How to Lose Weight With a Fast & Easy Diet

The easiest diets are the ones that keep you from feeling like you're missing anything while incorporating healthy choices. Make small, but effective, changes to create a diet plan that feels good and works. Prepare yourself mentally to give up some things, asking "Why do I want to lose this weight? What am I willing to sacrifice?" Once you've established your readiness, prepare to see some results. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Instructions

Dieting doesn't need to be painful.

1

Focus on Substitutions. When it comes to the makeup of your meals, don't just get rid of foods-have less of the high-fat, high-calorie and more of the alternatives. Have your lasagna, but use reduced-fat cheese in place of full fat: part-skim ricotta, Jarlsberg, or mozzarella. Have extra tomato sauce on the side to add volume with no calories with some spinach inside to make the lasagna a little more filling. To make Chicken Parmesan, try making your own breading from whole wheat bread and baking the chicken instead of frying it. For pizza, use a thinner crust for less calories and pile on the veggies: onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms for instance. Take your own recipes and look for ways to make them diet friendly.

2

Replace processed foods. Whole grains, and fresh ingredients come without the added sugar of processed foods and often with high fiber, both of which are very important to weight management. High fiber foods keep carbohydrates from being absorbed so quickly, while high-carbohydrate refined foods tend to be stored as fat instead of being used for energy. Look for bread, roles, pasta, and rice that are whole grain with at least 2g of fiber per serving. Split peas, lentils, black beans, lima beans, baked beans, and artichokes are among the highest-fiber plant based foods.

3

Don't become ravenous, but recognize hunger. Being ravenously hungry can make anyone want to grab for the next closest edible thing. Prevent that desperation by stopping to refill throughout the day, especially using high fiber foods. Try rating your hunger on a scale from one to 10 and only eating when it reaches a certain number, giving you a standard for whether you need to eat and at which point you will eat.