1) Instead of picking a diet, focus on dedicating yourself to a new eating lifestyle. If your diet plan isn’t sustainable once you lose the fat, you run a strong risk of regaining most of what you lost because you will be back to your old habits.
2) Cut out as much white sugar from your diet as possible, including processed foods that contain added white sugar.
3) Cut out as much white flour from your diet as possible, including processed foods that contain added white flour.
4) Don’t starve yourself. Starvation is one of the worst ways to try and lose weight. Not only will you lose valuable muscle, but once the starvation plan is over you risk gaining substantial amounts of bounce back weight. Men should not eat under 1800 calories per day, and women no fewer than 1200 calories per day.
5) Late night eating is ok and won’t slow fat loss if your overall daily calories are reasonable and inline with your weight loss goals.
6) You do not “need” cardio to lose fat. While cardio is beneficial for improving overall health, if your calories are inline with your weight loss goals you do not need to perform any cardio.
7) When starting a weight loss plan, don’t jump into the deep end of the exercise pool and try to workout every day of the week. Start slow, with low intensity workout sessions and build gradually. If you get excessively sore only a few weeks into working out, you risk losing motivation.
8) Allow yourself one cheat hour or cheat meal each week where you are allowed to eat something that isn’t on your fat loss diet plan – within reason of course! Don’t eat an entire bag of chips and a quart of ice cream.
9) Fat in foods does not make you fat, excessive amounts of daily calories does. Make sure your fat loss eating plan has at least 20% of your calories from healthy fats.
10) If you want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible when losing fat, do NOT switch to lighter weights and higher reps. Continue to train with the same intensity and weight. If you tell your body it does not need all the strength it currently has, you are encouraging it to drop muscle mass.
11) Big night-time eaters should consider intermittent fasting. You abstain from eating for 16 to 20 hours per day, and consume the bulk of your calories the last 4 to 8 hours each day. This allows for a big night-time meal as long as it is within your daily calorie limits.
12) Abs are made in the kitchen. Performing endless number of crunches and sit ups will not “carve out a six pack”. Only weight loss will, and all that requires is fewer calories per day. Train your abs like every other muscle group – with a sensible number of sets.
13) Allow yourself to adjust your weekly cheat window around social gatherings and life events so you do not have to avoid celebrating “a little” with family and friends.
14) Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated.
15) Addicted to ice cream? Try sugar-free pudding made with low-fat milk when you get that ice cream craving.
16) Hate veggies? Spinach hides well in most foods. Simply place diced spinach in a suate’ pan with a small amount of olive oil and heat gently until it wilts down. Then place the spinach into or on your favorite dish and you’re done! It’s virtually tasteless and adds a ton of nutrition.
17) Don’t just try to cut fat, work to build muscle. Extra muscle mass increases your metabolism, allowing you to eat slightly more each day without gaining weight.
18) Make sure you are getting plenty of daily protein, especially if you are exercising. Men should aim for a minimum of 150 grams per day, and women 100 grams per day.
19) It’s better to just try and eat healthier than it is to jump into a fad diet.
20) Cut out all drinks with calories. Calories from drinks add up quickly.
21) Store bought juices are not very healthy choices. They lack the pulp from the fruit. The pulp carries most of the fruit’s nutritional value, leaving you drinking mostly sugar and empty calories. You are better off just eating the fruit.
22) Sweet tooth? Strawberries and blueberries have very few calories. You can snack on these foods almost freely throughout the day without worry about gaining fat.
23) Drink 12 ounces of water immediately before each substantial meal. You will also want to sip water throughout your meal. This will help fill the stomach and reduce your tendency to want to overeat.
24) Treadmill or stairmaster cardio boring you to death? You don’t have to be chained to machines. Fun forms of exercise will burn nearly as many calories if not more. Walk the dog, play mini golf, have sex, swim or wrestle with the kids.
25) Know that cardio is not a magic weight loss bullet. Walking 2 miles on the treadmill doesn’t even burn off the average candy bar. You are better off dialing in your diet first before adding cardio.
26) Prepare your weekly work meals in advance. This will make it far less likely that you make a run for fast food or the vending machine.
27) Take healthy snacks to work like fruit, string cheese, almonds, etc.
28) Keep packs of sugar-free gum at work, in your car, and near your comfortable chair at home. If you get a craving for a snack, make yourself chew gum for at 15 minutes. This will give you something else to focus on.
29) Allow 10% of your daily calories to come from "junk" food. A little bite of chocolate can be just the thing you need to make it through a bad day.
30) Keep dark chocolate Kisses around, and allow yourself to eat just one every time you get a sweet craving.
31) Supplement with a quality multivitamin.
32) Supplement with fish oil. Fish oil supports joint health, brain function and much more.
33) Use protein supplements to help you achieve your daily protein requirements. They are very low in calorie and convenient.
34) Commit to going to bed earlier each night. The earlier you hit the sack, the less likely you are to reach for more night-time snacks.
35) Having a pig out at work? Don’t get anywhere near the food. Don’t even allow yourself to see it. Stay away completely!
36) When given the choice between grains and fruit and veggies, you are better off eating the fruits and veggies.
37) Surround yourself with positive, successful people who are working towards the same goals as you are, or who have achieved what you are trying to achieve.
38) Hire a quality, experienced personal trainer who has experience with figure competitions or bodybuilding. They are masters at discipline and will have a lot to teach you.
39) Analyze situations or places that lead to binge eating, and try to avoid them.
40) Going crazy and planning to binge eat no matter what? Choose a steak, endless nuts and/or fruit rather than junk food. It’s far better to overeat healthy food than to overeat junk.
41) Don’t bring temptation foods into the house, ever. No excuses.
42) When possible workout each day when you have the most energy. You will be far less likely to lose motivation and not exercise at all.
43) Fill your workouts with the most effective exercises, primarily compound movements. Compound lifts are the most intense, and provide the most bang for your buck.
44) No time for cardio? Decrease the rest periods between your weight training sets to 15-30 seconds. This will keep your heart pumping, and calories burning.
45) For an intense weight training boost, slow down your reps to a 4 second count. This will make each set incredible taxing.
46) Consider using high intensity interval training (HIIT cardio) instead of treadmill grinding. Studies indicate that HIIT is a very effective fat burner.
47) Take the stairs, everywhere.
48) Park in the furthest possible spot from the door, everywhere.
49) Avoid as many processed foods as possible. Use this rule when buying food…the fewer the ingredients and chemicals, the better!
50) Avoid margarine. It is a fake food. You are better off eating a small portion of butter. Butter is nutritionally dense, and when used appropriately can add a lot of nutritional value to a cutting or weight loss diet.
