How to Lose Weight Without Eating Healthy

Many people are interested in maintaining a healthy weight. However, diets can be boring and restrictive. Rather than starve yourself and eliminate tasty foods from your diet, consider ways to lose weight without dieting or eating healthy. The key is knowing when to eat and how much to eat.

Eat smaller food portions. Rather than eat an entire gallon of ice cream or a whole bag of potato chips, eat smaller portions of your favorite foods. This decreases your intake of calories, fat and carbs, which contributes to weight loss. Moderation is the key.

Slow down and enjoy your food. On average, it takes about 10 minutes for your brain to register that you're full. Eating fast often results in overeating, which causes weight gain. Eat slowly to avoid overeating.

Enjoy a meal every 3 hours. Eat four to six small meals a day to increase your metabolism and burn fat and calories. This way you're able to enjoy your favorite foods and treats and still lose weight.

Start an exercise routine. If you want to lose weight without eating healthy, you've got to exercise regularly. Exercise burns calories and helps you maintain a healthy weight. Doctors recommend at least 90 minutes of activity or exercise a week. However, if you overindulge in unhealthy foods, work out for at least 30 minutes every day.

Build muscle tone. High-impact workouts, toning exercising and weightlifting build muscles. In turn, muscles increase your metabolism and burn fat--and you're able to lose weight without eating healthy.

How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

Developing the right eating habits can enhance your appearance, health and lifestyle. Here are some tips on how to develop and maintain a healthy eating regimen.

Always remember to eat breakfast. It is the most beneficial meal in the day, and the most important. Breakfast gives you body fuel for the day and keeps your energy levels up, and your mind alert.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water each day. This habit helps the body stay hydrated. It also helps in the processing of nutrients throughout the body. If you are in a much warmer climate you might want to drink much more.

Choose your snacks wisely. Choose snacks that are light and that give you an extra boost of energy throughout the day. If you are trying to lose weight, you might want to choose vegetables and fruits.

Have some lunch. Many people get busy in the day and forget to eat lunch, which then leads to overeating in the evening. If we skip lunch, our energy levels start to decrease and blood sugar goes down. Enjoy a light lunch.

Try to eat dinner earlier rather than late. Eating late makes it harder to digest food. It might keep you up at night or feeling full until the next morning. Eating at least three hours before you go to bed is beneficial to the digestive system.

How to Eat Healthy at Pizza Hut

About 3 billion pizzas are sold each year in the United States, with each American consuming an average of 46 slices annually, according to the website Statistic Brain. While this is good news for pizza restaurants, all those savory slices add substantial calories, fat, carbs and sodium to your diet, increasing your risk of weight gain and chronic illness. By planning for a Pizza Hut run in advance, you can make choices that won’t significantly derail your family's healthy eating regimen. Remember that the menus of chain restaurants change often, so check the website to keep current on the restaurant’s nutritional information.

Serving Strategies
Don’t go to Pizza Hut looking for healthy salads, broiled fish or steamed vegetable sides. Instead of eating at the restaurant, where you might need multiple slices to satisfy your hunger, order a pie to go, and prepare a big, leafy green salad to accompany it. Better yet, start your meal with a cup of vegetable soup for everyone. A study published in Appetite in 2007 found that eating low-calorie soup before your meal helps fill you up and lower your overall food intake. When you feel fuller, you’re more likely to stick to the serving size of one slice.

Also, skip the soft drinks, even if you have a coupon for a free liter. Instead, serve sparkling water dressed up with lemon, lime or orange slices for a refreshing natural soda.

Go for the Veggies
Many single slices at Pizza Hut average between 200 and 300 calories. Stick with the Pan, Hand Tossed Pizza or Thin ‘n’ Crispy pizza options to stay within this calorie count. Even within these varieties, meaty toppings like pepperoni will hoist you over the 300 calories per slice and almost double your sodium intake.

Probably the best all-around slice at Pizza Hut for health-conscious diners is the Veggie Lover’s Medium Hand Tossed, with 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 26 grams of carbohydrate, 8 grams of protein and 430 milligrams of sodium. Another good choice is the Garden Party, with 200 calories, 400 milligrams of sodium, and a similar fat, carb and protein count as Veggie Lover’s.

Crust and Size
For different styles of crusts, either add or subtract calories -- for example, a Veggie Lover’s Medium Pan Pizza has 30 calories more than the Medium Hand Tossed with 220, while the Medium Thin ‘n’ Crispy has 10 fewer calories, at just 180.

Obviously, slices of large-sized pies contain more calories, fat and sodium, but Veggie Lover’s, Cheese, Garden Party and a few others slide in under the 300-calorie mark.

Skinny and Gluten-Free
Pizza Hut has a small selection of pies it calls “Skinny Slice” for diet-conscious customers. Skinny slices have between 200 and 230 calories, 6 to 9 grams of fat, 3 to 4 grams of saturated fat, 25 to 28 grams of carbs, 9 to 12 grams of protein, and 440 to 680 milligrams of sodium. The Gluten-Free Pizza, designed for those who can’t tolerate the protein in crusts made of wheat, are even lower in calories, fat and carbs: a Pepperoni slice supplies 170 calories, 8 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 19 grams of carbs, 6 grams of protein, and 490 milligrams of sodium.

Options With Wings
If you’re watching your carbs, you can always skip the pizza and order from the wings section of the Pizza Hut menu. A two-piece serving of Baked Hot Wings comes in at 100 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, zero carbs, 10 grams of protein, and 420 milligrams of sodium. If you can’t imagine wings without dipping sauce, opt for the Marinara -- a 3-ounce serving contains 45 calories, no fat, 9 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein and 290 milligrams of sodium.

How to Eat Healthy Thai Food While Eating Out

While there are many relatively healthy choices at Thai restaurants, if you don't choose carefully you could wind up consuming way too many calories and too much sodium and saturated fat. Knowing which dishes are healthiest can help you avoid this.

Soups and Starters
For the healthiest Thai dishes, avoid anything deep fried or made with coconut oil to limit fat and calories. Choose fresh spring or summer rolls, such as guay teow lui suan, instead of fried, and choose hot and sour shrimp soup, called tom yam goong or tom yum gung, instead of chicken and coconut milk soup, or tom ka gai. Papaya salad, also called som tum or som tam; the soup called gang jued made with noodles, vegetables, pork and tofu; and satay are also nutritious appetizer choices.

Main Dishes

Ask for stir-fries to be made with chicken broth instead of oil and for sauces to be served on the side to make your Thai main dish healthier. Musamun curry is one of the Thai dishes highest in fat and calories. Gaeng keow wan gai, or chicken curry with eggplant, and gaeng ped gai, or red curry chicken, are also among the less nutritious choices. Shrimp or pork panang are better choices if you want curry. Gai pad mamuang him ma pahn, or cashew chicken, is an even healthier choice. If you like beef, try num tok. Those who prefer shrimp may like goong kra tiem, or garlic shrimp, and those who like chicken may like the chicken with peanut sauce called pra ram long song. Other relatively nutritious choices include pad thai and pepper steak, or nuea pad prik.

Desserts and Drinks
For dessert, fruit ice; the sweet sticky rice called khao newo kaew; or mango with sticky rice, called kao niew ma muang, are among the healthier options. Avoid the pumpkin custard called sang kaya fug tong, the coconut ice cream and gluay kaeg, which are pieces of banana dipped in a coconut batter and fried. When it comes to drinks, stick with something simple, such as water or hot tea. Although Thai iced tea, or cha yen, is tasty enough to have made CNN's list of the "World's 50 Most Delicious Drinks," it is loaded with sugar and calories because of all the sweetened condensed milk it contains.

Making It Healthier at Home
You can make Thai dishes even more nutritious if you make them yourself at home using less meat and more produce and limit the amount of salty and fatty ingredients you add. Using herbs and spices and cooking by stir-frying with broth, grilling or steaming will help you get plenty of flavor without adding too much unhealthy fat. Add a plate of raw sides to help provide extra nutrients, recommends an article on the BBC website. These typically include foods such as bean sprouts, cucumber, apple, spring onions, eggplant and sweet Thai basil.