If like two-thirds of people you've been on a nutrition in the last 10 years, you'll know that the gilded standard advice for losing weight is to ­eat fewer calories.

Just now a study has found this might not be the about effective way of going about it.

Scientists at Tufts University in the United states discovered that people who focused on reducing added sugar, refined carbs and highly candy foods while eating plenty of ­vegetables and wholefoods, lost ­significant amounts of weight over the class of a twelvemonth.

They found the strategy worked for people whether they followed diets that were depression in fat or low in carbs.

This lends strong support to the idea that diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most effectively in the long run.

Eating good food is actually more of import to weight loss than eating low-calorie food (

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Information technology'south non that calories don't matter.

Both groups of dieters in the report did end upwards consuming fewer calories, fifty-fifty though they weren't targeting them.

Simply the breakthrough came considering they ate nutritious, healthy foods that satisfied their hunger.

"Of course calories nevertheless count," agrees nutritionist Linda Foster, "but in that location are enough of means to cut them without obsessive number crunching."

So while information technology's proficient to have an idea almost whether foods are high or depression calorie, it's probably a waste matter of fourth dimension to add upwardly every single calorie that passes your lips.

Careful counting tin can likewise lead to unhealthy behaviours – for example skipping breakfast and lunch to "save" the calories for a ­chocolate bar or bottle of wine subsequently!

"Telling people to work out how many calories they consume and then cut back by around 500 calories a day – which is how almost diets work – simply makes them miserable and doesn't encourage them to make healthy food choices," says Foster.

"Instead, focusing on filling your diet with fresh, wholefoods, fruit and veg and eating less sugary, processed foods is a much amend formula for shifting that backlog weight – and keeping it off."

Fresh tomatoes off the vine are an excellent snack (

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Getting started: The anti-calorie rules

one. Aim for quality 'real' foods

Put only, this means buying recognisable ingredients to prepare at habitation and avoiding candy and packaged foods. Choose fresh, nutritious items such as vegetables, fruits, wholegrain staff of life, chocolate-brown rice, fish, nuts, lean meat and dairy products.

Start to call back of meals as eating food, not calories.

2. Watch your portion size

Recall information technology's still possible to overeat – fifty-fifty with healthy foods.

Common temptations are peanut butter and whole avocados, which are very nutritious but besides loftier in fatty so shouldn't exist eaten in huge amounts every solar day.

Stick to our foolproof portion control method below and follow the detailed meal planner to assistance you get it correct.

Lots of avocado should be avoided because of the fat content (

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3. Mind to your trunk

Focusing on calories while ignoring the quality of the nutrient and how hungry you lot experience can muddle the natural hunger cues we're all born with.

Whether y'all're eating simply because you lot "have calories left" or y'all're not eating when hungry because you've "gone over" your calorie limit for the twenty-four hours – either way you're not listening to your body.

Trust your body, it knows what information technology needs better than some calorie counter.

4. Irksome down meals

Another way to guard against overeating is to slow down at the table. It takes a minimum of 20 minutes for the brain to register when your breadbasket is full – signals y'all'll likely miss if you're eating too apace.

Effort putting your pocketknife and fork downward betwixt mouthfuls to help you footstep yourself.

5. Try mindfulness

Recent research found that when people did a brusk mindfulness practise chosen a "body scan meditation" — in which yous sit down quietly for a few minutes and have stock of how y'all feel inside – they were better able to pick upward on internal cues that betoken hunger or fullness.

People who are more mindful take as well been shown to experience fewer weight fluctuations in the long term.

Outdated nutrition rules to ditch

Switching to diet soft drinks

Many people swap to sugar-free canned drinks when trying to lose weight, but studies accept also suggested that far from aiding weight loss, nutrition drinks tin actually trick the body into expecting sugar and therefore lead to weight gain.

I written report published in the journal Diabetes found that older people who drank diet fizzy drinks each day saw their waistlines expand five times more over a decade than their peers who didn't drink any.

  • Instead: Effort sipping sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.
Sweet fizzy drinks are to be avoided fifty-fifty if they are low in calories (

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Avoiding carbs

For the last decade carbs accept been seen equally public enemy number one when information technology comes to weight loss, with many people avoiding bread, pasta and rice in the mistaken conventionalities it will help them to maintain their platonic weight.

All the same, while the too-hands digested refined carbs in white bread and pastries crusade your blood sugar to rising rapidly which can lead to weight gain, wholegrain carbs are really a dieter'south friend as they're packed with filling fibre to help you fight off hunger pangs and they release sugar slowly into the bloodstream.

  • Instead: Buy wholemeal breadstuff, pasta and brown rice.
Wholemeal bread is fine on this particular diet (

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Banning chocolate

Denying yourself a favourite treat is just setting yourself upwardly for diet failure, as at some signal those cravings will always get the better of y'all. Besides – eating decent quality chocolate (look for at least 70% cocoa solids) picayune and oftentimes may aid to ward off high blood pressure and reduce your risk of diabetes – both major risk factors for heart attacks and strokes.

This is thank you to chocolate being packed with high numbers of disease-fighting antioxidants.

  • Instead: Have a couple of squares of the good stuff a solar day to help keep those cravings at bay.
Chocolate is not the enemy and in fact it tin exist benign in the long run (

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Your Meal Planner

Selection from the breakfast, lunches and dinners below, allowing for two daily snacks and applying the portion rules for men and women

Breakfasts

  • Banana and almond smoothie made with assistant, semi-skimmed milk, two teaspoons almond or peanut butter, half a tsp cinnamon
  • Spinach and pepper omelette (made with 2 eggs for men, i for women), plus a handful of chopped red pepper and ii handfuls of spinach
  • Granary toast with whatsoever nut butter (two slices for men, 1 for women) plus i modest pear
  • Poached eggs (2 for men, i for women) with granary toast (as above), plus half a sliced avocado and i apple
  • Porridge, made with any type of milk and topped with a handful of mixed berries, and i tbsp of chopped nuts and seeds
A poached egg on toast tin exist very satisfying when cutting down (

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Lunches

  • Salad of hardboiled egg slices (2 eggs for men, 1 for women) asparagus, steamed new potatoes and i tbsp balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing
  • Wholemeal pitta filled with houmous and half a sliced cherry-red pepper, 1 small Greek yoghurt pot
  • Smoked mackerel salad with baby spinach leaves, a handful of cherry tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Followed by 1 small banana
  • Sweetness jacket white potato topped with 1 small can of tuna in water, mixed with 1 tbsp of sweetcorn. Greek yoghurt, plus i apple tree
  • Avocado and bacon salad, with i grilled rasher of bacon (2 for men), half a sliced avocado, mixed green leaves, lemon juice and black pepper, plus 1 pear

Dinners

  • Prawns cooked with mango slices, coconut milk, grated ginger and three chopped spring onions, served with brown basmati rice
  • Chicken and mixed veg stir-fry with whatever veg of your choice, i chopped garlic clove, 1 tbsp soy sauce, wholemeal noodles
  • Cod fillet, baked with a matchbox sized piece of mozzarella in foil with chopped basil, served with oven roasted Mediterranean veg (sliced peppers, courgettes, tomatoes and ruby onion) drizzled with 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Lean steak, grilled and served with grilled mushrooms, red pepper and steamed broccoli
  • Salmon fillet baked in foil with lemon juice, with tomato and cucumber salad, plus one-half a sliced avocado

Snacks

  • Any single piece of fruit
  • Full-fat yoghurt with no additives
  • Sliced apple tree with 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • Carrot sticks with 1 tbsp houmous
  • Small handful of any unsalted basics (non dry roasted)
  • i⁄2 sliced avocado with 1 slice of ham
  • Scattering of cherry tomatoes with a matchbox-sized piece of any cheese

Your easy portion control guide

You tin can use your paw every bit a quick visual guide to how much to put on your plate for each meal.

For women

  • 1 protein portion of meat, fish, eggs or beans should exist about the size of your palm (non including fingers)
  • Your airtight fist roughly represents the size of 1 vegetable portion
  • A sensible carb portion – of potatoes, rice or pasta – should fit inside your cupped hand

For men

Men on this diet can still use their hand equally a guide but double upwardly the portion sizes

  • 2 palm-sized pieces of protein with every meal
  • 2 fists of veg with every meal
  • ii cupped hands of carbs with most meals