Tips how to lose weight fastMost effective weight loss tips and methods to lose weight fast and easy

Your cube mate advises against eating after 8 p.m., a girl from your yoga class swears by the grapefruit diet, and your best friend warns that mixing carbs and protein can pack on the pounds. Sure, you’ve been hearing diet tips like these from well-meaning people for years, but is there any truth to them? To set the record straight on the most oft-repeated advice, we consulted a team of nutrition experts. They revealed which strategies you should forget and which live up to their get-slim promise.

Q. Will chewing low-cal foods like sugar-free gum and celery help me burn calories?

A. It might, but hardly enough to trigger weight loss. Gum and certain veggies are often called “negative-calorie” foods because they supposedly take more energy for your body to chew or digest than they contain.

The negative-calorie myth was put to the test when researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, asked people to chew sugarless gum at a rate of 100 bites per minute. After calculating the energy expended (about 11 calories per hour), they concluded that a person who chomped on a piece every waking hour of the day for a month would lose less than a pound. As for celery? All that crunching does burn energy, but it amounts to less than the 6-calorie stalk contains. The bottom line: If you really want to shed pounds, give your jaw a rest and start moving your body.

Q. Can coffee really rev up my metabolism?

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It may sound too good to be true, but you can trick yourself into eating less. Drop pounds effortlessly with these five stay-slim strategies.

1. FOOL YOUR APPETITE
“The amount of food on a plate – whether it’s one helping or four – is what most people consider a ‘normal’ serving,” says Jim Painter, Ph.D., R.D., a food psychologist at Eastern Illinois University. His recommendation: Downsize your dishes. “If you have a visual cue that tells you to stop before you get stuffed, you’ll eat less but feel just as satisfied.”

2. SAY NO TO CRIME
You may want to record the latest episode of CSI or 24 so you can watch it after you finish dinner. “TV shows that feature murders or medical emergencies tend to remind us of our own mortality,” says Dirk Smeesters, Ph.D., an associate professor of marketing at Erasmus University in the Netherlands. “On a subconscious level, this can make some people feel a little depressed or upset – which can then trigger them to eat more food than they normally would.”

3. GIVE YOUR FORK A REST
Chowing down like it’s an extreme sport can seriously up your calorie count, according to a new study Read the rest of this entry »