The cheats guide to losing weight
Make just one change and get results. It's that easy.
Article: Suzanne Schlosberg
Small changes like:
Drink more water | Eat more often and add some protein | Switch to whole grains | Choose lower-fat dairy products | Add a fruit and a vegetable to every meal | Two small fast-food changes worth trying
This is the baby-steps guide to better eating habits. It's designed for people who avoid making the changes they know they ought to, because it just seems too complicated. This simple, novel approach is endorsed by top nutritionists and it really is idiot-proof (we know, we tried it!)
This is how it works: for the next month, make just one change. Focus on a single improvement, whether it's doubling your fruit intake, adding some protein or switching to skimmed milk.
Small changes can make a big difference – for instance, if you average 3 cups of dairy a day for a month (yoghurt, milk in your tea and coffee, milk on your cereal, the odd sauce), the switch from 2% or low-fat to skim or fat-free will save you around 12500kj a year, or about what it takes to knock off 500g. Another two or three changes, and you're a couple of kilograms down without trying.
Another bonus: changing one habit at a time gives you a sense of success. You'll see results and soon, the habit will be second nature. It gets easier to add another change, and another.
This works far better than a drastic dietary overhaul, which leads to feelings of failure and deprivation. Here are five simple dietary changes with big pay-offs, both for weight control and good health. Start with the one that seems most feasible to you.
Drink more water
The typical woman should drink two litres of fluid daily, more if you exercise – but most drink only half that. You should (a) keep a litre of water on your desk or wherever you most regularly are, and make sure to refill it during the day; and (b) make it water. Don't think a can of Coke at lunch is a water substitute.
The weight-control benefit: Drinking water makes you feel fuller so you're likely to eat less; and it helps prevent you from eating when you're not hungry. Many people turn to food when they're actually thirsty.
The health bonus: Staying well hydrated may reduce your risk for diseases, including cancers of the colon, breast and bladder. In one study, women who reported drinking more than five glasses of water a day had a 45% lower risk for colon cancer than those who drank two or fewer.
Eat more often and add some protein
Switch from two or three large meals to five or six smaller ones of 1250 – 1670kj.
The weight-control benefit: By eating more often, you're less likely to get ravenous and scoff down everything in sight. For each meal or snack, eat both protein and carbs, such as cereal with milk, an apple with peanut butter or a chicken sandwich.
Protein takes longer to digest than carbs, so you'll stay satisfied longer. One study showed that when women had a high-protein lunch, they ate 31% fewer kilojoules at dinner than when they had a high-carb lunch.
The health bonus: By eating more often, you will keep up your energy, concentration and alertness levels – and you'll ward off the late-afternoon energy drain that's common among women. Plus, you are likely to eat more nutritiously because you won't be bingeing and loading up on empty kilojoules.
Switch to whole grains
Whenever possible, choose whole-grain products over their refined counterparts. For instance, try barley or bulgar instead of white rice. Eat whole-wheat bread instead of white, muesli instead of granola.
The weight-control benefit: Whole-grain foods are chewier and more filling. You'll eat less and won't be hungry as soon.
The health bonus: High-fibre foods help protect against heart disease, diabetes and, possibly, cancers of the breast, pancreas and colon. They also contain trace minerals that are stripped from refined food products.
Choose lower-fat dairy products
Gradually work your way from full-fat to reduced-fat to low-fat to fat-free milk, yoghurt, ice-cream and cheese. If the last time you sampled low-fat cheese it tasted like rubber, give it another try – it's got a lot better lately. The 60% reduced-fat Cheddar at Woolies is quite divine, and there are several low-fat Bulgarian yoghurts around that taste as creamy as can be.
The weight-control benefit: This is an easy way to save on kilojoules without sacrificing taste. 115g of full-fat cottage cheese has 500kj, compared to 418kj for 2%, 376kj for 1%, and 334kj for fat-free. 30g of Cheddar cheese has 476kj and 6g of saturated fat. 30g reduced-fat Cheddar cheese has 376kj and 4g saturated fat; a scoop of standard vanilla ice-cream has upwards of 630kj and 5g saturated fat while a light version has at least 100kj less and about half the amount of saturated fat.
The health bonus: You drastically cut back on saturated fat. For instance, those 115g of full-fat cottage cheese contain 3g of saturated fat, compared to 1,4g for reduced-fat cottage cheese, less than 1g for low-fat and no saturated fat for fat-free.
Experts recommend limiting saturated fat to no more than 10% of total kilojoule intake, which translates to 22g a day on a 8 360kj diet.
Add a fruit and a vegetable to every meal
This doesn't mean adding a fruit juice or veggie drink, which often contain no fibre, negligible vitamins and lots of kilojoules, to lunch and dinner. (a 170ml serving of apple juice contains 376kj and only 0,2g of fibre – while a medium apple contains 340kj and 3,7g of fibre.) You need to add a whole fruit and a whole vegetable. Or, if adding them at mealtime is inconvenient, you can just aim to double your intake of both.
The weight-control benefit: To feel satisfied, you need a certain amount of weight in your stomach. A whole fruit or vegetable will give you that feeling of fullness, meaning you're likely to eat less during and after your meal.
(Tip: choose fruits and veggies with deeper colour.) Fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamins and phytochemicals, but many are thought to be lost when we process them into juice.
Two small fast-food changes worth trying
These aren't nutritious choices, we know. But everyone eats them, so we offer these mini-changes:
Do not supersize. One large McDonald's fries has 2 550kj; a small serving has 880kj. At one portion a week, you'd save 86 944kj a year, or 2,5kg.
Instead of two glasses of wine four times a week, have one. A 115ml glass is 347kj; two is 694kj. Savings: 1 388kj a week; 72 163kj a year, or just under 2kg.
Do you have any weight loss tips to share with us? Tell us in the comment box below.
- SHAPE