4 tips about weight loss

If you’re overweight, you're not alone. In Canada close to 50 percent of the population needs to watch the waistline. These tips will help you to stick to a manageable weight loss regime.

You may be asking what exactly the glycemic index (GI) is. The GI shows the rate at which carbohydrate-rich foods are digested. Foods that are digested faster are quickly converted into glucose, leaving you hungry again. Foods with a low GI score include brown rice, lentils, yams and apples. Those with a high GI number include cornflakes, white rice and mashed potatoes. If you avoid these in your weight loss diet, you’ll do yourself a big favour.

Foods that don't leave you hungry are higher in bulk and lower in calories. Any food that ­contains plenty of fibre, water or air is a "bulky" or "high-volume" food. These include high-fibre fruits and vegetables as well as beans. Check out these tips for ideas:

• Instead of eating a handful of raisins, choose water-dense grapes.
• Instead of a glass of orange juice, have an orange, which is far less calorie-dense and contains fibre that juice lacks.
• If you're making chilli, add more beans to bulk it up without adding a lot of calories. Instead of French fries, try whipping up some winter squash with skim milk – remember, whipped foods contain air, which gives bulk without adding calories.
• Other low-cal, high-volume foods to favour are broth-based soups. Studies show that people who start a meal with soup eat less at that meal and later in the day. Just be sure to avoid cream soups, which are high in calories.

Bad fat cuts

Some low-fat foods, such as low-fat dairy products, are a real boon to dieters. But food manufacturers often remove fat from cookies and other treats only to replace that fat with sugar.
Always check the label as a serving probably contains just as many calories as the higher-fat original version.

Good fat cuts

In other cases, cutting fat from your diet makes sense, since fat is the most concentrated source of calories.
Replace some of the meat you eat with fish or poultry.
Remove the skin from poultry before you cook it, and banish the frying pan in favour of steaming, grilling, baking or microwaving.

Choose lean cuts of meat and trim off visible fat. And stay away from sausages, bacon and cold cuts.

Yes - you got that right! It may sound strange but let yourself have small portions of your favourite high-calorie foods once in a while so that you don't get frustrated and end up bingeing.

Fasting may be good for giving your digestive system a break for a day but it is not an ideal way of losing weight. Even if you drink lots of water, fasting can lead to low blood pressure and hear failure. Also, once your stop fasting, you’ll put the weight back on pretty quickly once you start eating again.

Losing weight is a pretty simple affair really, You need to watch what you eat, when you eat and make time for exercise. You need discipline too. These tips will help you lose extra weight with ease.