Losing weight is about creating a calorie deficit between what you eat and what you burn while still eating enough to provide your body with the vitamins, minerals and energy that it needs to function at its peak. In order to achieve this balance, it's important to build your diet around nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains and reduce or eliminate foods that provide empty calories like chips, desserts, soda and alcoholic beverages.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded with nutrients to keep you energized. They also have water and fiber, which fill you up and keep you feeling full on fewer calories. Thinking about it from a size standpoint alone, it's easy to see that the 107 calories you get from two Oreo cookies won't keep you nearly as full as the three and a half cups of raw broccoli you'd have to eat to get that many calories. Using this knowledge, base your daily eating plan around fruits and vegetables instead of adding them as sides or afterthoughts. For example, instead of steak with a side salad, think about having a large vegetable salad with just a few strips of steak on top. Instead of pasta primavera that is made with one cup of pasta and ½ cup of vegetables, consider starting with one and a half cups of seasonal grilled vegetables and adding ½ cup of whole wheat pasta on top. That way, you get more food and more nutrition for fewer total calories.
Whole Grains
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that at least half of the servings of grain that you eat every day be from whole grains. Whole grains contain fiber and B vitamins that are vital to metabolism and nerve and brain function. All of these benefits are stripped away in refined grains like white rice and white flour, making foods like white pasta, pastries and white rice virtually useless contributors of empty calories. Eating whole grains will keep you feeling full longer than refined grains, but watch out for calories you may not be expecting because of larger bread slices and higher calorie counts in some whole grain products.
Empty Calories
When you are working toward a weight loss goal, the last thing that you need are added calories from soda, sweetened tea or alcohol undoing all of your effort. Instead, drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated and avoid the temptation to quench your thirst with something sugary. Another thing to keep in mind about alcohol is that it's not just a source of empty calories. Drinking alcohol actually depresses your body's ability to metabolize fat, making you much more likely to store dietary fat as fat tissue.
Putting it All Together
In order to put together a sensible eating plan that works for you, try a few things out on paper with a week long meal plan. Start by spreading four cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit out over each day and then add three to five servings of whole grain to each day. In order to gauge how many grain servings you're adding, use a 100 calorie per serving guideline to keep it simple. In other words, if you add a slice of bread to your menu that has 150 calories, you've used up 1.5 servings of grains. You'll notice that the menus are already getting pretty full even before you add dairy and protein. Now add three low fat servings of calcium-rich foods, which will each equal about 80 to 110 calories. Finally, add some low calorie protein options. Aim for about five ounces or less each day of foods like beef, poultry, fish and eggs.
Now that you've experimented with putting together a week's worth of menus, do a quick calorie count to see if the menus meet your calorie goals. As much as possible, look at the labels on the actual foods you planned to eat. This will not only give you a more accurate picture of the menus you've planned, it will start getting you into the habit of reading labels. For foods without a label, a quick rule of thumb is that one cup of fresh or half a cup of cooked vegetables averages 25 calories. One cup of fresh or half a cup of cooked fruit averages 60 calories. A slice of bread or half a cup of cooked rice or pasta averages 100 calories. One cup of skim milk or fat free yogurt averages 90 calories. And finally, an ounce of lean meat averages 55 calories. At the high end, this menu will equal less than 1,500 calories, but if your calorie count comes out too high, just remove some higher calorie foods and replace them with low calorie alternatives. Learning to eat a balanced, healthy diet will take a little time and practice, but be patient with yourself, because it's worth it.
References
- "Krause's Food & Nutrition Therapy, 12th Edition"; L. Kathleen Mahan and Sylvia Escott-Stump; 2008
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans; 2010
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