Much of what is recommended is questionable at best, and not based on any actual science.
When it comes to weight loss, protein is the king of nutrients.
Your body burns calories when digesting and metabolizing the protein you eat, so a high-protein diet can boost metabolism by up to 80-100 calories per day (1 , 2 )
A high-protein diet can also make you feel more full and reduce your appetite. In fact, some studies show that people eat over 400 fewer calories per day on a high-protein diet (3 , 4 ).
Even something as simple as eating a high-protein breakfast (like eggs) can have a powerful effect (4 , 5 , 6 )
One of the best things you can do to become healthier is to base your diet on whole, single-ingredient foods.
By doing this, you eliminate the vast majority of added sugar, added fat and processed food.
Most whole foods are naturally very filling, making it a lot easier to keep within healthy calorie limits (7 ).
Furthermore, eating whole foods also provides your body with the many essential nutrients that it needs to function properly.
Weight loss often follows as a natural "side effect" of eating whole foods.
Processed foods are usually high in added sugars, added fats and calories.
What's more, processed foods are engineered to make you eat as much as possible. They are much more likely to cause addictive-like eating than unprocessed foods (8 ).
Studies have shown that the food you keep at home greatly affects weight and eating behavior (9 , 10 , 11 ).
By always having healthy food available, you reduce the chances of you or other family members eating unhealthy.
There are also many healthy and natural snacks that are easy to prepare and take with you on the go.
Eating a lot of added sugar is linked with some of the world's leading diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer (12 , 13 , 14 ).
On average, Americans eat about 15 teaspoons of added sugar each day. This amount is usually hidden in various processed foods, so you may be consuming a lot of sugar without even realizing it (15).
Since sugar goes by many names in ingredient lists, it can be very difficult to figure out how much sugar a product actually contains.
Minimizing your intake of added sugar is a great way to improve your diet.
There is actually truth to the claim that drinking water can help with weight loss.
Drinking 0.5 liters (17 oz) of water may increase the calories you burn by 24–30% for an hour afterward (16 , 17 , 18
Drinking water before meals may also lead to reduced calorie intake, especially for middle-aged and older people (20 , 21 ).
Water is particularly good for weight loss when it replaces other beverages that are high in calories and sugar (22 , 23 ).
Fortunately, people are realizing that coffee is a healthy beverage that is loaded with antioxidants and other beneficial compounds.
Coffee drinking may support weight loss by increasing energy levels and the amount of calories you burn (24 , 25 , 26 ).
Caffeinated coffee may boost your metabolism by 3–11% and reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by a whopping 23–50% (27 , 28 , 29 ).
Furthermore, black coffee is very weight loss friendly, since it can make you feel full but contains almost no calories.
Glucomannan is one of several weight loss pills that has been proven to work.
This water-soluble, natural dietary fiber comes from the roots of the konjac plant, also known as the elephant yam.
Glucomannan is low in calories, takes up space in the stomach and delays stomach emptying. It also reduces the absorption of protein and fat, and feeds the beneficial gut bacteria (30 , 31 , 32 ).
Its exceptional ability to absorb water is believed to be what makes it so effective for weight loss. One capsule is able to turn an entire glass of water into gel.
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