6 Signs You Need to Rethink Your Weight-Loss Plan

Sometimes jumping ship is actually the right thing to do.

You've probably heard someone say th

at the definition of insanity is continuing to do something over and over, even though you're getting zero results. So it follows that the definition of weight-loss insanity is to stick to a diet or exercise plan that hasn't nudged the scale much or has left you with physical or psychological side effects. Come on, that's no way to go through each day. Losing weight is a pretty individual thing, and there is a plan out there that will do the trick for you. If any of these six signs sound familiar, it's time to jump ship and find it.

1. You Have Zero Energy
No diet should leave you feeling totally drained. "The right plan will make you feel the opposite—energized and healthy," says Stephanie Middleberg, R.D., a nutritionist at Middleberg Nutrition in New York City.

RELATED: 5 Foods That Give You TONS of Energy

2. Three Words: Major Digestive Issues
"If you find yourself constipated, cramping, or have loose stools, you may be missing some key nutrients," says Middleberg. Or it could be that the food your diet consists of just doesn't agree with your system. Trust us—weight loss is not worth suffering (and ongoing chronic GI issues could lead to a larger health problem).

3. You Start Experiencing Anxiety and/or Depression
"Any successful meal plan should make you feel empowered and in control, not worried about every food selection," says Middleberg. If you're feeling constantly stressed about your eating plan, consider it a clue that you'd do better on a diet with more flexibility.

4. You're Starving All Day Long
A little hunger is normal when you eat less than you're used to. But if your appetite is out of control all the time, your plan is way too restrictive for you—and you're practically guaranteed to binge.

RELATED: 15 Healthy Foods That Make You Feel Full and Satisfied

5. You Can't Wait for Your Diet to End
It's a bad sign if you resent your food and workout guidelines so much that you're marking off the days on your calendar until you can ditch them for good. Plus, any diet designed to be followed for a short amount of time is doomed to fail since getting to and then maintaining a healthy weight requires a more permanent shift in your eating habits, not temporary calorie counting, says Middleberg.

6. You Just Aren't Losing Weight
True, not everyone drops pounds at the same pace. But if you've been on the plan for two or three weeks and the number on the scale is the same, a different way of eating would probably be a better fit. "Weight loss is not just about calories in versus calories out," says Middleberg. "It also involves where those calories are coming from, the quality of your food, and your timing."

BY ESTHER CRAIN

I Lost 277 Pounds by Living Life to the Fullest—Every Single Day

Rhonda used to weigh 457 pounds, and now she's got four triathlons under her belt

Before: 457 pounds 

   

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                         After: 180 pounds

The Lifestyle
I've been overweight most of my life. I was chubby throughout childhood, and as I got older, my activity level dropped and I continued to make poor food choices. Over time, it just all added up. Growing up in the Midwest, we were a meat-and-potato family. Although we didn't always eat unhealthy meals, most of them were high in fat—like my absolute favorite food, cheesy hash brown casserole. On top of that, my portions were out-of-control. I also loved to snack on sweets like candy, cakes, and pies as often as possible.

As far as fitness goes, I played some volleyball and basketball when I was in grade school, but after that I didn't do much physical activity. In my thirties, I would go to the gym maybe two or three times a year as a New Year’s resolution. I usually gave it up after about two weeks.

In the past, I tried dieting to lose weight, too. I did Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and pretty much any fad diet that came around. But every time I tried to change my eating habits, I was looking for a quick fix. If I didn’t see immediate results, I would give up. On the other hand, if I did end up losing 30 or 40 pounds on the diet, I would think, "Okay, I got this!"...only to end up going back to my old ways. In February of 2012, my weight peaked at 457 pounds.

The Change
There was no defining moment where I decided to lose the weight for good, but by February 2012, I knew that my life would be cut short if I didn't make a major change. I felt like I was headed for a heart attack. My friend said she was going to try a new diet that consisted of two protein shakes and three small meals a day. I was 40 years old, and I couldn’t even do the grocery shopping myself. I had no social life. Each day just consisted of work and home. I was tired of just existing and wanted to really live again.

Apart from changing my diet, I also made an effort to tell people I was trying to lose weight. I wanted to have someone to be accountable to. In the past, I would hide the fact that I was trying to lose weight because I didn’t want people to know when and if I failed again. This time, I wanted to really make it work.

To start getting active, I bought a pedometer and challenged myself to take 100 more steps each day than the day before. Once I got comfortable with those changes, I started counting calories.  I knew that I needed to find more ways to stay active and continue to push myself—that’s when I started riding on my Pedego electric bike. It works just like a bike, except it also has motor to help pedal when you get tired. To me, that made the biggest difference because I was able to get out, exercise, and have fun.

After I hit a plateau about a year into my new diet and exercise routine, I decided it was time to start working out with a trainer. We began working together on strength-training and cardio circuits three days a week, which helped me develop my strength and endurance in new ways. This was so helpful because working out isn’t just about physical strength, it’s also about learning that I can do things that I never thought I could. My trainer—who is the best!—helps me accomplish that all the time.

In early 2014, my trainer suggested I train for a triathlon. It made sense since I had been consistently swimming and riding my bike, but I was hesitant because I didn’t consider myself a runner. My super-supportive trainer assured me that he could help me become one. This past summer, I completed four triathlons—and I'm training to do more in early 2015. With every little fitness goal I’ve achieved, my confidence has grown so much. And I’ve also lost 277 pounds!

The Reward
My biggest reward from losing weight is living instead of just existing. Now I have the confidence to go shopping, walk up steps, or go to a restaurant with smaller seats. Losing weight has also helped me discover just how much I love being active every day—especially riding my bike. Those two hours are my time to prepare for work, de-stress, enjoy the fresh air, and clear my head.

I also feel rewarded by helping others trying to lose weight. I started a public Facebook page called "Living Instead of Existing" about my journey, and I get a lot of messages from people who say my posts help motivate them.

Rhonda's Tips
Find something active you love to do. When I get on my bike, it’s pure enjoyment. It makes me look forward to doing physical activity instead of dreading it.
Set small goals. One small change at a time adds up. If I only focused on my overall weight-loss goal of losing almost 300 pounds, it would have been a much more daunting task. Instead, I just picked up one simple change at a time.
Set fitness goals. When I reach a goal by doing something I never thought I would be able to, it’s the best feeling in the world. Find something you want to accomplish, and work toward it.

BY RHONDA MARTIN AS TOLD TO ASHLEY OERMAN

7 Disturbing Ways Restaurants Trick Your Taste Buds

One of these sort of works in your favor—the rest are just unsettling.

How's your meal? If you restaurant is using any of these common tactics, you'll probably think it tastes a whole lot better than it really is. And unfortunately, most of the time these tactics aren't used to make you think foods like broccoli or lean protein are more flavorful than they actually are—they're primarily used to jazz up cheap and often unhealthy ingredients. Check out the sly ways restaurants trick your taste buds, often wrecking your healthy-eating efforts.

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Colorful names like "succulent," "homestyle," and "satin," don't just draw you in, they actually make you think the foods are tastier. In one study published in Food Quality and Preference, when diners ate the same foods but with different names, the people whose foods came with descriptive monikers rated the foods as being tastier.

Piping Smells Into the Air

Your tastebuds do matter, but most of your sense of "taste" is actually "smell," according to the University of Rochester. Just think about how everything tastes "blah" when you're stuffed up. So to make foods pack more yummy flavors, restaurants add scents. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that some restaurants have switched their bakers from night to day shifts so the place smells like bread. Meanwhile, some eateries diffuse essential oils into the air, while others enlist the services of companies like ScentAir to replace a food's natural smell or enhance the real thing.

Putting Lots of Colors on Your Plate

The prettier a food looks, the more scrumptious we think it tastes. For instance, in one Journal of Consumer Researchstudy, when college students were given bowls of M&M's, those who received 10 colors ate 77 percent more candies compared to those who were given seven colors. No wonder your plate is so colorful.

Using Additives

Salt, autolyzed yeast extract, and MSG all serve to artificially (an inexpensively) enhance the taste of food. Recently, one popular San Francisco restaurant even tweeted out that it was adding MSG shakers to their tables. Meanwhile,

companies such as Dow Pharma & Food Solutions specialize in helping restaurants and food manufacturers improve the texture and mouth-feel of foods, both of which spur greater food satisfaction.

Charging a Higher Price

We get what we pay for—or at least we think we do. Hence why, when diners are charged more for an all-you-can-eat buffet, they actually rate the food as being better, according to researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

  Faking Ingredients  

The one ingredient missing from your pumpkin spice latte: pumpkin. Some chains selling pumpkin-flavored drinks put artificial coloring in their drinks to make you think they contain a certain ingredient—even if they don't. And unfortunately, food dyes and other chemicals are commonly used throughout the food industry to make foods look better—which, as we've learned, also makes them seem like they taste better.

Setting the Mood

Eating in a dim room—like those in most fine-dining establishments—puts you at ease so that you enjoy your food more. But get this: It also makes you eat more slowly, and by slowing down, you're more apt to realize you're full before you've licked your plate clean. In fact, people who eat in dim lights to mellow music

consume 18 percent fewer calories than those eating in the bright lights of many chain restaurants, according to a study in Psychological Reports.

BY K. ALEISHA FETTERS

You Can Lose Weight by Eating During These 12 Hours

Sticking to a certain timeframe could mean the difference between frustration and results.

If you're trying to maintain your weight or shed a few pounds, you might want to do more than swap burgers for salads: New research suggests it's not just what you eat but when you eat that can cause you to add inches to your waistline (or lose them, for that matter).

Salk Institute researchers looked at nearly 400 mice, feeding the lean and obese animals a variety of high-fat and high-sugar diets over the course of nine-, 12- and 15-hour periods (in other words, the mice didn't eat anything except for during that timeframe). Even though all of the mice consumed the same number of calories, the ones that noshed over longer periods of time gained more weight than those with time-restricted access to food.

Pretty crazy that fasting for a larger portion of the day seemed to impact how calories were stored or burned by their bodies. The results even indicate that maintaining a restricted diet may help prevent diabetes and high cholesterol.

When the researchers witnessed these results, they put obese mice to one more test: They placed them on the nine-hour time-restricted diet—and found that the mice shed an average of five percent of their body fat in just a few days, losing an average of 25 percent of their weight by the end of the 38-week study.

Granted, since this is an animal study, the results don't necessarily apply to humans. But back in 2007, a study conducted on humans showed similar results. In that one, a group of adults who ate within a restricted time period shed more fat and lost more pounds than the control group that consumed the same number of calories spread out over three meals a day.

So if you're looking to maintain—or even lose—weight, you might want to try eating within a nine- or 12-hour window. Even if you can't do it every day, plans like The 8-Hour Diet explain how you can see results from following a schedule like this for just a few days each week.

 BY JILLIAN KRAMER