Dieters: When Moderation Doesn't Work
By Janice Elizabeth Small
If there's one habit which will make you
lose weight more than any other it's reducing
the amount you eat by eating only when you
are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied
rather than stuffed.
You can usually lose weight with this habit
no matter what type of foods you eat - because
we are generally eating far too much of everything
these days.
The temptation to eat too much is
everywhere. Standard portion sizes have
grown out of all proportion to our needs
so that the mini muffins of today were
the standard size of a few years ago.
A "tall" coffee is the smallest
size you can get. Snack foods come in
multi-packs and jumbo bars. We get mounds
of food served up to us in restaurants
and we are generally serving bigger portions
at home too. You simply get used to indulging
in an amount of food you can do without.
Most people can pick up on the portion
size idea and reduce their normal intake
when they want to lose weight. They relish
being able to eat the foods they like,
even if they are not eating so much of
it. They use a bowl, take a handful of
tortilla chips out of the bag and put
the rest away. They leave half a muffin
on the plate (better in the trash than
on their hips) and they reduce the pile
of food on their plate. They order less
in restaurants and leave what they don't
need without a qualm.
This is great to avoid a feeling of deprivation
that dieting so often brings about. Reduce
portion sizes by just a third and you
drop 500 calories or more from your daily
intake losing about a pound of fat (3500
calories worth) a week without making
any other changes. Although this is not
the best way to eat healthily - for that
you'd be better switching foods to include
more nutrient-rich items, it does bring
results without having to change too much
at once.
While this is all very well for many
people, there are some who struggle with
this whole way of losing weight. That's
the group who crave a particular item
or food group.
In this group, eating just small amount
of the food they crave leads to eating
a packetful no matter how much they want
to eat in moderation. It may be the case
with chocolate or other high-sugar foods
and sometimes with salty snack type foods.
In this case it's better to stay away
from the food entirely for a short time
while you learn to control portion sizes
using other foods. Then, when you have
a sense that you can control how much
you eat with other foods, you're losing
weight and feeling good, reintroduce a
small portion of the food you used to
crave and see how you get on.
It can be a case of trial and error to
get this right for your circumstances.
We are all different and have different
emotional and physical reactions to food.
It takes longer for some than for others
to be able to cope with a particular craving.
Experiment with reintroducing the food
after 3 or 4 weeks to start with - that's
generally enough to have seen good results
from portion control with the rest of
your meals and snacks. If it leads to
eating too much then leave it for double
that time before retrying. Some people
have given up eating chocolate or ice
cream forever because it's almost like
an addiction but this is unnecessary for
most people once they get the moderation
habit.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach,
slimming club owner and author of "The
Diet Exit Plan", an 8 week coaching
program for automatic permanent weight
loss. Get her FREE 15 page report "How
to lose weight without dieting - 7 secrets
the diet industry doesn't want you to
know" at http://www.SimplySlimming.com
TODAY!
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