26 Weight Loss Tips That Are Actually Evidence-Based

The weight loss “industry” is full of myths.

People are being advised to do all sorts of crazy things, most of which have no evidence behind them.

Over the years, however, scientists have found a number of strategies that seem to be effective.

Here are 26 weight loss tips that are actually evidence-based.

1. Drink Water, Especially Before Meals

It is often claimed that drinking water can help with weight loss, and this is true.

Drinking water can boost metabolism by 24-30% over a period of 1-1.5 hours, helping you burn off a few more calories (1, 2).

One study showed that drinking a half liter (17 oz) of water about a half an hour before meals helped dieters eat fewer calories and lose 44% more weight (3).

2. Eat Eggs For Breakfast

Eating whole eggs can have all sorts of benefits, including helping you lose weight.

Studies show that replacing a grain-based breakfast with eggs can help you eat fewer calories for the next 36 hours, and lose more weight and more body fat (4, 5).

Past the Finish Line of "Thin": What Comes Next?

Thin = happy, right?

Well, not by itself. You've made big changes and worked hard to reach that magic, healthy number: your goal weight! But there's no finish line, says Michelle Vicari, who's kept off the 158 pounds she shed with the help of gastric bypass surgery in 2006. "No balloons fall from the sky," she says. "In fact, you wake up the next day to more of the same."

Lisa Durant lost 115 pounds using Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal. But when she got to the "after weight loss" part, she felt lost.

"I spent so much of my life with 'lose weight' as my primary goal. I had no idea what to do with myself once that was accomplished," she says.

7 Things Never to Do to Lose Weight

Fighting the battle of the bulge can range from following a sensible diet to making ill-guided efforts that can have serious health consequences.

“People get so focused on weight loss they are willing to do unproven and potentially dangerous things that can backfire and cause serious health problems,” says Michelle May, MD, who teaches mindful eating.

Here are seven dangerous strategies you should avoid when trying to lose weight.

Starvation, Fasting, or Very Low-Calorie Diets

Severely slashing calories may lead to weight loss, but the lost weight includes precious muscle and lowers metabolism. Drastic calorie restriction also causes a shift toward a higher percentage of body fat, which increases the risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

10 Diet Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

These Errors Can Affect Your Weight

If your favorite pair of jeans won't fit, the scale seems stuck, or your weight drops off only to bounce back up, there's a chance you could be making one of these 10 weight loss mistakes.

1. Relying on Crash Diets

Determined to lose 10 pounds fast, you turn to a crash diet. Perhaps your plan calls for nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You slash your daily calories to fewer than 1,000, and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly, and you usually regain the weight.

Health Risks Linked to Obesity

Obesity is a term that means you weigh at least 20% more than what is considered a normal weight for your height. It makes you more likely to have conditions including:

• Heart disease and stroke
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Some cancers
• Gallbladder disease and gallstones
• Osteoarthritis
• Gout
• Breathing problems, such as sleep apnea (when a person stops breathing for short episodes during sleep) and asthma

Not everyone who is obese has all of those problems. The risk rises if you have a family history of one of those conditions.

Stop Tripping Yourself on Your Weight Loss Journey

Sabotaging your weight loss efforts involves more than just cheating on your diet. It happens when you set goals you can't meet and when you refuse to give yourself the praise you deserve.

It doesn't have to be that way. Use this guide to turn self-sabotage into support.

Go the Distance

You want to reach your goal weight -- fast. So you vow, “I’m going to go to the gym for 2 hours every single day!” Or, you promise yourself, “I’m going to lose 30 pounds for that wedding next month!”

Taking that approach to weight loss simply won't work. Drastic, over-the-top plans won't take you to your goal weight.

5 Tricky Diet Situations, Solved

You're working on your weight, and certain situations make it really challenging. Usually, it's a social situation where food is front and center.

You can still join in the fun and stick to your diet. Use these strategies to keep yourself on track.

1. Celebrations at Work

The problem: It's a co-worker's birthday -- or baby shower or wedding shower -- so there's a cake. It's not a great afternoon snack, considering all the sugar, white flour, and fat.

Get control: “Recruit a support group at work,” says nutritional scientist Martina Cartwright, PhD, RD, a professor at the University of Arizona. Find a few colleagues who, like you, want to eat well. Together you can enjoy the celebration without eating the cake.

12 Tips to Lose the Weight for Good

Want to lose weight, but feel as though you’ve already tried every trick in the book? It’s time to take a different approach to dieting. These12 proven strategies will help you slim down for good.

1. Change the way you describe your goals.

“Call it whatever you want, but don't call what you’re doing a ‘diet,’ ” says David Grotto, RD, author of The Best Things You Can Eat.

“Diets have a beginning and an end -- and that’s the problem.” You will only succeed, Grotto says, when you make a lifelong commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

The Top 25 Reasons You Aren't Losing Weight

Even if you follow a fitness routine and you often choose healthier foods, you may not be seeing the weight come off the way you hope. While there are plenty of other healthy accomplishments to celebrate on this journey, it can be frustrating to not see results when you step on the scale. Sound familiar? Chances are, one of these reasons is all that's standing in the way of your weight-loss goals.

You Don't Drink Water

Besides keeping you hydrated, drinking water on the regular, according to recent studies, can aid with weight loss. Filling up on water before a meal helps encourage portion control, and eating foods that contain a lot of water (like fruits and veggies) will fill you up faster, causing you to eat less. A small study even found that drinking cool water can speed up metabolism and discourage cravings for sugary drinks like soda and juice. Now that's a reason to stay hydrated!

Why Can't I Lose Weight?

You try hard, but that scale won't budge. It's only human nature to wonder if those pounds will ever come off. But don't raise the white flag and chuck your diet just yet. See if one of these sneaky things is secretly messing with your weight loss hopes.

Is it because I skip breakfast?

It could be. When you take a pass on that first meal of the day, it can work against you. You're likely to get hungrier later, so you may overdo it at lunch.

Try to eat within an hour of waking up. A high-fiber, protein-packed breakfast can help you feel full, longer. Try cottage cheese with fruit, eggs with whole-wheat toast, or Greek yogurt with a banana.

Why Aren't You Losing Weight?

Could a medical problem or medication be to blame?

You're following a weight-loss eating plan. You're exercising almost every day. You're proud of the new healthy habits you've learned. Yet week after week, the scale barely seems to budge. What gives?

Chances are your food portion sizes have crept up (time to get out the scales and measuring cups again). Or your workouts may not be quite as intense as you think (start checking that heart rate).

But if you know you've followed your reducing plan religiously, there's another possibility: A medical condition -- or medication -- may be to blame.

"If you haven't been able to lose weight and you can't understand why, you need to determine whether there's a medical condition underlying your weight problem," says Peter LePort, MD, director of the Smart Dimensions Bariatric Program at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in California. "You need to cure that problem first before you can address the weight issue."

10 Tips for a Thinner Thanksgiving

Enjoy the holiday feast without the guilt -- or the weight gain.

Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, so why not go ahead and splurge? Because gaining weight during the holiday season is a national pastime. Year after year, most of us pack on at least a pound (some gain more) during the holidays -- and keep the extra weight permanently.

But Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your weight, experts say. With a little know-how, you can satisfy your desire for traditional favorites and still enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving feast. After all, being stuffed is a good idea only if you are a turkey!

Get Active

Create a calorie deficit by exercising to burn off extra calories before you ever indulge in your favorite foods, suggests Connie Diekman, MEd, RD, former president of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).

26 Weight-Loss Myths You Shouldn't Believe

Get the scoop on the diet strategies that really work and keep the pounds off for good.

The truth about getting slim

When it comes to losing weight, there are a lot of misconceptions and just plain half-baked advice out there. Not only can believing them derail your diet efforts, it can also mess with your health. We consulted with experts to pinpoint the most notorious (and plan-sabotaging) weight-loss myths, and get the truth about how you can shed pounds safely and smartly. Oh, and if someone tries to offer you any of these "tips"? Just cue up your favorite workout mix, put your earbuds in, and tune them out.

Myth: A detox is a good way to make a clean start

"Most of the time, detox diets are more like a crash diet," says Melissa Rifkin, MS, RD, a bariatric dietitian at Montefiore Health System in New York City. "They restrict certain food groups and sometimes deprive the body of adequate calories and nutrition for a short period of time." In fact, detox diets are notorious for causing weight gain: "When the body feels deprived and then foods are reintroduced, our bodies will regain more weight as if in fear of another starvation or restriction," Rifkin says. If a detox appeals to you, consult with your doctor on whether or not the benefits it promises are the real deal. 

16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast

From Zumba to yoga to ditching junk food, these simple lifestyle changes will help you lose 10, 30, even 50 pounds!

Tweak your lifestyle

It's a familiar story: You pledge to honor a daily elliptical routine and count every last calorie. But soon, you're eating cupcakes at the office and grabbing happy hour mojitos, thinking, Oops, diet over.

There is a better way: Swap the all-or-nothing approach for one or two healthy switch-ups in your daily routine. "Doing this can lead to more weight loss than you ever imagined," says Marissa Lippert, RD, author of The Cheater's Diet.

In fact, we talked to readers who knocked off 10, 25, even 60 pounds with some easy tweaks. Borrow their slim-down secrets to transform your body the real-world way.

15 Ways to Feel Slimmer by Tomorrow

Slimming down takes time and dedication, but a few quick tricks can help you feel a little bit lighter in just one day. Read on to get our tips for feeling less bloated and puffy — and having a flatter belly — by the end of today!

Morning: Drink Hot Water and Lemon

A mug of hot lemon water in the morning wakes up your digestive system and helps get things moving. You can drink green tea with lemon if you don't like the taste of warm lemon water on its own.

Morning: Go Dairy Free

Many people feel belly discomfort after eating dairy. If that's you, leave out the cream and yogurt from your morning breakfast. These dairy-free breakfast recipe ideas will help you nix the yogurt, cheese, and milk to see if you feel better.

Eat More of These 25 Foods and Lose Weight

Regular exercise is great for building muscle and losing fat, but if you want to see real weight-loss results, what you eat matters. But dropping pounds isn't about depriving yourself — it's about choosing the right foods that satisfy without the calories. Revamping your diet is an important place to begin if you want to lose weight. For a clean start, add these 25 foods to your rotation.

Avocados

Fight fat with fat: avocados are high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which can help diminish belly fat. Throw some slices on your morning toast, or try one of these healthy avocado lunch recipes.

Hummus

Keep hummus in your fridge, and you'll never have to opt for an unhealthy snack again. You can smear the protein-packed condiment on raw veggies, serve it atop salad greens, or use it in place of mayo on a sandwich — saving tons of calories in the process.

Salsa

A simple, homemade salsa is full of fresh ingredients as well as flavor. You can add the condiment to salads or as a topping on lean meats like fish or chicken for a satisfying meal without high-calorie condiments.

The Secret to Losing Belly Fat

Find out which three ingredients may help you whittle your waistline.

The secret to whittling your waistline with this Mustard Greens & Bulgur recipe (see picture) isn’t that it’s low in calories (169 per serving). It’s that three of its ingredients may help you slim down.

1. Bulgur

It’s a whole grain—and swapping refined grains for whole grains may help reduce total body fat and abdominal fat, according to new research in the Journal of Nutrition. In the study, adults who ate about 3 servings of whole grains a day had about 2.4 percent less body fat and 3.6 percent less abdominal fat than those who ate less than a quarter of a serving. Researchers speculate that the fiber from whole grains may help you feel full with less food—and possibly fuller than fiber from other sources, such as fruit and vegetables. Aim for at least three servings of whole grains daily (one serving equals 1 cup of whole-grain cereal or a slice of whole-wheat bread).

7 Simple Ways to Save 100 Calories

Simple solutions for cutting calories.

These seven simple swaps help you to easily save 100 calories in places you won't miss them. You can still indulge in the foods you really want and not eat too much by the day's end. Do one each day for a week and you'll have saved 700 extra calories over the course of the week to "spend" (think: about two glasses of wine and a generous slice of pie) at your next dinner party. Do a couple each day and you'll have even more wiggle room for treats.

No-sweat Calorie Saver #1: Order your coffee with nonfat milk

Order your coffee with nonfat milk instead of cream and sugar. For a 12-ounce size, this will free up about 100 calories. If you need a little sweetness (and are OK with consuming artificial sweeteners), you can add a little Splenda.

Fiber-Rich Recipes to Help You Lose Weight

Chicken & White Bean Salad

Zucchini and celery give this chicken-and-bean salad a nice crunch. We like serving it over a bed of slightly bitter escarole and radicchio, but any type of salad greens will work. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Shrimp Panzanella

This fresh-tasting panzanella (Italian bread-and-tomato salad) is made with shrimp, olives and plenty of herbs. You’ll need olives packed in flavorful brine to make the dressing. For convenience, buy shrimp already peeled and cooked. Sometimes the best-tasting precooked shrimp is sold frozen. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to defrost. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables

Toss a garlicky, Middle Eastern-inspired yogurt sauce with pasta, shrimp, asparagus, peas and red bell pepper for a fresh, satisfying summer meal. Serve with: Slices of cucumber and tomato tossed with lemon juice and olive oil.

Soups and Salads to Help You Lose Weight

The Wedge

Forget iceberg; the traditional Wedge salad is better with Romaine lettuce and a healthier ranch-style dressing.

Garden-Fresh Asparagus Soup

This lemony asparagus soup is spiced with a touch of curry and gets added richness from “lite” coconut milk and creamy red potatoes. Top it with a dollop of crème fraîche or plain yogurt and serve warm or chilled.

Creamy Chopped Cauliflower Salad

Caraway and cauliflower are a match that brings to mind wursts, kraut and foamy, cold mugs of beer. Alas, not everyone loves that caraway flavor so leave out the caraway seeds if you prefer—the salad's wonderful either way.

4 secrets of skinny people

Do you ever wonder if that skinny woman on the subway was just “born that way”? It’s possible—after all, weight is influenced by a lot of factors, including genetics, lifestyle…even how much we fidget. But it’s also possible that she acts like a thin person. As a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor for EatingWell Magazine, I’ve come across research on skinny secrets—habits that can help you get slim and stay slim. (And I’m not talking about eating micromeals or crazy exercising.) Here are 4 small actions you can start taking right now that can keep you trim.

Skinny Secret 1: Step Away From the Screen

One of my favorite things about lunchtime is that it gives me a break from my desk. And stepping away from the computer during lunch has an added health bonus, according to recent research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: it may help you eat less. Participants in the study either ate lunch while playing solitaire on a computer or ate without any distractions (no computer). When quizzed on their feelings of fullness 30 minutes later, the undistracted eaters reported feeling fuller than the group that ate in front of a computer screen. Not only that, when they snacked later on, they ate less. 

7 Foods That Do the Weight-Loss Work for You

Want to lose weight? Try increasing your daily fiber intake in the form of nutrient-rich high-fiber foods.

Why fiber? Recent research in the Journal of Nutrition suggests eating more fiber as a way to prevent weight gain or even encourage weight loss. Over the course of the two-year study, the researchers found that boosting fiber by 8 grams for every 1,000 calories resulted in about 4 ½ pounds of weight lost.

Try it for yourself. If you’re consuming 2,000 calories per day, aim to increase your fiber by 16 grams. Here are 7 fiber-rich foods that help do the weight-loss work for you.

Apples

A medium apple (3-inch diameter) contains 4 grams of fiber; a large apple (3¼-inch diameter) has 5. Apples also offer a bit of vitamin C and potassium.

Take Off 10 Pounds In 10 Minutes

Look thinner and younger without shedding a pound 

Jeni Paolella Luciani has a knack for styling curvy women and has worked as a professional stylist on TV shows like More to Love, Tool Academy, A Double Shot at Love, and Dance Your Ass Off.

She says the most important thing with getting dressed is feeling comfortable with the way you look. "My job is to make someone feel amazing and confident when she walks out the door."

Use these tips from Luciani and Harriett Cole, creative director for Ebony magazine, to look slimmer instantly.

8 Secret-Weapon Foods for Weight Loss

Some of the best diet foods are delicious too!

Want to boost your efforts to lose weight? Of course the foundation for successful weight loss is eating well and exercising, but if you want to power up your efforts, check out this diet cheat sheet of foods that do a little of the work for you. Research shows that these 8 secret-weapon foods can help you lose weight.

1. Mushrooms

Research reports that when people ate mushroom-based entrees, they felt just as satisfied as when they'd eaten those same dishes made with beef—though they'd taken in a fraction of the calories and fat.

2. Eggs

In one study, dieters who ate eggs for breakfast felt full for longer and lost more than twice as much weight as those who got the same amount of calories from a bagel for breakfast. Think beyond breakfast, too: eggs boost a salad's staying power and make for a satisfying snack.

5 Slimming Fall Foods to Help You Lose Weight

Learn how to lose weight with these healthy fall foods.

Say “fall” and “food” and the first things I think of are apples and squash—two foods that are most certainly in the arsenal of ingredients that help you to stay trim when the weather turns cool. Here’s why I love these slimming fall foods, plus three others you should be eating this season.

1. Apples

I always have an apple stashed in my bag for an on-the-go snack. Low in calories and high in fiber (95 calories and 4 grams of fiber per medium fruit), apples are satisfying and sweet. And in a recent study from Florida State University, dried apples also helped participants lose some weight. Women who ate a cup of dried apples daily for a year lost weight and lowered their cholesterol. The researchers think that antioxidants and pectin (a type of fiber) may be responsible for the benefits—and say fresh apples probably would be even more effective.