11 Strange Ways to Lose Weight That Work

Most of the time, a healthy way to lose weight is to get enough exercise so that your body can use the energy you give it through food. But if you learn one or two fun ways to lose weight with a little more discipline or speed, that's worth a shot, right?

The following weight loss tricks come from psychologists, dietitians, and recent scientific research to equip you with a few intriguing ways to support your slim-down efforts with a few street smarts.

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Breakfast should be bigger than dinner.

One group of obese women in a study published in the journal Obesity ate 700 calories for breakfast, 500 for lunch, and 200 for dinner. Another group ate the same foods, but only had 200 calories in the morning and 700 calories at night (lunch stayed the same).

 After 13 months, those who ate a big breakfast lost 18 pounds, while those who ate a big dinner lost only about 7 pounds.

If you eat this one breakfast, you'll keep burning calories all day.

photo by Abstrakt Xxcellence Studios

Jog for junk mail.

Make cleaning up a challenge: for every piece of junk mail you take out of your mailbox each day, walk one lap around your house or building, or go up and down one flight of stairs. Most people can burn between 35 and 140 calories in a single session.

Image by fernando332 from Pixabay

Put a mirror on the wall across from your seat at the table.

One study in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that people ate about one-third less when they ate in front of a mirror. It seems like having to look yourself in the eye makes you think about your own standards and goals and reminds you why you're trying to lose weight in the first place.

Don't take a whiff.

A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found that, at least in mice, the sense of smell may play a big role in how the body controls hunger and metabolism. Mice that had lost their sense of smell burned more calories, lost weight, and responded better to insulin than mice that still had their sense of smell and ate the same amount of food.

Researchers made mice with a stronger sense of smell so they could prove that smell has an effect on obesity. These mice put on weight and got fat. We need to do more research to find out how people can use their sense of smell to keep their weight in check.

Consume what you shoot.

Instead of writing down every little thing you eat, take a picture of it. Seeing what you've eaten may help you eat less. Joan Salge Blake, RD, nutritionist and author of Nutrition & You, says that taking pictures and then looking at them can make people stop and think before they indulge. Blake warns that even your healthy salad may "show your extra helping of cheese or deep-fried croutons."

Foto oleh Couleur

Only eat wrapped candies.

A Swiss study found that people ate 30% less candy if they had to take it out of the package first. It takes work to get the wrapper off, which can make people eat fewer calories.

Think about the color of your plate.

Researchers have found that when food is served on some plates instead of others, people may eat less of it. For example, one study found that people who were given a white plate at a buffet ate less food than those who were given a black or red plate of the same size. Some color theorists have also said that a blue plate or even a blue kitchen will make you feel less hungry than a red plate or kitchen.

Before dinner, eat soup.

You might be used to eating a salad before dinner to cut calories, but if you don't like leafy greens, research shows that eating soup before dinner can help you eat less of the main course.

A study in the journal Appetite found that people who ate a thick, low-calorie soup before lunch ate 20% less food at lunch than those who didn't eat any soup. People who ate soup also didn't say they were hungry or felt less full after their meal.

Your smoothies should be thicker.

Smoothies are thought to be one of the best ways to eat a lot of fruit or vegetables at once. However, the density of your smoothie may affect your waistline more than you realize. Research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that, no matter how many calories are in a smoothie, the thicker it is, the more full a person feels. This "phantom fullness," or feeling full because a meal is thick but not high in calories, may keep people from eating more calories later when the feeling of fullness is gone.

Sleep in a darker room.

One of the best ways to control your appetite and lower your risk of gaining weight is to get a full night's sleep, but the brightness of the room where you sleep may also affect your size. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that mice who slept in places with bright lights or dim lighting (like a TV flickering across the room) ate more than mice who slept in complete darkness.

Also, the study found that mice that slept with lights on ate at strange times and had broken metabolic signals that affected how often they were hungry. Cut out all light from your bedroom or wear a sleep mask that blocks light to help you lose weight.