Sustainability has been such a buzzword in recent years, and at the start of this new decade, we want to help you achieve sustainable weight loss. Almost everyone wants to have a nip here and a tuck there and many people will offer tips that work… until they don’t.

We want to tell you how to lose weight, but how to lose weight and sustain that weight loss.

Bye bye fad diets!

Bye bye yo-yo weight cycles!

Hello, weight loss that’s fast, easy, realistic, and sustainable!

Eat at regular intervals

Many people make the mistake of skipping meals or fasting due to the belief that it’ll be a fast and easy way to lose weight. WRONG. The irregularity of eating can push the body into starvation mode where it stores food excessively, or on a more basic level, you can get too hungry and then overeat. Eating at regular intervals stabilizes blood glucose levels to prevent hunger pangs, and as your body adjusts you can become more attuned to hunger cues; 4 pm? I’m not grumpy, it’s just time for a biscuit!

Keep a note of what you eat and when

Especially at the start of your weight loss journey, it’s really helpful to keep a food diary of not only what you’re eating, but also at what times. This helps to make you

A) more aware of what you’re eating (many people underestimate how much they graze throughout the day)

B) identifying problem areas, or just patterns, when it comes to your eating. For example, some people will eat very little during the day and then eat excessively in the evening without even realizing this pattern.

Drink more water

This tip works on multiple levels; Hunger and thirst can be blurred, so drinking enough water allows you to interpret cues with more accuracy- next time you’re hungry, have a glass of water and see a couple of minutes later whether you’re still dying for that extra sausage if the body is dehydrated it will store more liquid, thus leading to bloating and water weight, so inaccurate body image and weighing having water before and/or during meals can aid digestion and fill you up quicker.

Walk more

Walking is an underrated form of exercise; it’s healthy, practical, and free! Just taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to the shops instead of driving. It may take 20 minutes to get there instead of 5, but it’s worth it. Walking is the best weight loss exercise as it’s the easiest to incorporate into everyday life. Remember- it’s the journey, not the destination that counts ?

Cut back on juice

There is nothing wrong with drinking juice. However, it’s not the most helpful drink to lose weight. This isn’t because the juice is bad blah blah blah, this is because commercial juices tend to have high levels of sugar in them, and this can be counteractive to the health benefits they possess. Infusing water instead still allows you to jazz up your liquid intake, but in a more natural and holistic sense. Cut back on the juice, don’t cut out- just be mindful of the quality and the quantity that you’re ingesting.

Prioritize fresh fruits over dried

Similar to juice, no one’s saying dried fruits are bad! Imagine a grape and a raisin though; they’re the same thing, just the raisin has been dehydrated, and this removal of water has also lessened the satiety. To put it simply, you have to eat more dried fruits to fill you up. In prioritizing fresh fruits you’re still getting vitamins, minerals, fiber and so on, but you’re also filling yourself up to more because of the water within fresh fruit. Therefore you’re reducing the likelihood of getting hungry and overeating.

Cook for yourself more

Channel your inner Gordon Ramsay! Cooking for yourself more is a fantastic way to easily aid weight loss because you can control exactly what you’re eating and ensure that there’s nothing hidden that could be detrimental to your weight loss journey. A 2014 study in the journal Public Health Nutrition found that people who eat more meals at home consume about 200 fewer calories at meals than those who eat out regularly. You can save calories and money through this exercise whilst becoming more aware of what you put in your body.

Don’t cut out food groups

I don’t know where the ‘carbs are bad’ myth came from, but FORGET IT! In cutting out carbs, the body still needs energy, and the similar molecular makeup of carbs and proteins makes them interchangeable. This means that without carbohydrates available, the body will use protein molecules for energy- both ingested protein and that already in the body as muscles. Cutting out carbs may result in weight loss, but this is muscle loss, not fat burning. Perhaps cut down on carbs, but don’t cut them out.

Build muscle mass

People focus a lot on burning fat through cardio, and that’s all well and good, but incorporating strength training into your workout and building muscles is also highly useful. Building muscles aids the efficiency of fat burning; more muscle ups the metabolism, and an increased metabolism means more energy demand, so fat is burned to supplement the energy demand. Bingo!

Taste your food

Mindfulness. Eating whilst distracted can mean that people hardly register what they are eating, or the volume they are eating. Instead of treating eating as a default setting take the time to really enjoy your food. Think about taste, texture, combinations. This exercise will also slow down your speed of eating, thus allowing the body to register more accurately whether you’re hungry or not. Make sure your food is enjoyable and really learn what you like through mindful eating.

Use a smaller plate

All your senses are activated when eating. By using a smaller plate you can trick your eyes, belly, body into believing you’re eating more because the plate is fuller, when in fact you’re just eating a normal portion! Using a smaller plate is also a good method to prevent over portioning, simply because there’s less space to do so! Pick your plate wisely for an easy way to cut down on your food intake.

Cut back on the booze

This one has many elements! There’s drunken eating (got to love a 1am kebab), the glucose alcohol contains, and then the glucose drop the following day. When quitting drinking many people find themselves turning to sugary foods to compensate for the glucose hidden in alcoholic drinks- that’s part of the shakes. This is obviously worse for heavy drinkers, but however many units you consume alcohol is detrimental to weight loss. The calories in alcohol have no nutritional value, so if you want to lose weight fast, an easy way to start is throwing out the booze.

Have a nightly routine to aid good sleep hygiene

Stay away from artificial ‘fat-free’ products

Hearing ‘fat’ in a product description can make people run for the hills! What many people misunderstand is the necessity for fat in our diets- fat allows cognitive functioning, protects internal organs, and makes things taste better! ‘Fat-free’ products can often be a trap since they can contain high levels of sugar or refined grains, and these can be unhelpful for weight loss. Removing fat also tends to remove protein, vitamins and minerals from a product. So, next time you’re shopping remember fats are essential for our body and pick the normal mayo.

Use the ⅓,⅓ and ⅓ rule

This is a pretty basic weight loss tip- when you serve your food have 1/3 of the plate for your carbs, 1/3 for the protein source, and the final 1/3 for veggies. This simple rule ensures that you’re getting the necessary nutrients and that you’ll feel satisfied. All meals should try to include protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables, and this rule makes sure that your diet is balanced yet satisfying.

Don’t label food good or bad- treat yourself

A massive issue when trying to lose weight is the labelling of food ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Once your body begins the nutritional breakdown it cannot differentiate between the carbohydrate molecules of brown rice and those of a cookie. By labelling foods and avoiding certain foods as a result you resort to rigidity and punitiveness, often resulting in ‘giving up’ and overindulging in the foods you have denied yourself. Sustainable weight loss revolves around moderation- have what you like, everyone deserves a treat! Use other tools like mindfulness and emotional regulation to avoid comfort eating.

Eat 6 small meals a day

This is a part of eating at regular intervals. It’s recommended to eat 6 smaller meals a day- breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. This regulates your glucose levels to avoid hunger pangs and potential overeating. 6 may seem a bit much for some people, but it’s a good method to start off with and adjust when necessary. The chances of crashing and burning are also significantly lowered with this method, so hangry rants will become a thing of the past!

Seek help

Find a support group, see a dietician, join a club. Working with others is a huge encouragement if you’re trying to lose weight in a manageable way. Seeking help isn’t only about your physical appearance though; it helps relieve stress, find friends, make your journey more fun as there are others there to guide and support you. Not everyone has the money to see a professional dietician or get a gym membership, so support groups are an amazing alternative.

Have a colorful plate

Once again, all your senses are used when eating. Feed your eyes by adding colour to your plate with exciting vegetables, marinades, and condiments. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring rabbit food, and by putting lots of colour on your plate it not only becomes an exciting feast for your eyes and stomach, it also indicates that you’re getting a variety of nutrients.

Set yourself achievable exercise goals

No one can run a marathon without a lot of training! Don’t get disheartened when your first run leaves you red for hours, or that gym session leaves you aching for days. Everyone must start somewhere, so set yourself achievable goals when you begin to exercise for weight loss and avoid getting demotivated. Perhaps start with a 10-minute run, and every day add an extra 30 seconds on to your route. Slowly but surely, you’ll be building stamina and losing those extra pounds.

Don’t fast

Starvation is not sustainable. Fasting is not a way to lose weight quickly. If the body is regularly denied food, it goes into starvation mode where the metabolism is slowed down. This means that whatever is ingested goes straight into storage- the scale may drop but body fat increases and muscles mass decreases. Fasting also means that when you do eat you tend to overeat- either you’re so hungry you just want everything, or you over portion as a result of consistent hunger. Moderation and consistency are the keys to sustainable weight loss, not denial and avoidance.

Plan your meals ahead and shop accordingly

Whether literal meal prepping for the week, or just writing yourself a weekly menu, creating a plan for your weekly food habits is an invaluable tool in sustainable weight loss. Taking a list with you shopping means you’re less likely to buy outside of your plan, and if you don’t have excess food readily available then grazing absentmindedly will be less of a problem. As an added bonus, planning ahead helps to cut back on excess food costs and food wastage!

Differentiate between hunger and emotions

Food is comforting, not many people would disagree with that. It’s completely natural to reach for something to make you feel better when you’re down because that chocolate bar sure does look inviting… When you’re feeling hungry for no apparent reason ask yourself ‘is there something going on beneath this?’ Maybe you’re simply hungry, but maybe you’ll discover that there’s something else going on under the surface. Eating on emotions is a common theme for chronic dieters, so reach out instead of reaching for food when nothing can fill the hunger in your belly

Prioritize self-care

Now this one may seem a little strange! But weight loss shouldn’t be punitive, it should be empowering. Self-care not only improves self-esteem, but it lowers stress (which can lead to natural weight gain), and therefore the likelihood of comforting oneself with unnecessary eating. You only have one body in life so treat it with the love it deserves for all the years it’s been there for you

Do a variety of exercises (make it fun!)

Maybe you have a passion for paintball, you salsa in secret, or you wish you still played sports as you did at school. Give it a go! Exercise shouldn’t be limited to the gym or be a bore, make it fun for yourself! Do exercise that doesn’t seem like exercise and discover what’s out there- make exercise a social hobby. We all start out exercise routines with the best intentions, but many people get bored and slowly drift away. Turn exercise into something you love by doing something a bit different. Who knows, you may discover you’re world-class at unicycle polo?