For people with a slow metabolism, it’s almost always hard to shed a couple kilos and keep them off. One trick is to reduce the number of calories a person consumes in a day, so that the body uses stored of fat for energy rather than recently eaten food. But how does one garner up the willpower to cut down on the food they eat, and not give up and overeat later? This article contains many tips that will help cut out the calories, without leaving the dieter feeling as though they are missing out.
Studies have shown that if you keep snacks like nuts or candy out in a bowl, you end up eating more of them – the bigger the bowl, the more you’ll eat. Nuts do contain healthy fats, but too much of any snack will greatly increase your calorie intake. So, one tip is to simply remove any easily accessible snacks from around you, be it at home or the workplace, and put them away in a cupboard or fridge. The saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ will hold true: if you do not have a visual reminder of the snacks, you’ll most likely forget to have them! However, if you find giving up on nuts a task that is too difficult, switch to pistachios (pistas) because they contain fewer calories than other nuts, and having to remove the shell each time before you eat one will slow you down (so you end up eating less) and deter you from eating too many.
Exercising in the morning is also an effective way to reduce calories, because it reduces your appetite and so you end up eating less (so a lower calorie count for the day) without feeling hungry. If you really want to shed those kilos, try and take out at least 10 minutes in the morning to work out!
Another way to eat fewer calories is to not eat in front of a television or computer – when you are not paying attention to the quantity you are consuming, you’ll end up eating more than you would if your focus was on your meal. To prevent this, simply eat at your table, and also avoid snacking while watching television.
By leaving the dishes with the food in the kitchen, serving it out on plates first and then taking those plates to the table to eat off, you can stop yourself from having hundreds of more calories. When the food is right there in front of you, it’s very tempting to take second helpings. If you have to walk all the way to the kitchen, however, you are much less likely to eat more than you need to.
Eating on a smaller plate will also make you eat less without realizing it –you will subconsciously look at how full your plate is and eat according to that, regardless of the size of the plate. A serving that would have taken up half of a normal sized plate may make a small plate look three quarters full, and so you are likely to serve yourself less and therefore, consume fewer calories.
Follow as many of these tips as you can, to stop yourself from overeating and also speed up weight loss, they barely take any effort after they become habit!