You and many others world over, are trying to shed those unwanted pounds as fast as you can. This can be an overwhelming task especially if you pick a diet that is designed for you to slowly lose the weight. Although, this is touted to be the way to lose and keep the weight off, it can be trying on your patience to the point that you give up. The trick is to find a weight loss diet that helps you shed the pounds quickly enough to keep your interest on your goal.
It is important when starting on a weight loss journey that you first analyze your present calorie intact per day. Keeping a food diary is one way of doing this. Write down everything you eat for meals and snack. At the end of each day try to pinpoint how many calories your food has totaled up to, this will let you know what adjustments need to be made to allow you to lose weight. You will most likely be surprised at how many calories you are eating in your present diet.
The food diary will also help you choose an appropriate diet or healthy eating plan to reach your goals. You can analyze where changes need to be made and even create a plan of your own. It is not always necessary to follow a commercial weight loss plan if you do enough research.
The changes in your food intact should be at least 500 calories daily to lose 1 pound a week. This saves you 3500 calories, which equals 1 pound in caloric intake. If you do not start losing weight with this type of reduction, lower your calorie intake a bit more until you start losing.
In addition to adjusting calories, you need to make sure that your food choices are low in fat. Replace your meats and dairy products that are high in fat with low-fat alternatives for a healthy eating plan. Cook in a low-fat manner, which means if you are going to fry foods use healthy oils such as olive oil. Also, do not highly bread your foods that you are going to fry this adds unnecessary calories.
If you are not eating more vegetables than protein, you should be especially green leafy vegetables along with such green vegetables as green beans. These should be part of any healthy eating plan on top of a diet for losing weight. Vegetables like these also provide vital nutrients to the body such as enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals along with fiber for proper digestion.
Do away with simple carbohydrates such as white sugar, white bread, white rice and pasta. These elevate the blood sugar levels and could cause you to gain weight instead of to lose it. Eat complex carbohydrates instead such as whole grain bread, cereal and pasta, along with brown rice. These give you a better source of energy that the simple carbohydrates. This is because it takes the body longer to digest them, therefore, blood sugar levels do not raise as quickly if at all. Complex carbohydrates are allowed on most healthy eating plans.
Lean protein should be eaten each day. It is wise to have a little bit of protein with each meal. You only need a total of about 8 ounces of meat a day to accomplish a healthy level. There are other sources of protein that can also be eaten in place of meat such as tofu, nuts, eggs (some prefer only egg whites), low-fat dairy products and dried beans. Low-fat dairy products are an important source for calcium, which builds strong bones along with helping you to lose weight.
Your body needs some fat in your diet for proper digestion, and for the body to assimilate fat-soluble vitamins. Olive and canola oils are two examples of healthy fats to use when trying to do weight loss. These will not cause some of the health issues that animal fats do.
Drinking water is necessary for good health whether you are dieting or not. Every cell in your body needs water to function. It is true that you can get some of your water from the foods you eat and other beverages (these should not be sugary drinks though), but you should still drink a certain amount of water each day to make sure your body gets enough of it. It is a good idea to stick with at least 6 to 8 glasses (8 ounces each) of water a day. There is no better beverage for hydrating the body in a low-calorie way than plain water. You will need more the times you sweat from doing physical activity.
How active are you at present? Are you just lounging around on the couch most of the time you are at home, along with having a sit-down job? Make a section in your food diary for exercise so you can write down any physical activity you do. This will help you see where you need improvement. For any healthy eating plan or diet to help you lose weight, you must add exercise for it to be a total success.
You should be doing about 30 to 60 minutes of exercise each day if not more. This physical activity can be in the form of walking, swimming, riding a bike, participating in a sport, gardening, or any other activity you enjoy doing. However, about 3 times a week you should also do some resistance or weight training. This training can be on the days you do not participate in the other activities. Exercise not only strengthens the body it also boost the metabolism, which helps your body burn calories more efficiently. It is also lifts the mood because it releases feel-good endorphins into your body.
You combine all the above things and you will have an effective healthy eating plan along with an effective workout plan. This diet and exercise plan will quickly help you shed the pounds as long as you do not veer off course. Attaining and maintaining your ideal weight will keep you healthy and strong, along with preventing many health issues.
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