You ate and sipped your way from Thanksgiving to New Year's. The food was delicious; the eggnog and champagne divine. But now, well, now your pants won't zip. Holiday weight gain is hands down the most unwanted gift of all. Fortunately, you don't have to keep it. Dante Walker and Twenty5 by 25 is here to share the most effective weight loss strategies for shedding those holiday pounds.We will explain how to avoid the biggest dieting traps so you're sure to start off your post-holiday weight loss plan right.
Mistake No. 1: You Crash Diet
Of course, diets that promise big weight loss fast sound great. After all, who wouldn't want to drop every pound you gained in just a few short weeks? And sure, if you radically cut your calorie intake, you will lose weight. But here's the catch: You can't eat like that forever. And once you go b
ack to eating the way you usually do, you'll regain what you lost and possibly even more. "The fundamental problem these diets have is that you cannot overwhelm your biological drive to eat with willpower. The reason why 98 percent of diets fail is because they ask you to eliminate an entire food group and this isn't good for long-term weight loss."
Diet Tip: Eat a variety of healthy foods so you don't feel like you're depriving yourself. Then track your calories with a food diary and find ways to eat just 100 fewer calories every day. It's not hard to do. And 100 calories is such a small amount, your body can't tell you're on a diet, so your metabolism doesn't slow down and you'll naturally lose the weight.
Mistake No. 2: You Skip Breakfast
You'd think that bypassing breakfast would be a quick and easy way to shave some extra calories -- except, you're actually more likely to consume those calories (and more) later in the day. Thinking you have some calories to play with because you didn't eat breakfast, you may supersize your lunch or grab snacks that aren't particularly good for you simply because you're hungry. In addition, skipping breakfast prompts your body to store fat rather than metabolize it. In fact, research shows that breakfast skippers tend to be heavier. While breakfast eaters consume more calories, they're also slimmer, more active and have healthier diets overall. In a s
tudy of people who'd dropped at least 30 pounds and kept it off, 78 percent said they routinely ate breakfast.
Breakfast Tip: Eating something within an hour or so after waking up boosts your metabolism by as much as 10 percent. Go for things like oatmeal sprinkled with nuts and raisins or a tablespoon of peanut butter, a veggie omelet with whole-wheat toast, or low-fat cottage cheese with fruit. The mix of protein and fiber holds off hunger through the morning so you're less likely to help yourself to the powdered doughnuts at the office or overeat later at lunch or dinner. In a recent University of Connecticut study, when volunteers had eggs for breakfast, they consumed 100 to 400 fewer calories at lunch than when they ate bagels, even though both the bagel and egg breakfasts contained the same amount of calories. Other research suggests that fiber-rich breakfasts help you burn more fat when you exercise. No time to sit down to eat? Do what Dante does: Drink a Breakfast Shake as you head to work or to drop kids off at school. "It's fast, it's filling and has everything you need in the morning," It taste great and your kids will love it too.
Breakfast Shake
This recipe makes two 160--calorie servings.
½ large banana, broken into c
Mistake No. 3: You Drink Extra Calories
When we eat a big meal, our body knows it's been fed and we eat less at the next meal. But that doesn't happen when we drink high-calorie beverages, which are estimated to add about 235 extra (empty) calories a day to our diets. Our bodies don't seem to register liquid calories the way it does solid calories. Specialty coffee drinks, fruit drinks, sodas, energy drinks and alcohol are some of the b
iggest calorie traps. Alcohol is actually doubly so because drinking relaxes our willpower. Have a few cocktails and suddenly having that slice of cheesecake seems like a pretty good idea.
Drink Tips: Choose lower-calorie drinks. Like coffee? Leave out the whipped cream, syrups and chocolate shavings, and drink it black or with a little sugar. "A teaspoon of sugar is just 16 calories, a tiny amount," Can't give up your soda? You can have both soda and fruit juice if you add Crystal Light to club soda or sparking water. You get the fizz with fewer calories.
Mistake No. 4: You Don't Snack
Snacks get a bad rap because we think of them as junky foods we shouldn't eat. But nutritious snacks are actually a dieter's best friend, because eating frequently can actually help you consume fewer calories. "Thoughtful snacking keeps you from getting hungry between meals and help you eliminate making poor diet choices later on. People who eat several small meals and snacks a day are
more likely to control their hunger and lose weight.
Snack Tips: Each day, pack several healthy snacks in small containers or snack-size baggies to keep in your purse, at your desk or even in your car. If you always have diet-friendly snacks at hand, you'll be less tempted to raid the vending machine. Just eat enough to kill the hungry feeling inside your stomach. Do Not make a meal of the snacks.
Mistake No 5:You Don't Drink Enough Water
The next time you feel hungry, take a big, long drink of water and you may not need to eat. Because the hormones in our intestines that tell us we're hungry are very similar to the hormones that let us know we're thirsty, we're not very good at distinguishing hunger from thirst, which is why we typically reach for food when we should be drinking. . And when we're not well hydrated, our metabolism drags. "Water is essential for burning calories," said Dr. Oz. "Adults who drink eight-plus glasses of water a day burn more calories than those who drink less."
Water Tip: Drink water before every meal and snack and a few more in between. According to a study done at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, overweight or obese study volunteers who drank a 16-ounce bottle of water before every meal lost 44 percent more weight after 12 we
eks than volunteers who didn't drink water before dining. That may be because water drinkers ate about 75 fewer calories when they drank water before their meals, as another Virginia Tech study found.
If eight glasses a day seems daunting, try this mind trick: Drink from larger bottles, so instead of consuming eight glasses, you're sipping just three and a half bottles. Easy! And there's no reason to always drink it plain. In our house, we make water more appealing by adding slices of fruit or a splash of fruit juice to give it a different taste.
Hopefully these tips will help you with your weight loss journey.
