1) Make sure you eat a good breakfast. It keeps your energy levels stable and keeps your metabolism high.

2) Fill your plate with veggies and eat them first. If you split your plate into 4 sections two of them, or half the plate, should be veggies. That leaves 1/4 for a meat item and 1/4 for a starch.

3) Remove liquids with calories from your diet plan. This includes soda’s and juices. Switching from regular Coke to Diet Coke saves you 180 calories from a 12 ounce can. That’s 65,700 calories a year or almost 19 pounds.

4) Try to avoid caffeine. It will give you that temporary boost in energy and dull your appetite, but later you’ll feel even worse and twice as hungry. And the more hungry you are the more likely you are to binge.

5) Switch from whole milk to 1% or skim milk.

6) Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day.

7) If you’re feeling hungry have a glass of water first. Often we think we are hungry when in reality we are thirsty. Even if it is true hunger the water will fill you up a little and you’ll be less likely to overeat.

Have a healthy snack at 3PM when your energy is low. Vegetables with low calorie dip, rice cakes and sugar-free jam, low fat yogurt or a small handful of almonds are all good choices.

9) Keep your portions reasonable. Portions should be the size of your fist or the size of a deck of cards. Stay away from “supersize” portions

10) Eat at a slower pace. It can take 15 minutes for our brains to register that we are full so if you’re eating fast you’re probably eating too much.

11) Eat more soup. They are filling and good for you. Stick with the non-cream soups that are low in calories and often high in fiber.

12) Eat every 3 hours to keep your metabolism high, hunger at bay and your blood sugar levels stable.

13) Use low calories condiments like mustard instead of fatty ones like mayonnaise.

14) Keep a food journal, especially if you’re just starting to diet. There are lots of them available online. My favorite free one is at FitDay.com

15) If you’re eating out get a doggie bag and put half your meal into it for later or even better for someone else. A typical meal out will have 1000+ calories, not including bread, appetizers, drinks etc.

16) When eating out skip the dessert. If you simply have to have that triple fudge chocolate layer cake share it with someone.

17) Treat yourself once a week. Even the strongest of us have weak moments. If you know that you’ll get a break once a week it’s much easier to stick with your diet for the other 6 days.

18) Exercise regularly. Even if you just walk 20-30 minutes a day the benefits are amazing. You’ll lose not just from the calories you burn during exercise, but also from the boost in metabolism.

19) Find an exercise partner. It helps to know that someone is counting on you to show up at the gym. And it makes it more like an appointment and thus harder to skip out on.

20) Limit the amount of alcohol you drink. Try to drink only on weekends and limit yourself to one or two glasses.

Even using just a few of the tips can save you hundreds of calories daily and take off some unwanted pounds. I am not that overweight to begin with and dropped almost 10 pounds just by cutting soda out of my diet plan and drinking more water. Good luck with whatever diet plan you choose and I hope this list will help some of you to meet your diet goals.

Article Source: http://www.123article.org

This helpful diet plan article comes from a 40-ish guy that has been fighting a winning battle with his weight for years. Learn more about weight loss and popular diet plans at Diet Plan 1-2-3

Before I get into these factors we need to talk about metabolism. You have probably heard the term mentioned before in articles and in programs talking about speeding up your metabolism or doing certain things that can slow down your metabolism.

Well your body converts the foods that you eat into energy this energy runs your body. It is the driving force behind everything from building muscle to digesting food. Think of our bodies as machines that convert food into energy and imagine that some bodies do this better than others. In other words a person who has a high metabolism can convert food to energy more efficiently. A person with a low metabolism does not convert food to energy as well and so much of that energy is lost. In this Guide to Losing Weight we will look at how the 4 factors I mentioned earlier affect metabolism.

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1)  Genes

A persons genes play a big part in just about everything when it comes to your body. People who have obese parents are more likely to have weight problems because of genes. For those who feel that their genes put them at a disadvantage it’s important to understand that there are many things that you can do to offset the affects of genes. A persons genes only determine a tendency towards obesity. Other factors like exercise and proper diet play a much bigger role.

2)  Metabolic Rate

A persons metabolic rate is mostly determined by how active they are. According to doctors every ten years after our early to middle twenties our metabolic rate slows down by around 10%. Some of the reason for this is the fact that as we get older we tend be less active. Since muscle increases metabolism and sitting around accelerates muscle loss over time a persons metabolism slows. Of course more muscle mass makes it easier to lose weight and helps keep it off.

3) Eating Patterns

Much of our tendencies for food and the way we eat comes from the way we were raised and or the culture that we were brought up in. For example

People’s food related habits and cultural expectations are also important determinants of their weight, influencing the types and amounts of foods consumed.

For instance, families favoring high-fat, high calorie food (such as lasagna) served ‘family style’ (so that anyone can take as much as they like) are at greater risk for eating too much food and gaining weight than are families serving smaller portions of lean meats, steamed vegetables and brown rice. Similarly, families who push members to eat, or who keep high fat snacks and deserts handy are at greater risk for weight problems than are families that promote sensible portion sizes and save treats for special occasions.

The speed at which people learn to eat and the consciousness with which they do so are important too. People who eat quickly tend to eat more than people who eat slowly as it takes a few minutes for your stomach to tell your brain it is full. Fast eaters sometimes finish their plates before getting the stomach’s fullness message.

3) Exercise

Exercise is a very important part of any healthy plan to lose weight. Actually its a very important part of healthy living. There are a whole host of problems can came up from not be active.

Exercise is the one of  the things that you control no matter what your genetic background is. The best way to look at exercise is to decide to be active as part of your life. In other words be active for you, not for your weight.

Adding muscle to your frame helps your body to burn fat natrually because muscle is very metabolically active. That means that when you add muscle it raises your metabolism and that makes you burn calories quicker.

Of course you should always go to your doctor for advise before you start any major exercise programs.

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10 Rules of Weight Loss

• Manipulate calories

• Eat 4 meals a day (2 1/2 hours between each)

• Prepare meals at home

• Rotate carb and protein meals each day

• Eat meals plain (meaning no condiments)

• Knowing when to stop eating (these are small meals)

• Only drink certain drinks

• Drink lots of water

• Walking

• Avoid sweet stuff

FatLoss4Idiots is not low-carb diet and it is not a low-fat diet. Each day the meals rotate:

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