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Swift slim success

Research now claims fast weight loss can lead to surprising success, but you do have to be careful. Dietician Susie Burrell gives four safe methods.

– Sydney Morning Herald Susie Burrell is a nutritionist and dietitian.

Historically “slow and steady” has been the default best practice from health professionals when it comes to weight loss. In reality though, when someone wants to lose weight, they want to lose it quickly.

The good news is that now the advice has changed, as research has shown that relatively quick weight loss is predictive of weight loss success. This means dropping a few kilos quickly, and seeing a result on the scales within days, as opposed to a few weeks, is highly motivating, encouraging us to continue with diet and exercise changes.

To achieve fast weight loss, the key is evidence-based and sustainable strategies, so even weight lost quickly can be maintained. If you want to get rid of a few kilos quickly, here are some of the easiest and most scientifically sound ways to do it.

Find your focus

It takes a couple of days following a lower calorie diet to burn through your fuel stores and induce weight loss, which means to achieve a significant drop on the scales you need time – at least five- to seven days’ relatively strict eating.

This explains why a few days of strict eating can quickly be negated by extra eating over the weekend, and can result in no weight change over the course of a week. Time-wise, this means that if your goal is to lose 3kg-5kg quickly, you need to dedicate at least a couple of weeks of relatively strict eating to achieve your goal.

Once you have lost 2kg-3kg after a week or two, you are well on your way to reaching weight-loss goals.

Limit your eating hours

The human body is programmed to have a number of hours without food each day to support digestion, metabolism, gut health and hormone regulation, yet modern life can see us snacking constantly so we are lucky to have an eight- to 10-hour break from eating.

Limiting the hours in which you eat each day naturally aids energy control and boosts your metabolism, as we are more likely to feel hungry each morning after an overnight fast. This means that committing to a period without eating for at least 12, or up to 16 hours each day, and ensuring energy is consumed within an eight- to 10-hour period is an easy way to drop kilos without severe energy restriction.

Double your vegetable intake

Eating twice as many vegetables each day by including extra salad or veges each meal will help to reduce your overall energy intake each time by as many as 400 kilojoules.

You just make sure that half your plate is loaded with low-energy salads and vegetables, reducing the portions of protein and carbohydrates on your plate. Think a vegerich juice with breakfast, or eggs with extra vegetables; a salad or soup with a lunch wrap or sandwich, then less meat and more roasted veges with your evening meal. You are eating more overall, but fewer kilojoules.

Cut the snacks

Unless you are extremely active, if you are enjoying three balanced meals each day, chances are you do not need to snack.

Focusing on filling meals that contain plenty of salads and vegetables should keep you full and satisfied between meals. Cutting back snacks and opting for light options such as berries, a coffee, vegetables with tzatziki, or a cup or two of popcorn will help you drop 2kg-3kg quickly minus any fad diets.

Wellbeing

en-nz

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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