Over the course of this article we will discuss eight habits that you can bring into your daily routine that will help you loose body fat without counting calories or doing any extra exercise in the gym.
1. Eat a small meal every three hours.
People that skip breakfast before and other earlier meals throughout the day are far more likely to overeat or make bad food choices when they come around to eating. By splitting your daily food intake into 5 or 6 smaller meals you will help to regulate both your blood sugar levels and increase satiety throughout the day. Meaning that you will be far less likely to make bad food choices or overeat when you it comes around to eating.
2. Include vegetables with a low calorie density (such as broccoli or spinach) with every meal.
By making filling the majority of your plate with vegetables that have a low calorie density you not only drastically reduce the calorie content of the meal (by reducing the portion sizes of calorie rich foods like pasta) but you will also ensure you get all of your 5 a day helping to ensure you have all the vitamins and minerals required for a healthy diet.
3. Buy Smaller Plates!
Where a lot of people fall down when in day to day life is portion size. Without weighing each meal it is virtually impossible to know precisely the content of each serving. When people put food on a plate the tendency is to fill the whole space. By using smaller plates and reducing the available space you potion size instantly becomes a lot easier to control.
4. Don’t have any junk food in your house at all!
This one is so simple that it is missed by the majority of people. By having no junk food around you are instantly much less likely to make bad food choices. Sitting at your computer doing some work at 1am and suddenly fancy a mars bar? Fancy getting up and walking all the way to the local 24 hour shop to buy the mars bar? Didn’t think so.
5. Pre cook all of your food for the day
Work can be a tricky situation for the health conscious or dieter with the need to eat approaching and no other option but what is available on the high street you are pretty much setting your self up for a fall. By cooking and storing all of your meals for the day either the night before or the week before in one day (the Sunday ritual) you have a convenient and ready selection of diet friendly foods. Success just became a lot easier.
6. Drink only non calorie containing beverages such as water.
By omitting all calorie containing beverages such as coke, lemonade etc you will eliminate a source of both sugar and calories from your daily life. A 500ml bottle of Lucozade original contains 365 Kcal and 91g of sugar (Lucozade 2009) accounting for 18% Kcal and 227% of your recommended daily intake of sugar (numbers are based on 2000 Kcal daily allowance (USDA) and sugar guidelines form US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 2009).
7. Use only herbs and spices for seasoning foods.
By steering away from pre packaged sauces for pasta, chicken etc. you can avoid more hidden calories a typical jar of Dolmio’s creamy tomatoe pasty sauce contains 510 Kcal, 35g fat, 10g protein and 45g of carbohydrates which by any standards is nearly a meal in its own right. Herbs, spices and raw ingredients (such as onions, tomatoes etc) contain very few calories and taste just as good if not better then their pre packaged counter parts.
8. If it comes in a box chances are its bad for you.
This one may seem like a bit silly but heavily processed foods are not always what they claim to be. Where you can always choose the raw unprepared food over its cardboard boxed breadcrumb smothered counterpart. This will help you avoid more unwanted surprises in your food.
References
1. Lucozade, 2009 (https://www.lucozade.com/energy/facts/default.aspx).
2. United States Department of Agriculture, Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients), 2004
National Academy of Sciences. Institute of Medicine. Food and Nutrition Board. (https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=4&tax_subject=256&topic_id=1342&level3_id=5141&level4_id=10588
3. US Food and Drug Administration, 2009 (https://www.fda.gov/)
