I don’t know about you, but losing weight and building muscle are two of the driving forces behind why I eat healthy, but as far as I’m concerned it takes much hard work and dedication to get into the right habit of things.
It’s no doubt that when it comes to deciding how to eat and specifically what foods to lose weight, things can get tricky and overly complicated very quickly.
Many weight loss diets require that you make drastic changes to your calorie intake and the types of food you are eating. Not a short time later, many people give up on these overly restrictive diets and quite honestly, I don’t blame them – I mean who has the willpower to eat healthy all the time? Certainly not me. Then these same people often give up on their weight loss goals because they feel that they are too difficult to achieve, when in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
If you haven’t already, definitely get rid of the fad diets and bogus diet programs – you simply don’t need them and you would be much better off without them. Instead you should focus on eating a healthy, balanced diet that is primarily aimed at burning fat while keeping you full and satisfied throughout the day.
Here are 5 diet tips to help you get started.
Weight Loss Diet Tip 1: Fat Is Not Bad For You
Despite what many people might try and tell you, not all fats are bad for you and in fact there is only one type of bad fat – trans fats. You should always avoid trans fats because your body has no use for them and they are extremely detrimental to your health. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But what about saturated fat? Won’t eating high amounts of saturated fat clog my arteries and lead to heart disease?” No. This is a made up myth perpetrated by the US government, mainstream media and other organizations and has absolutely no scientific evidence to support it. Don’t believe me? Do a quick Google search on ‘the truth about saturated fat & cholesterol’ and I guarantee you will not find one study even suggesting this. Instead, you’ll find dozens upon dozens of testimonials and studies suggesting the opposite.
You should always make it your best effort to get at least 30% of your total calories from fat. If you don’t get enough fat in your diet, the results can be devastating on your weight loss success.
Fat helps keep you full and is very thermogenic, which means it requires more calories to burn and will increase your metabolism. Not only this, but if you don’t consume enough fat in your diet your crucial fat loss hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone will take a drop and this will make it incredibly difficult to lose fat.
Weight Loss Diet Information Tip 2: Stop Eating Junk Food
You should always try your best to stay away from processed junk food and to consume healthy foods as much as possible. This also means cutting out canned foods which tend to be high in sodium, (which make you retain more water and cause your scale weight to jump) and frozen foods that are high in preservatives.
Instead, you should be eating foods that are high in vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants. Always choose 100% whole grain bread over white bread, consume more lean proteins, healthy fats and so on. Don’t forget about fruits and vegetables either, since they are high in fiber. These foods will help keep you fuller longer and will help you lose more weight because of it.
Weight Loss Diet Tip 3: Certain Foods Burn Fat
Believe it or not, there are actually certain foods that can and aid in the fat burning process. Lean protein is a great example, since your body burns more calories during the digestion of this food. Like I said, fat also has a very high thermogenic fat burning effect as well, so including fat in your diet is important for this reason alone. I’ve found that by limiting my carb consumption to less than 100 grams per day and increasing my fat and protein consumption, I’m able to burn additional calories and fat.
Weight Loss Diet Tip 4: Stop Being So Strict
Nobody’s perfect. And trying to eat perfectly all the time will ultimately result in failure. So make sure you allow yourself at least one cheat meal per week to keep yourself sane and to improve your body’s ability to burn fat. Yes, I said improve your body’s ability to burn fat. By having one high calorie day per week, you keep your metabolic rate revved up and the additional calories burned will result in an increased ability to lose body fat.
Weight Loss Diet Tip 5: Get Your Butt Off The Couch
Yes, diet is key when it comes to losing weight, but so is exercise. If you want to see the best results possible then you should combine cardiovascular training as well as weightlifting into your routine. Weightlifting is great because it will help you build more muscle mass and the more muscle you have on your body, the faster your metabolism is naturally going to be.
Hopefully this article has given you some insight on what needs to be done if you want to achieve permanent and healthy fat loss. Losing weight is only difficult if you make it difficult, so just get back to the basics and follow these 5 tips and you will be guaranteed success. Good luck!
Sally says
You can lose weight without feeling miserable. By making smart choices every day, you can develop new eating habits and preferences that will leave you feeling satisfied—and winning the battle of the bulge.