For a very large majority of people losing weight is just never going to be an easy task.
You might start your weight loss diet with great enthusiasm and determination, but it will likely fade away faster than you anticipate
There will be days where you feel less energetic and very hungry, and you will have to use a good portion of willpower to fight the hunger and desire to eat.
Whenever I want to get rid of some unwanted body fat, I think of it as going to war.
Because in wars you use clever strategies, and so should you when it comes to weight loss.
There are many strategies that will make your life easier while losing weight.
Some are definitely more useful than others, and I also think individual differences and preferences play a huge role.
That means you really have to try it out for yourself, and not just trust what people say or what you read.
Here are 5 of the strategies on how to make weight loss easier, that I personally think to work the best.
1. General Tips For Suppressing Hunger
If you want to lose weight, then hunger is inevitable.
Any weight loss supplement or program that promises that you won’t feel any hunger, is in my opinion either lying or using some very unhealthy stuff!
Actually, you should think of hunger as a good thing. If you are hungry, then it is an indication that you are losing weight.
I don’t mean you should welcome severe hunger, but an acceptable level of hunger should be expected.
However, there are various strategies that can be used to suppress hunger, and if implemented correctly can reduce your chance of failure.
Drink More Water
Drinking a “controlled” amount of excess water can help you feel fuller in the stomach.
But don’t take it to the extreme, as this will not only make you have to go to the toilet all the time, but it is also unhealthy.
In general, I would recommend people drinking more fluid and especially water because many people are constantly dehydrated.
An interesting fact is that hunger and thirst can easily be mistaken, this is not a good thing if you are already hungry, so be sure to keep hydrated.
Drink Coffee Or Tea
Coffee and tea can help blunt appetite mostly because caffeine stimulates the brain. If you are doing intermittent fasting (read below) drinking black coffee or tea without sugar and milk can work even better while fasted.
Eat More Voluminous Food
Food that is lower in calorie density will take up more space in the stomach, and thus reduce hunger.
Eat More Fibrous Food
Fibre is actually a type of carbohydrate that your body is either unable to absorb or only in small amounts.
A healthy diet should always include a good amount of fiber, but since fiber works well to fill up the stomach without adding calories or very little it is a good tool to help you lose weight.
Just avoid eating too much as it can get you in trouble (flatulence).
2. Intermittent Fasting
A very popular way to make weight loss easier is doing intermittent fasting.
Surprisingly, not eating or thinking about eating at all can make your life easier.
Some people even experience that it helps suppress their hunger.
The main benefits of intermittent fasting in terms of weight loss is that it makes it easier for your body to burn fat as fuel, it slightly increases your metabolic rate and it just makes it mentally easier and more enjoyable to be in a calorie deficit.
There is even some research that proves intermittent fasting can aid in burning “stubborn” belly fat.
However, intermittent fasting is not a magic pill that will burn away all your fat effortlessly. A calorie deficit is what drives fat loss.
Fasting also has a number of general health benefits, that could make it worthwhile to at least try it out for yourself.
As a brief summary of the benefits of intermittent fasting, it results in a number of changes to hormone levels, cell functions and gene expressing that are proven to have benefits to overall health.
As mentioned, it makes it easier for your body to burn fat, and actually slightly increases your metabolic rate.
Additionally, depending on your current health these changes give rise to potential benefits to heart, brain and cellular health and is possibly anti-aging.
If you want to know more about intermittent fasting, check out my post on intermittent fasting and weight loss.
3. The Ketogenic Diet
Some people chose the ketogenic diet for weight loss and see great results.
If you are considering the ketogenic diet to lose weight, please consider this first.
The reason the ketogenic diet works is because of a calorie deficit.
It is not because it upregulates your metabolism or fat burning hormones to such a high level that fat magically melts off your body.
It might increase your metabolism, but this effect pales to the real reason why people lose weight on the ketogenic diet, which is that they are eating a lot fewer calories than before.
By doing the ketogenic diet you essentially cut out a whole macronutrient category – carbs – which is the one people usually eat the most of.
In addition, both fat and protein is highly satiating and makes you feel very full. This has the effect that people simply feel full but still have a big calorie deficit.
The reasons why I think the ketogenic diet is definitely not for me is because it is very inconvenient and restricts food choices.
Sure eating eggs and bacon sounds nice, but not all the time.
Also, when you are dieting to lose weight you should be thinking ahead.
I mean, are you going to stick with the ketogenic diet?
If not, how will you manage to do the transition?
Are you perhaps going to overeat when you eat your “normal” diet again?
Furthermore, both transitioning to and from a ketogenic diet is going to be associated with you feeling uncomfortable.
This varies from individual, but some can feel pretty bad for at least 14 days. This is because your body is adjusting to using fat or more precisely ketones as the only energy source.
With all that being said, the ketogenic diet does work really great for some. It should work better for people who have low insulin sensitivity, which is something most obese, people have.
If you want to learn more about the ketogenic diet, check out my post on the ketogenic diet and weight loss.
4. Be Prepared For Diet Screw-Ups
No person is perfect, and there will likely be days where you screw up your diet. Luckily, the truth is that one day doesn’t matter in the greater picture. It doesn’t matter if you eat a bit too much.
Instead of thinking bad about yourself or try to make up for it with eating even fewer calories the next day, then just accept that you screwed up and try to learn from the mistake.
What was it that made you overeat? Could you avoid that in the future?
5. Optimize Willpower
Willpower is essentially the control you exert to either do something or refrain from doing.
By its nature willpower is intangible and hard to quantify and can because of this be a bit strange to talk about.
You can actually train your willpower like it was a muscle, but everyone is limited in their amount even if it is highly developed.
The fact that willpower is a limited resource has been shown in many studies.
Consciously restricting yourself and fighting your hunger and the urge to put more food in your mouth requires a lot of willpower.
Since willpower is a limited resource, it can make a lot of sense to think about how to ensure having enough willpower at your disposal for resisting the urge to eat.
It can be very helpful to reflect on other things that are draining your willpower and restrict or eliminate those things that are less important to you or maybe even stupid.
Basically, every action performed and decision that is not what you can describe as habitual requires a bit of willpower.
E.g. worry about what you should have for lunch or dinner or what clothes to wear.
Another big thing is using time on social media browsing 10s or 100s of pictures of everything from your best friend to cat videos, or worrying about your own status updates.
All this drains willpower!
Another smart way to free up your precious willpower would be to see what minor tasks you have that you could easily be automated or semi-automated through proper planning, technology or use of services provided by other people.
Other Things Could Suffer
It requires mental fortitude and a lot of willpower to stick with a diet. Especially if you want to get to low levels of body fat.
As mentioned before willpower is a limited resource. Using a lot of willpower to stick with a diet could easily affect other things in your life that require willpower negatively.
The Awesome Nutrition Guide
If you are interested in learning more about getting your nutrition right for burning off your unwanted body fat, then you should take a look at my top free resource.
It is a 50+ pages pdf that I have titled “The Awesome Nutrition Guide” because it is awesome. It also got an accompanying email course.
I have written it for both men and women, and the main idea behind the book is to serve as your blueprint for getting the body you want!
It also covers in-depth what I believe to be the biggest sticking point for people who can’t seem to control their weight.
It has everything you need to know and I am giving it away as a welcome bonus when you join my email list.
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My name is Marcus, I am a lawyer (LL.M.) and the founder of this website. Besides sometimes doing lawyer stuff, I like to write about fitness and health and share what I have found “works” for people like YOU. If you want to know more about me and my vision for this website then you can 