Graceful Weight Loss –
Three Silly, but Very Effective Rules
Silly Weight Loss Rule #1:
It’s not about less calories. It’s about controlling your hunger.
Permanent weight loss is not rocket science. But it is science, nonetheless.
The difficulty with weight loss programs is they concentrate, one way or another, on you eating less. They want you to control the end result – less calories – rather than concentrating on eliminating the triggers that cause you to eat too many calories – your hunger.
If you want to control your hunger – your appetite – you have to know what creates your hunger in the first place.
The surprising fact is that hunger is less about what you haven’t eaten in a while, than it is about the food you just began eating, and the kind of food you ate in your last meal.
The most prominent trigger of hunger is the status of your blood sugar:
– If your blood sugar is low when you begin to eat (because you haven’t eaten in a while), you can count on over-eating in the present meal
– If your previous meal was big, or contained a lot of fast sugars (high glycemic) foods, you are going to over-eat in your present meal
– If you begin your meal with fast sugars, appetizers, or caffeine or alcohol, you are going to over-eat in that meal
Conclusion #1: Controlling your hunger is the first step on your road to permanent weight loss. And that begins with learning how you get hungry in the first place.
Silly Weight Loss Rule #2:
Don’t eat appetizers.
Have you ever been to a restaurant and the menu starts out with, guess what? “FREE Appetizers.”
Think about it. What is an appetizer? If a restaurant is selling you their “appetizers,” or worse, if the appetizers are FREE, it can’t be because they want you to eat less. Can you see that?
“Appetizer” foods are designed to make you hungrier. That is their purpose, to make you want to eat more – to make your body REALLY hungry, and demand that you eat a lot as soon as possible – just before you order your food. And every restaurant uses appetizers to make sure you buy more food than you otherwise would.
Have you ever just sat down at a restaurant and they quickly give you a hot loaf of “free” bread? Why would they do that? To kill your appetite before they can tell you the “specials of the day”?
Bread is an appetizer (as are crackers and pretzels and a lot of other foods). They quickly tell your body, “eat more and do it now, dummy.”
Why is the “cocktail hour” just before mealtime? The answer to that is not an insignificant point.
Cocktails are fiendishly great APPETITE INCREASERS. The stronger the liquor, the greater your appetite. So, too, are those little hors d’oeuvres they serve with them. Now all alcoholic beverages quickly increase your appetite, but the classic martini-type drinks just do it faster and better.
Now, back to the restaurant. Notice how they ALWAYS ask for your drink order first? Is that because they are concerned that you just might be thirsty? Here is the deal: Not only do alcoholic beverages make you order and eat more (plus the calories in them), but caffeinated beverages (coffee or sodas), and drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweetners, also INCREASE YOUR APPETITE.
Thus, if you owned a restaurant, wouldn’t you take the drink orders first, and while you were preparing them, give the table a free loaf of hot bread?
How do you control your appetite?
Conclusion #2: Don’t eat appetizers, nor have alcohol or soft drinks BEFORE your meal.
Silly Weight Loss Rule #3:
Don’t NOT Eat.
There is something important to know about about NOT EATING meals – skipping them to lose weight.
When you don’t eat, “saving your calories” for the next meal, you’re not fooling your body. You are just playing games with your mind.
When you skip a meal, so you can feel better about eating the next one, a bigger one — your body knows. It slows your metabolism just enough to compensate for the skipped calories. So, you are already in a zero-sum calorie game. You really haven’t “saved” anything.
Then when you do eat, you will end up with low blood sugar just before you eat again. As a result, you get a DOUBLE hunger whammy.
THE FIRST WHAMMY – You become unreasonably hungry. You eat too fast, you eat too much, and you throw down the highest calorie food in sight. And you can’t help yourself. You know you are doing it, but you do it anyway.
THE SECOND WHAMMY – Your body, knowing you may starve it again soon, says to itself, “Hey, Self, this dummy that is feeding us is doing it sporadically. So, let’s just save the next 300 calories we eat, and store them as fat. That way we’ll at least have some fat around to tide us over the next time we don’t get fed on schedule.”
Meanwhile your metabolism is still depressed, so you have some extra, unused calories to dispose of at your next meal. Guess what your body does with those extra calories? Can you spell “F-A-T”?
Hmmm. Skip a meal. Lower your metabolism. Eat more. Store as fat. Overeat. Store more fat.
Makes sense, this skipping a meal business. It’s the perfect prescription for a person successfully trying to GAIN weight. Anyone want to get on that plan?
Conclusion #3: Don’t NOT eat
Losing weight is about mindful choices. Choices you make one bite at a time.
Three Silly RULES (but they work):
1. Control your hunger.
2. Don’t eat appetizers.
3. Don’t NOT eat.
These certainly aren’t the only Rules you need to follow to lose weight, but they are an effective place to get started. Isn’t that what you wanted – finding a simple, graceful way to get started in losing weight?
HEART PLAN — WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS Begins in Your Heart
© 2014 Boyd Jentzsch. All rights reserved.
By special arrangement with the author, CHAPTERS from the book HEART PLAN are published here regularly. HEART PLAN is not about what you eat. It is all about how you FEEL – your sense of SELF – when you are trying to lose weight. Sign up to receive the new Chapters as they are published here.
-by Boyd Jentzsch
Boyd, a recovering Attorney, turned to weight loss research 20 years ago when he lost his mother to the lifelong effects of obesity. He has spent the ensuing years searching the science, and formulating a comprehensive metabolic map of the body — the only complete map of its kind. The map reveals the causes and effects of obesity and related chronic lifestyle diseases. It shows the only proven pathways to preventing and losing excess weight. From that unique foundation, he and his team created a weight loss education program that has helped tens of thousands to lose weight and keep it off. Plus, they created innovative and fun fitness and nutrition education programs for elementary school children, proven to reduce the early bio-markers for childhood obesity. HEART PLAN is a collection of his observations over the years of the emotional impact and motivational challenges nearly everyone faces when trying to keep lost weight off permanently.
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wow that is crazy never even thought about it but I donr drink alcohol and I do stay away from the appetizers .but I do skip meals
Wow! I never would have thought appetizers and drinks would increase your appetite! Very interesting! I know when we do have appetizers, I am usually full by the time the food we ordered arrives! LOL I have lately been ordering water at meals so I’m good there. My biggest problem is the skipping meals especially when it’s just me at home when dh is working and dd is in school.
to me it all makes sense you can not starve yourself to lose weight you have to eat in order for your body to function properly! I am not a big breakfast person but i will try to eat a banana or cottage cheese or something that my body can use for the first part of the day…also as far as alcohol I’m so glad i quit drinking 5 years ago it has also helped with the loss of weight, then i quit smoking and put some back on now i think after all this time it has all evened out! whew!
Makes sense. I have a problem with not eatting sometimes I just get busy and forget to get or there is nothing in the house I want I just dont eat. I have been trying to order water at restaurants, instead of soda or sweet tea
Very interesting information. I had no idea that alcohol and appetizers made you overeat. It seems (for me at least) if I eat an appetizer, I’m too full to eat my meal. I end up taking it home with me everytime. But I can see how certain appetizers would make you want to eat more. I try to stick with water when I go out to eat. I have this rule “don’t drink your calories!”
I bet the system. I never order appetizers. And never order deserts. We may only go out for dinner twice a month. Usually on big shopping days. By the Way, they where suppose to shut down drive thru resturants in WV. Because they say drive thru resturants are making us fat.
We don’t go out for dinner very often, but when we do, we don’t order appetizers or drink alcohol! This was a very interesting article, especially since my husband and I are on a diet because we are trying to be healthier and lose weight! We work out together at home every morning before my husband goes to work! Thanks for sharing this information!
They call these silly rules, but actually they are great tips, thank you they do make a lot of sense!! 🙂
As a teenager I tried skipping meals and “not eating” to lose weight-It NEVER worked! Lol-I quickly learned I pack on extra weight fast if I do not eat regularly balanced meals.When I have an appetizer tempt me we share it 2-6 ways 😉 Keeps us all in check
I don’t order appetizers, I always drink water with my meals. I always heard not to skip meals.
Don;t not eat …. yeah this one is the most silliest and it really does work when it comes to weight loss
I didn’t know about the trick with the appetizers with the restaurants. It all makes sense. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the info! I do like to fast though. I have heard great things bout fasting and it seems to work for me. But of course, consult your doctor.
I know! If I have a cocktail them I want something to munch on and then my inhibitions are down and I will eat more. It’s lots of calories in the drink and in the food accopanying it.
I can’t remember the last time I actually ordered an appetizer in a restaurant–and as for the drinking–unsweetened iced tea please! I picked this up from my Mom who could never understand how people can eat so much! Of course I also picked up the eat that basket of bread from her!! I really agree with all that is said up there–now if I only could convince myself to eat when I am not hungry-which is why I end up skipping meals!
Appetizers usually fill me up and I can’t even eat my meal so I don’t know.
These are a couple of great tips! Although, I will say (after working in restaurants my whole life) not all appetizers are designed to make you more hungry. Often, people order them as a meal.
Skipping meals is such a trap! Especially breakfast. It almost felt counter-intuitive but after I had gotten out of the habit of eating breakfast I almost had to “Force” myself to eat a little bit in the morning. Once I adjusted I felt so much better.
Thank you for sharing this incredible article. It seems like common sense. I changed my diet and over a year period lost 30 healthy pounds and I feel better than ever!
This is my problem.. I do not know how to control my eating.. I just like to eat..
I’m guilty of #3 often. I I know I’m going out to dinner with friends, I’ll skip lunch, which is basically me reaching the starving point by the time dinner rolls around.
Great article.
Really interesting read! I didn’t know some of these facts, but I do know that skipping a meal leads to awful results (years of dance and yo-to dieting). I will have to be more mindful to lose stubborn baby pounds after said baby comes!
I control my hungry by either drinking water or almond milk. HOWEVER< since I hit menopause thats been very hard to do!! Darn MENOPAUSE!!
I need to go and eat something right now! Those pictures are just too delicious!
I never really thought about appetizers that way. I guess that makes sense, they do want you to eat more. I skip too many meals, then end up eating too much at night.
I never knew that about appetizers. My biggest problem is skipping meals then getting hungry at night and overeating.
wow, I never thought of appetizers, bread or drinks making you want to eat more! Glad we skip the apps and just drink water.
I am book marking this to come back for reference!
do you think having a morning coffee makes you eat more too?
I think people who are constantly trying to lose weight know of these three already. It’s just that they don’t have the right perseverance and patience to get them done.
Those are some great tips. You really do need to eat and not restrict your calories too much to lose weight.
I need to start a diet but it’s so hard pregnant I’m always hungry and I been trying to control portions and all but I just get depressed
Great tips! I definitely agree on the appetizer part.
eating is so important! Just healthy eating
Really? I always thought the appetizers and drinks fill me up. That’s weird! BTW, all of these just made my mouth water!
Here is my favorite nugget: Not only do alcoholic beverages make you order and eat more (plus the calories in them), but caffeinated beverages (coffee or sodas), and drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweetners, also INCREASE YOUR APPETITE.
I wish everyone started realizing this better and stopped making that industry rich out of the detriment of our bodies. 🙁
The missing appetizers part look like a good strategy as they just make you eat more. Eating is a key part of dieting but it’s just eating what is essential.
This is a Great Post. Thanks for sharing, i will going to share this with my sister.
These are some great tips! I never eat appetizers but I am bad for going most of the day without eating anything. Thanks for sharing this!
I eat small portions 6 times a day and it helps. I also try and drink a TON of water.
I am not surprised by the Don’t Not Eat – But I am a chronic offender of this rule. Then when I do eat – I feel famished. It is a vicious cycle.
So all those late night runs to sheetz after going to a bar, makes sense now.. lol
I noticed just eating the appetizer I feel full so when the main dish comes I am over eating. Better to stay away eating out. When I chew gum I feel hungry too.
Great advices. I really have to stop drinking alcohol before my food comes out.
All this is so true. I drink a fiber drink that fills me up during the day so I don’t snack on things I should not.
SO SO TRUE: If your blood sugar is low when you begin to eat (because you haven’t eaten in a while), you can count on over-eating in the present meal
I am so guilty of this. I don’t eat breakfast
These are all great tips! I find that when I have an appetizer I end up eating so much more than I normally would. I’m going to steer clear from them!
My biggest problem is that I skip meals. Then by the time i realized it , I end up going for whatever is fast and on hand I need to work on that.
This make sense! Counting calories works for me and yes for not eating. Makes my tummy smaller but it’s a no-no.
Sneaky restaurants I didn’t know that was a marketing technique. That is actually really smart. I always thought they did the drinks first to keep people occupied till the food came.
Hi there mates, fastidious post and pleasant arguments commented at this place, I am really enjoying
by these.
I agree and have been practicing this for years!!
I usually skip the appetizers, but sometimes I can’t resist! I can’t help it! I definitely agree with all three tips though.