Lose Weight Naturally

Decide how much you want to lose and see how many calories a day it will take to make it happen by year's end. Then, work into your routines however many of these eating tweaks and exercises(it's important to do both) you need to achieve your goal:

- Slash 250 calories a day to lose about 11kg yearly.
- Slash a total of 100 calories each day to lose about 5kg in a year.
- Slash 500 calories a day to lose about 22kg yearly.

This is based on a 70kg person; you may need to cut more or fewer calories, depending on your weight, age and gender. It also assumes your normal calorie intake essentially stays the same(you're not overeating today, running a marathon tomorrow) and your weight is stable. For instance, a 60kg woman eats about 2100 calories a day to maintain her current weight; a 95kg man needs 3150 daily to keep the scale steady. Now read on and start losing!

You can lose weight by overcoming your cravings now. Here are the latest tricks of the trade from researches and experts:

Avoid your triggers
- You crave what you eat, so if you switch what you're eating , you can weaken your old cravings and strengthen new ones. This can happen pretty fast. Her study volunteers drank bland dietary-supplement beverages for five days. During that time, they craved fewer of their trigger foods. By the end of the study, the volunteers actually wanted the supplements. The first few days are the hardest, but the longer you avoid your trigger foods, the less likely you may be to want them.

Destroy temptation
- If you've succumbed to a craving and start to feel bad while eating it, destroy it. Don't just throw it away; run water over it, ruin it. You'll feel a sense of accomplishment that you've licked your binge. If the cookies don't go into the garbage, they're going straight to your hips.

Go nuts
- Drink two glasses of water and eat 30 grams of nuts(six walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts). Within just 20 minutes, this can extinguish your craving and dampen your appetite by changing your body chemistry.

Jolt yourself with JAVA
- Try sipping a skim latte instead of eating a candy bar. The caffeine won't necessarily satisfy your cravings, but it can save you the appetite. And the warm richness and ritual can distract you.

Let it go
- Stress is a well known trigger for cravings so learning to deal with it could potentially save you hundreds of calories a day. Try deep breathing or visualizing a serene scene on your own, or speed things up by buying one of the many CDs that teach progressive muscle relaxation.

Take a power nap
- Cravings sneak up when we're tired so focus on the fatigue: shut the door, close your eyes and re-energize.

Get minty fresh
- Brush your teeth and gargle. When you have a fresh, clean mouth, you don't want to mess it up.

Distract yourself
- If only ice cream will do, it's a craving, not hunger. Cravings typically last ten minutes. Recognise that and divert your mind: call someone, listen to music or run an errand.

Indulge yourself within limits
- It's ok to indulge once in a while. Try low-calorie chocolate bars and 100-calorie snack packs of cookies or peanuts. The trick is to buy only one pack at a time so you won't be tempted to reach for more. And since even 100 extra calories can sabotage weight loss if you indulge daily, strike a bargain with yourself to work off the excess calories. A brisk 15-minute walk will burn 100 calories or so.

Plan or avoid
- Vary your usual routine to avoid walking by the supermarket or the bakery. If you know you'll be face-to-face with irresistible birthday cake, allocate enough calories to fit it into your diet.

Outsmart the scale
- You might be tempted to jump on the scale after the first few days to see if you've lost. Don't! With this long-term approach, you may not see the digits decrease right away. This is fine - you're losing slowly, the way you should. Weigh in weekly if you want, but don't obsess. If your jeans get looser, you know you're doing great. The best way to track your progress is to pay attention to how you feel: Do you have less pain, more energy? Are you in a better mood? That's what counts.

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