5 Kitchen Hacks to Help You Lose Weight: Diet Tips From Experts and Wellness Specialists

Shedding unwanted pounds can be easier than you think! Closer shares five kitchen hacks, as told by experts, to help you lose weight.

Clear Your Counter

Is the cookie jar calling your name? Then it’s time to move sugary snacks from the kitchen counter! A 2015 Cornell study showed that people who kept fresh fruit out in the open tended to be a normal weight, compared with those who kept soda, cereal and junk food like potato chips and candy readily available.

Dish It Out

Per experts at Harvard Medical School, eating from smaller dishes can be a big help. “Simply using a bowl that’s 50 percent larger encourages you to eat 20 percent more food. To keep your portions in check, try replacing 12-inch dinner plates with 10-inch ones. And don’t forget to check out your drinking glasses. Many of these can hold 12 ounces of fluid or more.”

Spice It Up

Whether it’s Chinese Five Spice or Italian seasoning, spice blends are a great way to make slimming foods instantly more palatable. As Mandy Enright, a wellness specialist and author of 30-Minute Weight Loss Cookbook, simply explains, “These blends can take any dish and ingredient from bland to bold in minutes.”

Take Note

“Multiple studies show that human behavior actually mimics the [type of] music you’re listening to — meaning if you’re listening to fast music, you’ll likely eat faster, and vice versa,” explains Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University and the author of The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining.

Stay Warm

As the folks at Women’s Health are quick to point out, “Research has found that people tend to eat more during prolonged cold temperatures than during hot periods because it takes more energy (i.e., calories) to maintain our standard 98.6°F (body temp) … The easy, obvious fix? Bump up the temperature in your kitchen a few degrees around mealtime.”