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Almost any diet can help you lose weight short-term, but at what price to your health? And will you feel full, satisfied? What works the BEST, long-term, for years?
In the most comprehensive study of long lasting weight loss ever conducted, called the National Weight Control Registry, scientists studied more than 4,500 people who lost, on average, 66 pounds and kept it off for six years. The vast majority follow a filling diet low in fat and high in natural, fiber-rich carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables, lots of them. Less than 1% follow a high-fat, high-protein diet.
“The trick is achieving maximum fullness, or satiety, for every calorie you eat,” advises dietitian Jay Kenney PhD, RD, weight-control expert at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Florida. Satiety is a measure of how full you feel after eating a meal or snack and how long it takes for hunger pangs to come back after you eat. The longer it “stick to your ribs,” the more satiety that meal has.
You can achieve satiety on a lot fewer calories by filling up on foods that are low in calorie density (foods that are low in calories relative to their weight). They’ll help you avoid those nagging hunger pangs that send the rest of us out for calorie-rich, pound-producing foods like a double-cheese and sausage pizza.
For real-world training in this highly successful approach, more than 75,000 people have attended the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa, for the past three decades, and millions more have read the Pritikin Program’s 10 best-selling books.
Jeff Garlin, co-star and executive producer of HBO’s award-winning comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, lost 13 pounds in his 2 weeks at Pritikin, another 10 when he got home, and in the process got off his diabetes medications. “I’m still losing weight,” adds Garlin, “and feeling better all the time. I owe Pritikin huge time.”
To shed pounds permanently as well as derive the many other scientifically documented health benefits of this approach, including lowered blood pressure, diabetes control, and avoidance of bypass surgery and other heart-related problems, here are the top 10 tips for long-term weight loss from the dietitians, doctors, and exercise physiologists at Pritikin:
Weight Loss Tip #1. Eat Big and Bulky To Become Small and Slim
When you choose “big” foods like fruits, vegetables, salads, and soups, which are bulked up by fiber and water, you’re eating a lot of food that fills you up, but not a lot of calories. “Little” foods (lots of calories packed into tiny, unsatisfying portions) include cheeses, sugar-rich snacks, and dry foods like crackers and cookies, including fat-free varieties). They’re little in size but dense with calories.
Many studies show that hunger tends to be satisfied by a certain volume of food – about 4 to 5 pounds daily. And it doesn’t matter how many calories are packed into each pound. Once we’re full, we stop eating. “So the trick,” explains Pritikin dietitian Jeff Novick, “is to fill up without eating an excessive amount of calories.”
“For about 400 calories,” says Novick, “you can eat a teeny junior cheeseburger or a big hearty bowl of pasta topped with two cups of roasted vegetables.”
Weight Loss Tip #2. Cheat smart
When you’re craving the fat-rich, calorie-rich stuff, you can use the low-calorie-dense foods to not only limit damage but also enjoy the food more. For example, cut down on the number of chips you eat by pairing each bite with lots of chunky, filling (but low in calories) fresh salsa. If you want a little fat, say, olive oil or guacamole, balance it with foods like salads and other vegetables that are very low in calorie density.
Weight Loss Tip #3. Get hot first thing in the morning
Hot cooked cereal like oatmeal has about one-fifth the calorie density of dried cereal. Hot cereal has just 300 to calories per pound; dried cereals pack in a whopping 1,400 to 2,000 calories per pound! Plus, hot cereal is more filling. It keeps you fueled well into late morning, helping you avoid the 10 a.m. munchies.
Weight Loss Tip #4. Start out with a big, satisfying salad
Scientists at Penn State recently found that volunteers who ate a big veggie salad before eating a main course ate fewer calories overall than those who didn’t have a first-course salad. But make sure to use a low-fat dressing or you’ll lose the benefit.
Weight Loss Tip #5. Eat, don’t drink, your calories!
Calories in liquid form (sodas, alcohol, juices) are a lot more fattening than filling. Rather than drinking fruit juice, eat your fruit,” advises Dr. Jay Kenney, nutritionist at Pritikin. Peel an orange. Finish off a big crisp apple. For the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you can enjoy an apple, an orange, and a slice of watermelon. These whole foods have a lot more “staying” power than their liquid counterparts.
Weight Loss Tip #6. Dine on pasta rather than pizza
Pizza dough is dense with calories – about 1,250 per pound (and we haven’t even added the cheese, sausage, and pepperoni!) When you’re dining Italian, a much better choice is pasta. A linguini puttanesca (olives, mushrooms, tomato sauce, fresh basil), arrabbiata (spicy tomato sauce), or vongole (clams with marinara sauce) takes you down to about 600 or 700 calories per pound.
Weight Loss Tip #7. “Triple the Veggies, Please”!
Often, a side of vegetables in a restaurant is really more like garnish – a skinny carrot and a forkful of squash. When ordering, ask for three or four times the normal serving of veggies, and, of course, offer to pay extra. “I’ve never been charged,” says dietitian Jeff Novick, “and I’ve never been disappointed. I get full, not fat.”
Weight Loss Tip #8. Exercise daily
Study after study has found that people who lose weight and keep it off commit to daily physical exercise. Says Dr. Robert Bauer, Medical Director at Pritikin. “If you burn an additional 300 calories each day by exercising (that’s about three miles of walking daily), and you don’t increase your caloric intake, you could easily lose 30 pounds in a year.”
Weight Loss Tip #9. Got 5 minutes? Use it and lose it!
If your day is too busy for a full workout, slice it up into more manageable chunks – five minutes here, 10 minutes there. Take stairs. Park at the far end of the lot. Keep walking shoes at your desk. Walk while you talk on the phone or while you think. Don’t just yell at your TV screen – flail your arms and pace. Several short bursts of activity throughout the day really can help you burn calories and shed pounds.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say that if you spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down stairs, you could shed as much as 10 pounds over the course of a year.
Weight Loss Tip #10. Pump em’ up!
To rev up your metabolism and burn more calories even when you’re sitting, start lifting weights (look what it did for Arnold). The good news: a mere 15 minutes every other day does the job. New research has found that just one set of each weight-lifting exercise yields virtually all the muscle-building benefits of two or three sets.
“Follow these 10 tips for long-term weight loss,” encourages Pritikin dietitian Jeff Novick, “and you really do have a complete program, one that shed pounds, satisfies your hunger, is easy to maintain year after year, and keeps you healthy – free of heart disease, diabetes, and many other illnesses.”
FREE DOWNLOAD: Pritikin Eating Plan
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