Diet and weight loss can be easy. As long as you make the right decisions throughout the day and stay accountable for what you eat, you will lose weight. No starving yourself or restriction of food here. Instead, eat a diet with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and lean meats and you will be full, satisfied and pounds lighter.
Natural Foods
All-natural foods like fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and healthy meats have zero processing and provide you with more nutrition than prepackaged, overprocessed foods. So when starting a diet, reach for a piece of fruit at snack time instead of crackers or chips --- these easily digested carbohydrates, as well as bread, cereal and pasta, actually interfere with weight loss and promote weight gain. Even though many diets claim that you need to reduce or restrict your intake of fat, fat is actually good for you. Fat aids in normal growth and development, and it is an energy source, responsible for absorbing certain vitamins and actually leads to sustained weight loss. Daily consumption of protein is important for growth, tissue repair, immune function and making hormones and enzymes, but when losing weight protein preserves lean muscle mass. Preserving lean mass when losing weight is important because you want to make sure the weight lost is fat, not muscle.
Caloric Intake
The bottom line when it comes to weight loss is calories in, calories out. If you consume more calories than your body uses for energy, you will gain weight; if you burn more than you consume, you will lose weight. Determine your needed calories for the day using an online resource like the calorie calculator provided by LIVESTRONG, which determines this number based on age, height, current weight, activity level and weight loss goals.
Considerations
At each mealtime, try balancing your carbohydrate, fat and protein amount. Eat about 40 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat and 30 percent from protein. Balanced eating provides satiety and variety at mealtimes, as well as making sure you are getting well-balanced nutrition from each macronutrient. Try eating five to six smaller meals throughout the day. This will help with snacking between mealtimes, since you will be eating on a more regimented basis.
Diet Notebook
Using a notebook to track what you eat throughout the day will aid in making sure you are eating the right amount of calories to sustain your day-to-day activities but still lose weight. A notebook will make you more aware of the foods you consume throughout the day and will help you make healthier choices. In your notebook you can also keep track of weekly or monthly goals, such as exercise three times a week or lose 8 lb. by the end of the month.
Time Frame
Healthy weight loss is considered to be 1 to 2 lb. per week. To lose 1 to 2 lb., you need to have a daily deficit of 500 calories to 1,000 calories. This deficit can be achieved through diet alone or through diet and exercise.
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