Staying lean as you get older gets harder and harder each year, especially if you’re over 50. A 2013 review by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that the average weight gain is 1-2 pounds per year–and while it may not seem like that much, over time that can quickly add up.

If you’re looking to maintain a lean physique as you age, the #1 eating habit you should do is to make sure you’re eating protein at every meal.

“One of the best habits to do after the age of 50 to maintain a lean body is to eat protein at each meal and snack,” says Roxana Ehsani, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN, registered dietitian nutritionist and National Media Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Ehsani explains that this is key because it requires calories to digest protein.

“So when you go to eat a piece of protein whether it’s a piece of grilled chicken breast, fish filet, a hard-boiled egg, or a handful of edamame—these protein-rich foods temporarily rev up your metabolism when working to break down and absorb the protein,” she says. “Therefore, helping you preserve not only your muscle mass, bone mass, but also help keep you lean—the more muscle mass you have the less fat mass you have.”

Plus, she adds that muscle is more metabolically active than fat mass, which means the more you have, the more you could be burning throughout the day at rest or when exercising.

“As we age, our muscle mass slowly decreases as well as our bone mass, but one way to better preserve and prolong their health is by consuming sufficient protein at each meal too,” she says, which is also backed up by research.

To add more protein to your diet, Ehsani has a few suggestions for you. Read on, and for more on how to eat healthy, don’t miss Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians.

“Are you eating enough protein and including a protein-rich food at each meal? Snack time? If you have a meal tracking app, you could also track it there too and see how many grams of protein you are consuming at each meal,” she says.

“If you typically have pancakes or a piece of toast for breakfast for example, what are you including with it? Are you adding a smear of peanut butter or almond butter or adding in an egg or two? If so, you might be good at breakfast when it comes to protein,” says Ehsani. “If you are just adding butter or cream cheese, that likely isn’t enough protein. If you are consuming a whole wheat pancake or sprouted toast for example, it might actually have a decent amount of protein, so it really depends on what you are eating.”

RELATED: 9 High-Protein Breakfast Ideas to Help You Lose Weight

“Do you include a source of protein at lunch and sufficient amounts of it? For most people, 3 oz of protein (or between 15-20 grams of protein per meal), which is equal to the size and thickness of a deck of cards is enough to include at each meal,” says Ehsani. “So if you’re just sprinkling some chickpeas on your salad at lunch, that might not be enough protein.”6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

“Are you just having chips? Or just having fruit? Try to add in hummus, a black bean dip or add a handful of pistachios, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or a cup of cottage cheese,” suggests Ehsani.

RELATED: 9 Best High-Protein Snacks for Rapid Weight Loss

Remember adding more protein into your meals and snacks doesn’t mean you need to only eat animal sources of protein—you can get sufficient protein from eating plant-based sources of protein too like edamame, tofu, seitan, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains or breads,” says Ehsani.

Finally, don’t rule out working with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to determine your specific protein needs and what your goals should be for protein intake. (You can find an RDN by visiting eatright.org, and clicking the “Find An Expert” tool.)

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It’s unexpected that something found at nearly every supermarket can be so versatile with its functionality, but apple cider vinegar can be used in so many different ways—as a preservative, in recipes, to help skin conditions like acne and warts, and even as a natural deodorant. The vinegar, which is made from fermented apple juice, can also help you drop a few pounds through its effect on appetite and gut health when it’s consumed before mealtimes.

The best habit to develop with apple cider vinegar in order to result in weight loss is to drink it before mealtimes, according to Trista Best, RD, a registered dietitian at Balance Once Supplements. Best recommends mixing apple cider vinegar into a beverage, like a glass of water, or just drinking it on its own as a daily habit to help result in weight loss.

“This is the quickest way to get in the benefits of ACV without needing to break down capsules or powders,” Best says.

That doesn’t mean that you should be pouring yourself an entire glass of vinegar to drink. A Japanese study found that participants who drank between one and two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar every day for three months saw modest weight loss after taking part in the study.

RELATED: I Drank Apple Cider Vinegar for a Month—and the Results Surprised Me

Registered dietitian Elliott Torsney, CPT, RDN, CDE says that the apple cider vinegar habit of drinking it before eating helps to lose weight because studies show that it works as an appetite suppressant, which can help you eat less at mealtimes. Torsney also said to be sure not to drink the mixture with meals, as it won’t be effective in helping your body to lose weight in that case. Instead, make sure to drink it before you eat a meal.

Best also notes that weight loss can occur after drinking apple cider vinegar because of the improved gut health that happens when the vinegar is regularly consumed.

“Apple cider vinegar may help repair or correct many gastrointestinal issues because of the antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, and pre and probiotic characteristics it exhibits,” Best says. “Each of these characteristics works together to improve and protect the gut’s health, which can result in effective weight loss efforts and more.”6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

This is effective because when the body’s gut isn’t working at its best, it can result in a slower metabolism and it can be more difficult to burn calories.

“When the gut isn’t working as efficiently as it should it can slow the body’s ability to digest and absorb nutrients, which can result in a slower metabolism and stalled weight loss,” Best says.

RELATED: 4 Eating Habits That Slow Your Metabolism After 50, Say Dietitians

Similarly, when the gut is working effectively it helps to burn calories at a higher pace, and increase weight loss efforts, according to Best.

Keep in mind

While apple cider vinegar can result in weight loss, it won’t do the job alone and won’t serve as a substitute for any healthy life changes. A tablespoon or two of apple cider before meal times must be combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise to maintain any consistent weight loss.

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If the old adage is true, with age comes wisdom, then people who live the longest are among the best resources to ask just about anything. From lifestyle to mental health to work and overall outlook, lived experience can help make anyone an expert, in time.

Luckily, research has been done on how to track down these wise, well-aged people and glean their life advice. The Blue Zones Project, led by founder Dan Buettner, identified the five places in the world where people live the longest: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. Then, he and his team studied these communities and took note of the wide array of life advice we have to learn from them.

That advice, of course, includes knowledge about how to eat for optimal health. While Blue Zone communities have a lot in common in terms of eating habits, the number one practice they share is simple: they are all largely plant-based.

The longest-living people largely eat a plant-based diet.

“People in the Blue Zones eat an impressive variety of garden vegetables when they are in season, and then they pickle or dry the surplus to enjoy during the off-season,” says the project. “The best-of-the-best longevity foods are leafy greens such as spinach, kale, beet and turnip tops, chard, and collards. Combined with seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and beans dominate Blue Zones meals all year long.”

These long-livers do eat meat, but only as a small side, very sparingly. Instead, protein comes from beans, nuts, seeds, and greens—all foods that can support weight loss.

The link between a plant-based diet and weight loss.

A plant-based diet has already been proven to help with weight loss by a myriad of other studies; perhaps the amount of evidence out there that correlates plants with lower body weight is to blame for our current cultural shift towards meat alternatives.

As far back as 2010, a study showed that meat consumption was associated with weight gain, even if other healthy weight loss techniques were employed. Then, in 2018, a comprehensive review of several studies showed that plant-based diets were correlated with better overall health—including more successful attempts at weight loss. As recently as 2020, another study was published linking a plant-based diet with weight loss.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

We’ve known for a while now that plants are the answer, at least, according to the research. But thanks to the Blue Zones Project, we can feel confident that the idea is based on something beyond academic research: it’s affirmed by the wisdom of the world’s longest-living people.

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The word samskara derives from the Sanskrit sam (complete or joined together) and kara (action, cause, or doing). It is commonly translated as “mental impression,” “habit pattern” or “recollection.” They rest in the unconscious inner-self and form the basic inner drives that influence and effect future actions.

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If losing a healthy amount of weight in a short amount of time is an ideal option for you, then there’s one eating habit that you should definitely consider.

In a review that was published in Nature Reviews: Endocrinology, researchers took a look at 21 different studies and found that fasting is an effective way to lose weight, “at least in the short term,” according to Medscape.

While focusing on trials that lasted around five to 12 weeks each and included anywhere from 10 to 150 primarily American participants, results showed alternate-day fasting, time-restricted eating, and the 5:2 diet “can all produce a mild to moderate 3% to 8% weight loss during 8 to 12 weeks.”

“These findings are impressive and I am glad that studies like this are being performed,” Trista Best, a Registered Dietitian at Balance One Supplements, Environmental Health Specialist, and Adjunct Nutrition Professor, tells Eat This, Not That!.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Beyond that, Best notes, “The benefits of fasting go far beyond weight loss, but these studies lay a great foundation to encourage would-be fad dieters to take part in a safe and sustainable means of weight loss.”

When it comes to what people should do if they want to use fasting to successfully and safely lose weight in a relatively short amount of time, Best explains that “when fasting, it is important to eat balanced meals during your eating window. It may be tempting to go longer without calories or eat fewer calories than you need during an eating window. However, this will result in slowed metabolism, weight loss plateau, and ultimately rebound weight gain.”

As for using a fasting method to keep weight off over a longer period of time, Best notes that, indeed, “fasting can be used long-term for weight loss along with many other health benefits. Fasting is a temporary restriction of calories that are replaced in a shorter window.

Therefore, it is unlike fad diets that require long-term, unsustainable calorie restriction, which leads to rebound weight gain.”

To find out more about alternate-day fasting, time-restricted eating, and the 5:2 diet, be sure to read 3 Effective Fasting Methods for Weight Loss, Science Says.

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When people believe age-related weight gain is inevitable, they tend to turn to comfort food, which often leads them to turn that belief into reality, according to a new report in the International Journal of Environmental Research.

Researchers interviewed eight men between the ages of 35 and 58, asking about their relationships with food and diet, as well as their thoughts on why they may have gained weight. They were also asked whether they were concerned about their health, if they’d made previous attempts to lose weight, and how they felt about being overweight or having obesity.

Related: Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians

These discussions often revealed discouragement about their weight and a loss of self-esteem, especially if they’d been a lower weight when younger. This attitude caused many to turn toward high-calorie comfort food, which caused even more weight gain. However, that wasn’t the only habit that proved problematic, according to the study’s lead author Mark Cortnage, PhD, senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K.

“Although they often mentioned comfort eating, participants also showed poor awareness of other factors that cause weight gain,” he says in a statement. “Many men would benefit from an education around food, such as food selection, integration of diet, and sustainable weight management practices, as a way to develop a more complete understanding of the relationships between food and lifestyle.”

Although the recent study focused only on men, many women also tend to believe that weight gain is inevitable when aging, and that might cause them to turn toward comfort food as well, even though research suggests that metabolism stays steadier for much longer than previously thought.

The study was also limited by its small sample size, but this perception tends to be widespread, according to trainer Ronnie Lubischer, CSCS, who often works with older adults.

“What I see most is sheer mental frustration and a feeling that they’re personally failing if weight begins to creep on as they get older,” he tells Eat This, Not That! “Instead of feeling discouraged, a better approach is to see this time as an opportunity to reset your health, including your eating habits, to support yourself for decades to come. That’s more important than focusing only on weight loss.”

In addition to a different mindset, Lubischer suggests men and women do strength training to build muscle mass, focus on sleep quality, and reduce stress since feeling overwhelmed has been associated with increased accumulation of belly fat.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

He also advises talking to a dietitian who can help you develop the best strategy for healthy eating. Most of all, remember that even if you don’t lose weight, changing your body composition can go a long way toward better health, which means increasing your muscle mass and lowering body fat—even if the number on the scale doesn’t budge.

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The #1 breakfast habit to get into if you want to lose weight is, drumroll please… simply, eating breakfast, says Kim Rose, RDN, CDCES, a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified diabetes care and education specialist in Central Florida.

“Many of my clients skip breakfast and eat a meager lunch thinking they are ‘being good’ when that just makes losing weight harder,” she says. “By dinnertime, they are famished and graze on everything in sight and continue well into the night.”

When Rose educates her clients on why eating a well-balanced breakfast every day can help them drop pounds, and if they adopt that habit, they usually have much more success.

Related: 15 Twists on Classic Breakfast Recipes

Why eating breakfast supports weight loss.

Making a habit of eating breakfast offers a number of health benefits.

Eating a healthy, well-balanced breakfast gives you the energy to tackle the day.

First of all, breakfast refuels your body and brain after a nighttime fast. That’s why what you choose to eat for breakfast is as important a decision as choosing to have breakfast.

You want a well-balanced breakfast that includes all three macronutrients—protein, fat, and carbohydrates—to deliver energy slowly over the course of the morning.

“That sets the stage for your eating the rest of the day,” Rose says. “If you eat a substantial breakfast, you’ll modify your calorie intake the rest of the day and be less inclined to constant snacking. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to burn off those calories all day long instead of consuming them at night when your body is winding down and you’re more likely to store those calories.”

RELATED: 19 High Protein Breakfasts That Keep You Full

Breakfast fuels your brain so you can make smart food decisions.

“Contrary to popular belief, carbs are good for you; they are your brain’s preferred source of energy,” says Rose. “So, carbohydrates should be a part of every breakfast.”

Significant research done on school children has documented the negative impact not eating a well-balanced breakfast has on kids’ academic performance. And the same is likely true for us adults. A Finnish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating eggs for breakfast regularly enhances cognitive function in middle-aged men.

How to build the perfect breakfast.

Since she stresses that the composition of breakfast is important for weight loss, we asked Rose to give us her favorite quick-and-easy recipe for a morning meal that contains the three macronutrients: Avocado toast with an over-easy egg on top.

“You get lean protein from the egg, healthy fat from avocado, and carbohydrates and fiber from whole-grain toast,” she says. “Easy. Mash up some avocado on the toast, add a fried egg on top, and sprinkle on black pepper, smoked paprika, and some salt. It’s quick and filling.”

But what if there’s no time to cook?

We’re busy people, especially in the morning. How do you make eating a good breakfast a habit when you’re running out the door and only have time to grab a premade muffin? “In the morning we have a lot of easily accessible carbohydrates that are low in fiber and have added sugars, so I recommend the law of addition,” explains Rose. “Ask yourself, ‘what macronutrient can I add to that muffin to make it more of a well-balanced meal?’ Maybe some no-sugar peanut butter or some fruit or a hard-boiled egg.”

Most dieters operate with the law of subtraction. Better to use the law of addition. Boil a half dozen eggs on Sunday, so you have them ready for the week.” Or blend up a whey protein smoothie for breakfast. For a full diet program based on whey and plant-based protein smoothies complete with delicious recipes, check out our book The 7-Day Smoothie Diet by the editors of Eat This, Not That!

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If losing weight was an easy task, there wouldn’t be an obesity epidemic in the United States. And there is one. More than two out of three American adults are either overweight or have obesity, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Losing weight is difficult, as anyone who has struggled can attest. It takes significant, long-term effort. And many people find that effort to be a real pain in the ass.

Sometimes, this failure stems from the fact that many people forget the number one eating strategy for maximum weight loss: eating fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current size and weight.

It may be because the number one way to achieve eating fewer calories is the hardest part of all. It takes keeping track of everything you eat and drink and adding up the calories to make sure you consume less than your body needs to stay exactly as you are. Simply trying to avoid excess calories without the exacting diligence of tracking your consumption rarely works because many of us don’t remember exactly what we’ve eaten and can’t accurately gauge how many calories are in those foods.

“We often resort to high-density, nutrient-devoid foods for taste and convenience, which provide a ton of calories that we eat mindlessly and forget about,” says registered holistic nutrition Pamela Barton, NNCP (natural nutrition-certified practitioner) and owner of Butterfly Holistic Nutrition. “If we count all those calories we consume during the day, we would see that we most often underestimate how many calories we eat.” (Find out the #1 Drink to Avoid Visceral Fat, According to Science.)

To help keep track of those calories, it might be helpful for you to try the best habit for maximum weight loss: keeping a food diary.

How a food diary can help you track calories and maximize weight loss.

Clinical studies have demonstrated that using food diaries to monitor what you eat really improves weight loss outcomes because it trains you to be mindful of what you’re eating and provides regular feedback to help you adjust your behavior.

The problem is that many people find the practice annoyingly difficult to do for longer than a few days or they perceive it to be so time-consuming that they never even try, nutrition experts say.

Fortunately, the number one eating habit for weight loss has become much easier to practice thanks to smartphones and food-logging apps that allow you to quickly record meals right after you eat them and automatically analyze nutrition facts.

Using digital food logs can make tracking your food easier.

Researchers at the University of Vermont recognized that keeping a food log is “perceived by participants as onerous and can represent a significant time commitment” and they were curious to learn exactly how much time food tracking took daily for successful weight loss.

In an experiment recently published in the journal Obesity, the researchers instructed 142 participants (average age 48; mostly women) to record their food intake every day for 24 weeks on a website with a self-monitoring diet journal tool. The application provided real-time feedback on the total calories consumed in the day based on the foods and portion sizes. The dieters were given a personal daily calorie goal for a calorie-restricted diet and were encouraged to “write when you bite,” that is, log all food right after eating it and check the balance of calories remaining to meet and not exceed their daily goal.

At the end of the six-month trial, the researchers found that very few of the people who failed to track their meals lost weight while those who self-monitored their food intake were much more successful. What’s more, those participants who lost 5% to 10% or more of their bodyweight logged in more often, two to three times per day versus entering the day’s data in a single computer session. The researchers also found that successful dieters spent an average of 23 minutes per day logging their food during the first month of the trial and just 14.6 minutes per day at month six.

What does this recent study suggest as a takeaway for you? Keeping track of what you eat with one of the many online food logs available is not as difficult and time-consuming as you may think. And it really works if you are consistent.

Takeaway tip:

To give yourself the best chance for success with self-monitoring, the research suggests you log your food right after you eat so you have a better idea of your running balance of calories throughout the day.

While you’re keeping track of your food, be proactive about what you eat with these Strategies For A Flatter Stomach at 40, Say Dietitians.

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You’ve probably heard that starting your day off with a healthy breakfast is essential to any weight loss journey. Nonetheless, you may have also heard that skipping meals could be an easy way to drop those extra pounds too—but it’s actually not.

In fact, the worst breakfast habit for weight loss is skipping or rushing through your first meal of the day. Not only will it be harder to lose weight if you decide to skip breakfast, but you’ll also likely feel tired, hungry, and moody—definitely not the way to go for your overall health.

And yet, sometimes skipping a meal can happen when you don’t have the time or energy to throw together a nutritious breakfast. That’s why Lisa Moskovitz, RD, CEO of NY Nutrition Group, author of The Core 3 Healthy Eating Plan, and member of our medical expert board, claims that the best breakfast habit for weight loss is thinking ahead.

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“Prepping the night before can make it much easier to not miss this important time of the day,” explains Moskovitz.

If you’re not hungry right when you wake up or you don’t have the time in the morning to put something together, you can rely on your evening prep to carry you through your morning. This way, instead of just drinking a cup of coffee and calling that breakfast, which won’t help with your weight loss efforts, you can instead put together a healthy option that will set the stage for how you feel and what you choose to eat the rest of the day.

Not sure what to make that will last overnight in the fridge? Moskovitz suggests overnight oats, chia pudding, a smoothie, egg muffins, or a yogurt parfait.

For even more delicious and simple breakfasts that can help with weight loss, check out these 10 Weight Loss Breakfasts That Actually Satisfy, Say Dietitians.

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When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, diet, exercise, and weight loss can keep anyone in shape. While many might assume you need to keep a close eye on your calorie intake and watch what you eat, a new study has shed light on what actually helps you live a wholesome lifestyle.

According to a study published in iScience, some lifestyle plans designed to combat obesity don’t work and in the long run, can even lead to some individuals gaining more weight. The study showed that obese individuals end up seeing far better results when they start exercising, as opposed to obese participants that tried to lose weight by simply dieting. While the study didn’t precisely measure dieting, it did reveal that those who used a diet to lose weight eventually ended up gaining the pounds back after they hit their goal, while those who exercised had better long-term results.

“Exercise is important when it comes to obesity and disease due to its impact on insulin sensitivity,” says Jay Cowin, NNCP, RNT, RNC, CHN, CSNA at ASYSTEM. “Insulin sensitivity is your body’s ability to pull glucose out of the bloodstream so that it can be used for energy or fuel. Obesity has been found to activate the innate immune system which stimulates inflammation and insulin resistance.”

RELATED: Get even more healthy tips straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter!

“This can lead to symptoms of prediabetes and ultimately type 2 diabetes,” continues Cowin. “However, studies show that exercise improves insulin sensitivity when performed daily. This is because, during aerobic exercise, muscles increase their uptake of glucose by as much as fifty times. This effect can persist for up to 24 hours or more after your workout. This shows that exercise is imperative for regulating insulin sensitivity, which can affect your overall health.”

Exercise doesn’t just affect how your body processes insulin.

“Exercise prevents or reverses the effects of certain diseases,” says Dr. Daniel Boyer of the Farr Institute. “Moderate exercise increases heartbeat that makes the body muscles use more glucose. With time, it reduces blood sugar levels, [which] lowers heart attack [risk] and related disorders. By controlling body weight, reducing sex hormones, and strengthening the immune system, it can minimize chances of certain cancers like colon and breast cancer.”

According to the study, people who exercised regularly had a 22% lower all-cause mortality risk and 24% lower cardiovascular disease risk.

“It [also] promotes a sense of confidence and well-being by lowering anxiety and depression,” says Dr. Boyer. “However, the link between exercise and emotional health is not clear. Because it makes the body burn more calories, it helps check obesity that might cause health problems in the body. To achieve this, do some aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes per day to realize the effect of exercise on your weight.”

If you have a weight loss goal in mind or just want to live a healthier lifestyle, opt to make exercise a priority to keep you in top shape and moving toward a better lifestyle. If you need ideas of what to do to get your body moving but don’t know where to start, make sure to check out This 5-Move At-Home Workout Will Help You Build Strength and Get Lean and get ready to live your best life.

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