Get A Fat Test Done
Unless you know from experience what works for you, hook up with a specialized diet and nutrition counsellor and get a computerized body assessment done so that you know ho much fat you need to lose.
Top Diet Tip 4: Maintain Or Increase Muscle Mass
Specifically, do weight training. Muscle is metabolically active—it requires calories. The more muscle you have, the more calories you need to sustain it and the more food you can eat and still bring down your level of body fat.
Top Diet Tip 5: Set Realistic Goals
You didn’t gain all your weight in two weeks, so it’s going to take more than two weeks to take it off. A half pound to a pound of fat a week is all you should ever hope to lose—if that. A slow steady metamorphosis is underway.
Top Diet Tip 6: Don't Cheat
Be conscious of your willpower. You and only you are in control of what you eat. Exercise this power absolutely. Who’s going to know if you’re a little heavy-handed on the salad dressing? You are. Don’t lie to yourself. Only eat what your diet allows—no cheating! Except one day a week...
Top Diet Tip 7: Allow Youself A Treat
All diet and no fun can make you nuts. No more than once a week, really indulge in those things you miss. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re close to an event for which you’re preparing, but your basic long-term “diet” will be unaffected by a weekly splurge at Baskin Robbins, or eating at China Express and not getting the bourbon chicken, or telling Mama “okay” when the baked ziti comes around for the third time!
Top Diet Tip 8: Picture The End Result
Look in the mirror and ponder the future. Imagine what you’ll look like when you reach your goal. Use the image to make good decisions.
Top Diet Tip 9: Take Your Fat Burners
Studies prove thermogenic supplements help the body burn more fat and preserve lean body mass while suppressing appetite and elevating your energy level.
Top Diet Tip 10: Don't Punish Yourself
If you do go off the deep end and really, really blow it big time, go right back to where you left off. You can’t compensate by starving yourself or overaerobicizing. No matter what you ate or however much, three days back on the program will erase any clue.
Top Diet Tip 11: Don't Eat Before Bed
Sleep uses little fuel, so those calories are going to get stored somewhere, because there isn’t much of a chance they’ll be burned. At least one hour should pass between eating and sleeping.
Top Diet Tip 12: Attach A Photo Of Yourself In Shape To Your Fridge
Every time you open the door, you’ll see it and it will motivate you to do the right thing.
Top Diet Tip 13: Attach A Picture Of Someone Else In Killer Shape To The Fridge
Pick someone who’s got the body you want and stick it on the fridge door. Seeing that, there is less chance you’ll decide to do the wrong thing.
Top Diet Tip 14: Eat Consistently Throughout The Day
No more than three to four hours should pass between meals. Spacing meals keeps your energy levels constant and prevents ravenous hunger.
Top Diet Tip 15: If You Must Eat Carbs, Eat Low-Glycemic Carbohydrates
Slow-burning carbs such as beans, yams, and whole grains will keep your blood sugar stable. Sugars found in some fruits, fruit juices, and refined and processed foods cause wild fluctuations in insulin. Insulin bursts enhance fat storage, plus they can leave you feeling starved and foraging for more to eat.
Top Diet Tip 16: Eat Foods High In Fibre
Salads, leafy green vegetables, etc. fill you up with good colon-cleaning bulk with barely negligible calories. Just watch the dressing!
Top Diet Tip 17: Trust The System
Within a certain range, humans all follow the same metabolic pathways. No human has the ability to send a brownie straight to his or her thighs. We all pretty much work the same. We certainly all get fat the same way. We also lose fat the same way—every one of us. If someone else can do it, so can you. It happens all the time.
Top Diet Tip 18: Rid The Hosue Of Junk Food
Junk food can be defined as anything that’s not included in your diet. If you share your home with other nondieters who balk at the idea of a cupboard bare of munchies, refer back to tip 24.
Top Diet Tip 19: Eat Good Fats But Don't Go Crazy
No more than 30 percent of the calories per serving should come from fat. How does one gure this out? See tip 20.
Top Diet Tip 20: Always Read Labels
Loads of fat and sugar are innocently consumed, hidden under label claims of “fat free,” “lean,” “light,” “low fat,” etc. FDA labeling claims are based on net weight, not calories. So do the math! Multiply the fat grams by 9 to get the number of calories from fat there are per serving, and you will have a much different picture than the label claims. Sugars are also listed separate of total carbohydrates. Although the number of carbs may be low, most of them could be coming from sugar (refer back to tip 15 for why that’s bad).
Top Diet Tip 21: Don't Shop When You're Hungry
All kinds of things can end up in your shopping cart because they look interesting. Prepare a list and stick to it.
Top Diet Tip 22: Keep A Diet Journal
Writing down everything you eat and drink, as well as computing the calories of each macronutrient, is the only way to be absolutely sure you stay within your calorie guidelines.
Top Diet Tip 23: Stay Away From The Bulk Section
Just one of those innocent-looking chocolate-covered peanut clusters is loaded with sugar and fat. And who eats just one?
Top Diet Tip 24: Don't Guess
Weigh or measure everything first. How many calories are in that bowl of low-fat granola? I asked an old girlfriend as she was about to pour on the milk. She thought her portion was okay. I weighed it for her and shocked her with the information that she was about to consume 800 calories worth of granola—before the milk! Definitely not okay.
Top Diet Tip 25: Don’t Taste Test
If you’re cooking for more than one, you can “taste yourself” right out of the ballpark calorically. Adjust questionable seasoning at the table once your portion is measured.
Top Diet Tip 26: Stay Out Of The Kitchen
Fix your meal, eat, put the dish in the dishwasher, and leave. Go hang out someplace else.
Top Diet Tip 27: Don’t Watch The Commercials
Leave the room, go get a drink of water, make a phone call, check your e-mail, etc. For some reason, food manufacturers come out with scrumptious new products and market the daylights out of them just when you happen to be trying to stick to your diet. This phenomenon is particularly more prevalent at night and during holidays.
Top Diet Tip 28: Take A “Before” Picture
No matter how bad you look, you can look forward to looking better. Showing off your progress is a sweet reward, especially now that we have Instagram!
Top Diet Tip 29: Don’t Skip Meals
Starving yourself does two things to foil the diet: First, sensing starvation, the body slows metabolic function to preserve energy and begins to rid itself of tissue that is metabolically active—the muscle you’re trying to keep. Next, ravenous hunger sets in, signaling you to eat. Unfortunately, by the time you heed this signal, a tornado would carve less of a path through the refrigerator. Eat consistently to avoid overeating.
Top Diet Tip 30: Tell Everyone You're Dieting
Hopefully, friends and family will show some compassion and not invite you out for pizza and ice cream.
Top Diet Tip 31: Compliment Yourself
Positive reinforcement, even if it’s self-generated, can do wonders for your attitude as well as your willpower.
Top Diet Tip 32: Bring Your Food
Don’t count on being able to find a restaurant willing to weigh and measure your food and cook it without lard. Make your meals ahead of time and bring them along with you.
Top Diet Tip 33: Avoid Fad Diets
If they actually do work, they won’t work for long. The only way to lose fat is as easy as 1, 2, and 3.
Top Diet Tip 34: Always Check The Mirror
When all else fails and your willpower is failing, peel off, stand under a good light, and check yourself out in the mirror. You are your own best critic. Regardless of how good or bad you look, a trip to the fridge will be unlikely after you assess your body!
Top Diet Tip 35: Sauces & Dressings On The Side
Even healthy-sounding dressings and sauces can be freighted with fat and sugar. Dipping your fork in the sauce first, then spearing the food can give you the flavour with a minimum of useless calories.
Top Diet Tip 36: Don’t Carry Cash
If your wallet or purse is empty, so too will be your stomach, regardless of how many vending machines, Starbucks, or golden arches you may pass.
Top Diet Tip 37: Weigh Yourself And Get Your Body Fat Checked
Just once a week; Fluctuations of a pound or two, or a percent or so, are common from day to day. Weekly readings should show your true progress as well as indicate if the diet you have mapped out is really working.
Top Diet Tip 38: Make An Effort To Look Your Best
If you look as though a perfect fashion accessory would be a shopping cart filled with aluminum cans, forget it. To quote Fernando Lamas, “If you look good, you feel good”—and if you feel good about yourself, chances are less you’ll sabotage the diet.
Top Diet Tip 39: Have A Shake
Hungry between meals? A low-carb shake is low in calories and high in protein and will help boost fat burning.
Top Diet Tip 40: Make Soup
The main ingredient in soup is water. Water has no calories. The calorie allotment for one meal can be stretched quite far by making soup out of it. A pile of veggies and a chicken breast combined with three or four cups of defatted chicken broth make a huge, satisfying, low-calorie
meal that takes a long time to eat.
Top Diet Tip 41: Order à La Carte
Some kind of greasy side dish, such as French fries, home fries, coleslaw, potato salad, etc., usually accompanies semi-fast-food restaurant meals regardless of how much this or that you asked to have left off. Ask your server if the side can be replaced with fresh fruit, low-fat cottage cheese, or a plain baked potato, or build a meal
from single items on the menu.
Top Diet Tip 42: Spice Up Your Food And Drink Green Tea
Not only do cayenne pepper, ginger, chili powder, and picante sauce make meals interesting without adding significant calories, but studies have also shown that these spices as well as green tea have a thermogenic effect that helps burn more fat.
Top Diet Tip 43: Don’t Spend Too Much Time Alone
A good conversation can carry you straight through to your next meal without even the thought of assorted chocolates.
Top Diet Tip 44: Associate with other dieters
Misery loves company. Even if you end up obsessing over the foods you miss most, your egos will keep you honest.
Top Diet Tip 45: Take Your Supplements
Take a high-quality multivitamin and mineral supplement rich in antioxidants at least once a day.
Top Diet Tip 46: Be Creative In The Kitchen
Diet food can get boring fast, so you need a little imagination. Want pizza? A Boboli thin crust or pita, freshcrushed tomatoes, Italian herbs, and nonfat mozzarella make a great pizza without departing too far from your diet guidelines. Want cheesecake? Non-fat cream cheese and low-calorie sweeteners make it possible. A little effort goes a long way toward diet sanity.
Top Diet Tip 47: Stay Busy
An idle mind is the diet devil’s workshop. There are a hundred reasons to go to the fridge when you’ve got nothing to do.
Top Diet Tip 48: Nighttime Is The Worst Time
Sitting around watching TV late in the evening, even the most die-hard dieter can cave in. Keep Ziploc bags lled with celery sticks, pickle spears, and sliced bell peppers in the refrigerator for easy munching. If you have a few carb calories left at the end of the day, air-popped popcorn takes up a lot of room for relatively few calories.
Top Diet Tip 49: Keep The Components Pre-made In The Fridge
Some cooked ground turkey breast, grilled chicken breasts, lean steak slices, boiled pasta, steamed rice, steamed veggies, low fat marinara sauce, etc., can cut meal preparation time to a minimum. The less cooking time, the less picking time.
Top Diet Tip 50: Make Jell-O
Sugar-free Jell-O is great stuff. It’s fun to eat, easy to make, and practically devoid of calories— the whole box only contains 40!