7 Weight Loss Tips You Don't Know About

There are thousands upon thousands of advice claiming to be the best weight loss tips floating around on the internet. I've tried to pull together the most useful that you may not have come across before and put them all in this article.

Keep a journal of your food intake

We often kid ourselves about exactly what we're putting in our mouths. Keeping a detailed, specific journal can often really open your eyes about your calorie intake and your ratios of fat, carbs and protein. In order to accurately journal your intake, you'll need to have a kitchen scale...

Weigh your food

We've grown used to having enormous portions and we aren't used to estimating by eye exactly what we're consuming. Often we only get the scales out when following a recipe. Never estimate cups by eye: always use a proper measuring cup. One cup is only 250ml, the size of a small coffee cup. Which brings me to...

Don't drink your calories

Prepared drinks can be incredibly fattening. A Starbucks large cappuccino can be up to 180 calories. One small glass of orange juice is 100 calories. A can of Mountain Dew is 110 calories. A cola is 100 calories per can - and we all know people who can drink a 6-pack per day. Your best bet is water - your body needs water to hydrate it, not sugary liquids.

See your goal

Quite often we say to ourselves "I want to lose weight" or "I want to get skinny" but without any precise definition of where we want to end up. Pick a specific weight - perhaps with the help of your doctor or a BMI chart - or a specific dress size. Be realistic - if you're 5ft10, you're never going to weigh 120lbs.

Once you've got your specific goal in mind, visualise that goal. If you've been that weight before, try to find a photo of yourself at that weight and put it somewhere prominent. If you don't have a photo, try using a virtual model generator - try mvm.com for a free online service.

Make your choices rationally

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Have a specific plan in mind for how you will reach your goal. I would advise against setting a time-frame - it can be de-motivating if the weight doesn't come off quickly enough. Specific actions could be: eat no more than 1800 calories per day, join a gym and go at least 3 times per week, eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day, do not eat takeout.

Now when you're faced with one of those decisions - such as "It's Friday night and I don't have any food in the house, maybe I'll just get a pizza delivered" - think about the choice you're making. Is your choice going to help, or hinder you, in getting to your goal? Each time you make a hard decision to stay on your path to health, those decisions will get easier.

Believe you deserve it

It's been my experience that many of us who struggle with our weight have issues with confidence and self-esteem. Quite often this can be a vicious circle - we eat badly, so we weigh more, so we despise ourselves, so we eat more, so we weigh more... it just goes around and around. You need to drop a brick wall in front of that train of negative thought.

You may feel right now that your body is an inconvenience and an embarrassment. But treating it badly is never going to change that. As long as you keep feeding it rubbish and denying it exercise, it's going to stay the same state - or get worse. You must make a commitment to yourself to treat your body with respect - because it's part of you, and you deserve respect.

If right now you can't grasp that - if you can hear it but not believe it - behave as if you believe it anyway. Once you start respecting your body, and it begins to respond to that respect by losing fat, becoming more responsive, giving you less pain, you will start to respect it anyway, and thereby yourself.

Celebrate success, but don't punish failure

If you've had a slip-up, given in to temptation, it's easy to say "Well, this day is ruined, so I may as well eat like a pig for the rest of it." Then the day becomes a week... the week becomes a month... then it's "til after my birthday"... and before you know it, it's next year and you're another 20lbs heavier.

When you do slip up - and we're only human, it will happen - don't give in to despair or self-loathing. Just say to yourself, "OK, I made a mistake. I'll just get back on track now and the rest of the day will be fine." If you're able, add some more exercise to offset the extra intake.

Don't try to punish yourself for being human. You've already punished yourself by eating something unhealthy.

On the more cheerful side, when you've reached a milestone, celebrate. It's good to have a list of mini-goals on your journey, and what you'll do to celebrate each one. A new outfit, a pair of shoes, a hair cut, a spa treatment - whatever you like, as long as it's not a food treat!

With this list of weight loss tips, you'll be ready for your journey to health.

Karen Barr is a mother, designer, and lifelong dieter. She owns and operates TopFastWeightLoss.com, a dieter's resource for weight loss news, reviews, tips and opinion.

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