Let's face it, when experts and diet plans go on and on about the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and getting enough exercise they are not talking rocket science and most of us already know what we need to do to lose weight.

What they don't often take in to account is how hard it can be to maintain motivation and change the way you eat forever. There are also a number of tricks that you can use to reduce your daily food intake without noticing. Follow these unique weight loss tips below to assist you in your weight loss plan

1. Smaller Plate

Did you know that as the prosperity of a country increases so does the diameter of the dinner plates? If you compare the average dinner plate today with a dinner plate from 50 years ago there will be a significant difference in the size. When you have such a big plate there is an urge to fill it with food even though the portion size might be twice what you need. Shop around to buy some smaller plates and the amount you eat at meal times will decrease as a result.

2. Keep healthy snacks with you

We all get a craving for food at times and it is so easy to munch on a chocolate bar or some sweets for an instant fix, but a calorie overload isn't what your body requires, it wants nutrients to carry on its normal functions. By chopping up fruits and veg in the morning you can munch on them all day you can satisfy your hunger and be less tempted to binge on quick fix food like chocolate bars and crisps.

3. Drink water

Drinking plenty of water throughout the day helps keep hunger at bay as your stomach is kept full. Try not to drink ice cold water as this has a tendency to pass right through you! However, if you find that you are going to the bathroom too much it's your body's way of telling you to cut down.

4. Eat slower!

Nearly everything in your body is controlled by the release of hormones. When you are hungry it's because your stomach has released hormones which your brain understands as a feeling of hunger. Similarly when you are full it's because your stomach releases different hormones informing your brain that it doesn't need more food. Unfortunately these processes are not instant and if you wolf down your meals your body doesn't have enough time to tell you to stop before you've finished. You can even force yourself to eat slower by using smaller cutlery so you have to take more mouthfuls.

5. Understand calories

If you want to lose weight then you need to understand how calories work. There are a variety of weight loss calculators available that will estimate how many calories you need to maintain your current lifestyle. If you want to lose weight then you need to be consuming less calories than your body wants. So to maintain an average weight loss of 1 pound per week you need to aim to reduce your daily intake by about 500 calories. It is not recommended that you combat weight loss by restricting your intake alone but by doing some form of exercise you don't need to reduce your calorie intake as much.

6. Keep a food diary

We all have a habit of eating far more than we realize. Many of us will complain that we don't know where the additional weight is coming from but if we were honest and kept a food diary then it is usually pretty obvious that those additional pounds are the result of a sneaky chocolate bar here and the odd packet of crisps there. Keeping a food diary helps you to not only understand your weaknesses (for example, do you crave a certain fatty food at the same time each day) but also helps to track your calorie intake.

Along with a healthy weight loss plan and taking some form of daily exercise you can use the weight loss tips above to help you achieve your goals. Remember though, weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint, so simply skipping meals or drastically reducing your food intake is not the best way to become slim.