Do you always wonder why your friends can eat anything they want without having to worry about putting on weight, and why you gain weight even if you have been eating less than ever? What keeps some people slim irrespective of what and how much they eat? What happened to you?

• Does Not Eating Help You Lose Weight
• Lose Weight By Eating Book
• N You Lose Weight By Eating Less Food
• N You Lose Weight By Eating Less

Cutting out foods just results in bingeing. Cutting bread, sugar, or anything else you enjoy out of. As you continue to eat less than you need, your body starts to break down muscle to use for energy. This muscle loss causes metabolism to slow further, so you burn even fewer calories. A study on this method found that eating during a restricted period resulted in the participants consuming fewer calories and losing weight. It is best to adopt a healthy eating pattern on. “As a rule of thumb, weight loss is generally 75 percent diet and 25 percent exercise. An analysis of more than 700 weight loss studies found that people see the biggest short-term results when they eat smart. On average, people who dieted without exercising for 15 weeks lost 23 pounds; the exercisers lost only six over about 21 weeks.

Why Are You Eating Less but Gaining Weight?

1. You Are Not Eating the Right Food

It means that even though you are eating less, you are eating the wrong foods. Snacking less often or having smaller meals are not going to help if your diet includes calorie-dense foods. Certain foods are considered healthy, but they can also be high in calories. Pecans, for instance, can improve your cardiovascular health, but an ounce of pecans contains 200 calories. Only a small amount of such kind of food can provide you with lots of calories. Therefore you need to eat less and eat smart too.

2. You Are Not Eating Enough

Eating less but gaining weight is a common complain of people who want to lose weight. Actually, eating too little can also affect your weight-loss results. Eating less is not going to help if you are not providing your body with all the nutrients it needs to function properly. In this condition, your body may go into starvation mode and slow down your metabolism. Moreover, you cannot exercise or complete heavy workout sessions if you are not eating enough calories, which is also bad for fat loss.

3. You Are Building Muscle Mass

Do not always panic when you step on the weighing scale and find out that you have put on weight. Sometimes, the increase in weight is not that bad because it could be due to an increase in muscle mass. It means that even though you are gaining weight, you will look slimmer, because muscle is denser and takes much less space than fat. Building muscle mass is actually a good thing because it improves your resting metabolic rate, which means you are going to burn more calories even when you are resting.

4. You Are Under Stress

Even if you are eating less and eating healthy food, you may still end up putting on weight because of stress. When you are under stress, you experience all sorts of hormonal imbalances. For example, cortisol, the stress hormone, increases when you are under a lot of stress, and this increase can lead to accumulation of fat around your abdominal area. What it also means is that even if you have a healthy body weight, you may build belly fat due to stress.

5. You Have Hypothyroidism

If you have been paying attention to your diet and exercise but you are still gaining weight, it could be due to an underlying health condition. A common issue is hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid. The thyroid helps regulate your metabolism, so you gain weight when the thyroid gland is underactive. You should see your doctor if you suspect you have this problem, and they will perform certain tests to confirm if your thyroid gland is the culprit.

6. You Are Not Getting Enough Sleep

Not being able to sleep through the night may result in weight gain. Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones responsible for regulating your hunger levels and they get thrown off when you do not get enough sleep. This results in intense cravings. Your metabolism also slows down due to the lack of sleep, and this again results in weight gain.

7. You Are Insulin Resistant

If you have more than 20 pounds to get rid of but you have failed to lose any despite being very careful with your diet and exercise, you may be insulin resistant or have metabolic syndrome. When you are insulin resistant, your body begins storing the calories as fat. It means that even if you are eating healthy foods that a person with healthy metabolism could eat without an issue, you can still gain weight.

How to Lose Weight Effectively

If you are eating less but gaining weight, this could be due to many different reasons. You need to identify the underlying cause and proceed in a systemic way to lose weight effectively. For instance:

• Eat healthy breakfast: Do not overlook the importance of having a healthy breakfast. This first meal of the day needs to be full of important nutrients. Focus on getting a good amount of fiber and whole grains to keep you from craving for empty calories later in the day.
• Increase protein intake: Adding more protein in your diet helps you lose weight more efficiently. It helps keep you satisfied even when you are eating less food.
• Chew slowly: Take your time when eating your meals. Chew slowly to make your body register the amount you are eating. The more time you take to eat, the less food you will end up eating. It helps you feel fuller and keeps your appetite in control, which in turn will help you lose weight.
• Do more exercises: Diet alone is not going to help, so you have to add exercises to help you lose weight. Making small adjustments to your lifestyle will also work. Take stairs instead of taking the elevator; go window-shopping; walk to the train, bus, or all the way to your office; spend time gardening; or take your dog out to stretch your leg a bit. Exercising for 20 minutes alone can help you burn up to 700 calories.

In addition to all these steps, if you are eating less but gaining weight, you can also try drinking a gallon of water a day to lose weight, or using cinnamon and honey for weight loss.

When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to come up with ways to eat less. Obviously you don’t want to reduce your caloric intake too low because you’ll only slow down your metabolism, but you definitely want to avoid overeating too.
Below is a list of 10 easy ways to eat less and lose weight:
#1 Way to Eat Less - Drink More Water
The more water you drink, the less hungry you’ll feel. Drinking one glass of water right before each meal has been proven to help you eat less and still feel just as satisfied after the meal. Of course, drinking water between meals is a good idea too, because it helps you feel fuller and avoid unnecessary snacking.

See: Water: The Drink of Choice with Any Diet

#2 Way to Eat Less - Reduce Sugar

The more sugar you eat, the hungrier you will feel. That’s because eating refined white sugar creates upward spikes and downward dips in your blood sugar levels. When your blood sugar dips down, you get hungry - sometimes really hungry! Cutting out sugar as much as possible will immediately make you feel less hungry so you can eat less without suffering.

See: How to Curb Sugar Cravings and Conquer a Sweet Tooth

#3 Way to Eat Less - Exercise

Does Not Eating Help You Lose Weight

Studies have shown that exercise releases a flood of hormones that suppress your appetite, while also reducing the production of other hormones that stimulate appetite. Even better, a good workout releases stress and floods your brain with feel-good endorphins that boost your mood, calm anxiety, and ease feelings of depression; things that could otherwise be triggers for emotional eating.

See: 9 Ways Exercise Can Make You Feel Better

#4 Way to Eat Less - Eat More Frequently

A great way to eat less overall is to spread your daily calorie intake over five or six small meals rather than eating two or three large meals. It will feel like you are eating more, but you will actually be eating less and taking in fewer calories than it seems.

See: How Eating more Often Can Help You Eat Less

#5 Way to Eat Less - Smaller Portions

Nine times out of ten, your eyes are bigger than your stomach when it comes to filling your plate. A good way to start eating less is by cutting your portion sizes down by half. Even if you think you can eat more, start with half of what you would normally take. After 20 minutes or so, if you are still hungry, have a little more. It will still be less than what you would have consumed initially.

See: What My Dog Can Teach You About Weight Loss—The 20% Solution

#6 Way to Eat Less - Eat Slowly

Eating quickly virtually guarantees that you’ll eat more because your stomach doesn’t have time to let you know it’s had enough. When you eat slowly, taking at least 20 minutes to eat a meal, you can feel the progression from hungry to satisfied much more easily.

#7 Way to Eat Less - Protein First

When eating a meal, start with the protein first. Protein helps stabilize your blood sugar levels and makes you feel fuller so that you are less tempted to eat more fattening fare like high-calorie side dishes, bread, and dessert. Lean protein like chicken or turkey breast, lean beef or pork, fish like salmon and trout, and of course beans are all great sources of protein that will fill you up so you eat less.

#8 Way to Eat Less - Fiber

Speaking of beans, they are awesome sources of both protein and fiber. Fiber can also be found in most vegetables (especially green leafy vegetables), and whole grains. Fiber also helps balance blood glucose levels and makes you feel fuller so you eat less.

Lose Weight By Eating Book

See: 3 Smart Reasons Why You Need Fiber In Your Diet

#9 Way to Eat Less - Stay Calm

Stress is a big cause of overeating, and learning how to manage it effectively can help keep your eating under control. Techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and creative visualization are all great helpers in finding healthier ways to manage stress so you aren’t tempted to muffle uncomfortable feelings with food.

See: How to Effectively Listen to Your Body’s Needs

#10 Way to Eat Less - Keep Your Hands Busy

N You Lose Weight By Eating Less Food

Nighttime eating while watching television is a challenge for many people. Even if they kept their eating under control all day long, sitting in a comfortable chair or sofa and turning on their favorite television shows is often a trigger to start munching. Keeping your hands busy is a good way to break this habit. Activities like knitting, crocheting, needlework, painting, or even playing solitaire can help take the edge off. If those don’t appeal to you, try playing a small hand-held game, building a toy model, or working on a puzzle.

N You Lose Weight By Eating Less

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