Six things you can do to lose weight after 6pm

Losing weight is not easy and if you are trying to do it in a healthy and sustainable way the journey can be made longer. While life is said to get better the older you get, dropping the kilos can be a real challenge. You might have more stiffness, a busier schedule, and the weight you gained in your younger days is coming back to haunt you.

It’s important not to give up though. These expert-approved tips can help you stay in control.

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Scale down

You might find you’re putting on the pounds because your portion sizes are too big. It happens. The easiest way you can tackle this is to remember that dinner should not be your biggest meal of the day (especially easy if you aren’t into counting calories). If you put a lot of vegetables on your plate, which are lower in calories but higher in fibre, you’ll find it will keep you fuller until bed time.

Skip the ice-cream

That’s not to say you can’t have something sweet to ease the craving, but have you thought about frozen grapes? A cup of frozen grapes is about 100 calories and it’s like eating a tiny sorbet. An additional benefit is that because the grapes are frozen they’ll take you longer to eat and this stretches out your snack time.

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Get colouring

You would have seen the adult colouring books in shops and newsagents around the place, but did you know they can help you with weight loss? Yup! Keeping your hands busy is one way of reducing the amount of food that goes into your mouth after a meal and while you’re kicking back on the couch. The act of colouring (or doing a crossword, word find, sudoku, knitting… You get the idea) is also one way you can de-stress at the end of a long day.

Don’t save your chores

You might do your housework on a weekend, yet adding a load of laundry on a weeknight or doing the ironing while you’re watching television can really increase the amount of movement your body is doing and cut down the amount of snack time you’ll indulge in while on the couch. There’s an additional bonus here — if you knock off the list of chores one by one during the week you’ll have some free time on the weekend to do something you enjoy.

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Drink water

If you like a glass or two of wine with dinner, try having a glass of water in between. Alcohol can dehydrate you and this will fool your brain into thinking it is hungry when it really is thirsty. Having a glass of water in between your alcoholic beverages can combat this effect and stop you from snacking.

Be prepared

If you have a strategy for your meals and snacks you are far less likely to stray. It might mean you spend some time each week planning our your dinners and preparing suitable snacks that you can easily grab instead of rummaging through cupboards and pantries looking for something.

Do you find you snack a lot after you have eaten dinner? What tips do you have for maintaining or losing weight? Share them with us.