There is good news in that there are many things that can be done to get past a weight-loss plateau.
If you want to lose weight, Kimberly Gomer, Director of Nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center& Spa, says it's important to create a deficit of calories consumed versus calories burned.
In order to lose weight and body fat, you need to either reduce your calorie intake or increase the amount of exercise you do.
It's not easy to reduce calorie intake, especially when you're already hungry. The key is to find a way to eat less without feeling constantly hungry.
Perils of Chronic Hunger
Gomer claims that it is difficult for people to go without food for long periods of time. Your brain starts to make you crave unhealthy foods when you're starving yourself.
If you want to break free of temptation and lose weight, you need to focus on something other than food. Gomer suggests keeping hunger at bay as the best way to do this. Eating less calories is one way to reduce appetite and overall calorie intake.
Satiety = Success
Your key to success is to get as much satisfaction as you can for every calorie you consume.
The more satisfied you feel after eating a meal or snack, the less hunger you feel. Therefore, it is easier to reduce your overall daily calorie consumption, lose weight, and keep it off.
How long it takes you to feel hungry after you eat is also a measure of satiety. If a meal keeps you full for one hour, two hours, or three hours, it has a lot of satiety.
Although it may seem like you need to eat a lot of food to feel full, this is not the case. You can feel just as satisfied after eating a smaller amount of food. For example, you would feel just as full after eating a can of nuts (1,400 calories) as you would after eating a pound of Oreos (2,200 calories).
To choose foods that give you the most satiety on the fewest number of calories – and help you break through your weight-loss plateau – follow these 10 tips:
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1. Eat Water-Rich (Not Fat-Rich) Foods.
Water-rich, fiber-filled foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, hot cereals, potatoes, corn, yams, whole-wheat pasta, and brown rice can help you feel fuller for longer. These foods contain a lot of water, which usually leads to a feeling of fullness without a lot of calories.
So a pound of any of these foods can serve up a full day’s worth of hunger-curbing, weight-loss inducing calories. A pound of vegetables can be as little as 65-195 calories, which is an entire pound of food. A pound of fruit is only 200-400 calories. A pound of beans, hot cereals, potatoes, corn, yams, whole-wheat pasta, or brown rice is 400-750 calories. So a pound of any of these foods could provide a day's worth of calories that would suppress hunger and promote weight loss.
In contrast, dried cereal, fat-free chips, and white sugar contain a lot of calories.
It is important to think in terms of pounds because your stomach can hold two to three pounds of food. Once your stomach is full and you have received the signal, you are finished eating.
If you eat a lot of pasta with marinara sauce and vegetables, you will only consume 400 calories. However, if you eat a lot of fatty, fiberless foods like pastrami and cookies, you will consume 1,400 calories. Both meals will make you feel just as full, but the difference in calorie intake will be reflected in your waistline.
Water and fiber-rich foods are not only good for you, but they are also the best foods for your health. Studies have found that populations whose diets are based on whole, natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, have longer lives and lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and many cancers.
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2. Ditch the Dry Stuff.
Avoid eating foods that are dry, especially high-fat items such as chips, crackers, candy bars, trail mix, and cookies or other baked goods. These foods have very few calories per serving, so you will either end up being overweight or always feeling hungry.
Healthier but dryer options such as bagels, pretzels, dried cereals, fat-free chips, and dried fruit should be limited as well. This is because all dry foods contain a lot of calories that are condensed into a small space. It's easy to consume 1,000 to 2,000 calories without feeling full.
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3. Start Out With a Big Satisfying Salad.
Having a big salad at the beginning of your lunch and dinner will help fill you up so that you'll eat less of the more calorie-dense food that comes after. When you're at a salad bar, make sure to get seconds, or even thirds!
Gomer says that you should use a dressing with lots of vinegar and little to no oil. They also say that beans and whole grains are good additions to salads but you should avoid croutons, fatty meats, mayonnaise salads, creamy dressings, and cheese as they can increase the calorie density and nullify the benefits of eating a salad.
If you're looking to cut down on calories, stick to salads with fresh veggies instead of high-calorie toppings. A salad with cheese, full-fat dressings, and bacon bits can add up to 600 calories, but it won't keep you full for long.
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4. Make Good Use of Your Soup Spoons.
Include soup, stew, and chili in your diet every day if possible. These “wet” foods should be rich in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and lean animal protein like fish or chicken. If you prefer, you can have a soup, stew, or chili with no animal protein at all. According to Gomer, these foods will make you feel full without consuming a lot of calories.
Scientists at Penn State University have found that people who eat soups and stews that are rich in vegetables and grains tend to consume fewer calories over the course of the day than people who do not eat any soups or stews.
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5. Don’t Drink Your Calories.
Replace calorie-rich drinks with water, unsweetened tea, or sparkling water. These beverages will not interfere with satiety the way sugary drinks do.
The same can be said for fruit and vegetable juices. You are much more likely to eat more food (and more calories) after drinking a glass of orange juice than if you had eaten a whole orange. In addition, the glass of orange juice by itself has twice the calories (100 to 110) of a medium-sized whole orange (50).
Each calorie counts towards your weight. Just 100 extra calories per day can add 10 pounds to your weight over the course of a year.
Instead of drinking fruit juice, you should eat whole fruit. This way you can enjoy more fruit for the same number of calories. For example, for the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you could have an apple, an orange, and a slice of watermelon.
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6. Get Simple.
Gomer warns against going to buffets or other places with a lot of different food options. He says that having a lot of variety stimulates appetite, and gives the example of how we often stuff ourselves with dessert even when we're full because it's new and there's only a little bit.
If you're full, the only foods that might make you eat more are those that are low in satiety but high in calories, like rich desserts.
If you only choose a few things to eat at each meal, you will end up feeling full on fewer calories. That is how you can lose weight.
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7. Get In Touch With Your Stomach
Make sure to eat only when you're feeling hungry, not when you're famished and desperate for any type of food. Pay attention to the little cues from your body that tell you it's time to eat, and then go ahead and have a meal.
Eating when you are hungry will result in feeling more satisfied than eating when you are not hungry. This means you will overall consume less calories. “Research shows that people who were told to wait till they were hungry to eat an afternoon snack ate fewer calories at dinner than people who ate the same snack earlier in the afternoon, when they weren’t hungry,” says Gomer.
The old saying “Hunger is the best sauce” is true – food tastes better when you're hungry.
If you're really hungry, even something simple like a baked potato, a piece of fish, and some steamed vegetables can taste pretty darn good, according to Gomer.
If you are constantly eating high-calorie, low-satiety foods, such as fatty meats, croissants, and chocolate, other food choices, like baked potatoes and vegetables, will seem unappealing. A diet that is low in satiety-per-calorie intake can result in a pattern of eating mostly fattening foods, which can lead to an increase in body fat stores and an increased risk for heart attacks, cancer, and other diseases.
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8. Skip Dessert – Or Opt For Healthy Choices
If you still have room for more food after dinner, try some fresh fruit. At the market or restaurant, you can find the best seasonal fruits, like raspberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches, mangoes, and guavas. You won't find anything sweeter! If you're not interested in fruit, you probably weren't that hungry to begin with.
Gomer says that cravings for calorie-rich desserts are not because of hunger, but because of bad food habits, and the only way to get rid of them is to not give in to them.
Many people eat the most fattening foods of the day at nighttime, even though they're not hungry. This is because the evening is the witching hour, when other feelings take over, like boredom, anxiety, anger, or the need for a reward.
Try and find non-food rewards to give yourself in the evening instead – like a massage, a yoga class, a walk at sunset, browsing in your favourite bookstore, watching a good movie, or calling an old friend. What started as a way to distract yourself may become your new evening activity of choice. Plus, you'll feel better about yourself in the morning.
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9. Pump It Up – But Not Too Much
There is no doubt that exercising more will help you lose weight quicker. This is why the Pritikin Program recommends that you do aerobic exercise for 60 minutes every day, resistance training two to three times a week, and stretching every day.
Scott encourages people to try their best to get back on track if they are falling below certain guidelines. He also mentions that interval training, which alternating periods of high and low intensity aerobic exercise, can help people break through weight-loss plateaus.
Do not overdo it with exercise because you may start to see less results. This is because large amounts of physical activity will increase appetite. Although you will burn more calories, you will also eat more.
There is no amount of exercise that can make up for an unhealthy diet.
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10. Keep Your Eye On the Prize
Being thin really does feel better than anything else. It's an amazing feeling to be able to wear smaller clothes and to feel healthier overall.
According to Gomer, not only do you feel better when you are thinner, but you also crave healthier foods. When you are hungry, as opposed to bored, anxious, or just eating because it is meal time, you enjoy your food more.
Are you struggling to lose weight? According to Gomer, the best way to break through weight-loss plateaus is to “get back to Pritikin.” Pritikin is a plan that focuses on healthy eating and exercise, and it is apparently very effective. Not only will you lose weight, but you will also be healthier overall.
Why weight loss plateaus
Losing weight is more complex than just working out more. Your diet is actually much more important.
“The weight loss equation is heavily skewed toward your dietary choices — not your activity level,” explains Dr. Tariq. “You can eat or drink 400 calories in just a minute or two. To burn those 400 calories off, however, you would need to run (at a sprinting pace) for about 30 to 40 minutes. And this just isn't something the majority of people can do.”
Basically, if you're not losing weight, it's because you're eating too much. Exercise can help, but it's not going to make up for a bad diet.
The way to avoid getting stuck at the same weight is to make permanent changes to your diet- and to be patient.
“This doesn't mean, however, that you can toss exercise by the wayside. You still have to work on both sides of the equation: Diet and exercise,” says Dr. Tariq. “It's like when you're trying to save for a large purchase, such as a new car or a home. It takes spending less money as well as putting more aside. The same goes for weight loss. Eating less is a must, but so is getting plenty of exercise.”
