Gentle Weight Loss Tips: Focus on Adding, Not Restricting
- jennytheissignutri
- 12. Sept. 2024
- 9 Min. Lesezeit
Dieting is not something I talk about often because there is much to cover in this topic and so much nuance and I don't want to rush through it. Much of this advice we see online though focuses on extreme mindsets, high levels of restriction and unrealistic and unsustainable changes. It focuses on using fear as a tool and results in short-term weight loss results and long-term damage to our relationship with food. I am not immune to this and I hold no criticism to those who have followed these diets or fallen for this type of marketing. I have fallen for many of these mentalities and this is essentially what motivated me to become educated in the field of nutrition; to protect myself and others from some of the "unhinged" content that is finding its way onto social media.
Before I dive into the topic of weight loss I want to clarify; just because you have lost weight on a specific diet doesn't make it healthy. Weight loss occurs when your calorie intake is less than your calorie output. This is the biomechanics of how weight loss happens. Nutrition Professor from Kansis University ate a "junk-food" diet for 10 weeks (in a calorie deficit) and lost over 12 kg (27 lbs). This of course does not make a diet like this healthy! It is rich in refined sugars, and saturated fat and is missing key nutrients. Yes, I am aware that this is an extreme diet and no one is going to say this is healthy but what about a carnivore diet? Or a carb-free diet? Or even a raw food diet? All of these extreme diets miss out on essential nutrients and will result in negative long-term health complications even if they do result in short-term health consequences. Honestly, even the thought of this kind of extreme diet stresses us out!
Weight loss, however, can be done positively and simply that truly will benefit your health. I want to make it clear that you can healthily do this. What about if we focused on adding in and building a positive mindset towards good nutrition? Adding nourishing habits can create a more balanced, positive relationship with food that leads to sustainable weight loss and a positive relationship with food and our bodies. Here are some gentle weight loss tips that encourage you to add, not restrict!
Add More Fruits and Vegetables to Your Plate
Most diets focus on removing or restricting certain foods, like carbs, sugars, processed foods or even animal products. Though this may sound good on paper, often this strategy backfires and results in us eating more. Instead of thinking about what you can't eat, consider what you can add to make your meals more vibrant and nutritious. Start by adding more fruits and vegetables to every meal and snack (or as often as possible). They are low in calories, high in fibre, and full of essential vitamins and minerals and even help keep you hydrated.
Why It Works: Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in calories and high in fibre, which helps keep you fuller for longer. Adding them to your meals means you'll naturally eat fewer high-calorie foods without feeling deprived. Fruits and veggies also contain lots of vitamins and minerals which help to keep you thriving in your hectic day-to-day life.
How to Do It: Include a variety of colourful vegetables in your meals and add fruit as a side dish or dessert. Think of meals like a vegetable-packed omelette, a salad loaded with mixed greens, or a smoothie filled with berries and spinach. Think outside the box too; how about a salad with feta and pear or berries or savoury waffles with spinach or pumpkin puree? There are some wonderfully creative recipes online that make this goal not only possible but also fun and exciting.
Add More Water Throughout the Day
Staying hydrated is often overlooked in weight loss strategies, but it can play a crucial role in promoting overall health and may aid in weight loss. When we drink more water, we will often find ourselves drinking less soft drinks, coffee or other calorie-heavy drinks. To avoid a restrictive mindset, I suggest using water as a thirst quencher and adding things like soft drinks or fancy coffee drinks for fun. The other reason it is important to drink enough when we are on a weight loss journey is to make sure that you don't become blocked up! Now that you are consuming more soluble fibre, you need to make sure that you are drinking plenty of water.
Why It Works: Replacing the majority of your calorie-heavy drinks with water is one of the easiest ways to reduce overall calorie consumption. Water also aids in digestion, increases energy levels and helps your body function at its best.
How to Do It: Keep a water bottle with you throughout the day, set reminders to drink water, and aim to drink a glass before each meal. Adding slices of lemon, cucumber, or fresh mint can make drinking water more enjoyable.
Add More Protein to Each Meal
Protein is essential for building and repairing tissues, but it also helps you feel satisfied longer. Including protein in every meal can help manage hunger and prevent overeating.
Why It Works: Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates, keeping you full longer and stabilizing your blood sugar levels.
How to Do It: Incorporate lean proteins like chicken, fish, tofu, legumes, or eggs into your meals. Snack on nuts, seeds, Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese for a protein boost.
Add Movement You Enjoy to Your Daily Routine
Instead of focusing on burning calories with gruelling workouts, try adding more enjoyable movement to your daily routine. The key is to find activities you love so that moving your body becomes something you look forward to rather than dread. This is a great opportunity to try out sports, games and activities that you have never tried before. Earlier this year I was blessed to be allowed to join a ballet class for a few weeks and let me tell you, ballet is no joke! But having that opportunity to try something new was great fun (even if it isn't something I chose to continue). Look for fun things or interesting things to help you increase your movement throughout the day, like riding a scooter or bike to the shops, playing frisbee golf with friends or collecting leaves and bark to create magic potions with the kids. Remember that all movement is good movement and what matters here is consistency. Finding something you enjoy doing helps you to remain consistent.
Why It Works: Regular physical activity boosts metabolism, improves mood, and supports overall health. Enjoyable movement is easier to maintain over time. Consistent exercise also helps reduce the loss of muscle mass that often occurs during our weight-loss efforts.
How to Do It: Find activities that make you happy—dancing, walking, cycling, or playing a sport with friends. Start small by adding a 10-minute walk after dinner or a dance session in the living room with your kids. The recommendations set by the DGE (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung are 30-60 minutes of light to moderate exercise 5 days a week) and remember that rest is also important to aid in muscle repair.
Add More Sleep to Your Schedule
Sleep is a powerful tool for weight management that is often underestimated. Lack of sleep can lead to increased hunger, reduced willpower, and slower metabolism. Often when we stay awake longer than we should, we will eat more and often higher calorie processed foods like chips, chocolate, ice cream and lollies (who snacks on carrot sticks late at night?)
Why It Works: Good sleep regulates hunger hormones and helps your body recover from daily stress. When we are sufficiently rested we are much less likely to make impulsive decisions resulting in consuming fewer calories overall.
How to Do It: Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night by setting a consistent bedtime, creating a relaxing bedtime routine, and ensuring your sleep environment is comfortable and dark. Switching off your phone has also proven to have a positive effect on sleep quality as well as avoiding caffeine and alcohol consumption shortly before bedtime. Getting enough sleep may mean saying "no" to certain things and asking for sleep from your kids or spouse so you can make rest a priority.
Add More Mindful Eating Practices
Mindful eating is about being present while you eat, enjoying your food, and listening to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Switching off the television, eating at the dinner table and focusing on creating a positive environment at meal times. Taking your time to eat and enjoy your moment can help to support better digestion and prevent overeating. It also helps you to be more mindful of your hunger and fullness cues. If you want more information about mindful eating practices, check out my article on the topic here.
Why It Works: Eating mindfully can help you recognise true hunger, enjoy your food more, and prevent overeating.
How to Do It: Slow down while eating, chew thoroughly, and savour the flavours and textures of your food. Avoid distractions like TV or your phone while eating and focus on creating a positive eating environment.
Add Healthy Fats to Your Diet
Contrary to popular belief, not all fats are bad. Healthy fats are essential for brain function, hormone production, and feeling satisfied after meals.
Why It Works: Healthy fats like those in avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil can help keep you full and satisfied, preventing overeating.
How to Do It: Add a handful of nuts to your snack, drizzle olive oil over salads, or enjoy a slice of avocado on your toast.
Add More Whole Grains
Switching from refined grains to whole grains can have a big impact on your health. Whole grains are packed with fiber, which aids digestion and keeps you feeling full.
Why It Works: Whole grains take longer to digest, so they keep you full for longer and help stabilize blood sugar levels.
How to Do It: Replace white bread, rice, and pasta with whole-grain alternatives like whole-wheat bread, brown rice, quinoa, or oats.
check out the following video on how to build a more positive mindset on your weightloss journey. Our mindset has a strong impact on how we behave around food so having the right thought process while on a weightloss journey is essential.
Weight loss can be a challenge and many of us have tried so many times that we don't even want to try anymore. We must approach weight loss not as a short-term solution to a problem but as a long-term change that we can maintain. Of course, this article is only a brief summary and I am sure we will come back to this topic in the future. But before we go, I want to give a few more tips;
Create a positive mindset. Most of us struggle to accept and love ourselves when we don't look the way we want to. But by learning to love ourselves and detach weight from worth, we can make the process of weight loss much more enjoyable and sustainable.
Keep the foods we love. If you are a chocolate lover, don't cut them out! Try choosing the chocolate you love (10/10 recommend Lindt Lindor) and balance out the snack with other foods like nuts, fruits or vegetables.
Find nutrient-dense foods and meals that you love. Nobody wants to eat a dry boring salad every day! Find nutrient-dense recipes you love and you can eat regularly. Incorporate variety into your meals and snacks so you do not become bored and revert to your old way of eating.
Weigh yourself a maximum of once a week. Weighing yourself daily can easily become obsessive and push our mental health into a negative space. Don't become too caught up in individual numbers but find a place to note down your weight each week and look for a trend of decreasing numbers. This will help to remind you that just because you didn't lose weight this week, doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong. Focus on other indicators such as reaching nutrition goals, movement, stress management or sleep goals.
Focus on overall trends: It is easy to get caught up in the specific macros or calories of a single meal or even a single day. Instead, watch for the overview of your diet. If you find that you tend to overeat at night, make sure you are eating enough during the day and getting enough sleep.
Sustainable weight loss is best. The general recommendation is to aim for a weight loss of 0,5-1kg (1-2 lbs) a week. Diets that result in rapid weight loss tend to result in weight gain in the long term. This also goes for eating habits; focus on making changes that you can maintain long-term. If you cannot sustain this way of living, modify until its sustainable for you. Remember you can always start at a 5% change and increase to 10% until you reach the sustainable lifestyle that you want.
Conclusion: Focus on Adding for a Healthier You
Weight loss doesn’t have to mean giving up everything you love. By focusing on adding more nutritious foods, healthy habits, and joyful activities, you create a sustainable and positive approach to health. Remember, sustainable weight loss is not about a six-week crash diet but about a long-term sustainable approach that you actually enjoy. Celebrate the small wins, enjoy the process, and focus on how you feel rather than the numbers on the scale. Most importantly, don't compare yourself to others or even to your past self. This journey is truly about health: focus on the good things like increased energy, better digestion, better sleep quality and the enjoyment of food even in this phase of weight loss.
By shifting your mindset from restriction to abundance, you’ll find that healthy changes are easier to maintain, more enjoyable, and ultimately more effective for long-term well-being.
Disclaimers:
A lower weight does not guarantee improved health: focus on sustainable healthy habits and other positive feedback your body gives you. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat so the scale may remain the same even if you are losing fat.
If you are concerned about your mental health in this specific area, please see a professional trained specifically in the area of eating disorders and mental health.
If you are struggling to apply these concepts mentioned in this article and would like some help, please feel free to book an appointment with me and together we can work to make a sustainable weight loss plan for you.
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