Quick Weight Loss This Autumn With These 6 Simple Eating Changes

These simple swaps and plans can help you lose a lot of weight.

There's no better time to change your habits than when the seasons change. If you want to lose weight, you should change the way you eat. Studies have shown that your diet is one of the most important parts of losing weight, and it's very hard to reach your goals through exercise alone.

The good news is that if you change the way you eat, you don't have to give up the foods you love. Instead, the goal is to make the healthiest choices as often as possible, until it feels natural to grab a piece of fruit instead of a pastry.

According to Kitty Broihier, RD, registered dietitian, creator of the Eating Habits Lab, and owner of NutriComm Consulting, "research shows that around 40% of our behaviors are habit-driven, not decision-driven." Your healthy eating habits are what will carry you to the weight loss finish line, and you won't even have to spend precious brainpower thinking about them. Willpower only gets you so far before it wears out.

So, if you want to lose weight quickly this fall, try adopting some of these dietitian-recommended eating habits. The 15 Healthiest Chili Recipes for Weight Loss is a great place to start.

Keep to a Routine

Blanca Garcia, RDN, a nutritionist at Health Canal, says, "If you don't have a set eating schedule, you're more likely to skip meals, overeat at other meals, snack mindlessly, and pick up other bad habits that can make it hard to lose weight."

She says that's why you should plan when to eat your meals. For example, you could decide to eat breakfast every day at 8 a.m., lunch at 12 p.m., a snack at 3 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., and a snack at 8:30 p.m. The point is to come up with a pattern that fits your life.

Depending on your needs, this could mean eating smaller meals quite often, or it could mean eating bigger meals less often and going without food between dinner and breakfast. The idea is to set up a routine so that your body knows when to expect food.

"This helps you in two ways on your journey to lose weight," says Garcia. "First, if you know when you're going to eat, you can prepare meals ahead of time and avoid grabbing high-calorie foods at the drive-through at the last minute. Second, as your body gets used to those set times, your hunger signals will turn on and let you know it's time to eat. This will make it less likely that you'll eat too much because you ignored or didn't notice those signals."

Consume more seafood

Seafood is one of the best ways to lose weight. Not only is it high in protein, but it's also full of omega-3 fatty acids, which studies have shown can make you feel fuller for longer.

Rima Kleiner, RD, who runs the blog Dish On Fish and is a registered dietitian, says that all seafood can help you lose weight. Kleiner, on the other hand, says that salmon is especially high in omega-3s that make you feel full, and shrimp is not only low in calories but also causes the body to make a hormone called CCK that makes you feel less hungry.

Kleiner says that you should try to eat seafood at least twice or three times a week.

"If you want to lose weight and stay healthy, the most important thing is to choose seafood that is prepared and cooked in a healthy way," she says. "Don't eat fried fish and stay away from dishes with heavy sauces. Instead, choose shrimp that has been baked, sautéed, steamed, grilled, or boiled, and serve sauces and dips on the side."

Include 3 servings of fruits and vegetables

There are many reasons to eat more vegetables and fruit, but if you want to lose weight, it's because these foods are low in calories and high in fiber. Dana Ellis Hunnes, RD, a senior clinical dietitian at the UCLA medical center and the author of Recipe for Survival, says that you should eat at least three servings of vegetables and fruit every day.

Some examples of what that might look like are a chopped apple in oatmeal for breakfast, a cup of mixed green salad for lunch, and a half cup of steamed broccoli with chicken for dinner. Another example would be one cup of sliced tomatoes in an omelet for breakfast, one banana in a smoothie for lunch, and a half cup of roasted asparagus with fish for dinner.

"Many of the less healthy, high-calorie foods you might eat in a day can be replaced with fruits and vegetables," says Hunnes. "This will lower your calorie intake and help you lose weight."

Switch out some of your animal proteins for ones that come from plants

Even though meat and dairy have a lot of protein, they also have a lot of saturated fat. Because of this, Garcia says that whenever you can, you should switch out animal-based proteins for plant-based proteins like chickpeas, lentils, beans, tofu, quinoa, nuts, and seeds. As a bonus, plant-based proteins also tend to have a lot more fiber than animal-based proteins.

Diana Gariglio-Clelland, RD, a registered dietitian at Soylent, says that fiber keeps you full longer because it takes longer to move through the digestive tract.

If you eat animal protein every day, try this swap at least twice or three times a week. Still having trouble cutting down on meat? Jesse Feser, RD, a registered dietitian with My Crohns and Colitis Team, suggests switching from high-fat red meats and processed meats to lean proteins like turkey, chicken, fish, and eggs.

Replace refined carbohydrates with whole grains

Garcia says that going for whole grain products instead of refined grains is another very smart change to make. You could use 100% whole-wheat bread instead of white bread, brown rice or spelt pasta instead of white pasta, quinoa or farro instead of white rice, and oatmeal instead of cereal made with white flour as examples of easy swaps to try.

Whole grains not only have more vitamins and minerals than refined grains, but they also have more fiber. That means, of course, that they will keep your hunger pangs at bay for much longer, which may help you lose weight by keeping you from snacking too much between meals.

In fact, a review published in Public Health Nutrition in 2008 found that eating three servings of whole grains every day was linked to a lower body mass index.

Mindful Eat

When you're not present when eating, you miss out on the delight of appreciating your food and may overeat. Dietitian Catherine Gervacio, RD, promotes mindful eating. This involves listening to your body when you eat.

Some mindful eating tips include giving yourself at least 20 minutes to enjoy a meal, so you can recognize hunger and fullness cues, eliminating distractions like TV during meal times, planning meals with others because conversation encourages you to take time while eating, and pausing between bites of food to ask your body "do I need more?" or "have I had enough?"