“save for later.” You may or may not want it — sometimes if you eat the first half slowly and consciously enough, you’ll feel satisfied.
But knowing it’s there if you do plays a nice trick on your brain, which tends to crave things it perceives as being in short supply.
Also, don’t try to substitute artificially flavored sweets. Researchers have recently discovered that artificial sweeteners fail to trigger the body’s natural satisfaction response.
So eating that 100-calorie artificially sweetened cookie only adds to your problems; you’ll keep on wanting the real cookie, so the 100 calories you just ate were in vain.
9. Forget dieting. Instead, focus on your fuel-to-energy ratio.
If, like most 40-somethings, you’re packing some extra pounds, you’ve probably made plenty of resolutions to go on a diet.
You’ve also probably figured out by this point in your life that diets rarely work, and neither does suddenly embarking on a strenuous new exercise regimen.
There’s a good reason that sudden, drastic changes don’t lead to long-term weight loss, and may even lead to a rebound.
Have you noticed that your weight tends to stay fairly constant week to week, even if one day you go on a junk food binge and the next day you’re fairly good?
Nature designed us with optimum abilities to maintain a steady metabolic rate, because it helps us weather food shortages and sudden demands on our energies.
Unfortunately, this means that when you’ve gradually gained weight over time, your body has adapted to the new weight and now does its best to hold onto it.
So here’s what you do: You make slow, gradual adjustments to each end of the equation. And you — and only you — decide which end of the fuel-in, energy-out equation to emphasize and when.
10. Make slow, realistic changes in tune with your lifestyle.
Let’s say you want to lose ten pounds.
To do so right now, you’d have to eat nothing at all for about 2 weeks, or jog for 51 hours, or walk for 126 hours.
Not only would it be impossible, attempts like those would send your body into starvation-mode metabolic slowdown, sabotaging your efforts.
But you could also, much more effectively, set out to lose one to two pounds a week for the next five to ten weeks. Remind yourself that you are the only one in charge of tuning up your metabolic engine. Decide whether you prefer to focus your energies on cutting down the number of calories you’re consuming, or on upping the number you’re burning.
Most likely, you’ll strike a balance between the two that suits you. If adding three half-hour walks a week is relatively painless for you, that’s a good choice. If going outdoors in ten-degree weather is singularly unappealing and you wouldn’t be caught dead in a gym, then focus on dietary changes instead.
Your primary goal should be making small, gradual lifestyle changes that you can incorporate into your daily routine and stick with over time.
That’s the ultimate secret to combating over-40 weight gain.