The following are 10 unconventional weight loss tips that worked for me. Between January 4, 2006 and March 31, 2006 I lost fifty pounds. These tips work well because almost every tip is focused around completing a small goal. In my opinion, to stay motivated and lose a significant amount of weight, you should complete many goals in a short period of time. The reason I call these tips unconventional is that I had not seen a majority of them before starting my diet.

I will start by recognizing the typical “calories in, calories out” schpeil. Yes, to lose weight you have to eat well and exercise. But there is much more to it than that, and I don’t want to spend time regurgitating ideas you’ve heard before. That brings me to the first point:

Buy a digital scale
This seems easy enough. I recommend that before starting a diet, buy a scale that is accurate to .2 (two-hundredths of a pound). I will explain why below. I also recommend either buying a scale that can record your daily weight, or manually logging your weight everyday. I bought a scale that was accurate to .2 and logged my weight at Sam’s Club for $22. It has been a great investment.

Weigh yourself everyday
You’ll find that almost every other dieter will tell you to weigh yourself only once a week. I recommend the exact opposite. I am very goal oriented and I like to see results everyday. The reason I recommend buying a scale that is accurate to the .2 is that there is a very big difference between weighting 170.8 one day and 170.0 the next day. Losing .8 pounds in one day is excellent. However, if your scale is not accurate enough to report the loss and still shows 170 after a day of healthy eating and working out, you will feel extremely discouraged. A more detailed scale makes it easier to keep a positive outlook. The more successes (days with positive weight loss) the easier it is.

Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
This one is obvious and broadly recommended, however, the reason I recommend it is slightly different. Drinking eight glasses of water per day helps you “feel less hungry.” I can’t prove this scientifically, however, when I am at work, I drink 4 cups in the morning and 4 cups in the evening. On the days that I don’t drink the water, I feel hungrier, earlier. Also, on the days I don’t drink water I feel sleepier, sooner. Don’t feel intimidated by trying to drink 8 glasses of water. Try doing what I do: I have a pint glass I keep at work, it holds sixteen ounces (as all pint glasses do). All I do is drink two pints of water in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Make your diet public
Tell people you’re on a diet. There’s no reason to be ashamed to be on a diet. I found that trying to keep my diet a secret was harder than just telling people. In fact, telling your coworkers, girlfriend, family, etc. will increase your accountability. It motivated me knowing that my coworkers and family knew that I was dieting because I did not want to fail. I also chose a typical “fat picture” and put it on my fridge, in my cubicle, and on my wall. I wanted to have a continual reminder to lose the weight. I know it’s a cliche, but it was important for me to remind myself of my ultimate goal.

I feel I should also note that although I was 50 pounds over weight, when I told people I was on a diet they often said “you don’t need to diet.” I found this surprising because I was obviously overweight. Beware that you will likely hear similar comments. I found it easier to just accept the “compliment” than to try to justify my diet to them. Remember that you are on a diet for you, and that you do not need to justify yourself.

Don’t diet on the weekends
This is another unconventional bit of advice. I was able to lose 50 pounds without dieting on the weekends. I found myself tired, depressed, and unmotivated if I tried to continue my diet into the weekend. I felt that Friday and Saturday (my weekend) was a time to celebrate 5 days of dieting. You may not find this necessary, especially in the first few weeks of a diet. However, as many weeks passed, the weekend became a time for me to celebrate my weekly successes and get myself mentally prepared for another five days of dieting. I considered it a mental recharge.

Don’t sacrifice your life for your diet
On occasion, you will find yourself unable to eat healthy. Whether this is because of lunches with your team at work, birthdays, or special occasions, there will be events that you just can’t (or don’t want to) eat healthy. A diet will feel overwhelming if you have to sacrifice special events in your life. The way I combated this was to exchange a day that I was not going to diet on the weekend. In other words, if I didn’t diet on Tuesday, for example, I would diet on Saturday, instead.

Make the small changes
This is a pretty common tip, however, I have a twist to it. Rather than giving up what most diets say you should give up (soda, coffee, beer, caffeine, etc.) just make healthier decisions. I didn’t want to give anything up, so I decided to make some changes instead. The first switch I made was switching to diet soda. Don’t worry, you’ll quickly get used to the flavor. Before I started my diet, I swore I would never drink diet soda. Now thanks to my girlfriend, diet is the only soda I drink. The second switch I made was to drinking black coffee. Cut out the sugar and creme, and you get the benefits of coffee (caffeine) without the calories. The last major switch I made was to “healthy” beer. I’m a Miller Lite drinker, however, by temporarily switching to Beck’s Premier Light (60 calories per serving) I was able to still enjoy a healthy social life while maintaining my diet.

In addition to making the small changes in your diet, make the small changes in your life: park further away, walk to the end of the train platform and get in the last car, and vow not to take an elevator for an entire week. I also found it advantageous to wear a pedometer and try to compete against myself for how far I could walk in a single day. The furthest I walked in a day was 6.5 miles. I voluntarily walked to work twice a week.

Gain perspective by understanding the fractions
Your diet is an incredibly small fraction of your life. If you live for 80 years, and dieted for four months, that would only be .42% of your life. That’s right, if you diet for four months, it will be less than one half of one percent of your life. On the other hand think of the major benefits you can get from .42% of your life. If it helps you stay motivated, count down the days starting at 120.

Rationalize your workouts
Finding the time to get to the gym can be very difficult. However a 1/2 hour workout is only 2% of your day (assuming 24 hour days). For me, the most motivating thought was comparing my workouts to sitcoms. As a huge Everybody Loves Raymond fan, every time I would sit down to watch an episode, I would remind myself that in the 1/2 hour that I was sitting and doing nothing, I could complete my daily workout.

You’ve lost the weight, what now?

Have a red flag weight
Once you’ve lost the weight, you need to keep it off. This is where the red flag comes in. You need to pick a weight and vow to never get heavier than it again. It is normal for your body to fluctuate five to ten pounds. I recommend picking a weight that is ten pounds heavier than what you “normally” weigh and never weigh more than it again. Setting a red flag weight allowed me to keep off every pound for over 1 year.

Lastly, for the curious out there…I followed the Weight Watchers diet. I did not pay for the diet, nor did I go to meetings. I found out all the information about the diet on-line. The first place to look is at their patent.

All well known diets are available via Google Patent Search. For the several months that I was dieting, I also gave up red meat and made sure to drink a lot of milk. The preceding tips worked perfectly for me and they will work for you, too. Prior to creating my own diet plan, I tried to diet several times and failed every time. I swear by these weight loss tips. What do you think of them? Do you have a tip that didn’t make my list? Let us know in the comments. I will be glad to answer any questions or defend any point.

以下10個非傳統減肥小貼士對我來說很有效。從2006年1月4日到3月31日，我一共減掉了50磅。這些訣竅都起作用了，因為差不多每項秘訣是圍繞著一個小目標來完成。在我看來，既要保持積極性又要在短時間內減掉大量的體重，你在短時間內要做的還真不少。而我之所以稱這些秘訣為“非傳統的”，是因為在我開始使用之前，大部分都聞所未聞。

我是從認知典型的“攝入卡路里，消耗卡路里”開始的。是的，想要減肥你必須健康飲食再加上堅持鍛煉。雖然可能有很多方法，但我可浪費時間來反復說。這讓我想到第一個訣竅：

買臺數字秤

這看上去很簡單。我建議在開始減肥前，先買一臺精確到2的數字秤（也就是2％磅）。我會在下面解釋為什么。我還建議，要么就買臺電子秤錄下您每天的體重，要么就每天動手記下你的體重。我買過這樣一臺電子秤，它能精確到2（即2％）并會記下我的體重，在沃爾瑪它只花了我22美元。這算的上一項成功的投資

堅持每天稱體重

你會發現差不多每個減肥者都會告訴你，每星期只要稱一次重量就行了。我建議剛好相反。因為直面成功，所以我很樂意看到每天的減肥結果。我之所以推薦買精確到2的體重秤，是因為如果前一天稱出170.8磅而第二天是170.0磅的話，兩者有很大區別。一天能減個0.8磅可太好了。不過，如果你的秤是不那么精確的話，在吃了一整天健康食品再加上拼命的鍛煉后，第二天的顯示如果還是170磅，你會有相當泄氣的感覺。一臺精確的秤能讓你對減肥保持更積極的態度。每天減的越多（每天明確的減重數字），減肥就越容易。

每天要喝8杯水

這個建議耳熟能詳，不過也正因如此，我推薦的理由與眾不同。每天喝8杯水可幫你“不怎么覺得餓 。”我無法用科學的手段來證明這一點，但在我在工作時，一般上午喝4杯晚上喝4杯。在那些不喝水的日子里，我總是很快就覺得餓了。而且，在那些不喝水的日子里，我也容易犯困。不要被8杯水這個數字嚇倒。試試我的做法：在工作的地方我有一個一品脫的玻璃杯，容量大約16盎司（就像所有的一品脫玻璃杯一樣）。我所要做的就是在上午喝兩杯在下午喝兩杯。

讓別人知道你在減肥

告訴大家你正在減肥。根本沒必要因為減肥而感到羞愧。我發現，要讓減肥保密比告訴別人還要難。事實上，告訴同事、女朋友、家人等你正在減肥，會增加你的責任感。它總是能提醒我：我的同事和家人都知道我在減肥，我不能失敗。我還選擇了一些有代表性的“脂肪趨勢圖”，并把它們放在我的冰箱上、臥室里和墻上。我希望通過不斷的提醒來達到減肥的目的。我知道這算是老生常談，但這對我提醒自己達成最終目標仍然相當重要的。

我覺得我也應該提醒大家牢記這點，在我超重50磅時，我告訴人們我正在節食，他們卻都跟我說：“你根本不需要減肥。”這很令我吃驚，因為我明顯超重了。要注意您可能會聽到類似的評論。我發現接受他們的“恭維”比想方設法證明我在節食要簡單得多。記住，你是在為自己減肥，所以不需要去向別人證明什么。

周末不節食

這是另一個非傳統建議。就算沒有周末大節食，我也能減重50磅。我發現，如果我讓節食繼續到周末，那樣就會感覺到疲倦，抑郁，甚至無精打采。我認為周五周六（我的周末時間）是用來慶祝前5天節食成功的。你可能覺得這毫無必要，尤其是在減肥的開始數周里。然而，數周以后，周末對我來說已經成為了每周的成功慶祝日，同時也為下一周的減肥作好思想準備。我認為這算一種精神充電。

不要因為減肥而犧牲你的生活

有時，你會發現自己達不到健康飲食的標準。無論這是否你與團隊在吃工作午餐、過生日、或在特殊場合，總會有這樣那樣的事讓你無法吃得健康。即使你不得不為生活中某些事做出犧牲，減肥也必須作為頭等大事。我對此作出的回應就是，用周末原本不節食的某天來作交換。換句話說，如果我沒有在周二節食，比如我就可以用周六來代替。

做些小改變

這是一個相當常用的秘訣，可是，我的可是新花樣。不用放棄哪些絕大多數減肥人士所建議你放棄的東西（蘇打水，咖啡，啤酒，咖啡因等），只要有更健康的決心就行。我不想放棄任何東西，所以我決定用一些改變來代替。第一個轉變是我現在改喝減肥蘇打水。別擔心，你很快就會習慣這味道的。在我開始減肥前的日子里，我曾發誓我再也不喝減肥汽水。現在，感謝我的女朋友，減肥汽水是我喝的唯一的碳酸飲料。我做的第二個改變，是從此改喝黑咖啡。不放奶油和糖，你會因為沒有卡路里而感受到它的好處。最后的一個大改變就是，我改喝“健康”啤酒了。我常喝的是米勒清爽型啤酒，不過，偶然喝喝貝克純生（每瓶含60卡路里），我依然能在保持減肥計劃同時，享受一個健康的社交生活。

除了在減肥計劃中做些小改動之外，讓你的生活也有些小變化吧：把車停得更遠、步行走到站臺末端、去乘最后一節車廂、并發誓整整一周不坐電梯。我還發覺戴著計步器，并試著挑戰自己能否步行一整天的好處了。最遠的那天我曾走了6.5英里。我還每周兩次主動走著去上班。

從多角度去理解

你的減肥過程只是你一生中小得難以置信的一部分。假設你壽命是80歲，減肥只花你四個月，也就是你人生的0.42％。也就是說，節食減肥的4個月只在你生命中占據1％的一半還不到。另一方面，想一想你用這僅僅0.42％的人生換來的大量好處吧。如果這可以幫你保持減肥的積極性，那么現在就開始120天的倒計時吧。

合理的鍛煉

特別抽時間去健身房是很難做到的。但做半小時的練習只占你一天時間的2％，假設一天24小時。對我來說，最能激勵我的想法，莫過于把用在鍛煉和泡在肥皂劇里的時間加以對比。作為一個“人人都愛雷蒙德”的狂熱粉絲，每次我想坐下來看一集時，我就會提醒自己：在這半小時里，我是坐著無所事事還是去完成每天的練習。

減肥成功了，接下去該怎么做？

設置一個標桿重量

一旦你成功減掉了預定重量，你就需要保持當前體重。這就是你設定標桿重量的原因。你必須選擇一個重量并發誓永遠不再超過它。 體重有5到10磅的波動很正常。我建議你選擇的重量是比你“平常”稱的高十磅左右而且不要超過這一重量。設置一個標桿重量讓我在一年內保持體重都沒有增加。

最后，要告訴好奇者的是，我采用的是“體重觀察家”的節食方法。我從不花錢去節食，也沒參加過減肥聚會。我上網就能找到所有的資料。不過首先要看的是他們的專利。

所有著名的節食方法都可以通過谷歌專利搜索來找到。在我節食的幾個月里，我不僅放棄了紅肉而且每天確保自己能喝上大量的牛奶。前面那些訣竅在我身上完美的見效了，相信它們也會對你有用的。在此之前，我曾創立過自己的節食計劃，但每次減肥都屢戰屢敗。我信賴這些減肥秘訣。你對它們的看法呢？或者說，你還有什么其他訣竅？就讓我們在討論中相互了解更多吧。我很樂意回答任何問題或發表觀點。