Top 40 ways to lose weight or burn fat

31. Play sport

Doesn't matter what sport except darts. Squash, football, aerobics, circuit training, speed walking, jogging, fast cycling or brisk rowing sign up to something you enjoy or think you'll enjoy and do it.

32. Delay

Eat lunch at 1pm not 12am. Helps to avoid those afternoon snacks. What you don't eat now you can eat later. What you eat later makes it easier to control what you eat over dinner. Delay but don't skip. If you starve yourself you are more likely to overeat to compensate.

Chew the Brown Fat with someone (and be happy!)

Being happy may actually reduce your weight. Studies of mice "living in a dynamic social environment" made them produce a healthy type of fat that burns up calories. Researchers suspect that the same is true of people.

Conversely, people who spend too much time watching TV or online (go on, log off, and talk to someone:) get fat. White fat in fact. White fat stores energy and increases waistlines. The fat we want to produce is called brown fat, this actually burns calories..

"One of the holy grails of obesity therapy is to understand how to switch white fat to brown fat, and this study describes a new way to do exactly that. Our findings suggest that we can potentially induce this transformation by modifying our lifestyle or by pharmacologically activating this brain-fat pathway." says Ohio State University in Columbus Professor, Matthew Duringsai "The amount of fat that comes off is far more than you would get with a treadmill."

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Weight-Loss for Mice

A picture of a mouse not losing enough weight

Our view is that it is a big jump to assume the same effect will work with people (as opposed to mice) but even if it does, the cause of the effect needs more work. For example, are we saying just go to the gym and have a chat to lose weight? I also suspect we will soon be seeing "Brown Fat" pills on the market. There's more to come on this story. For now at least, don't take it too seriously.

33. Eat negative Calorie Foods

Asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, celery, spinach, cucumber, blackberry, melon and raspberries are some examples of so called negative calorie foods. As the name implies the idea is you use up more calories digesting them than they contain.

34. If you love chips get the oven baked version not the fries

35. We are what we eat and how we cook it

Get steaming, boiling, grilling, microwave and baking. Give the frying pan a holiday.

36. Eat Low-fat yogurt

A University of Tennessee study concluded that the calcium in low-fat dairy foods triggers a hormonal response that inhibits the body's production of fat cells and boosts the breakdown of fat.

37. Save empty candy and sweet wrappers

The wrappers server as a reminder of how many treats you have eaten over the day/week.

38. Put your knife and fork down between bites and chew chew chew

Also use your wrong hand (e.g. left if right handed) and chew 30-50 times. Aim to take twenty minutes over your meal.

39. Think laterally when dinning out

For example, you could go for two entrees or order an entree and side salad instead of an over- sized main.

40. Hang a mirror opposite your seat at the table

Eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly one-third. Maybe your reflection reminds us of our own standards and goals and why we are trying to lose weight. Or maybe we are just infatuated with the good looking soul opposite.