If you're among the millions of overweight individuals in America, losing weight can have a drastic impact on your health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even moderate weight loss can lower your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. Regardless of which weight loss program you choose, you can increase the benefits you receive--and lose more weight--by making small lifestyle changes.
Drink Water
When counting calories and measuring portion sizes, don't overlook the calories in what you're drinking. Sugary drinks such as sodas and some fruit juices can slow your weight loss. Although drinking water with meals helps facilitate your weight loss, drinking water before meals can help as well.
CNN.com reports that a 2010 study by the American Chemical Society in Boston proves that drinking two eight ounce glasses of water before meals facilitates weight loss by helping you feel full faster, providing a remarkably safe weight loss trick.
Read Nutrition Labels
Don't assume that just because a food product claims to be low-calorie that it doesn't contain other ingredients that could sabotage your weight loss goals. Learning to properly read nutrition labels when selecting healthy meals and snacks can help you to lose weight faster by knowing which supposedly healthy foods you should actually avoid.
FamilyDoctor.org recommends that you closely scrutinize nutrition labels for both saturated fats and trans fats. Your daily intake of saturated fat should not exceed 20 grams per day. The ideal daily intake of trans fat for any individual, however, is zero grams. Trans fat may be listed as "hydrogenated vegetable oil" on some products' nutrition labels.
Write it Down
Even on a strict diet, you could be ingesting more calories than you realize. Writing down exactly what you eat every day--no matter how insignificant a snack seems--can help to keep you on track. According to Canada's National Post, researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of Kentucky discovered that dieters who wrote down what they ate and when they exercised were more likely to meet their weight loss goals.
Eat More Fiber
You need three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit a day for a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Because fruits and vegetables are naturally low calorie foods, they're ideal for most weight loss programs. Not only are fruits and vegetables low-calorie alternatives to unhealthy snacks, but they're also naturally high in fiber. High fiber foods fight hunger by helping you feel full for longer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that you can also include more fiber in your diet by opting for whole-grains such as oatmeal, whole-wheat flour and brown rice, rather than refined grains.
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