Make these blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em diet changes and drop a dress size without realising
Fact: most of us don't get fat eating hundreds of calories for a few weeks. Instead, weight gain creeps up slowly, with studies* revealing it can be attributed to eating as little as 50 extra calories each day - think nibbling a Jaffa Cake while the kettle boils. But fret not, the good news is that losing the added weight can be easy, too.
"When you integrate a small change into your diet it doesn't disrupt your life, it just modifies it in a tiny way," explains Dr James Hill, advisor to the American Small Changes Movement - an organisation that aims to get people to dump fad diets and focus on little changes to drop the pounds. "You don't notice a difference, but done day in, day out, the results of a small change really add up."
Small changes = smaller bikini, so here's how to tweak, like, now!
1.Take your time
Forget chewing your food till it's mushy. It might aid digestion, but Marco Morgenstern, the author of a New Zealand study, says it's a killer for weight loss. "The more that starchier foods like cereal or bread are chewed, the faster they're digested - and fast digestion triggers a rise in blood sugar," says Morgenstern. After a sugar rush comes a trip to the biscuit tin, as the sugar triggers cravings. Chew moderately and you digest up to three times slower, creating a gradual sugar rise that won't trigger cravings. Cut out the chocolate you would have eaten and lose up to 6lb in three months.
2.Stop the sugar
Dr Hill says sugar as a major weight-loss player. You can save 100 calories by cutting out those 6tsp a day you use in tea and on cereal. Instead, swap to natural sweetener xylitol, which is made from tree bark. "Xylitol is associated with reduced tooth decay as it seems to stop bacteria sticking to the teeth," says nutritionist Antony Haynes.
3.Get up, get on up!
Always barging on to the bus to get your bum on that last seat? Chill. Studies from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the US have found that women who are 'naturally' thin stand for roughly two hours more a day than others. Why? More muscles are engaged when you stand, so you burn more calories - 100 an hour. Dr James Levine, author of Move A Little, Lose A Lot (Three Rivers Press, £9.08), advises you to get up on your feet for 10 minutes every hour. Do that each working day and that's 5lb gone in just six months.
4.Leave three bites behind
You may have been told to clear your plate as a child, but leaving just three bites behind will save precious calories. Try it with the average fast-food burger and you'll save100 calories a time. "Leaving food will help you become more aware of the quantities you're really eating," says nutritionist Mary Strugar (Eatertypes.co.uk).
5.Get your afternoon oats
This is just one secret of new book The Dukan Diet (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99). "When oats reach the stomach they swell, making you feel fuller for longer," says Dr Pierre Dukan. Eating two Nairns Oatcakes instead of a chocolate bar will save 170 calories, which could help you lose 1/3lb a week.
6.Have a mushroom Monday
When a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in the US asked people to swap meat in just one of their daily meals for mushrooms for four consecutive days, they found the calorie savings added up to a whopping 420 calories less a day! If you can't live without meat for that long, then quitting it for one meal, once a week, could help you lose up to 6lb in a year.
7.Forfeit the fizz
Love a (non) Diet Coke break? Whether yours brings a hot man with it or not, if you sup one less fizzy drink a day (based on a 250ml glass - and no, not champagne!) you can save around 105 calories - and therefore lose a pound every 33 days. And that's just the start of the new, slimmer you. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the US say that because liquid calories are less filling, you're more likely to crave food after fizz. Dump it altogether and you can say bye-bye to post-thirst cookie cravings. Huzzah!
8.Eat your steak rare
It's BBQ season - but this summer switch to eating your steaks rare rather than well done, as it will help your body burn more calories. Why? "Meat contains collagen fibres that our body finds hard to break down in their raw state, so we expend more energy eating it, meaning more weight loss. Cooking softens fibres so you use less energy eating it," explains Dr Stephen Secor from the University of Alabama.
9.Draw the curtains
Got a tubby tummy? Weight around the middle is linked to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which helps regulate blood sugar. Sunlight naturally increases cortisol production in your body, and too much exposure can send blood sugar levels soaring, causing you to pile on the pounds. Draw your curtains and try to get an early night, since sleeping more can help to encourage weight loss too - ever reached for a choccie bar when you're tired? In one trial, women who got at least 7.5 hours' sleep a night lost an average of 10lb in 10 weeks.
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