How Long Will It Take To Lose My Fat?

 Good question. How much do you weight, how much do you want to lose. The bigger percentage of fat that you have the longer it takes to lose it. Are you doing any exercise now and how long have you had the extra fat?

The answer is different for everyone. If you are only 20 pounds or so over your goal weight, then a 200-pound man can expect to lose about 2 pounds a week depending on your diet, age , and activity level. Personally, I lost almost 20 pounds of fat after I retired at 66. If you’re a woman who weighs about 140 and wants to lose 20 pounds than 2 pounds every week might be too much to expect. Middle-aged women will find it more difficult but not impossible. The same three variables will still be critical. For instance, a young woman who has had a baby recently will lose her 20 pounds faster than a woman in her late 40’s who has carried the extra weight for a few years. If you have been overweight for some time, it will take longer to lose it. Losing your body fat is possible no matter what your condition. We all should stay in shape and it’s never too late.

So, several things being considered, 20 pounds may take 2 months for a new mom to lose, or it might take a man 200 pounds age 65, one year to drop the weight. This is what you need to consider; your weight and your age, what kind of physical shape am I in? The better the condition the more exercise you’ll be able to do. How motivated are you? You have to stay with it. And don’t forget the diet, you can’t cheat, if you’re going to reach your goal. So, changing your diet doesn’t mean cutting back, it means eating fresh foods, forget about all those foods you were eating and start eating better quality foods, eat your big meals early in the day, stop snacking and don’t eat after dinner.

If you’re on a 2 pound a week weight loss program, it doesn’t take much to stop losing and start gaining. Yes, it will take time but if you’re going to be thin for the rest of your life, go slow and keep it up. Once you reach 10 pounds of lost weight, you’ll start feeling better, but don’t stop and don’t start cheating. Even after you reach your goal, don’t stop. That’s how everyone else gains the weight back. Whatever you're eating stay with the program. And I did have to stop drinking alcohol until I reached my goal and then I could go back to a drink occasionally without gaining. You see, alcohol will mess with your metabolism and that stops the fat burning process. Now after you reach your goal your metabolism is back to normal, and an occasional drink doesn’t hurt. Everything you put in your mouth has calories except water, black coffee, and black tea. 

I stopped smoking cold turkey back in the seventies and it’s just as tough. But when you make up your mind that you must do it, then and only then will you lose weight. Remember it’s a change of lifestyle and not about dieting for a few weeks.

How long it takes to lose weight is a question that’s impossible to answer. Most people don’t want to make a long-term commitment to a new way of living, even though that’s what it’s going to take.

If you follow this blog, in the archives, there is over 200 posts, all the posts are related to diet, exercise and losing weight. Most people fail at weight loss because they’re not really serious, their clothes are starting to get tight, and they don’t want to buy a new wardrobe. O.K., that’s a reason, but not a good reason. They will probably fail. Another popular reason for losing weight is someone is nagging you, maybe it’s your spouse or your doctor. Those reasons will carry a little more weight and you’re going to try harder, but most people just end up on diet pills. They take the easy way out. And most of them won’t keep the weight off. The problem with diet pills is that you can't take them forever. 

I always tell people that they have to change their life. Make time to exercise and start eating the right food and quit eating the junk. Stop over-eating and only eat good snacks, like fruit or nuts. 

Go through a list of dos and don’ts and stick to it and don’t give up. That’s why most people fail to lose weight, they give up.

Follow me on Twitter @GertsRay70369

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Weight For Beginners

If you haven’t tried this before losing weight can be intimating. It’s not easy and most beginners feel like it’s “no biggy”, I’ll drop 20 pounds easily. Then after they yo-yo up and down a few times and get nowhere they usually quit trying. Most weight loss enthusiasts forget to diet. Changing the diet is the most important part of losing weight. Actually, you have to change your diet first and after you have the new diet under control then worry about the exercise part. I’ll write about diet tomorrow.

Beginners should start out slow, exercise will help you lose weight faster than no exercise, but you need to be careful. Doctors will often manage your weight loss for you if you ask, but that means more trips to the doctor. That only works if you’re going already and if you have a lot to lose then it’s a good idea. Most of us will never do that. So maybe a trainer will work for you. A trainer can be expensive if you keep him long-term but that’s usually not necessary. He’s there to help you learn how to do this on your own.

Increasing your activity level not only helps you to lose weight, it can also improve your overall health and help decrease your risk for many serious conditions. If you are ready to get moving but don’t know where to begin, start with an exercise guide for beginners that you can find on the internet. You can Google anything. I use it as a reference guide.

The list of the health benefits that regular exercise brings is impressive. From managing cholesterol to increasing cardiovascular endurance to decreasing your risk of developing serious diseases (such as diabetes), becoming more active can improve virtually every aspect of your health. Understanding the many health benefits of exercise can help you stay motivated to keep moving when you feel like giving in.

When it comes to getting more active, many of us don’t know where to start. But putting it off could be putting your health at risk. Becoming more active is as simple as doing more around the house or walking to errands. Scheduling regular, planned exercise is the next step. The most important part of getting more active is to just get up and do it today instead of waiting for tomorrow.

Walking is one of the most popular forms of exercise for beginners. It is safe, easy, and enjoyable, and it works for weight loss. Just walking for half an hour most days of the week can bring noticeable weight-loss results in a matter of weeks. Walking also doesn’t require any expensive equipment or trips to the gym, which makes it one of the most budget-friendly forms of exercise.

Indoor Bikes for Absolute Beginners Indoor bikes are a great way to experience bicycling even if you never learned how to ride a traditional bike. You can choose between different types of bikes and set your own resistance level to make your workout harder or easier based on your personal needs. An indoor bike allows you to feel like you are on a bicycle without worrying about the safety issues that riding on the open road brings.

Swimming is an excellent form of exercise for beginners because it is the gentlest of all of the aerobic activities you can do. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work — the average 150-pound person can burn a little over 200 calories with 45 minutes of swimming. Swimming does not jar your bones or damage your joints, making it a good option for many ages and ability levels.

Joining a gym is the same as making any major purchase. You need to make an informed decision and consider some important factors before you sign on the dotted line. These days, with money tight, it’s more important than ever to know if what you will be getting in return for your monthly fee meets your own personal needs. It’s also a good way to meet a trainer.

“O.K., why do the exercise, I’ve lost weight before and didn’t exercise.” A lot of people ask that question. Of course, you can lose weight without exercise, but if you don’t exercise most of the weight you lose will be muscle and only about 20 or 25% will be fat. You don’t have to get crazy and work out 2 hours a day, but 30 minutes a day will do wonders. Mall walking is great for beginners, just try to keep an even pace, you can window shop after your walk.

Exercise along with a change in your diet and after a few months you will see a difference. You’ll feel better, be happier, and have more energy. You’ll love your new life.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Ladies, Trouble Losing Weight?

 This is just a tip, but Hormone levels can cause weight problems.

If your testosterone levels are high—something that can occur with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)—you might have difficulty losing weight. 

"If you're an apple shape and overweight, too, it's a good idea to see your [healthcare provider]," said Dr. Kashyap. That's because some people with PCOS have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

In some cases of PCOS, the body may be unable to make enough insulin, a hormone that helps your cells absorb sugars. Without enough insulin, you may develop high blood sugar, which damages your body’s systems.

Dr. Cheskin also added that people with higher testosterone levels tend to carry more fat in their bellies. On the other hand, people who have higher levels of estrogen than others typically find more weight around their lower half.

When ladies often have trouble losing weight, they usually give up rather than keep trying. Often though, no one thinks about Hormone levels. This is just one simple tip that can help you or get you back on track. If you can't lose weight there is always a reason and it's usually very simple. 

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Weight Is All About Your Diet

 This author has nailed it for me. She says everything I wanted to say. Losing weight is all about changing the way you're living and the food you're eating.

Remember, there’s no quick fix. You didn’t put on the weight in a week and you’re not going to lose it in a week. Exercise will tone and firm the body, but to lose weight you have to change your diet.

5 Great Ways to Change up Your Diet

You don’t have to overhaul your entire diet to get a big health boost. Here are five simple changes you can put into action today for high-impact results.

1. Load Up on Fruits and Veggies

You know fruits and vegetables are good for you, but did you know they should fill half your plate at every meal? That’s what the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends, and for good reason: Packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, fruits and vegetables make you less likely to get heart disease, high blood pressure, and some cancers.

Your daily goal: 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of veggies.

Sound like a lot? “Think about eating them all day,” says Cheryl Forberg, RD, author of Flavor First: Cut Calories and Boost Flavor.

Top your morning eggs with salsa (yes, it counts!), lunch on vegetable soup or a sandwich topped with sprouts, snack on a strawberry-banana smoothie, and for dinner add chopped-up veggies to your meatloaf or pasta sauce.

2. Choose Better Fats

Saturated and trans fats can raise your bad cholesterol level and your risk of heart disease. By cutting back on animal-based foods like butter, bacon, and untrimmed meats, as well as pantry staples like cookies and crackers, you can keep these at bay.

Eating less bad fats can be as easy as switching from whole milk to fat-free milk, eating a turkey burger instead of a beef burger, and switching from peanut butter to lower-fat nut butter, I like almond butter. A lot of grocery stores today let you grind your nuts. The store near my house has 4 different nuts to choose from.

You do need some fat, of course. Plant-based foods like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and avocados contain healthy fats that are essential for energy and cell growth. To add more good fats to your diet, snack on almonds instead of chips, cook with olive oil instead of butter and top your sandwich with a slice of avocado instead of cheese.

Also, some fish (such as salmon) is high in good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week.

3. Drink Water, Not Lattes

If most of what you’re drinking every day isn’t plain water (think soda, coffee drinks, sports drinks, and juices), you’re probably overloading on added calories and sugar. “People think juice bars are great, but if you’re having a jumbo, you’re not doing yourself a favor,” Forberg says.

Water, on the other hand, goes a long way in boosting health. Every cell in your body needs it to work properly. Water also helps your digestion.

Trade sugary drinks for water. Aim for about six to eight glasses a day. To help reach that goal, start and end your day with a tall glass of water and keep a water bottle with you during the day.

Need more flavor? Drop a slice of lemon or lime into your glass.

4. Eat More Fiber

Want to reduce belly fat, have more energy, and lower your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer? Simply bump up your fiber intake.

Fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans can also lower your cholesterol and boost digestion. Plus, fiber makes you feel fuller longer, which is great for keeping off extra pounds, says Jessica Crandall, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

To get more fiber, replace refined bread with whole-grain bread, choose brown rice instead of white rice, and switch to whole-wheat pasta.

Start your day with a bran muffin or oatmeal. Snack on an apple, a cup of berries, or popcorn.

You can also add fiber to your usual foods. “Sprinkle high-fiber cereal on top of your yogurt or add flaxseeds to your salad to give it a flavor pop as well as a high-fiber benefit,” Crandall says.

5. Keep Portions in Check

Reaching for a smaller plate may be the easiest thing you can do for a healthier diet. A study by Cornell University found that people eat less that way.

Why? It’s an optical illusion. “Your mind is tricked into eating less by being visually satisfied,” Crandall says.

“Portion control is good for many different things, whether it’s obesity, high cholesterol, or diabetes,” she says. If you’re trying to lose weight, portion control is key.

More strategies for keeping your portions in check:

• Eat from a plate (not out of a bag).
• Avoid nibbling in front of the TV.
• Buy single-serve portions.
• Eat slowly, enjoying the flavors and aromas of every bite.

Too many of us are stuck in a rut. We eat the way we use to eat when we were still in school or worse, we eat like we use to eat in college, eating cheap restaurant food or just too much restaurant food. I talked about this in an earlier post, But the only thing a restaurant cares about is making money and that means making food that tastes good. Almost everything on the menu today is smoother in something or marinated in something. That’s what adds the calories.

I’m a big believer in portion control and getting nutrition from the food you eat. I am not a believer in taking pills as a daily vitamin. I do take “vitamin D”, it’s not easy to consume Vitamin D in the proper quantity so a supplement is necessary. I don’t like pills because you never know if they’re working. Is my body really absorbing everything? With food you can be sure your body will absorb everything you feed it.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Home Cooking Will Reduce Your Calorie Intake

 New research on healthy eating has found that home cooking is better than restaurant fare, and that kids who are offered more nutritious food in school cafeterias rarely eat it.

In the study on meals, researchers found that people who eat the most home-cooked ones end up eating healthier and consuming about 130 fewer calories daily, on average, compared to other people.

When people cook most of their meals at home, they consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less, or not at all — even if they are not trying to lose weight. Researchers found that those who cooked dinner six to seven times a week ate an average of 2,164 calories daily, while those who ate out the most, cooking dinner no more than once a week, consumed an average of 2,301 calories per day. That might not sound like much, but multipled times 7 si over 900 calories saved in a week.

The study, based on an analysis of national survey data from 2007-2010, will be published online in the journal “Public Health Nutrition”.

Obesity is an escalating public health problem that contributes to other serious health issues, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The evidence shows people who cook at home eat a healthier diet. Moving forward, it’s important to educate the public about the benefits of cooking at home, identify strategies that encourage and enable more cooking at home, and help everyone, regardless of how much they cook, make healthier choices when eating out.

Remember when eating out, restaurants make food that taste good, which doesn’t mean it’s good for you. The best change for the consumer, that has recently happened, is the calories will now have to be listed on menus starting next year in all the restaurant chain of more than fifteen locations.

In the other study, the researchers, also from the Bloomberg School, reported that most kids put vegetables on their school lunch trays, but only one in four actually eats any. We have been thinking that if young children choose healthy food, they will eat it. But our research shows that is not necessarily so. I’m not surprised, I have 4 grandchildren and little kids don’t eat vegetables. When they’re in a highchair they don’t know any better, but by the time they’re three my grandkids won’t eat anything green.

The findings are based on an analysis of 274 New York City kids in grades K-2 who were observed by researchers during a single lunch period.

Almost 60 percent chose vegetables, but only 24 percent actually ate them. Meanwhile, kids were more likely to finish their food if their teacher ate with them, and distractions appeared to make a difference in consumption of healthy food.

As much as we are focused on menus in the school lunch program, we need to look more at our cafeteria environments, especially with our youngest children. We can give kids the healthiest food possible, but if they don’t have time to eat it or they are distracted by how noisy the cafeteria is, they’re not going to eat.

Personally, I believe it’s not only the food choices that need to change in the school cafeterias, it’s food preparation and the menu items. There’s a hundred ways to prepare corn. Just because the kids aren’t eating the corn doesn’t mean they don’t like corn. It just means they don’t like the way they made the dish with corn.

Nutrition is very important to our health. Students don't know enough about making healthy choices and "why should they". Most of our health problems stem from the food we eat. Or maybe I should rephrase that. Most of our health problem stem from not eating the right foods. Real food will give you the nutrition you need if your buying fresh foods. Manufactured foods usually stripe out the nutrition in the processing and then have to add back chemical nutrients to supplement their product. Sounds ok, right? Not really artificial nutrients won't be absorbed the same way as the nutrients in fresh produce. You can buy fresh produce in the open bins at your grocery store. But you have to eat them everyday because your body uses them everyday. 

We eat out a lot today, everyone does. The problem comes from the fact that in restaurants we order the food we like to eat, rather than the food we should eat. Eating healthy foods is the key to a healthy life.

My book will give you a lot of tips on diet, exercise, and how to stay healthy. 

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores s

elling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

The Problem With Cheat Days

I just finished a sugar detox, no foods with added sugar for 10 days and I found it was tougher than I thought but only the first two days, and after that no problem. Many of us try to fit a cheat day in the schedule somewhere. They want to do a detox but they feel they should have a cheat day. There’s a problem with that and you should read the following to learn about the problem with “cheat days”.

The Problem with Cheat Days

You’ve committed to eating healthy. You want to look and feel great, and you’ve stuck to your diet for an entire week. You feel good about how you’ve done and think you deserve a gold star… or that cupcake that’s calling your name (especially the one with the extra layer of frosting on top). Maybe you even think you deserve a day off—a designated “cheat day.”

But are “cheat days” a good idea? Do these special days of indulgence help you reach your health goals? Or do they set you up on a seesaw of destructive eating habits?

The Argument for Cheat Days: Rewarding Yourself

Some say that giving yourself days of indulgence is giving yourself a needed break from your diet. These cheat days are a relief valve that helps you stick to healthier foods.

The philosophy behind this basically goes something like this: Healthy eating requires some willpower—willpower you’ve used to keep yourself from forbidden foods—so to reward your constraint, it helps to have one scheduled day (or meal) per week where you’re allowed to eat some of the treats you’ve been avoiding. When you give yourself a window to enjoy these off-limit foods, it’ll satisfy your cravings, replenish your depleted willpower, and, some studies suggest, even increase your production of the hunger-dampening hormone leptin while boosting metabolism.

The Argument Against Cheat Days

So cheat days sound like a good thing, right? Not so fast. The logic behind these days has more than a few flaws, and it’s due to the psychology and physiology behind them.

The Name Is to Blame

The trouble with cheat days starts with the wording.

“The very phrase ‘cheat day’ sets up enjoying a meal as something forbidden,” says Sondra Kronberg, R.D., executive director of the Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative. “Separating foods into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories encourages you to associate eating with guilt and shame.” This means that instead of enjoying everything we eat, we feel bad about ourselves when we eat something we consider “bad.”

What’s more, when we deem certain foods “bad” or “cheating,” the negative name doesn’t help us pump the breaks.

“When a food is off-limits, it can develop a specific, emotional charge,” explains Melanie Rogers, RD, a nutritionist, and eating disorder specialist. “You begin obsessing over it, fantasizing about it, and looking forward to that ‘indulge day’ all week. Then, when you finally have access to it, you overeat.”

On the flip side, labeling foods as “good” or “healthy” can also backfire. Science shows when we think something is healthy, we’re not concerned with portion control and thus overdo it—whether it’s a “normal” day or a “cheat” day. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.

Along these same lines, thinking of a meal or snack as “healthy” can have a surprising effect on our hunger. Studies show merely considering items we put in our mouth as “healthy” can literally make us feel hungrier—especially if we select a “good-for-you” item out of obligation over something we’re truly hungry for.

Attack of the Calories

Folks who assume they can compensate for giving in to temptations—say, by holding themselves back on all days except their cheat days—are actually less likely to reach their dietary goals. This is because they’re more likely to consume a more significant number of calories, not just on their cheat day but on the days following it.

Restricting ourselves throughout the week and then slamming our bodies with sugar and fat once our cheat day rolls around, can have “a massive impact on blood sugar and insulin levels,” Rogers says. “You’ll wake up the next day craving more sugars and simple carbs, and you’ll find yourself feeling pretty ragged. And if you repeatedly increase your caloric intake above baseline, you may inadvertently end up gaining more weight over time.”

Cravings serve as a sign that your nutritional approach isn’t sound. “Most cravings come from overly restricting your food intake, using food as a drug, or over-exercising,” Kronberg says.

Bingeing Leads to Extra Cheat Days

There’s a very fine line between a cheat day and a free-fall into food bingeing, especially if you’re, “white-knuckling it during those other six days of sticking out a meal plan you don’t particularly like,” says Ryan Andrews, R.D., author of Drop The Fat Act and Live Lean and coach with Precision Nutrition. Once that day of indulgence comes, it’s not about enjoying the foods you haven’t had all week. Instead, you’re approaching it out of a need to consume all you can before the day goes away. “It feeds into a feast-and-famine cycle,” Andrews says.

We can thank our biology for cheat days turning into these all-out food fests. We’re wired to chase down food when we’re caught in the feast-and-famine cycle. “People will eat beyond satiety when they’re coming from a fear of scarcity,” Rogers explains.

Bingeing on a cheat day also makes it challenging to confine cheat-day foods only to that designated 24-hour window. “It’s very hard for people to compartmentalize their diets,” Rogers says. “‘I’m only going to have those cookies on Saturday’ can easily spill over into ‘I’ll only have a few cookies Sunday too.’”

The Solution: Stop Restricting, Start Enjoying—in Moderation

So if cheat days don’t work, are we all better off eating whatever we want, whenever we want?

Well, not quite, says Corby K. Martin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and food intake researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Following a healthy diet means including a number of foods—all of which are consumed in moderation,” he says. “If weight loss is the goal, this usually means three square meals a day with planned snacks, incorporating treats but in smaller portion sizes.”

Research suggests eating a balance of foods—with none of them off-limits or labeled “bad”—is the best way to reduce the kinds of cravings that can lead to a binge.

During the first week of a new diet, most people experience an increase in cravings for coveted foods, but when people stick to a balanced weight loss diet, the tendency to occasionally overeat actually goes down over time, Martin says.

So what does a game plan for healthy eating with no cheat days look like? Remember these three things:

1. Listen to your appetite.
“If you want to eat spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, have it!” Andrews says. “Don’t find the low-carb version with the fat-free sauce. If you actually eat what you want, you’ll likely end up eating a more reasonable amount of it.” Eating in tune with your hunger is a principle of intuitive eating, and it’s shown to have a positive effect on both your weight and your well-being.

2. Enjoy treats from time to time.
Research shows (and experts agree) that sprinkling reasonably sized desserts or treats into your daily diet encourages you to find pleasure in meal time again—and that pleasure will help ensure you don’t feel the need to go overboard.

So instead of confining your treats to one single day, drop them into places throughout the week. For example, enjoy: “a cookie or a few pieces of chocolate after dinner on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,” Rogers says.

3. Savor every bite.
Once you place any item of food into your mouth, take a moment to: “taste, smell, and experience it as a whole,” Rogers says. “When you take the time to be mindful about what you’re eating, you tap into your satiety cues.”

The Takeaway

Forget about designating a cheat day to reward yourself. Denying yourself most of the week and then indulging like crazy on your one day “off,” just promotes bingeing, anxiety, and shame around eating, —which means you won’t likely get the health outcome you’re looking for. Instead, make every day a great day by listening to your appetite, periodically adding in some of your favorite foods in small portions, and savoring each and every bite of everything you eat. This sustainable approach will help you think of all of your eating as enjoyable, and that’s what gets you down the road to where you want to be.

Using this type of sensible diet instead of a restrictive diet is the best way to go. How even this doesn’t mean you should continue eating the same foods you’ve been used to. This is where I think you should consider the Mediterranean diet. The foods and the diet of the Mediterranean people have astonished science for decades. These people have far fewer health problems than the rest of the Western world. For one thing, they eat less animal protein, which means less animal fat. They eat almost no red meat. You can find information on the Mediterranean diet on this blog, in some of my posts, and on the diet page.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

More Frequent Meals Can Lead To A slimmer you

 This article in Reuters will verify the same things I’ve talked about for years now. The more calories you eat at a meal, the more of your food will turn into fat. We can only process so much food at a time and the rest will just get stored as fat. That’s how we gain weight.

Reuters Health – Adults who had multiple small meals every day tended to eat better, and weight less, than those who had fewer but larger meals, in a recent study.

People eating fewer meals tended to eat the most at night, and to drink alcohol with meals, both of which might contribute to their higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height, the researchers said.

“The major hypothesis that can be taken away from this study is interesting but not so mind-blowing – eating more frequently throughout the day leads to a greater intake of healthier, lower calorically-dense foods, which in turn leads to a lower overall caloric intake and BMI,” said Elena Tovar, a clinical dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York who wasn’t involved in the study.

“This just makes sense – eating more often staves off hunger so that we don’t end up eating whatever we can get our hands on later on, thereby making it more likely that the foods we eat are healthier,” Tovar told Reuters Health in an email.

Researchers in the UK, at Imperial College London, and in the U.S., at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, analyzed data from 2,385 adults from a study conducted between 1996 and 1999.

They found that participants who reported eating less than four times during a 24-hour period had an average BMI of 29.0 and consumed an average of 2,472 calories.

A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal weight and BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Participants who ate six times or more over 24 hours had an average BMI of 27.3 and consumed an average of 2,129 calories.

People who ate more often tended to consume foods that were lower in calories and higher in nutritional value, such as vegetables, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, people who ate less than four meals tended to consume more calories in the evening, and to have alcohol in the evening. This pattern is consistent with meals eaten at restaurants, where food tends to be rich or fried and it’s harder to get fresh, healthy foods, the authors note.

“Our findings demonstrated that lower BMI levels in more frequent eaters are associated with consumption of lower dietary energy density and higher nutrient quality foods,” the authors write in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“Modifying eating behavior through more frequent meals of low dietary energy density and high nutrient quality may be an important approach to control epidemic obesity,” they note.

They also acknowledge limitations to the study, including the fact that it doesn’t prove that timing or frequency of eating caused the differences in BMI.

“Although this relationship requires further testing, it seems to support the idea that eating large meals later in the day may not be doing our waistlines any favors,” Tovar said.

Tovar highlighted the study authors’ speculation that the apparent effect of meal timing might be related to an increase in insulin sensitivity later in the day.

“I would be curious to see more research on this topic in particular, especially because so many people these days are being told by practitioners not to eat after certain times at night without there being much science to back up these arbitrary requests,” she said.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.