The Number One Biggest Thing You Can Do To Lose Weight

What's the number one biggest thing you can do to lose weight? Eat slowly, only when you feel actually hungry and then stop when your full. That's it. Consistently do this and you will get results. It requires nothing more than you paying attention to your body. No charts, calorie counting or portion control. Simple.

Lets break it down.

Eat slowly
It takes time for your the signals from your stomach to reach your brain. Eat too quickly and by the time you head starts telling you your starting to feel full, you've already eaten too much.

Only eat when your hungry
Before you reach for a snack in the middle of the afternoon, ask your self "Do I REALLY feel hungry?" Most of the time, we eat mindlessly and when we feel bored or down. Stop this. Now. Don't wait till you feel ravenous, just when your hungry.

Stop when your full
Your full but the food tasted great and there's more in the pan! NO! Stop that! Your body is telling you it's had enough. Respect that. Put the leftovers in the fridge/freezer and if you feel actually hungry later, you can have some more then.

Your welcome.

Weight loss motivation - Push / Pull

Many of you, including myself have been trying to lose weight for many years. We have tried the diets, read the "30 weight loss tips" in magazines, brought the fitness videos. But there is still something lacking. Many people have lost weight with different methods and kept it off for years. I bet each of us knows someone who was fat in school and then we see them years later and the look gorgeous and slim. So weight loss diets and methods DO work for some people. What separates the ones who it works for and those it doesn't then?

It's about mindset

Yes, the difference between us and people who have slimmed down is mindset. You may be thinking that's a load of rubbish. Personally I have loads of motivation to lose weight:

    I feel ugly
    I lack self confidence
    I don't want to die young of heart attack/stroke
    I don't want to get diabetes

There's some pretty strong motivation right there but I'm still fat. I lose weight like ½ - 1 stone and then I put weight back on. Over the next few weeks, I'll cover different methods that are working for me.

Push / Pull method

Half of a method of motivation is above but we're missing the second half.

The second half is something to move towards. We have the motivation there to start to move away from our current weight but as soon as I lose that half stone, my self confidence improves, I feel like I'm doing well. And then I relax in my habits. "I've done well so one bag of sweets wont hurt." And then things fall like dominoes from there. Before I know it, within a few weeks I've put all that weight back on.

So, what we need is something that when we've lost our motivation that pushes us to lose weight in the first place, pulls us towards our target weight. It's simple really but it works. Above we have a list of reasons we don't want to be fat. Now all we need is a list of reasons we want to be slim.

How I do this

I took a notebook and on the left page wrote "Pushing away motivation" and "Pulling towards motivation". Here are my motivations for each of these:

    Pushing away motivation

    Being embarrassed buying XL clothes
    Feeling fat in front of new people I'm meeting
    Feeling embarrassed going to the beach on holiday
    Feeling low self-confidence
    Feeling tired
    Seeing my man-boobs
    Feeling fat when the barber is adjusting the height of the chair.

    Pulling towards motivation

    Being told I look like I've lost weight
    Looking in the mirrors and thinking "damn I look good!"
    Living longer in a healthy body
    Not having to suck my belly in
    Having to buy a smaller belt
    Having to buy smaller clothes
    Having a six-pack
    Having one chin
    Being able to rock climb
    Seeing muscle definition in my arms / shoulders
    Wanting to show off my new body to people

The more weight you lose, the more the 'towards' factors will motivate you. Each day, I read through my list of 'towards' and then add one more to it. This helps keep my motivation high and puts me in a good frame of mind to start the day.

Aversion Techniques - Review

OK. My aversion techniques worked. Well, kind of. The thing is that their use was quite short sighted.
Aversion techniques are great if you are repeatedly eating a food that you just can't say no to. But they are not meant to be used for a whole diet change by themselves.

I tried using them exclusively to enforce my healthy eating habits and it worked for a few days. However, it all boils down to motivation. As I hadn't built the motivation needed, I gave in keeping up my aversion of paying a 'fine' to eat wheat.

They will work if you tie them in with other things. If you have been trying to lose weight for a while, you probably know how to lose weight (keep calories down, stay away from sugars and refined carbs etc. ). The problem is putting it into action and then keeping it going.

In his book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill's main points are that to succeed in anything you need to follow certain things in order. They are:

    1. Have a strong desire/yearning to do something
    2. Totally believe you can do it
    3. Plan thoroughly
    4. Take action
    5. Persist until you succeed

I have a very strong desire to lose weight. I totally believe I can do it. I have a plan to do it (stop eating wheat and sugar). It's just the putting it into action and persisting in it that I suck at at the moment. This is where motivation comes in. I'm currently reading some things to try to learn how to channel my motivation so that I actually implement this.

The aversion techniques come in here. When your putting your steps into action you may find you trip over Irish coffees, for example. So, you would go back to your plan, add in your aversion techniques to it to rid that trip-hazzard then commence steps 4 and 5. The motivation comes in at 4 and 5 so that's what I need to get it nailed next so that I can really up my game.

How do you motivate your self to lose weight?

Weighing Frequency

The weight of your body seems to be the most common way of tracking your weight. If you are going to track it in this way then you have the dilemma of how often you will weigh yourself. I do it every day but my wife does it once a week. I recommend weighing yourself every day because you will have motivation every day to continue improving your body. Every day you should weigh yourself in the morning, after you pee just after rising and before you get dressed or eat/drink anything. This will ensure consistency with your weighing and will ensure that you won't register as weighting more because you've drunk water and eaten food that morning.

Some sources site reasons for not weighing every day such as fluctuations in weight can be demoralising. However, if you know why these fluctuations occur, then you are more likely to be encouraged by your overall results.

Fluctuations can occur for a number of reasons. The biggest one is water retention. During a recent hot period at home, my weight fluctuated wildly:
2012-05-23 234.0
2012-05-24 236.8
2012-05-25 233.6
2012-05-26 236.2
2012-05-27 232.8

As you can see, my weight went up by nearly 3lb then down by 3lb then up by 3lb again and then down by 4lb. This is due to not being used to drinking enough water to keep up with my extra fluid loss. I could tell because my pee was dark yellow, a classic sign of dehydration.

Here's how I think my water drinking affected my weight:
2012-05-23 234.0 starting weight for this segment.
2012-05-24 236.8 +2.8lb kind of fluctuation I get every few days
2012-05-25 233.6 -3.2lb loss in fluids due to not drinking enough previous day in hot weather
2012-05-26 236.2 +2.6lb because of dehydration 2 days ago, my body kept as much water as it could yesterday, hence my weight gain
2012-05-27 232.8 -3.4lb loss of water due to not drinking enough previous day


Here's an example of how weekly weighing can be misleading:

Weekly weigh
Week 1 : 234.5lb
Week 2 : 233.0lb
This shows a loss of only 1.5 lb but you may actually have a loss of 4.5lb of fat and are carrying 3lbs of extra water.

Daily weigh
Week 1
Day 1 : 234.5lb
Day 2 : 233.3lb
Day 3 : 233.5lb
Day 4 : 231.8lb
Day 5 : 230.1lb
Day 6 : 229.5lb
Day 7 : 229.1lb
Week 2
Day 8 : 233.0lb

This shows that you were losing fat through the week but may have excess water when you did the weekly weigh. For me this a much more encouraging method of tracking your fat loss.

Other things that can also affect your fluctuations are:

Salt - a slight increase can cause you to retain water, thus increasing your weight
Water - drinking more water can make you seem to gain initially but then it will soon drop once your body becomes accustomed to your new intake amount
Vegetables - increasing the amount of vegetables you eat will have a similar effect to drinking more water because 80-90% of fruits and vegetables is water.

Personally, I write down my weight daily on a sheet of paper and then plot it onto a graph that is on my kitchen cupboard. I find it easier to see the fat loss in the general direction of the line than in the numbers themselves. I can also see visually how close I am to my goals I set.

Women, remember that you will weigh more in the days leading up to the start of your menstrual cycle as your body will retain a lot more water. Keep this in mind and don't be discouraged.

Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) - Fat Loss

I wrote this for everyone looking to lose body fat whether it's 10lb or 100lb. I used to be 235lb. My wife and I have both tried numerous methods of loosing weight; Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Welsh Slim, calorie counting. We've lost weight on all of them but it hasn't stayed off and in fact we've put more on than we lost in the first place.


1. Keep off normal carbs
e.g. grains (oats, wheat, barley etc..), milk (lactose, a form of sugar), fruit including fruit juices (fructose, a natural sugar), starchy foods (potatoes), sugars (sugar, chocolates etc.), soft drinks (cola, lemonade etc.)

Why?
The above foods, including whole grain variety's, will fairly quickly increase the amount of glucose in your blood which triggers the production of insulin. Insulin causes your body to store the excess calories as fat.


2. Eat slow carbs
e.g. pulses, vegetables

Why?
You'll still be getting your all important carbohydrates but they will be digested slower which will mean no glucose spike, no insulin spike, less fat storage.


3. Eat plenty of protein
e.g. Pulses, meat, eggs, fish

Why?
Protein takes longer to digest so you should feel fuller for longer. Your body finds protein difficult to turn into fat and it will help to ensure that you lose fat not muscle from your body.


4. Eat enough fats
e.g. red meat, oils (olive, flaxseed etc.)

Why?
Your body needs enough fat to ensure that it can produce fatty-acids which are vital to your health. As it is energy-dense, it also helps to ensure you get enough energy.


5. No calorie counting or portion control
Just eat until you are full. If you don't, you'll find yourself snacking between meals or your metabolism will slow because of insufficient calorie intake. Stop before you feel 'stuffed'. It helps to eat a bit slower if you find you eat and don't feel stuffed till afterwards.


6. Take one day off each week
Why?
I got this one from 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris (brilliant book by-the-way). By taking a day off and eating whatever you want once a week ensures that your metabolism doesn't slow down from eating too few calories. If you fancy eating something during the week such as a pizza, write it down and have it on your day off. That way you don't feel deprived of certain foods in any way, you just have to wait for them.


7. Drink plenty of water
Why?
I drink between 2 - 4 pints of water a day. This keeps you hydrated and keeps your body functioning properly, enabling you to lose fat easier.


8. Simple meals
Why?
Most of the time I eat the same few meals week-in-week-out, we all do. Try to ensure that you get protein with each meal and a good portion of vegetables.


My meals

Breakfast
3/4 Scrambled eggs fried/microwaved
1 bag of microwavable steamed veg
or
Cooked breakfast: 2 fried eggs, 2 bacon rashers, tinned tomatoes, mushrooms.

Lunch
Bolognese without spaghetti (plenty of veg in this)
or
Beef/pork/turkey mince bean chilli (lots of veg in this too)
or
6oz beef burger without bun or fries with extra bacon, with large salad and french dressing.

Dinner
Bolognese without spaghetti
or
Beef/pork/turkey mince bean chilli
or
Cottage pie with a cauliflower top instead of mashes potatoes.
with steamed vegetables

Drinks
Black tea/coffee
Water

Tips
Be sure to get extra broccoli and other leafy greens as they are a good source of calcium, something you may be lacking because of lack of milk.

Make sure you eat breakfast. The last thing you want to do is be grabbing a sandwich or chocolate bar on the way to work because you didn't have breakfast. Don't have time? Make time. Get up 20 mins earlier to be sure you do.

Aversion Methods

The reason I did the bread thing isn't because I'm masochistic, it's because I like to eat bread.

When you like something and have it every day, it's hard not to eat it. In fact, what you end up doing is seeing it, really wanting it but going 'No, I shouldn't have it' and then saying 'screw it!' and having it anyway. Then you end up feeling guilty that you gave in and so you stop or at least pause your efforts to change what you eat. So, to try and bypass this, I did the nasty bread thing.

Paul McKenna has a thing with visualisations in his book I Can Make You Thin. He gets you to visualise some thing you'd be repulsed to eat, such as hair. Then you visualise the food you crave, smelling, tasting, feeling it and then visualising the craved food covered in hair. Well, this gave me the idea of the bread thing because I thought that actually covering the food in something nasty (but edible of course) might be even better than just visualising it.

I'm working out how I'm going to progress this now. I'm deciding between making myself eat something like a fresh hot chili pepper whenever I eat a fast-carb or making myself put £10 in a jar every time I eat some thing containing wheat, sugar etc. I think I'm siding more with the £10 thing because I can't afford to pay away £10 all the time so I can't in theory afford to eat fast-carbs.

Another method you could use is highlighted by Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment. In it he uses a wrist band to stop himself complaining:

Will designed a solution in the form of a simple purple bracelet, which he offered to his congregation with a challenge: go 21 days without complaining. Each time one of them complained, they had to switch the bracelet to their other wrist and start again from day 0. It was simple but effective metacognitive awareness training.

I'm sure this could be adapted for changing what you eat if you wanted to.

As a side note, this is not a no-carb diet its a slow-carb. I don't cut carbs out, I still get them by eating plenty of vegetables and legumes, I just don't take them in quickly absorbed forms.

Aversion Therapy

Tim Ferriss' book 4 Hour Body is very good but if you don't have the money to buy it, you can get most of it on his blog.

He has followed a slow-carb way of eating which helped him lose body fat. It works like this: sugar is a carbohydrate. Your body loves it as a fuel in the form of glucose because it is easily made from several sources, such as fruit, wheat and other grains, potatoes. But the thing is that sugar triggers the production of insulin. The role of insulin is to run around your blood stream and mop up the excess calories floating around and store them in fat cells for later use. This would be good if we had to eat like a cave-man, bounty in summer and scarcity in the winter. However, circumstances have changed, that is where the modern idea of diets came in. In our current state of plenty, we are permanently stuck in the frame of eating plenty in the summer but we don't have the scarcity of winter any more which is why we are getting fat. So, as Ferris and others have discovered, if I cut my carb intake so that I only eat foods that are slowly converted to glucose, I won't trigger insulin production so heavily and I don't have all those cal's stored in my porky belly

In an effort to cut my carbs, I did quite well last year, I lost a stone in a month. But for some reason I stopped. I put the weight back on but not more than I lost fortunately. Now I have been weighting myself daily again to monitor my weight while also trying to cut down my quick-carb intake. One of the things I find most difficult with this is that grains are everywhere. What shall I have for breakfast? How about some jam on toast or a bacon sarnie? Lunch? Lets have a ham sandwich or some lasagne or a ciabatta bread with lettuce, cherry tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and topped with some Parma ham. Go to the pub and have a vodka (wheat) or a whisky (barley) and have a kebab on the way home. Wake in the morning, have a hangover breakfast, bacon, sausage (contains rusk = wheat), egg, beans, tomatoes, toast (wheat? well what a surprise!).

So, taking the bull by the horns, I decided to try some aversion therapy thing with bread. The idea was that if I ate bread with horrible tasting things on it, I wouldn't want to eat it so much. So, into the cupboard I went. Tore off a bit of my slice and put hot chilli powder on it. Hmm that's spicy. Next, nutmeg... nasty! Salt... difficult to swallow. Bicarb of soda... nearly threw up but made myself swallow. Next, I put some of all of it on the last piece with the addition of vinegar and cinnamon. Again nearly gagged. Oh, and I made myself properly chew it all too, not just swallow it as soon as possible. In the week and a half since I did this, I have only eaten bread twice. Both times, it didn't sit well in my stomach, Ergo, I think it worked but I may have to do it again soon just to reinforce the associations.

Next, I think I'll try something along the lines of Tim Ferriss in his post Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment.

Have you ever tried any kind of aversion tactics to break any habits?