--- title: Diet and Weight Loss: 6 Weird Tricks That Actually Work description: Drink more water and color coordinate your meals to cut calories, fight cravings, and ultimately lose weight canonical: https://time.com/4025120/weird-diet-tricks/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-19T12:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:55.105Z article:section: Health og:title: 6 Weird Diet Tricks That Actually Work og:description: Color coordinate your meals og:url: https://time.com/4025120/weird-diet-tricks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1929 og:image:height: 1085 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Food Healthy Vegetables Chard Carrots og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 6 Weird Diet Tricks That Actually Work twitter:description: Color coordinate your meals twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 6 Weird Diet Tricks That Actually Work > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_ by [Cynthia Sass / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Cynthia Sass / Health.com Contributor Sep 19, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Cynthia Sass / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Cynthia Sass / Health.com Contributor Sep 19, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Some clients come to me in search of a complete [eating overhaul](http://www.health.com/health/package/0,,20367333,00.html), including a meal plan with specific portions and recipes. Many others, however, simply want the shortcuts. While it’s true that obtaining long-term weight loss success isn’t that simple, I am happy to report there are several research-backed easy tricks that really do help. Add the tactics below to your daily habits, and you can cut calories, fight cravings, and ultimately, lose weight. **Drink water before meals** This may just be the easiest, most cost-effective weight loss tip there is, and a new study published in the journal _Obesity_ adds to its credibility. Researchers separated obese adults into two groups. The first was asked to drink 16 oz. of flat water (no bubbles), 30 minutes before meals, while the second was advised to imagine that they had a full stomach before eating. In the end, the volunteers who followed through with “pre-loading” with [water before they ate](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21167/abstract;jsessionid=B69626786A387CA0CD4CCDF98BF108E9.f02t03) lost about 9.5 pounds, compared to 1.75 pounds for those who didn’t. The water group also shed on average three additional pounds, compared to the imagination group. Previous studies have shown that drinking a few cups of water before meals naturally results in eating fewer calories, and other research has shown that a [16-ounce dose of water](http://press.endocrine.org/doi/pdf/10.1210/jc.2003-030780) upped metabolic rate by about 30% within 10 minutes. While the effect peaked 30 to 40 minutes later, those little bump ups in calorie burning can snowball meal after meal. **Slurp soup (even cold varieties)** Adding an item to your order as a way to cut calories might seem counter-intuitive, but it can slash your caloric intake for the whole meal. That’s what happened when researchers had volunteers eat a low-calorie soup before lunch in an oft-cited 2007 [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2128765/) from the journal _Appetite._ In the end, participants reduced their total calorie intake at lunch (including both the soup and entree) by 20%, compared to when they didn’t eat soup. The reduction in calories also didn’t result in more hunger or less satisfaction. And if you’re thinking, “Soup in the hot summer, are you crazy?!” consider cold options. The study used soups that provided 100-150 calories per serving, and there are plenty of chilled choices that hit that mark, like [gazpacho](http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,10000001997601,00.html), [curried zucchini](http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000129266,00.html), or [borscht](http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000129271,00.html). **When faced with temptation, visualize your previous meal** Yep, you can think yourself slim. When scientists at the University of Birmingham asked volunteers to recall the same day’s lunch they found that those who could do so vividly [ate fewer snacks](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666311001371) later in the day. A group of volunteers was instructed to be mindful while they ate lunch by focusing on things like the look, aroma, and physical sensations of chewing and swallowing. Later in the day, while presented with snacks, volunteers were asked to recall how distinctly they could remember their lunch. Those who were mindful were able to recall their meal most intensely _and_ they ate significantly fewer snacks, compared to two control groups. (A second group read a news article while they ate; the third group wasn’t given any instructions at all.) The takeaway: as often as you can, eat without distractions, and if you feel a snack attack coming on, conjure up the memory of a previous meal. It may make the difference between eating one cookie or a handful. **Use visual portion trackers** Cornell University scientists call them speed bumps, or stop signs, but you can also think of them as “evidence.” In one study, students [whose tables weren’t cleared](http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pms.104.1.273-276?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2003&rfr%5Fid=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr%5Fdat=cr%5Fpub%3Dpubmed&), allowing them to see how many chicken wings they’d torn through via the number of bones left, ate fewer than those who had the remnants taken away. The same technique can be used for other foods, like olive pits, shrimp served with tails, pizza slices, if you leave the crust, or anything eaten off a stick. According to researchers an empty stick signals your brain to think “done” even if you’re not consciously aware of it. You can even create visuals that cue you to stop on your own, like putting popcorn into a small bowl rather than eating it straight from the bag (empty bowl=finished), or eating small cheese cubes off of toothpicks rather than on their own. **Color coordinate your meals** Another Cornell [study](http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662615#full%5Ftext%5Ftab%5Fcontents) found that a greater contrast between the color of your food and the color of your plate may naturally help you to eat less. In the study, diners served themselves pasta from a buffet that included either tomato or Alfredo (white) sauce. Diners were randomly given red or white plates, so some had had contrasting colors—red sauce on a white plate—while others had matching colors. Those in the latter group served themselves 22% more than those who saw differing hues. While researchers aren’t totally sure why the color made such a big difference, aiming for contrast is another simple strategy to put to the test. **Smell your food before eating** It’s said that we eat with our eyes as well as our stomachs, but we also eat with our noses. One recent study published in the journal [_Flavour_](http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/1/1/3) found that the stronger the smell, the smaller the bite. When volunteers had the ability to control their own dessert portions, those given more aromatic samples ate 5 to 10% less. Bottom line: scent plays a role in satisfaction, so take a moment or two to smell your food before you dive in, and add aromatic seasonings to meals, like fresh ginger, basil, cinnamon, or rosemary, to enhance the sensory experience. _Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, is Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics._ [_This article originally appeared on Health.com_](http://news.health.com/2015/09/03/6-weird-diet-tricks-that-actually-work/?xid=time) _More from Health.com:_ * [Why You’re Not Losing Belly Fat](http://www.health.com/health/video/0,,20946396,00.html?xid=time) * [The Real Reason You’re Not Losing Weight](http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20929224,00.html?xid=time) * [5 Tips to Restart Your Weight Loss](http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20409975,00.html?xid=time) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment. With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. 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