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Understanding how to prepare meals and developing better skills in the kitchen can be a powerful way to lose weight without reducing food intake.

Bursting with actionable advice and groundbreaking dietary research, How Not to Diet will put an end to dieting—and replace those constant weight-loss struggles with a simple, healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

Focusing on long-term health and habits that you can stick with over time will help improve your health and are more likely to result in lasting weight loss.

Meal planning can help keep you on track, pelo matter what your nutrition goal is. Prepping and planning doesn’t have to be time-intensive and complicated. A few simple steps, including basic meal constructs, making a shopping list, shopping strategically, and methodically preparing food ahead of time, are what make meal planning a helpful tool to keep you energized, meet your nutrition goals, reduce food waste, and save money.

Social media doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to realistic expectations. Just because one person can drop eight sizes to a size zero doesn’t mean you can too. Your body may be healthy at a larger size, even after losing weight.

Most people can lose weight on almost any diet plan that restricts calories — at least in the short term. The goal of the Mayo Clinic Diet is to help you keep weight off permanently by making smarter food choices, learning how to manage setbacks and changing your lifestyle.

As we’ve emphasized in this guide, there are many aspects to consider when evaluating your weight loss progress. You don’t simply want to lose weight; you want to lose weight in a healthy way

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Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2005: Perceived hunger is lower and weight loss is greater in overweight premenopausal women consuming a low-carbohydrate/high-protein vs high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet[randomized trial; moderate evidence] ↩

Successful weight loss requires long-term changes to your eating habits and physical activity. This means you need to find a weight-loss approach you can embrace for life. You're not likely to keep off the weight you lose if you go off the diet and back to old habits.

Work up to at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days of the week. Some people may need more exercise than this to lose weight and weight loss without diets keep it off.

A new study in mice indicates that a type of fiber called beta-glucan, which is found in oats and cereal, may induce more weight loss than other forms…

What about dessert? You can have sweets but no more than 75 calories a day. For practicality, consider thinking of your sweets calories over the course of a week. Have low-fat frozen yogurt or dark chocolate on Monday, and then hold off on any more sweets for a few days.