This healthy weight loss plan helps you to escape the diet, binge, diet cycle and pretty much guarantees success. It illustrates an approach to losing weight that works if you stick to it.
It’s based on our years of experience of working with overweight people and works for pretty much everyone because of its flexibility.
It’s a healthy weight loss plan that’s designed around you, your lifestyle, your likes and dislikes.
No, that doesn’t mean you can carry on eating the foods that made you fat in the first place – there’s no such thing as an ‘eat whatever you like and still lose weight’ diet. So…
Please understand this, short-term fixes like fasting for weight loss don’t work. Various studies have shown that 85% of people who go on a diet put all the weight they lost back on again within five years, 75% within the first year.
Oh, and the average diet lasts three days…
That’s why we don’t do diets. We emphasize a healthy weight loss plan based around a long-term approach to weight loss. A plan based on establishing healthy eating patterns that enhance your life and fit around your schedule.
The key is in making the right food choices whilst avoiding the trigger foods that may be contributing to your overeating.
Choosing a variety of foods that you enjoy, that satisfy you and make you feel full. If you enjoy what you’re eating, your brain registers pleasure and you feel satisfied.
A diet full of foods you don’t like doesn’t elicit the pleasure response and you feel miserable. Go figure!
Protein and high fibre foods like fruit and vegetables take longer to digest and swell up in your stomach. Your stomach tells your brain it’s got enough to cope with and you stop feeling hungry…pretty quickly, too.
Sugary, carb-rich foods are digested quickly and pass through the stomach without triggering an ‘I’m full’ response. They’re also calorie dense so you can eat a lot of calories quickly, eg chocolate.
A Personalized Healthy Weight Loss Plan you can Stick to..
Straight off, and forgive me for being blunt, but you’re overweight because you eat too much of the wrong things, at the wrong times and don’t exercise.
Be honest, does that sum up at least part of the problem? If not, my apologies…
You also probably grab whatever is convenient to eat, normally something high in sugar and fat.
This plan is based on the assumption that your deeply ingrained patterns will be hard to break.
Any plan that asks you to do something that moves too far away from what you know and like is going to be hard to stick to in the long term, eg most diets and prescriptive, healthy weight loss plans.
So here it is, a simple plan based on the best available evidence of what works. You’ll find the detailed reasoning behind each of the different elements as you explore the site further
1. Start every day with breakfast
Your metabolism will be bumping along on the floor until you do…
2. Eat something every 3-4 hours
Regular small meals, even if they are just a piece of fruit, from breakfast through until a couple of hours before bed time.
3. Eat some protein at every meal
That includes your snacks. Lean meat and fish are the best sources of protein for meat-eaters, non-meat sources are great, too.
4. Cut down on your carbs
Cut out sugar completely if you can and make use of alternative sweeteners.
Have some wholegrain, starchy carbs at breakfast, such as Shredded Wheat or sugar free muesli, but avoid overdoing them during the day unless you’re physically active, eg heavy manual work, serious sport or ‘sweaty’ exercise.
And steer clear of refined carb foods like white bread, white pasta and potatoes. A modest serving of wholegrain, starchy carbs with your lunch or evening meal is okay but go easy!
5. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
Fill up on them raw or cooked, with or in between meals. Except for potatoes and beans, that is. Fruit and veg, along with cereals and grains, are also great sources of fiber and can help to fill you up and keep you feeling full for longer.
6. Drink at least 2 litres of water every day
That’s about 8-10 glasses. Drink a glass as soon as you wake up and at least one more before you leave the house in the morning. Carry a bottle of water with you to make sure you keep hydrated.
7. If you drink alcohol then cut down
This is a healthy weight loss plan after all! There are more calories in a gram of alcohol than a gram of fat. A glass of wine with your main meal is fine, though.
8. Build some physical activity into your daily routine
Do whatever you can to get moving – exercise increases your metabolism and burns calories, tones your muscles and makes you feel good.
What, no weighed, measured and calorie counted meal plans? Well there are some suggestions in our free weight loss meal plans.
Eating out? No problem, eating out and weight loss is simple if you follow this healthy weight loss plan.
You can even eat fast food now and again if you want to!
This isn’t a diet as such, but if you want one we can recommend some good diets if you really can’t do without!
But do you really want to be on a diet for the rest of your life? This is a long term, healthy weight loss plan that will get you slim and in shape permanently.
It’s not easy and it won’t all be plain sailing, you will hit the odd plateau along the way. Stick with it though and you will get there.