Determining the best method for you to lose unwanted body weight can be extremely difficult nowadays. This is primarily due to the vast amount of information available through health magazines, diet books, and Google searches. Unfortunately, not all of this available information is correct or effective. To make matters even more difficult, all of our bodies work and respond to foods and exercises differently (due to genetics or other health issues) which make the results from any diet plan and workout guide quite variable. Luckily, we have made a flexible weight loss plan that can work as the foundation for any body transformation. Start following some of these tips and watch those pounds shed right off!
What Is the Best Type of Diet to Promote Healthy Weight Loss?
As we already have mentioned, there is no real permanent, universal solution that works ideally for everyone. Some people claim that the main key to dropping unwanted weight is to cut out carbs while others believe that exercising more and eliminating fat from your diet is enough. But, in reality, you are going to have to do some self-experimentation with different foods and workout plans to figure out which fat loss methods work best for you. In order to get the body you want properly, you will need practice quite a bit of patience because finding the proper method for you will require a deal of commitment and time.
Most health experts agree that at least 80 percent of our body weight goals are achieved by the things we put ingest through our diet and not our fitness routines. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to put more focus on this critical aspect of getting the body you want. Luckily, if you are looking for a good diet to lose weight, there are some effective strategies that are good to start experimenting with. Just keep in mind that a diet is never truly successful unless you can stick with it over the course of your life. The best dietary strategies include:
1) Cutting calorie intake
A calorie is a unit of energy that our bodies use to function. If excess calories are consistently consumed, they will typically become stored as fat deposits so the body can access energy if food is suddenly unavailable. This is why cutting calorie intake is one of the most universally-followed tactics in the world. Its principles are built on a simple and verifiable mathematical equation: If you burn off and metabolize more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.
However, in practice, cutting down the number of calories consumed doesn’t always correlate with losing weight. Here are a few reasons why:
- All calories are not created equal
The food source that you get your calories from can have a drastic effect on how your body deals with them. For example, consuming 100 calories of pure cane sugar will have a completely different effect on your metabolism and hormones than eating 100 calories of chicken breast. It is important to realize that the best way to achieve sustained calorie-controlled fat loss is to avoid foods that are made up of a lot of calories but don’t make you feel full. These types of “empty calories” are found in foods such as candy, chips, pasta, and white bread. Eating foods with minimal calories that make you feel more satiated (such as healthy meats and vegetables) is a much better way to go.
- Body changes affect the rate that calories are burned off
Unfortunately, the rate that you lose bodyweight will shift as your body changes. For example, if you decide to cut calories today, you will drop pounds quite easily for the first few weeks. However, this fat loss will quickly slow down and halt. The main reason for this change is primarily due to the composition of your body changing as you slim down. The first thing that happens when you shed weight is the loss of lean muscle and water. As a result, your metabolic rate also slows and your body is suddenly unable to burn calories as effectively as before. This is why people who only cut calories to lose weight have to continually reduce their consumption to keep dropping pounds.
- Reduced calorie diets are hard to stick to consistently
Reducing calorie intake sounds good on paper but is much harder to maintain in practice. This is because people don’t just eat because they need to satisfy their hunger. Many of us turn to food and drinks as a way to relieve stress and comfort ourselves. While we all know that indulging in these things is the perfect way to derail any of our body goals, these types of temptations are often hard to resist.
2) Cutting carbohydrate intake
When we consume carbs, our bodies have a tendency to accumulate body fat. This is primarily due to the role of a hormone known as insulin. As carbohydrates are ingested, they enter your bloodstream as glucose and spike up your blood sugar levels. In order to counteract this, your body releases insulin to burn off the carbohydrates. However, insulin also prevents your body from burning off fat (since its priority is to first metabolize the glucose) while also creating more fat cells to store all the extra carbohydrates that your body can’t use immediately. As a result, your body starts to gain weight at an increased rate. However, limiting the number of carbs that are consumed can turn this vicious cycle off and allow your body to metabolize the body fat it has in store.
4) Eating healthy fats, proteins, and vegetables
In the past, nutritionists had taught us that all fats were bad for our health and waistline. However, it has been proven that certain fats are very healthy to eat. This is especially true when consumed in a diet that is rich in proteins and vegetables as well. These types of nutrient-dense foods help keep you full while also supporting low insulin levels; this allows for the perfect metabolic state to lose weight. Examples of these healthy foods include:
- Leans meats (such as beef, chicken, or fish)
- Nuts and seeds
- Olive oil
- Avocados
- Eggs
- Leafy greens and vegetables
- Fresh fruit
- Low-fat cheeses and yogurt
- Tofu
It is important to note that anything that contains saturated and trans fats are not healthy and should be avoided as much as possible.
What Are the Best Types of Exercise to Achieve Sustainable Weight Loss?
In the past, people thought you needed to do long sessions of cardio in order to burn enough calories to achieve the body weight they wanted. However, it is now clear that we lose weight in a more sustainable manner if we increase our overall metabolic rate so that we can burn calories at a faster pace consistently throughout the whole day. This means that increasing your lean muscle mass by lifting weights and other anaerobic resistance activities will actually cause you to lose body fat more effectively than simply pushing your body to burn off a large number of calories in individual cardio workouts.
Losing weight permanently by yourself can be a very daunting task. But if you live in Florida, we would love to give you a hand. Are you interested in hiring the best help for weight loss Miami has to offer? If so, please contact Biofit today!