One-Minute Weight Loss Secrets

Quick Diet Tips

Provided by Prevention
One-Minute Weight Loss

All you need is a minute to start shedding pounds! Here are some favorite strategies to cut calories and burn more fat that take 60 seconds or less. Combined with your cardio workout, you'll find plenty of opportunities to slip these tips into your routine and watch the scale go down. If you've already begun losing weight, these can maximize your efforts and speed results.

Use Your Phone

Burn calories while you talk on your cell or cordless phone: Do the laundry (68 calories), set the table (85 calories), or water plants (102 calories). (Values based on a 150-pound person and half an hour of activity.)

Pop a Piece of Gum

Researchers have discovered that chewing sugar-free gum all day increases your metabolic rate by about 20 percent. That could burn off more than 10 pounds a year.

Sip Green Tea

The caffeine frees fatty acids so that you burn fat more easily. And the polyphenols (antioxidant compounds) in green tea appear to work with caffeine to increase calorie burn. (If you have high blood pressure, skip this tip.)

Dip Your Bread

Use olive oil in place of butter. It's healthier and may also help you eat less. In one study, dippers ate a total of 52 fewer calories on average than those who used butter.

Drink, Drink, Drink

Dehydration can slow your metabolism by 3 percent. At a weight of 150 pounds, that would be about 45 fewer calories burned a day -- which could mean 5 extra pounds a year.

Supersize Your H2O

Speaking of dehydration, buy the big bottle when it comes to good-for-you stuff such as water: You'll drink more.

Trick Your Taste Buds

Sucking on a menthol or eucalyptus cough drop can stop cravings instantly.

Chunk Your Salad

Chop carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, zucchini, or other veggies instead of shredding or slicing. It takes more effort to munch bigger pieces; you'll do more chewing and eat less during the main course.

Fidget

You can burn up to 700 calories a day!