We lose weight without diets: 5 tips from a psychologist

We are constantly told that losing weight is not so difficult: you need to eat less, prioritize healthy food and move more. However, the fact remains that despite the huge number of adherents of a healthy diet, the number of obese people is growing all the time.

It’s time to admit that diets don’t work.

Research conducted at the University of California showed that almost two-thirds of attempts to go on a diet fail. There is also evidence that many people who try to lose weight through diets gain more weight in the future: participants in one weight loss program gained significantly more kilograms over two years than those who did not participate in such programs.

I am sure if most people were aware of this fact, they would not even try to lose weight with diets! Diets simply don’t work. It’s time to change the approach to the problem. Here are some simple and effective weight loss strategies.

1. Enjoy food

Since diets do not work, you do not need to limit yourself or exclude your favorite foods from the diet. Eat whenever you want and only what you really like. Do you want chocolate cake? Forward! Juicy steak? You are welcome! No more forcing yourself to eat diet foods that taste like cardboard and aren’t very nutritious.

But at the same time, it is important to abandon rules like: “It’s time to eat, because it’s time for lunch / dinner.” Eat only when you are really hungry. Food is our “tasty fuel,” so wait until your stomach begins to send you a signal that it really needs this fuel.

2. Maintain a healthy microflora

A lot of research shows a link between problems with the microflora and obesity, so you need to take care of your microflora. Doing this is quite easy. The main thing is a varied diet and natural products. Include in your diet natural probiotic yogurt (not diet!), homemade cheese made according to traditional recipes, and products that do not contain antibiotics and pesticides.

3. Eat healthy and quality food

Proper nutrition helps prevent up to 70% of diseases. The diet of a modern person mainly consists of artificially processed foods that the body cannot fully digest. It is very important to eat quality food, saying a firm “no” to artificially processed foods stuffed with harmful “chemistry”.

It’s well known that “fat-free” or “low-fat” labels on products in the store really only mean that the products are full of sugar, additives, and colorings. Do not buy products that contain ingredients with unfamiliar or unpronounceable names.

Do not limit yourself to ready-made products, cook yourself! When you switch to healthy (and amazingly delicious!) foods, you will definitely notice that you need to eat less to get full, and you stay full longer after eating. Oh, and one more thing: skin, nails and hair will look much better.

4. Eat mindfully, stopping when you’re full

When eating, it is important to focus on the present moment – and, in fact, on food. Take your time, feel its smell, taste, chew every bite thoroughly. We are so accustomed to mindlessly absorbing food that we ourselves do not notice when we are full. That is why it is so important to eat slowly and thoughtfully.

You don’t have to eat everything! This is especially true when we eat in a cafe or eat ready-made meals. For example, store-bought sandwiches are often just huge – twice the size of the serving, which would be quite enough for us. It’s important to rethink your “usual” portion size.

Eat whatever you want, but listen to your body and stop when it says “enough!”. Knowing when you’re full needs to be exercised like a muscle. We long ago forgot how to eat to satiety and instead began to eat everything to the crumbs.

5. Love your body the way it is.

If you once loved your body, imagine the previous size, remember how you felt. If you can’t remember that period, choose a person whose figure you admire and imagine that you have the same body. Feel how much joy the body you love brings! Try to do this exercise every day.

Be kind to your body, respect it, think about what you like about it. One of the main barriers to weight loss is psychological. To lose weight physically, you first need to “lose weight psychologically.”

Stop looking with envy at slender people – start changing your ideas about your own body.