Your efforts in trying to lose weight would prove futile if you don’t watch your eating habits. It is said that 70% of your weight loss effectiveness is dependent on your diet, and the remaining 30% is dependent on your workout routine. But, even while eating the right food, you get to still miss out on your weight loss goals, so obviously you are doing something wrong.
Plan Your Eating Schedule Mindfully
Eating healthily and implementing food portion control are two effective ways to lose weight, but knowing the right time to eat is just as important. The timing of your food is as important as your meal and the quantity of food you consume. Most people do not pay attention to the time they eat, but if you want to lose weight faster, try eating your food at the same time daily. When you practice erratic eating, it can damage your weight loss regime and cause you to add pounds instead of shedding more kilos.
Research has shown that no matter how healthy you eat when you do not eat at the right time, you get to render your weight loss plan ineffective. But when you follow an eating timetable, it would balance your circadian rhythms and mealtime together. If your body notices a difference in any of these two, it can cause your blood sugar level to rise by at least 18 percent. The perfect timing would help balance your body-weight, reduce your risk of developing obesity-related health conditions, improve your sleep cycle, and increase your body’s metabolism.
Breakfast
Do not skip your breakfast as a means of trying to shed extra pounds, because it is the most important meal of the day. Your breakfast should always be high in protein and should be taken between 6 AM-10 AM. Following this routine would prevent your body from accumulating extra fat and even make you feel less hungry during the day. So, you can see that skipping your breakfast isn’t such a good idea.
Research has shown that people who always have their breakfast, lose about 15 kilos more than those who skip breakfast.
Mid-Morning Snack
Taking a mid-morning snack is not important; it all boils down to if you are feeling hungry or not. Your body requires a minimum of four hours to digest food, so if you decide on munching any mid-morning snack, then you best do that 2 to 4 hours after you have taken your breakfast. When you stick to this time frame, it helps to make you feel fuller for a longer period, and can even help maintain your energy level down till the afternoon.
Lunch
No matter how busy you get to be, make sure that you take your lunch before 3 PM. A certain study showed that dieters, who always had their lunch earlier, were able to lose more weight than those who ate lunch late in the afternoon.
Afternoon Snack
The same technique applicable to morning snacks applies to afternoon snacks. It would help if you had your afternoon snack about 2 to 4 hours after lunch. However, only do this if you feel hungry and not because you have the meal available. When you take snacks in between meals, it will prevent you from eating as much as you should.
It’s advisable to eat in small portions frequently than taking long hours intervals between each meal. That’s because it would cause you to overeat when you are set to eat your main meal.
For snacks, you can have nuts, fruits, or you can incorporate smoothies into your snacks. Increasing your intake of vegetables is a great plus if you are trying to lose weight.
Dinner
It’s recommended that you have your dinner before 7 PM, and make sure you don’t eat heavy meals at night. People who have their dinner before 7 PM would consume fewer calories, and this would result in losing more fats than those who did not. It is also advisable for you to eat about 2 hours before going to bed if you want to lose weight effectively.
Bonus Tip – Eat Calcium and Vitamin D
You need these two nutrients to have strong bones. You should try and place your focus on incorporating calcium and vitamin D into your three servings per day. Vitamin D is very important in weight loss because your body’s extra weight would hold on to vitamin D in your body but won’t be able to use it. When this occurs, a hormone known as “leptin” sends to the brain the message that your body is full, and this would prevent you from overeating.
