I am a Registered Dietitian who has spent over 10,000 hours researching the lifestyle habits of thin people for my book Thin People Don’t Clean Their Plates. In this research, I discovered striking differences between the choices that thin people make versus those of overweight people. The common dieting mistakes that overweight people typically make are those that tend to lump them into the ‘overweight’ instead of ‘thin people’ category for habits. Here is the list of the top four habits of overweight people, which will prevent them from losing weight:
1.Skipping breakfast to save calories. Almost all thin people do eat something for breakfast. The majority of overweight people skip breakfast. Breakfast will break the fast from the night before and wake up your metabolism. Your body will burn more calories all day long because you ate something shortly after waking up.
2.Not eating when you are hungry. This will cause the body to release lipogenic, or fat-storing hormones that prevent weight loss. Thin people tend to eat at the first sign of hunger. Carrying snacks will help you be prepared for unplanned hunger attacks and prevent a binge later.
3.Having the “all-or-nothing” way of thinking. Following a diet/binge or feast/famine cycle will cause your body to become more efficient at storing calories and fat. Diets do not work. If you want to lose weight, stop dieting and start listing to what your body is telling you.
4.Combining sugar with fat. The sugar-fat combination is the best formula for weight gain. The sugar causes a release of insulin, to lower your blood sugar and practically opens the door to your fat cells. By combining fat with sugar in a certain food (i.e. a donut), it will be very easy for your body to store it as fat. I do recommend that you allow yourself treats during your weight loss process, but keep the sugar away from the fat. If your treat is a slice of cheesecake, alter the recipe to make it low fat since it does contain a lot of sugar. If you are eating tortilla chips as a treat, do not drink lemonade with them.
The Most Important Tip for Permanent Weight Loss
If you want to become thin, think as your thin friends do. The Hunger-Satisfaction Scale (shown below) can help you learn how to do this. Every time that sit down to eat a meal or a snack, ask yourself where you fit on the HSS scale. In the ‘thin world’, you would remain between a four and a six most of the time. This is the secret to how thin people always appear to be so in control of their appetites.
The Importance of Snacks to Weight Loss
Carrying snacks at all times has helped me remain in control of my appetite. I always have a box of Triscuits or Quaker Oat Squares in my car. I regularly carry apples, bananas, nuts and cans of V8 juice in my brief case. I find that if I don’t eat a snack when I first begin to feel hungry, I will get that out-of-control urge to binge within an hour or so.
