The following are 10 unconventional weight loss tips that worked for me. Between January 4, 2006 and March 31, 2006 I lost fifty pounds. These tips work well because almost every tip is focused around completing a small goal. In my opinion, to stay motivated and lose a significant amount of weight, you should complete many goals in a short period of time. The reason I call these tips unconventional is that I had not seen a majority of them before starting my diet.

I will start by recognizing the typical “calories in, calories out” schpeil. Yes, to lose weight you have to eat well and exercise. But there is much more to it than that, and I don’t want to spend time regurgitating ideas you’ve heard before. That brings me to the first point:

Buy a digital scale
This seems easy enough. I recommend that before starting a diet, buy a scale that is accurate to .2 (two-hundredths of a pound). I will explain why below. I also recommend either buying a scale that can record your daily weight, or manually logging your weight everyday. I bought a scale that was accurate to .2 and logged my weight at Sam’s Club for $22. It has been a great investment.

Weigh yourself everyday
You’ll find that almost every other dieter will tell you to weigh yourself only once a week. I recommend the exact opposite. I am very goal oriented and I like to see results everyday. The reason I recommend buying a scale that is accurate to the .2 is that there is a very big difference between weighting 170.8 one day and 170.0 the next day. Losing .8 pounds in one day is excellent. However, if your scale is not accurate enough to report the loss and still shows 170 after a day of healthy eating and working out, you will feel extremely discouraged. A more detailed scale makes it easier to keep a positive outlook. The more successes (days with positive weight loss) the easier it is.

Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
This one is obvious and broadly recommended, however, the reason I recommend it is slightly different. Drinking eight glasses of water per day helps you “feel less hungry.” I can’t prove this scientifically, however, when I am at work, I drink 4 cups in the morning and 4 cups in the evening. On the days that I don’t drink the water, I feel hungrier, earlier. Also, on the days I don’t drink water I feel sleepier, sooner. Don’t feel intimidated by trying to drink 8 glasses of water. Try doing what I do: I have a pint glass I keep at work, it holds sixteen ounces (as all pint glasses do). All I do is drink two pints of water in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Make your diet public
Tell people you’re on a diet. There’s no reason to be ashamed to be on a diet. I found that trying to keep my diet a secret was harder than just telling people. In fact, telling your coworkers, girlfriend, family, etc. will increase your accountability. It motivated me knowing that my coworkers and family knew that I was dieting because I did not want to fail. I also chose a typical “fat picture” and put it on my fridge, in my cubicle, and on my wall. I wanted to have a continual reminder to lose the weight. I know it’s a cliche, but it was important for me to remind myself of my ultimate goal.

I feel I should also note that although I was 50 pounds over weight, when I told people I was on a diet they often said “you don’t need to diet.” I found this surprising because I was obviously overweight. Beware that you will likely hear similar comments. I found it easier to just accept the “compliment” than to try to justify my diet to them. Remember that you are on a diet for you, and that you do not need to justify yourself.

Don’t diet on the weekends
This is another unconventional bit of advice. I was able to lose 50 pounds without dieting on the weekends. I found myself tired, depressed, and unmotivated if I tried to continue my diet into the weekend. I felt that Friday and Saturday (my weekend) was a time to celebrate 5 days of dieting. You may not find this necessary, especially in the first few weeks of a diet. However, as many weeks passed, the weekend became a time for me to celebrate my weekly successes and get myself mentally prepared for another five days of dieting. I considered it a mental recharge.

Don’t sacrifice your life for your diet
On occasion, you will find yourself unable to eat healthy. Whether this is because of lunches with your team at work, birthdays, or special occasions, there will be events that you just can’t (or don’t want to) eat healthy. A diet will feel overwhelming if you have to sacrifice special events in your life. The way I combated this was to exchange a day that I was not going to diet on the weekend. In other words, if I didn’t diet on Tuesday, for example, I would diet on Saturday, instead.

Make the small changes
This is a pretty common tip, however, I have a twist to it. Rather than giving up what most diets say you should give up (soda, coffee, beer, caffeine, etc.) just make healthier decisions. I didn’t want to give anything up, so I decided to make some changes instead. The first switch I made was switching to diet soda. Don’t worry, you’ll quickly get used to the flavor. Before I started my diet, I swore I would never drink diet soda. Now thanks to my girlfriend, diet is the only soda I drink. The second switch I made was to drinking black coffee. Cut out the sugar and creme, and you get the benefits of coffee (caffeine) without the calories. The last major switch I made was to “healthy” beer. I’m a Miller Lite drinker, however, by temporarily switching to Beck’s Premier Light (60 calories per serving) I was able to still enjoy a healthy social life while maintaining my diet.

In addition to making the small changes in your diet, make the small changes in your life: park further away, walk to the end of the train platform and get in the last car, and vow not to take an elevator for an entire week. I also found it advantageous to wear a pedometer and try to compete against myself for how far I could walk in a single day. The furthest I walked in a day was 6.5 miles. I voluntarily walked to work twice a week.

Gain perspective by understanding the fractions
Your diet is an incredibly small fraction of your life. If you live for 80 years, and dieted for four months, that would only be .42% of your life. That’s right, if you diet for four months, it will be less than one half of one percent of your life. On the other hand think of the major benefits you can get from .42% of your life. If it helps you stay motivated, count down the days starting at 120.

Rationalize your workouts
Finding the time to get to the gym can be very difficult. However a 1/2 hour workout is only 2% of your day (assuming 24 hour days). For me, the most motivating thought was comparing my workouts to sitcoms. As a huge Everybody Loves Raymond fan, every time I would sit down to watch an episode, I would remind myself that in the 1/2 hour that I was sitting and doing nothing, I could complete my daily workout.

You’ve lost the weight, what now?

Have a red flag weight
Once you’ve lost the weight, you need to keep it off. This is where the red flag comes in. You need to pick a weight and vow to never get heavier than it again. It is normal for your body to fluctuate five to ten pounds. I recommend picking a weight that is ten pounds heavier than what you “normally” weigh and never weigh more than it again. Setting a red flag weight allowed me to keep off every pound for over 1 year.

Lastly, for the curious out there…I followed the Weight Watchers diet. I did not pay for the diet, nor did I go to meetings. I found out all the information about the diet on-line. The first place to look is at their patent.

All well known diets are available via Google Patent Search. For the several months that I was dieting, I also gave up red meat and made sure to drink a lot of milk. The preceding tips worked perfectly for me and they will work for you, too. Prior to creating my own diet plan, I tried to diet several times and failed every time. I swear by these weight loss tips. What do you think of them? Do you have a tip that didn’t make my list? Let us know in the comments. I will be glad to answer any questions or defend any point.

以下10个非传统减肥小贴士对我来说很有效。从2006年1月4日到3月31日，我一共减掉了50磅。这些诀窍都起作用了，因为差不多每项秘诀是围绕着一个小目标来完成。在我看来，既要保持积极性又要在短时间内减掉大量的体重，你在短时间内要做的还真不少。而我之所以称这些秘诀为“非传统的”，是因为在我开始使用之前，大部分都闻所未闻。

我是从认知典型的“摄入卡路里，消耗卡路里”开始的。是的，想要减肥你必须健康饮食再加上坚持锻炼。虽然可能有很多方法，但我可浪费时间来反复说。这让我想到第一个诀窍：

买台数字秤

这看上去很简单。我建议在开始减肥前，先买一台精确到2的数字秤（也就是2％磅）。我会在下面解释为什么。我还建议，要么就买台电子秤录下您每天的体重，要么就每天动手记下你的体重。我买过这样一台电子秤，它能精确到2（即2％）并会记下我的体重，在沃尔玛它只花了我22美元。这算的上一项成功的投资

坚持每天称体重

你会发现差不多每个减肥者都会告诉你，每星期只要称一次重量就行了。我建议刚好相反。因为直面成功，所以我很乐意看到每天的减肥结果。我之所以推荐买精确到2的体重秤，是因为如果前一天称出170.8磅而第二天是170.0磅的话，两者有很大区别。一天能减个0.8磅可太好了。不过，如果你的秤是不那么精确的话，在吃了一整天健康食品再加上拼命的锻炼后，第二天的显示如果还是170磅，你会有相当泄气的感觉。一台精确的秤能让你对减肥保持更积极的态度。每天减的越多（每天明确的减重数字），减肥就越容易。

每天要喝8杯水

这个建议耳熟能详，不过也正因如此，我推荐的理由与众不同。每天喝8杯水可帮你“不怎么觉得饿 。”我无法用科学的手段来证明这一点，但在我在工作时，一般上午喝4杯晚上喝4杯。在那些不喝水的日子里，我总是很快就觉得饿了。而且，在那些不喝水的日子里，我也容易犯困。不要被8杯水这个数字吓倒。试试我的做法：在工作的地方我有一个一品脱的玻璃杯，容量大约16盎司（就像所有的一品脱玻璃杯一样）。我所要做的就是在上午喝两杯在下午喝两杯。

让别人知道你在减肥

告诉大家你正在减肥。根本没必要因为减肥而感到羞愧。我发现，要让减肥保密比告诉别人还要难。事实上，告诉同事、女朋友、家人等你正在减肥，会增加你的责任感。它总是能提醒我：我的同事和家人都知道我在减肥，我不能失败。我还选择了一些有代表性的“脂肪趋势图”，并把它们放在我的冰箱上、卧室里和墙上。我希望通过不断的提醒来达到减肥的目的。我知道这算是老生常谈，但这对我提醒自己达成最终目标仍然相当重要的。

我觉得我也应该提醒大家牢记这点，在我超重50磅时，我告诉人们我正在节食，他们却都跟我说：“你根本不需要减肥。”这很令我吃惊，因为我明显超重了。要注意您可能会听到类似的评论。我发现接受他们的“恭维”比想方设法证明我在节食要简单得多。记住，你是在为自己减肥，所以不需要去向别人证明什么。

周末不节食

这是另一个非传统建议。就算没有周末大节食，我也能减重50磅。我发现，如果我让节食继续到周末，那样就会感觉到疲倦，抑郁，甚至无精打采。我认为周五周六（我的周末时间）是用来庆祝前5天节食成功的。你可能觉得这毫无必要，尤其是在减肥的开始数周里。然而，数周以后，周末对我来说已经成为了每周的成功庆祝日，同时也为下一周的减肥作好思想准备。我认为这算一种精神充电。

不要因为减肥而牺牲你的生活

有时，你会发现自己达不到健康饮食的标准。无论这是否你与团队在吃工作午餐、过生日、或在特殊场合，总会有这样那样的事让你无法吃得健康。即使你不得不为生活中某些事做出牺牲，减肥也必须作为头等大事。我对此作出的回应就是，用周末原本不节食的某天来作交换。换句话说，如果我没有在周二节食，比如我就可以用周六来代替。

做些小改变

这是一个相当常用的秘诀，可是，我的可是新花样。不用放弃哪些绝大多数减肥人士所建议你放弃的东西（苏打水，咖啡，啤酒，咖啡因等），只要有更健康的决心就行。我不想放弃任何东西，所以我决定用一些改变来代替。第一个转变是我现在改喝减肥苏打水。别担心，你很快就会习惯这味道的。在我开始减肥前的日子里，我曾发誓我再也不喝减肥汽水。现在，感谢我的女朋友，减肥汽水是我喝的唯一的碳酸饮料。我做的第二个改变，是从此改喝黑咖啡。不放奶油和糖，你会因为没有卡路里而感受到它的好处。最后的一个大改变就是，我改喝“健康”啤酒了。我常喝的是米勒清爽型啤酒，不过，偶然喝喝贝克纯生（每瓶含60卡路里），我依然能在保持减肥计划同时，享受一个健康的社交生活。

除了在减肥计划中做些小改动之外，让你的生活也有些小变化吧：把车停得更远、步行走到站台末端、去乘最后一节车厢、并发誓整整一周不坐电梯。我还发觉戴着计步器，并试着挑战自己能否步行一整天的好处了。最远的那天我曾走了6.5英里。我还每周两次主动走着去上班。

从多角度去理解

你的减肥过程只是你一生中小得难以置信的一部分。假设你寿命是80岁，减肥只花你四个月，也就是你人生的0.42％。也就是说，节食减肥的4个月只在你生命中占据1％的一半还不到。另一方面，想一想你用这仅仅0.42％的人生换来的大量好处吧。如果这可以帮你保持减肥的积极性，那么现在就开始120天的倒计时吧。

合理的锻炼

特别抽时间去健身房是很难做到的。但做半小时的练习只占你一天时间的2％，假设一天24小时。对我来说，最能激励我的想法，莫过于把用在锻炼和泡在肥皂剧里的时间加以对比。作为一个“人人都爱雷蒙德”的狂热粉丝，每次我想坐下来看一集时，我就会提醒自己：在这半小时里，我是坐着无所事事还是去完成每天的练习。

减肥成功了，接下去该怎么做？

设置一个标杆重量

一旦你成功减掉了预定重量，你就需要保持当前体重。这就是你设定标杆重量的原因。你必须选择一个重量并发誓永远不再超过它。 体重有5到10磅的波动很正常。我建议你选择的重量是比你“平常”称的高十磅左右而且不要超过这一重量。设置一个标杆重量让我在一年内保持体重都没有增加。

最后，要告诉好奇者的是，我采用的是“体重观察家”的节食方法。我从不花钱去节食，也没参加过减肥聚会。我上网就能找到所有的资料。不过首先要看的是他们的专利。

所有著名的节食方法都可以通过谷歌专利搜索来找到。在我节食的几个月里，我不仅放弃了红肉而且每天确保自己能喝上大量的牛奶。前面那些诀窍在我身上完美的见效了，相信它们也会对你有用的。在此之前，我曾创立过自己的节食计划，但每次减肥都屡战屡败。我信赖这些减肥秘诀。你对它们的看法呢？或者说，你还有什么其他诀窍？就让我们在讨论中相互了解更多吧。我很乐意回答任何问题或发表观点。