Most people believe that all you have to do to lose weight is just to eat less food. That’s a big part of it, but surprisingly, you can eat too little food and actually gain weight. There are better ways of planning meals and changing how you eat that will bring about weight loss that you might be able to stick to. Here are four tips towards eating to lose weight.

1. Eat multiple meals a day. Bodies hold on to food because they’re not sure when they’re going to be fed next. If you eat on a schedule, your body gets a better understanding of what your patterns are. If you can learn how to eat multiple mini meals a day, you stimulate digestion throughout the day, instead of only a couple of times for bigger meals. You will find that, if you can eat a smaller meal every 2 ½ to 3 hours a day, that you’ll be hungry, and thus you’ll be eating when you’re supposed to eat, and not eating just because it’s time to eat.

2. Measure your food rather than count calories. Counting calories is hard, which is why most people fail at it. Truthfully, you can eat 8 Snickers bars a day and end up only eating 2,000 calories a day, but there are no health benefits to it, including the peanuts. Instead, get a food scale, prepare certain foods you like ahead of time, then measure them out and eat that way instead. Based on your size, you should eat anywhere from 6 to 10 ounces of food at a time, but not all one thing. Mix it up with a little bit of protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates. This way, it’s a balanced meal, of sorts, and enough food to take care of your hunger for a couple of hours. You might have to eat a little bit more if you’re engaged in strenuous exercise, but measuring your meals and staying consistent with it is the way to go.

3. You can add fruits and extra vegetables to your meals at any time. The lucky thing is that there are no calories in most fruits and vegetables, so you can eat some of those to help you out if you start feeling hungry, or want something a little bit different. Of course, some vegetables are better than others. Green, leafy vegetables are much better than carrots or corn, which is more of a starch than a vegetable. The same thing goes for fruits. Fruits like grapes and cherries are much better than apples and bananas, which are high on the glycemic index. However, eating one or two a week of these won’t hurt you any.

4. Mix it up and flavor it up. Diets tell you to eat your food pretty blandly. If you flavor food the way you like it, you’ll enjoy it much more, even eating smaller portions, and still lose weight. Mix up the types of meats, vegetables, and carbohydrates you’re going to eat. A little bit of variety will help you stick to your eating plan, as it won’t feel like a chore. And, if you work, it’s easy putting smaller meals into containers that you can take to work with you and heat up in a microwave.