Learn To Lose Weight And Keep It Off

Understanding how to diet clearly isn't an easy thing to do. If it were, there wouldn't be a rising obesity epidemic, despite more and more dieting and weight loss information. But that is a big part of the problem. There is so much dieting information available and a lot of it is contradictory, so many people looking to start a diet to lose weight end up overwhelmed and confused. They either don't get started at all because of this or they pick some new fad diet they've seen in the news, don't get great results right away and they quit out of frustration. There are a lot of different diets that work, at least for the short term. A lot of them are also complicated. So what this is going to focus on are simple diet strategies you can implement into your diet for long term success. These aren't really diet ideas so much as long term nutrition tips for a lifetime of healthy eating and weight loss success. You may experiment with other more radical diet ideas from time to time but these are the tried and true tested diet principles you should return to time and time again over your lifetime. You'll probably recognize a lot of these ideas. Don't be too quick to dismiss them. If you follow these strategies, you'll be setting yourself up for long term dieting success. Stop looking for the new quick fix and start focusing on how to diet the right way. Time To Go Shopping And Clean House It's time to toss all the processed foods and other junk into the trash can. This doesn't mean you can never eat your favorite foods again, but for now, don't keep them in the house. The core principle of dieting is to eliminate foods that people make. In other words, all the convenient stuff that comes in boxes and bags, that also happen to be full of unhealthy chemicals, are on the forbidden list. The simple rule is “if people made it, don't eat it.” Focus on eating whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, all kinds of beans, nuts and lean beef, chicken, turkey, tuna, eggs and seafood. All those chemicals are not only destroying your health, slowly but surely, but they are wreaking havoc on your body's hormone levels with regard to its ability to function efficiently and burn fat. More Protein, More Fat, Fewer Carbohydrates Don't worry, you're not being asked to eliminate carbs and this isn't a true low carbohydrate diet. But most people with today's modern diet, eat way too many carbohydrates. The first step, eliminating processed foods will go a long way toward lowering your carbohydrate intake. You'll still get plenty of good carbohydrates from eating lots of vegetables, most fruits, beans and nuts. Eliminating processed foods will also help to increase you protein and fat intake. It's important to understand that fat in and of itself is not your enemy. This is true when talking about weight loss and health. Fat has gotten a bad reputation because of it's name, as well as from a media that likes panic and fear and doesn't seem to care much about accurate information. This is partly how we got the high-carbohydrate, low fat craze of the 1980's. All this did was eliminate fat in a lot of foods and substitute sugar instead, one of the worst, and unhealthiest things you could put in your body. This gave a lot of people trouble with their insulin levels which leads to fat gain, not to mention the possibility of getting diabetes. People also are staying away from egg yolks, thanks to the media's take on the evils of fat and cholesterol. But scientific studies have shown that the omega-3 fats in the egg yolks are essential to fat burning and good health, not to mention all the important vitamins and minerals that are in the yolk, not the whites. You see, it's the macro-nutrients protein and fat that your body needs to survive and be healthy, not carbohydrates. With the modern diet, most people do not get enough of the essential fatty acids, and what we do get is usually an imbalance, as we get too much Omega-6 and not enough Omega-3. Be sure and get plenty of Omega-3, even if you have to take an essential fatty acid supplement. When you get enough of the essential fatty acids you help your body to lose fat from a hormonal perspective as well. Protein is muscle. If you want to lose fat with your diet, you need to make sure you aren't losing muscle so you must get enough protein in your diet. It's also been proven that eating more protein helps you to burn more calories because of the 'thermic' effect of protein and digestion. Your body burns more energy (calories) digesting protein than it does by digesting carbohydrates. So eating more protein will boost your metabolism. Fire Up Your Fiber Intake Again, thanks to the modern diet and processed foods, people fall woefully short when it comes to their daily fiber intake. The typical American gets roughly 9 grams of fiber per day when you should be getting upwards of thirty-five grams per day. Besides all the health benefits of fiber (like cleansing your colon and keeping you regular), fiber is also a great tool for burning fat. More fiber equals a faster metabolism, which means more calories burned every single day. Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls But you should drink a lot more water than you are probably drinking. Most people are in a perpetual state of slight dehydration. Your body doesn't function optimally in this state. If you want your body to function more efficiently, which also means your metabolism, be sure to drink at least sixty-four ounces a day of water. You should drink two eight ounce glasses as soon as you get up in the morning as you are in a dehydrated state from sleeping. Here's another neat water trick. If you drink ice water, you'll burn about an extra 100 calories per day because your body works harder and needs more energy to digest the colder water. This means about an extra ten pounds of fat burned each year. Treat Yourself As soon as you're told you can't eat your favorite foods ever again, it's all you'll think about. So, give yourself a treat meal once per week. That way, it will be a lot easier to push through those cravings you're sure to get once in awhile. But don't keep those treats in the house all the time. Go get them the day you are treating yourself. That way, you won't be tempted. Think Ahead One of the biggest obstacles with eating healthy, is that you have to prepare your meals. There aren't too many healthy foods you can just grab off the shelf. But there are some. Be sure and keep some filling fruits, like bananas, around the house, as well as a variety of nuts like almonds, walnuts and peanuts. Bonus Round If you know you struggle with overeating, or you want faster results, here's something you can try that works really well. Simply incorporate the intermittent fasting rule of two to one, or the 16/8 rule. Do all your eating in an 8 hour window and fast for the remaining sixteen hours of the day. The best time to do this is make your eating window from noon until 8 pm and then don't eat between 8 pm and noon. It may take some getting used to but it works very well and eventually you'll find you have more energy in the morning as well. These dieting rules are not “new” or “cutting edge” but they work. They aren't complicated and they can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle. Learn how to diet by giving them a shot for at least four weeks and I think you'll be surprised at how effective they are and how easy they are to follow.

Full Article: Learn To Lose Weight And Keep It Off.