How to Lose Weight

Losing weight is not the answer to every health problem, but if your doctor recommends it, there are tips to help you lose weight safely and sustainably.

A steady weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week is recommended for the most effective long-term weight management.

That said, many eating plans and diets designed to help you lose weight leave you feeling hungry or unsatisfied, or they cut out major food groups and are not sustainable. These are major reasons why you might find it hard to stick to a healthier eating plan.

Everyone has unique needs and different eating styles and tips may work better for you than someone else.

Top 18 weight loss tips

If you want to lose weight quickly, some of this tips may help, but quick weight loss is rarely sustainable. 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.

1. Choose a low-carb or high satiety diet
2. Eat when hungry
3. Eat real food, minimally processed food
4. Eat onlywhen hungry
5. Measure your progress wisely
6. Be persistent
7. Avoid overeating fruit
8. Avoid beer
9. Avoid non-caloric sweeteners
10. Review any medications
11. Stress less, sleep more
12. Eat less dairy products and nuts
13. Supplement vitamins and minerals
14. Use intermittent fasting
15. Exercise wisely
16. Achieve higher ketone levels
17. Get your hormones checked
18. Consider weight loss medications

1. Choose a low-carb or high satiety diet

If you want to lose weight, consider starting by avoiding sugar and starch (like bread, pasta and potatoes). This is an old idea, for 150 years or more there have been a huge number of weight loss diets based on eating fewer carbs.

What’s new is that reviews of modern scientific studies have repeatedly shown that low carb is at least as good, if not better, than other approaches to diet.

Obviously, it’s still possible to lose weight on any diet – just eat fewer calories than you burn, right? The problem with this simplistic advice is that it ignores the elephant in the room: hunger.

Most people don’t like to “just eat less,” as it may result in having to go hungry forever. Sooner or later, many will likely give up and eat without restriction, hence the prevalence of “yo-yo dieting.”

While it should be possible to lose weight on any diet, some appear to make it easier and some to make it much harder.

The main advantage of the low-carb diet is that it may cause you to want to eat less.

Even without counting calories, overweight people tend to eat fewer calories on low carb.

Thus, calories count, but you don’t need to count them.

A 2012 study also showed that people who had lost weight  experienced far less reduction in total energy expenditure (the number of calories burned within a 24-hour period) when they followed a low-carb diet compared to a low-fat diet during weight maintenance — a 300-calorie difference, in fact.

According to one of the Harvard professors behind the study, this advantage “would equal the number of calories typically burned in an hour of moderate-intensity physical activity.” Imagine that: an entire bonus hour of exercise every day, without actually exercising.

Recently, an even larger and more carefully conducted study confirmed this metabolism-sparing effect, with different groups of people who had lost weight burning an average of between 200 and almost 500 extra calories per day on a low-carb maintenance diet compared to a high-carb or moderate-carb diet.

But reducing carbs isn’t the only way to lose excess weight without hunger. Eating higher satiety foods may also help you accomplish your health and weight loss goals. Higher satiety foods tend to have higher protein percentages, lower energy density, higher fiber, and lower hedonic characteristics.

And the best part is that higher satiety eating works with almost any eating pattern — including keto and low carb eating.

Bottom line: A low-carb diet can reduce your hunger, making it easier to eat less. And it might even increase your fat burning at rest. Study after study shows that low carb works for weight loss and that on average it improves important health markers.

In addition, higher satiety eating can help you lose excess weight with minimal hunger, and it is compatible with low carb and keto eating.

2. Eat when hungry

When on a low-carb or keto diet you can trust your feelings of hunger and satiety again — something many people following a low-fat diet may not do.

Feel free to eat as many — or as few — times per day as you feel is right for you.

Some people eat three times a day and occasionally snack in between (note that frequent snacking could mean that you’d benefit from adding protein, fibrous veggies, or extra fat calories to your meals, to increase satiety). However, there’s some evidence that frequent snacking may not be wise when trying to lose weight.

Some people only eat once or twice a day and never snack. Whatever works for you. Just eat when you’re hungry, and don’t eat when you aren’t.

It also helps that low-carb diets and higher protein diets — at least 20% of daily calories — tend to reduce hunger.

Studies demonstrate that people eating a very low-carb, ketogenic diet reduce their feelings of hunger and the amount of food they eat.

Multiple other studies demonstrate that adding protein to your diet markedly reduces hunger and food intake.

Our suggestion? Try a low-carb, higher protein approach and see what happens to your hunger levels.

3. Eat real, minimally processed food

Another common mistake when eating a low-carb diet is getting fooled by the creative marketing of special “low-carb” products.

Remember:  an effective low-carb diet for weight loss should be based primarily on whole food.

Prioritize what humans have been eating for thousands or likely millions of years, e.g. meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, butter, olives, nuts etc.

If you want to lose weight, avoid special “low-carb” products that are full of carbs. This should be obvious, but creative marketers are doing all they can to sell to you.

Focus on eating good quality, minimally processed real food. Ideally, the food you buy shouldn’t even have a list of ingredients (or it should be very short).

A landmark 2019 study reported that the level of food processing was much more important than the macronutrient composition when it came to overeating.

Those randomized to highly processed foods ate over 500 calories per day more than those eating less processed foods, despite an attempt to match the amount of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber.

4. Eat only when hungry

When eating low carb or higher satiety foods you should aim to eat when hungry (see tip #2 above). And if you’re not hungry? Don’t eat. Frequently eating more food than you need to stay satisfied will slow down weight loss.

This, in fact, is so important that it’s worth a section of its own.

Limit unnecessary snacking

Unnecessary snacking can be a problem on a low-carb diet too. Some things are easy to eat just because they’re tasty and readily available. Here are three common traps to watch out for on a low-carb or keto diet:

Dairy products such as cream and cheeses. They work well in cooking, as they satisfy. But problems arise when you’re munching a lot of cheese in front of the TV in the evening — without being hungry.

Another problem might be having lots of cream with dessert, when you’re actually already full and just keep eating because it tastes good. Another common culprit is loads of heavy cream in the coffee, many times per day.

Nuts. It’s very easy to eat until the nuts are gone, regardless of how full you are. A tip: According to science, salted nuts are harder to stop eating than unsalted nuts.

Salted nuts tempt you to more overeating. Good to know. Another tip: Avoid bringing the entire bag to the couch – choose a small bowl instead.

Low-carb baking. Even if you’re only using almond flour and sweeteners, snacking on baked goods and cookies usually represents additional eating when you’re not hungry — and yes, this will slow down weight loss.

Feel free to skip meals

Do you have to eat breakfast? Research has confirmed that the answer is no.

Don’t eat if you’re not hungry. And this goes for any meal.

On strict low-carb or higher satiety diets the hunger and urge to eat tend to decrease significantly.

If this happens, be happy! Don’t fight it by eating food you don’t want. Instead, wait for the hunger to return before you eat again. This will save you both time and money, while speeding up your weight loss.

Some people fear that they will lose control if they don’t eat every three hours. The concern that this “urge to binge” will blow their diets completely leads them to obsessively snack all the time.

This constant snacking may be necessary in order to control the hunger and craving that may arise during a diet high in sugar and starchy carbs, but it’s usually unnecessary on a low-carb diet. Hunger will only slowly return and you should have plenty of time to prepare food or grab a snack.

Bottom line: To lose weight in a sustainable way, eat when you’re hungry – but only when you’re hungry. Forget the clock and listen to your body instead.

5. Measure your progress wisely

Tracking successful weight loss is sometimes trickier than you’d think. Focusing primarily on weight and stepping on the scale every day might be misleading, cause unnecessary anxiety, and undermine your motivation for no good reason.

The scale is not necessarily your friend. You may want to lose fat – but the scale measures muscles, bone and internal organs as well. Gaining muscle is a good thing. Thus weight or BMI are imperfect ways to measure your progress. This is especially true if you’re just coming off a long period of semi-starvation (which may accompany calorie-counting), as your body may want to restore lost muscle. Starting weight training and gaining muscle can also hide your fat loss.

Losing fat and gaining muscle means great progress, but you may miss this if you only measure your weight. Thus it’s best to quantify body composition as you lose weight. You can do this with a DEXA scan, hydrostatic weights, plethysmography scales and others. But if these are not available, it is smart to also track the disappearance of your belly fat, by measuring your waist circumference.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Put the measuring tape around your middle, slightly above your belly button(to be exact: at the midpoint between your lowest rib and the top of your hipbone, at your side)
2. Exhale and relax (don’t suck in your stomach)
3. Make sure the measuring tape fits snugly, without compressing your skin
4. Measure

6. Be persistent

It usually takes years or decades to gain a lot of weight. Trying to lose it all as quickly as possible by starving yourself does not necessarily work well in the long term; instead it may be a recipe for “yo-yo dieting”.

In addition, you need to set realistic expectations for health and weight loss goals.

What to aim for

It’s common to lose 2-6 pounds (1-3 kg) within the first week on a strict low-carb or high satiety diet, and then on average about one pound (0.5 kg) per week as long as you have a lot of weight remaining to lose.

This translates into about 50 pounds (23 kilos) per year. However, weight loss doesn’t occur at this rate in everyone.

Young males sometimes lose weight faster than this.

Post-menopausal women may lose at a slower pace.

People on a very strict low-carb diet may lose weight quicker, as well as those who exercise a lot (a bonus).

And the more weight you vae to lose, the faster you can start to lose it— although initially, some of the weight you lose will be due to water loss.

As you get closer to your ideal weight, the loss may slow down until you stabilize at a weight that your body feels is right. Very few people become underweight on a low-carb or higher satiety diet as long as they eat when hungry.

7. Avoid overeating fruit

This piece of advice is controversial, as fruit has an almost magical health aura today. While fruit does contain fiber, antioxidants, and important vitamins, it also contains a fair amount of sugar – around 10% by weight (the rest is mostly water).

Just taste an orange or a grape. Sweet, right?

Eating whole fruits in moderation – especially ones that are low in sugar, like berries – can absolutely be part of a healthy diet. The soluble fiber in fruit can help with short-term satiety; it also reacts with water in your gut to form a thick gel that helps delay and reduce the amount of sugar absorbed from that fruit. In fact, up to 30% of the sugar from fruit may not be absorbed.

Larger quantities of fruit, however, will deliver a significant sugar load to your intestines. Even if only 70% of that sugar is absorbed, 70% of a big number is still a big number. For example, five servings of fruit per day can be equivalent to the amount of sugar in 16 ounces (500 ml) of soda – 52 grams of sugar

8. Avoid drinking beer

Beer contains rapidly digested carbs that shut down fat burning. That may be why beer is sometimes referred to as “liquid bread.” There’s a good reason for the term “beer belly.”

Here are smarter (lower-carb) alcoholic options when trying to lose weight:

• Wine (red or dry white)
• Dry champagne
• Hard liquor like whisky, cognac, vodka (avoid sweetened cocktails – try vodka, soda water, lime instead)

These drinks hardly contain any sugar or digestible carbohydrates so they’re better than beer. However, large amounts of alcohol might slow weight loss, so moderation is still a good idea.

9. Avoid non-caloric sweeteners

Many people replace sugar with non-caloric sweeteners in the belief that this will reduce their calorie intake and cause weight loss. It sounds plausible. Several studies, however, have failed to show obvious positive effect on weight loss by consuming non-caloric sweeteners instead of plain sugar.

According to scientific studies, non-caloric sweeteners may increase appetite and maintain cravings for sweet food.

And one recent independent study showed that switching drinks with non-caloric sweeteners to water helped women lose weight.

This may be related to the increased insulin secretion seen with some non-caloric sweeteners.

If you’re having trouble losing weight, I suggest that you avoid sweeteners. As a bonus, you’ll likely find it easier to enjoy the natural sweetness of real food, once you’re no longer adapted to the overpowering sweetness of processed low-carb food products and “diet” sodas.

10. Review any medications

Many prescription drugs can stall your weight loss. Discuss any change in treatment with your doctor. Here are the three most common offenders:

• Insulin injections, especially at higher doses, are probably the worst obstacle for weight loss for many people with diabetes.

There are three ways to reduce your need for insulin:

1. Eat fewer carbs, which makes it easier to lose weight. The fewer carbs you eat the less insulin you need.

Remember to work closely with your healthcare provider to ensure you safely lower your doses.

1. If this isn’t enough, treatment with metformin (an insulin sensitizing drug) can decrease the need for insulin (at least for people with type 2 diabetes).
2. If this is not enough to get off insulin (again, for people with type 2 diabetes), discuss with your doctor if it is appropriate to try a drug in one of the newer classes like the GLP-1 analogues or DPP-4 inhibitors. There are many different options within these two categories; what you need to know is the drugs in these classes reduce the need for insulin and may also cause weight loss by other mechanisms — beyond just the effect of using less insulin.

11. Stress less, sleep more

Have you ever wished for more hours of sleep and a less stressful life in general? Most people have – stress and lack of sleep can be bad news for weight.

Chronic stress and inadequate sleep may increase levels of stress hormones such as cortisol in your body. This can cause increased hunger, resulting in overeating and weight gain.

If you’re looking to lose weight, you should review possible ways to decrease or better handle excessive stress in your life. Although this often demands substantial changes, it may immediately affect your stress hormone levels and perhaps your weight.

You should also make an effort to get enough good sleep, preferably every night. Strive to wake up refreshed of your own accord, independently of the alarm clock. If you’re the kind of person who always gets brutally woken up by the alarm ringing, you might never be giving your body completely adequate rest.

One way to combat this is to go to bed early enough for your body to wake up autonomously before the alarm clock goes off. Letting yourself get a good night’s sleep is another way of reducing stress hormone levels.

Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, goes hand in hand with sugar cravings.

It also has an adverse effect on self-discipline and makes it painfully easy to give in to temptation (it’s no coincidence that induced sleep deprivation is a common interrogation technique). Similarly, sleep deprivation weakens your resolve to work out.

Sleep issues?

Do you have trouble sleeping even if there’s ample time for it? Here are five helpful tips;

1. Stick to the same bedtime every evening. In the long run, this will help your body prepare for sleep at that time.
2. No coffee after 2 pm. Just don’t – and remember that it takes time for caffeine to leave your body.
3. Limit your alcohol intake to three hours before bedtime. While booze might make you woozy, it worsens quality of sleep.
4. Try to get regular exercise in the morning. Regular physical activity in the earlier part of the day may help you fall asleep easier. Some people may find that exercise later in the day is stimulating and makes falling asleep more difficult. The evidence is inconsistent, so it likely depends on how you react to afternoon exercise — so pay attention to how it impacts your sleep!
5. Get 15 minutes of sunlight every day. This is good for your circadian rhythm (your “body clock”).

Finally, make sure that your bedroom is dark enough, and stays at a pleasant temperature. Sleep well!

Difficult, but worthwhile

Many may find the above guidelines difficult to follow, perhaps because of a lack of time (or the equivalent – small children!). But stressing less and sleeping more doesn’t just feel good. It can also play a part in helping you get leaner.

12. Eat less dairy products and nuts

Can you eat as much as you like and still lose weight? This often works well with a low-carbohydrate or higher satiety diet, as appetite regulation often improves.

However, despite the fact that a low-carbohydrate diet generally makes it easier to eat just enough, there are foods classified as low carb which are lower satiety foods and may become a problem in larger quantities. If you find yourself having a hard time losing weight on a low-carb diet, you could try shifting to a higher satiety diet and reducing:

• High fat dairy products (yogurt, cream, cheese)
• Nuts

High fat dairy products contain varying amounts of lactose (milk sugar) and lots of calories from fat — both of which could slow down weight loss when over-consumed. Consequently, cutting back on high fat dairy products may help accelerate weight loss.

Remember that, gram for gram, fat has twice the calories of carbs or protein; therefore, high-fat, highly palatable foods can deliver a huge calorie load before you know it.

When it comes to butter, you don’t need to worry about extra carbs, as butter is almost pure fat. But, like any other source of fat, if butter is over-consumed, the calories can add up and your dietary fat will likely be burned for fuel instead of body fat.

Nuts, the second food to watch, contain a fair amount of carbohydrate in addition to a significant amount of calories from fat, and it’s very easy to unwittingly scarf down large quantities.

That’s why nuts are a low satiety per calorie food.

The high calorie load delivered by handfuls of nuts can thwart weight loss. If you are trying to follow a strict ketogenic diet, with a 20 grams of carbs per day allowance, you should also note that cashew nuts are among the worst carb-wise – you’ll find that they contain around 20% carbohydrate by weight.

This means that consuming 100 grams of cashews (which happens in a flash!) will fill your daily quota. Peanuts tend to be around 10-15% carbohydrate – not putting them in the clear either.

So, for those of you having trouble losing weight: use nuts sparingly. And for those of you on a strict keto diet, know that the most harmless ones carb-wise are macadamia nuts (usually around 5% carbs), or Brazil nuts (4%).

13. Supplement vitamins and minerals

Your body needs a certain amount of essential vitamins and minerals to function properly. What happens when you don’t get enough of them? What happens when you eat too little food or when the food you eat isn’t sufficiently nutritious? It is possible that our bodies catch on and reply by increasing hunger levels.

After all, if we eat more, we increase the chances of consuming enough of whatever nutrient we are lacking. On the other hand, reliable access to vitamins and minerals could perhaps mean decreased hunger levels and decreased cravings, thereby promoting weight loss.

The above is speculation without strong supporting evidence. But there are a few studies which suggest it might not be far from the truth.

Vitamin D

The research on the relationship between vitamin D and weight is conflicting, and it cannot be concluded that taking vitamin D will cause weight loss.

Nonetheless, there are studies indicating that, when compared to a placebo, a vitamin D supplement could help decrease your fat mass or waist measurement, even in the absence of weight loss.

In one of the studies, 77 overweight or obese women received either a supplement of 1000 units of vitamin D or a placebo, every day for 3 months. Although the total weight loss was similar, those who took the vitamin D supplement decreased their body fat by 2.7 kg (6 pounds), on average. This was significantly more than the placebo group, whose average fat loss was only 0.4 kg (less than 1 pound).

Multivitamins

The data regarding vitamin and mineral supplementation for weight loss is sparse and of very low quality overall.

However, there is a clinical trial from 2010 involving around a hundred women with weight issues, separating them into three groups. One group received a daily multivitamin supplement, the other a daily calcium supplement, and the last group only a placebo. The study went on for six months.

Unsurprisingly, the results showed that nothing had happened to the weight of the women receiving calcium or the placebo. However, the group that took the multivitamin lost more weight – an average of 3.6 kg (8 pounds) more – and improved several health markers. Among other things, their basal metabolic rate (the rate at which the body burns calories when at rest) increased.

Although the differences were small, they were statistically significant.

Conclusion

Nutrient-dense, whole food is certainly the foundation of weight loss. But an adequate amount of vitamin D can be difficult to ingest via food, especially for those who are vegetarian or don’t eat fatty fish (the main dietary source of vitamin D) on a regular basis. In the case of a lack of sun (such as during the darker months of fall and winter), it may be wise to supplement for other health reasons – and perhaps for your body composition.

In addition, if you’re overweight and not entirely sure that your diet provides enough nutrients, it may be worthwhile to take a multivitamin pill.

While the evidence is weak that either of these interventions will help with weight loss, there is likely little downside and you may see a small benefit.

14. Use intermittent fasting

There are many things to consider before moving on to tip #14, but don’t let this deter you. Intermittent fasting can be a powerful tool when trying to lose weight. It may be perfect if you are stuck at a weight loss plateau despite “doing everything right” – or to speed up your weight loss.

Intermittent fasting means exactly what it sounds like: not eating during a specified time interval.

Recommended first option – 16:8

Probably the most popular option is fasting for 16 hours (including sleep), which is usually easy to do on a low-carb or high satiety diet. It requires trading breakfast for a cup of coffee (or some other non-caloric fluid) and having lunch as the first meal of the day. Fasting from 8 pm to 12 noon – for example – equals 16 hours of fasting. Another option is to skip dinner: eat breakfast and lunch within 8 hours — for instance, 8 am to 2 pm — and then don’t eat again until 8 am the next morning.

There are many other versions of intermittent fasting, but this 16:8 method (16 hours of not eating with an 8-hour eating window) is the one we recommend as a first option. It’s often effective, generally easy to do and does not require counting calories.

You can do a 16:8 fast as often as you like. For example twice a week, on weekdays only, or every single day. In fact, on a low-carb or keto diet, some people spontaneously fall into this habit, as their appetite is reduced (see weight loss tip #4, eat only when hungry).

Although it’s possible that doing it more frequently may improve your results, long-term studies are lacking.

Therefore, we simply don’t know if frequent fasting will decrease resting metabolic rate in a similar manner to continuous caloric restriction, making weight loss and maintenance more difficult in the long run.

Also, clinical experience suggests that some people feel the urge to overeat calories during their eating window when they first try intermittent fasting. If this is the case, it may not be the right time to try IF. Instead, you may benefit from focusing on higher satiety eating first, so that you have less hunger and feel less of an urge to overeat during your eating window.

Other kinds of intermittent fasting

There are many other options. Basically, the longer periods may be harder to do, but they can certainly be effective. Here are two more common options:

• Fasting for 24 hours (often dinner to dinner) once or twice a week. This can be effective and easy to do for some people, especially on a keto diet, which usually reduces appetite. 
• The 5:2 diet. Eat as much as you need to feel satisfied 5 days of the week and then eat calorie-restricted on two days (500 calories per day for women, 600 calories for men). This requires calorie counting and more planning, but some people still find they enjoy it.

What about eating when hungry?

Doesn’t advice on intermittent fasting contradict the advice to eat when hungry? Yes it does, somewhat.

We recommend eating when hungry as a first option, and we recommend always eating until you feel satisfied at meals. But if this is not effective enough, then intermittent fasting can be a useful tool in your tool kit. Remember – and this is crucial – that between fasting periods you’re still supposed to eat until satisfied.

Intermittent fasting is not the same thing as obsessively counting calories and starving yourself 24-7. Starving yourself may be a recipe for misery and failure.

Intermittent fasting is about eating all that your body needs, while still allowing it to sometimes briefly rest from constant feeding.

What’s acceptable to drink during fasts?

During a fast you can’t eat, but you should definitely drink. Water is the drink of choice, but coffee and tea are also great options. During longer fasts it can be wise to add some salt too, or drink bouillon.

Anything you drink should ideally be zero calories. But it may be acceptable to modify this by adding a small amount of milk or cream in your coffee or tea – if you absolutely need it to enjoy your drink.

15. Exercise wisely

Do you wonder why this weight loss tip doesn’t show up until number 15 on the list? It’s because exercise is greatly overrated as a single intervention for weight loss.

Have you ever watched “The Biggest Loser”? The participants take leave from their jobs (and family) for months. They are allowed only small portions of food, and work out as though it were their full-time job – 40 hours a week, sometimes more. This method is clearly unsustainable for the average person in the long run.

Just taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or getting off the bus one stop earlier, is probably not going to change the numbers on your bathroom scale. It’s a myth. Studies show that if you just start exercising, you’re likely going to need at least 30-60 minutes of workouts per day to noticeably lose weight.

Part of the reason is that exercise makes people hungrier, and eating more reduces its beneficial effect on weight.

While the effect of exercise on our weight is overrated, exercise can still provide meaningful health improvements, even without weight loss. You can learn more in our guide on exercise. But it’s not a good idea to eat unhealthy processed food and drink sugar water (so-called “sports drinks”), and then exercise for hours daily just to compensate. Metaphorically that’s like digging a hole, into which you put your ladder, on which you stand and paint the basement-level windows of your house.

Exercise cannot compensate for other behaviors or issues in your life. Those must be addressed first.

The good news

If, on the other hand, you’ve already taken care of steps 1-14, you should have a rested and recharged body which is already happily burning fat. In this case, increased activity can accelerate your weight loss, fat mass loss and reduction of insulin levels.

Also, don’t forget that the non-weight-related health effects of exercise are quite impressive.

Hormonal effects

For even more impressive effects on body composition, aim for exercise forms which elicit a positive hormonal response. This means lifting heavy things (strength training), or interval training. Such exercise increases levels of the hormone testosterone (primarily in men) as well as growth hormone.

Not only do greater levels of these hormones increase your muscle mass, but they also decrease your visceral fat (belly fat) in the long term.

As a final bonus, exercise can both make you feel and look better.

What kind of activity fits you?

16. Achieve higher ketone levels

Warning: Not recommended for people with type 1 diabetes,

We’ve now arrived at tip number 16. If you’re still having trouble losing weight, despite following the 15 pieces of advice listed above, it might be a good idea to bring out a controversial option: higher ketone levels (this advice applies only to people following a ketogenic diet).

Why is it controversial? For most people, “low” or “higher” ketone levels don’t make a difference for health and weight loss, and in general it’s not recommended to shoot a specific ketone level.

However, for some people stalling at weight plateaus while on a low carb diet, trying to raise ketone levels may be of benefit.

So how does this work? A quick run-through: The first tip was to eat low carb. This is because a low-carb diet lowers your levels of the fat-storing hormone insulin, allowing your fat deposits to release their stored energy and shrink.

This tends to cause you to want to consume fewer calories than you expend – without hunger – and lose weight.

Several of the tips mentioned earlier are about fine-tuning your diet to better this effect

 17. Get your hormones checked

So you’ve followed the previous tips, implemented major lifestyle changes, and established that neither medication nor vitamin deficiency is an issue. You’ve even tried increasing your ketone levels for a while (ensuring low insulin levels). And you still can’t hit the normal weight mark?

If this applies to you, it may be time to consider the possibility that hormonal imbalances are the cause of your troubles. There are three common problem areas:

1. Thyroid hormone
2. Sex hormones
3. Stress hormones

Thyroid hormone

Some people, most often women, can suffer decreased metabolism as a result of thyroid hormone deficiency. Common symptoms of hypothyroidism are:

• Fatigue
• Cold intolerance
• Constipation
• Dry skin
• Weight gain

In these cases, weight gain resulting from decreased metabolism usually does not exceed 15 pounds.

Your doctor can easily arrange for you to take a blood test to measure the concentration of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). If the test comes back and everything looks good, your thyroid gland is probably fine. However, it is possible to have mild hypothyroidism, even though the TSH is within the normal range.

If your TSH is in the upper portion of the normal range, yet you suspect you may have hypothyroidism, it is worth measuring a free T4 (thyroid hormone level) and thyroperoxidase (TPO) antibodies. If the free T4 is frankly low or the TPO antibody test returns high, it is possible – but not definite – that you will benefit from thyroid hormone treatment.

Is it possible to avoid becoming deficient in thyroid hormone? Maybe. Although there aren’t any interventions known to stop an autoimmune attack on the thyroid, normal thyroid function requires adequate vitamins and minerals, including iodine, selenium, and iron.

What if you have optimized your vitamin and mineral intake, but you still suffer from low levels of thyroid hormone? The most common cause of hypothyroidism is an autoimmune reaction against the thyroid gland. This is typically treated with supplemental T4 in the form of levothyroxine, which the body converts into the active form of thyroid hormone, called T3. Some people with hypothyroidism will also benefit from the addition of T3 (liothyronine) to their T4 therapy.

Still other people will prefer desiccated pig thyroid (contains T4 and T3), though this treatment remains controversial and is not embraced by all healthcare providers.

Regardless of what form of thyroid hormone replacement you choose, the key is making sure you follow your levels and symptoms to make sure you aren’t over- or under-replacing thyroid hormones.

Sex hormones

Sex hormones also affect your weight:

Women: Women can suffer from the endocrine disorder PCOS – polycystic ovarian syndrome – which elevates testosterone and insulin levels. This can mean weight gain and menstrual disorders (very common), infertility, acne, and male pattern hair growth (such as facial hair). A low-carbohydrate diet may help treat this condition.

During menopause, estrogen levels can fluctuate widely, eventually dropping to low levels as the ovaries lose their ability to make it. This time of life is often associated with a drop in metabolic rate and some weight gain, especially around the gut (so-called central obesity). Current evidence suggests that hormone replacement therapy with estrogen may help achieve a more favorable body composition, though its effect on weight is minimal at best.

Men: From middle-age onward, testosterone levels gradually decline, which is considered normal. Sometimes, the decline is larger than what would be considered normal. This can be associated with some weight gain, typically around the gut, as well as decreased muscle mass.

Mild testosterone deficiency may be partially addressed by engaging in smart exercise routines and supplementing vitamin D.

A more significant deficiency, confirmed by blood testing, is typically treated with testosterone replacement therapy.

Both men and women should take into account, however, that supplementation of testosterone or estrogen for years on end can come with potential side effects.

It may be wise to accept that you don’t (and shouldn’t!) have the body of a 20-year-old when you’re at least twice that age. A better option might be to focus on a healthy lifestyle instead, and be as happy and grateful as you can for the body you have.

Stress hormones

Another possible hormonal issue behind stubborn weight issues may be the main stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol can increase hunger, bringing subsequent weight gain, especially around the midsection.

The most common causes of elevated cortisol are chronic stress and lack of sleep. It is very important to realize that it’s the underlying stress and sleep that need to be addressed; supplements that promise to lower cortisol levels will likely not help you lose weight if you haven’t corrected the underlying cause.

18. Consider weight loss pills

It sounds like a dream. Keep living like you already do, take a daily pill, and effortlessly lose your excess weight. This is why weight loss medicines are a billion dollar industry.

So do they work? Yes, somewhat. But the majority are not as effective as you might think and they may come with significant side effects.

Most available drugs result in modest weight loss (about 5% of body weight on average), sometimes at the expense of bothersome side effects. More recent medications offer greater weight loss, up to 10 or even 15% of body weight, but in order to maintain any weight loss benefit you receive, you must continue the drug indefinitely.

That’s right – if you stop the drug, you will likely regain the weight you lost, plus extra if your weight was already on an upward trajectory before starting the drug.