5 Key Strategies for Successful Weight Loss and Beyond

It's the new year, and that means resolutions. If yours involves making a change in your diet with weight loss as a goal, you are facing a dizzying array of information out there. There is a great deal of evidence about what practices help weight loss, much of it contradictory. In my private practice I have had the opportunity to observe the effects of dieting on over 2,000 people. And I have learned that there are a few simple strategies that really make a difference in people's success with weight loss. These are also strategies that will help you manage your nutrition long after New Year's. Here are my top five:

1. Outsmart Your Hunger Hormone

Most people launch into dieting by trying to starve themselves, and in particular by avoiding carbohydrates. We tend to think that we'll just manage the resulting hunger. But the particular kinds of deprivation involved in this form of dieting will make it virtually impossible to succeed. To manage your hunger, you're going to need to outsmart it. This is because hunger is largely driven by a hormone called ghrelin, which is released by our stomach when it is empty for several hours. Ghrelin is one of our bodily survival tactics -- a hormone secreted in the stomach to ensure that we eat. And once ghrelin is released, we are powerless to avoid eating. All of your best intentions are not going to be able to stand up to the urgent, biological hunger created by the spiking of this hormone. So the trick is to stop it from spiking in the first place.

Ghrelin will spike after about three to four hours of fasting, so science tells us that the best way to control it is to eat small, balanced meals about every three hours or so. Ghrelin can also spike if you're deprived of carbs. While many diets warn against the dangers of carbs, you should understand that trying to avoid them completely is likely to put you in a position where you overeat them out of a bodily desperation that you cannot control. Skipping meals or avoiding carbs is an invitation to ghrelin to spike. This will make you both physically and emotionally hungry, craving sugar and willingly throwing your plans and good intentions right out the window.

2. Go Ahead, Eat After 7 P.M.

Good news for busy folks -- it is a total myth that you will gain weight as a direct result of eating after 7 p.m. I know what you've heard, but it just isn't true. For years I have been telling my clients to go ahead and eat in the evening, and I have seen this advice pay off. And with a private practice in San Francisco, I see many busy professionals who often get home around 7 p.m. Not only should they not skip dinner, I tell them that there is absolutely no downside to eating later -- as long as it is part of a planned eating cycle. In my experience, people who stop eating by 5 p.m. are actually likely to overeat the following day as they wake up after 12 to 15 hours of starvation. Instead of the hour on the clock, you should think of the distribution of calories throughout the day. My personal advice is to plan to eat 70 percent of your calories before dinnertime and 30 percent at dinner, whenever that may be. Just give yourself at least 90 minutes to digest before bed so you can sleep comfortably.

3. Set a Date with Your Supermarket and Kitchen

New Year's resolutions often involve a determination to hit the gym at all costs. OK. But what about making time for a trip to the grocery store, or for some time in the kitchen? If you spend all your free time at the gym, and thus end up eating takeout or fast food because you had no time to shop and cook, have you really done yourself any favors? Based on what I have seen in my practice I recommend that clients devote 80 percent of their efforts to nutrition and 20 percent to exercise. The only solution is to "start cooking!" says registered dietitian Janet Helm, author of The Food Lover's Healthy Habits Cookbook, which outlines a plan for adopting 12 healthy habits -- including cooking at least three more meals a week.

Plan a day to shop. If need be, take one of your planned gym days and dedicate that time to shopping and cooking instead. The calories you save by not eating out will more than make up for the missed workout. Before you go to the store, make a shopping list, and don't deviate from it! What's on the list? A whole chicken for roasting. A selection of vegetables (peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes). Healthy carbohydrates (brown rice). Plan a time to cook -- perhaps Sunday afternoon. Roast the chicken. Cut up the vegetables, toss them with olive oil, and roast them in the same oven as the chicken. Cook the rice. Now you have everything you need for burritos, for pasta sauce, for salads, for a stew, for all your meals for the week. Assemble each evening for a healthy meal after work -- or the gym.

4.Don't Lose Sleep Over It

Impulse control is a key factor in weight management, and a lack of sleep, which makes people easily irritated and impulsive, is a real hindrance in that department. But a lack of sleep also contributes to the production of your old friend ghrelin, the hormone that creates the sensation of hunger. So if you don't get at least six hours of sleep a night, you well may find that not only are you hungrier the next day, but you are in a particularly poor position to resist that hunger spike, since your stress management resources are also diminished. And what is the quickest way to create a sense of satiation as well as emotional reward? Sugar. Obviously, that is not part of your New Year's resolution diet plan. Better to get some sleep, and avoid this precarious situation.

5. Breathe Deeply, and Often

Of course, you have no real choice but to breathe. But the fact is that few of us breathe as deeply, consciously, or regularly as we should. Thought experiment: when was the last time you focused for a few moments on drawing a deep, long, slow, breath, and letting it out in the same manner? Try it now. Doesn't it feel incredible? Deep breathing, when you give yourself the time and space to do it properly, can reduce stress and stress hormones oxygenate your brain and tissues, and help you to focus on yourself and your goals.[1],[2] Take breathing breaks throughout the day. Plan them for particular, regular times (noon and 3 p.m., perhaps), put them on your calendar, or set an alarm.

References:

1. Block, J. P. et al. (2009). "Psychosocial stress and change in weight among US adults." American Journal of Epidemiology, 170, 181‒192.

2. Vicennati, V. et al. (2011). "Cortisol, energy intake, and food frequency in overweight/obese women." Nutrition, 27, 677‒680.

Manuel Villacorta is a registered dietitian in private practice, MV Nutrition, award winning weight loss center in San Francisco. He is a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the founder of Eating Free and author of his new book Eating Free: The Carb Friendly Way to Lose Inches, Embrace Your Hunger, and Keep Weight Off for Good!

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