So you want to lose weight.
Whether you're at the start of your journey and have 40 kilos to
go, or it's that last 3-5 that just won't budge, these tips can help you get an edge
and support your body in its quest to reach an optimal body weight.
In his new book, plant-based medical marvel Dr Michael Greger, shows us all how.
BUT, at 608 pages, it makes for a long-read.
That's why this video will narrow it down for you.
Here's what you can do to ignite weight loss, and burn fat faster.
All according to science.
These are Dr Greger's Top 10 Weight Loss Tips.
1. Be Water-Rich.
Good hydration includes drinking a lot of
water and eating water-rich fruits and vegetables.
Here's an example of why.
A Harvard cohort followed 100 thousand doctors and nurses for decades, and concluded that
increasing water intake was independently and significantly associated with less weight
gain over the long term!
Also, make sure to preload water: AKA have 2 cups before meals for a metabolism boost.
Research found that overweight and obese people
randomized to 2 cups of water before each meal lost nearly 5 pounds more body fat in 12 weeks.
They followed the same calorie-controlled diet, but the preload group lost weight 44% faster.
2. Preload with Negative Calories.
Starting your meal with some high nutrient, low calorie foods, such as an apple, salad
or soup, can work wonders.
Here'e a research example.
With no starter, people ate around 900 calories.
But, when they had 2 cups of vegetable soup as a starter (around 150 calories,) they ate
250 less calories.
In other words: a healthy starter lead to minus 100 calories.
3. Eat Undistracted Meals.
When we're distracted, we tend to eat faster and for longer.
A study showed that people who ate whilst watching TV "averaged an extra slice of pizza
or 71% more mac 'n cheese, totalling 300 more calories."
And, it doesn't stop there: even the sound of something can have an impact.
Study subjects told to eat while listening to the radio ended up eating "77% more ice cream!"
When we don't pay full attention to the act
of eating, we can also end up eating more LATER.
Take this.
Have people play computer solitaire whilst eating a fixed-calorie meal, and they eat
"nearly twice as many cookies a half hour later."
As if they haven't really registered how much they ate.
"Focused attention during a meal decreased later food intake."
Thus, it's important to embrace mindful eating: slowing down the pace, savouring every bite,
and getting in tune with your body's fullness cues.
4. Get Your Daily Doses.
Certain foods fuel weight loss.
Check them off everyday.
Adding just 2 teaspoons of vinegar to a high-glycemic meal (a bagel and juice) reduces
the blood sugar spike by 23% percent.
What's more, splitting people in high, low
or no doses of apple cider vinegar showed significant weight loss for the vinegar groups
after 1 month.
3 months later, and the low-dose group "steadily lost about a pound a month" and the high-dose
group around 5.
They also "lost about an inch off their waistlines, suggesting they were burning abdominal fat.
Daily intake of Nigella Seeds, otherwise called Black Cumin, helps improve "cholesterol, triglycerides,
blood pressure AND blood sugar control.
Women taking a daily quarter teaspoon reduced their bad LDL cholesterol by 27% within 2 months.
That's the kind of result you'd expect with a statin drug!
Furthermore, controlled weight-loss trials found that this dose reduces BMI within a
couple months.
Giving 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder to 100 overweight people helped them lose "nearly 6 pounds of
straight body fat over the next fifteen weeks.
One teaspoon ground ginger has been shown to increase the rate
at which our bodies burn fat by about 10 percent 2 hours after consumption."
Note: it seems dried ginger is much better than fresh.
Since it seems to activate more brown fat.
Half a teaspoon cayenne pepper has been shown
to counteract our body's attempt to slow down our metabolism when in caloric deficit.
Split people into groups: those who have cayenne or not, and scientists found that the cayenne
group woke up to 19g less body fat, compared to 14 for placebo.
This really adds up.
Adding red pepper powder to a meal can also "bump up the rate at which you burn calories
immediately afterward by more like 30%.
Two teaspoons of nutritional yeast, loaded
with beta-glucans, can result in "about an inch off the waist within 6 weeks or up to
a 5-pound weight benefit compared to controls in twelve weeks, along with an improvement
in blood pressure.
You gotta love it.
Green tea can boost metabolism without raising your heart rate.
3-6 cups worth of daily green tea showed an "average metabolic boost of about 100 calories a day.
That's like taking off three butter pats worth of extra fat every day.
5. Deflour Your Diet.
Turn whole wheat into white flour and you
lose 75% of the fiber.
Something that makes a dramatic difference, robbing our microbiome.
Powdering grains makes them much more rapidly absorbed.
This affects our appetites, metabolic rates and how much fat we burn.
Meanwhile, lower glycemic foods can help us burn more fat.
6. Embrace Eating Windows.
Time restrict eating by having your meals within a window under 12 hours.
For instance, when overweight people switch their window from
14 to 10-12 hour windows, they lost 7lbs within 6 weeks.
They also slept better and had more energy.
8 months later, they'd also maintained their weight loss.
Eating windows seem to, unintentionally, help us eat 100s of fewer calories a day.
7. Optimize Exercise Timing.
The optimal amount of exercise to lose weight is 90 minutes of moderate exercise.
And, doing so on a fasted state can give you an added boost –
at least 6 hours after your last meal.
More than a dozen experiments published on this found more
fat was burned on an empty stomach.
On average, a session of low to moderate exercise before a meal,
burned off 3 more grams of fat, than the same amount of exercise after a meal.
Equal amount of exercise, but more fat loss, just because of timing.
8. Weigh Yourself Everyday
This is considered crucial for weight control.
Researchers report that self-weighing is linked with "less depression, less disordered eating, and less body dissatisfaction."
Likely, because it improves the success of weight loss efforts.
9. Don't Eat at Night.
Because of our circadian rhythms, food eaten at night is more fattening than the exact same food eaten earlier in the day.
So, make sure to fast every night for at least 12 hours. Ideally, don't eat after 7:00 p.m.
Research has found that “a meal eaten at 8:00 p.m. can cause twice the blood sugar response
as an identical meal eaten at 8:00 a.m.— as if we had eaten twice as much!"
Our bodies just aren’t expecting food when it’s dark outside.
So, the fewer the calories after sundown, the better.
10. Get Sufficient Sleep.
Meaning, at least 7 hours.
Sleep can really supercharge your weight loss.
And, lack of it can really hinder it.
Research shows that “Short sleep duration has been associated with obesity in both children and adults.”
When people sleep a couple less hours, they end up eating an average of "677 more calories a day."
Take this.
Researchers had overweight people eat the same amount of calories, but sleep either 8.5 or 5 hours.
After 2 weeks, they switched.
Just looking at the scale, it didn't show much: they lost the same of amount weight.
BUT, look more closely, and the group getting 8 hours lost fat, whilst the others lost lean body mass.
To put it bluntly: with the same diet but more sleep, they ended up losing more than twice as much body fat.
To add even more incentive to sleep: researchers have found that
those who factor in sleep in their weight loss journey do so "significantly faster.”
Where there you have it! I hope you've really enjoyed
these tips and they support you in your weight loss journey.
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