5 Top Eating Tips to Control Weight Gain

Eat quality calories to help control your caloric intake and weight gain. Part of changing your eating habits is learning "what to eat." This might require you to clean out the pantry and start over.


If you're not careful, you could lose weight and regain more weight repeatedly. A big part of this problem is due to poor eating habits.

According to a Medicinenet.com article, "Weight Cycling...Facts About "Yo-Yo" Dieting,"

"Weight cycling is the repeated loss and regain of body weight. When weight cycling is the result of dieting, it is often called "yo-yo" dieting. A weight cycle can range from small weight losses and gains (5-10 lbs. per cycle) to large changes in weight (50 lbs. or more per cycle)."

"Some research links weight cycling with certain health risks. To avoid potential risks, most experts recommend that obese adults adopt healthy eating and regular physical activity habits to achieve and maintain a healthier weight for life. Non-obese adults should try to maintain their weight through healthy eating and regular physical activity."

"Some studies suggest that weight cycling may increase the risk for certain health problems. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and gallbladder disease."

Here are 5 tips to help you eat quality calories:

1. Control your eating with a meal plan and food journal. You might have to keep a food journal for a week or so until you get used to eating the right way.

One way to eat quality calories is to "eat your calories" instead of "drinking your calories." When you eat food, you have more satiety and you are more likely to take in fewer calories.

Eat These 3 Foods to Burn More Belly Fat

2. Pack your lunches and snacks instead of eating out at work. Planned eating helps you comply with your meal plan. If you eat at a restaurant for dinner, check out the menu online so you know what to order. Most restaurants now have a "healthy foods" menu.

3. Junk food, like chips, donuts and sugary sodas, aren't nutritious and have loads of calories. They also have you wanting to eat more in just a short time, loading up on the calories.

Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard endocrinologist, who is widely cited by obesity researchers, says that sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain. "Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages," said Ludwig, who runs the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Many products have high-fructose corn syrup. Your body processes the fructose in high-fructose corn syrup differently than it does regular sugar. It also lowers the hormone leptin in your body. Leptin signals to your brain that you're full. It causes your liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream (especially true with sugary drinks because they are processed so fast). So, your body wants more and stores more fat at the same time.

4. Another way to control caloric intake is to eat more water-based, protein and fibrous foods. You will stay fuller for a longer period of time. It will also help you eat more while eating fewer calories.

Protein keeps blood sugar levels more steady when you have a meal that includes carbohydrates. Protein helps you feel fuller for a longer period (slower digestion). Protein also keeps the hunger hormone (ghrelin) in check so your hunger doesn't spike so high. Just include protein foods with each meal.

Drinking a fast-digesting whey protein drink before and after your weight training workout helps your body repair and rebuild your muscles.

Your body cannot digest fiber and there are two forms:

--Soluble fiber dissolves in water and produces a gel-like substance in your stomach. This substance helps digested food move slowly through the small intestine and slows down food absorption and release of nutrients into the bloodstream. Soluble fiber also limits the amount of cholesterol released into the blood. Oats are high in soluble fiber.

--Insoluble fiber cannot be broken down once entering the stomach and increases in size by absorbing water. This type of fiber speeds up foods absorption once it enters into the small intestine. Insoluble fiber cleans your system as it travels through your body.

Eat both types of fiber to help you feel fuller for longer and to help stabilize blood sugar levels. Eating 25-35 grams of daily fiber per day will help fight belly fat. Fruits and vegetables have both types of fiber.

5. To help you drink fewer sugary drinks and eat less, drink about half an ounce of water for every pound of your body weight every day. So, if you weigh 140 pounds, drink at least 70 ounces of water a day. If you workout, drink even more water (a cup of water for every 15 minutes of exercise).

Foods high in water content count towards your water consumption.

The old rule still applies: consistently maintaining a daily caloric surplus (consume more calories than you burn) will cause you to gain weight. A diet filled with quality calories will help you to consume fewer calories while providing all the nutrition you need.

If you need more help with nutrition:

Eat These 3 Foods to Burn More Belly Fat

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
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About Mark

Hi, I'm Mark Dilworth, Nutritionist, Dietary Strategies Specialist, Nutrition for Metabolic Health Specialist and Lifestyle Weight Management Specialist. Since 2006, I have helped thousands of clients and readers make lifestyle habit changes which includes body transformation and ideal body weight.