Nutrition & Weight Loss How To Diet Properly |
Nutrition & Weight Loss How To Diet Properly
Looking to lose fat or go on a diet regime that actually works? Then you have to follow some simple, proven techniques and strategies that can really help you shed those pounds!
Nutrition
The first and most important rule in weight loss is the amount of calories you eat. Forget the macro nutrients fat, carbohydrates and protein for the moment, you can cut out as much carbohydrate as you want, if you are eating too many calories from protein and fat you will not lose a milligram in weight.
You may have lost weight quickly in the past doing this, but did you put it back on? The majority of you will say yes. Why? The weight you lost during that diet was mostly water out of your body, you didn’t lose any fat or bodyweight. The body is about 60% water depending on body size, so it is quite easy to quickly drop weight without losing any fat.
To lose actual body fat you must cut your calories by about 500kcal below your daily usage.
Work out your daily calorie usage with our BMR calculator
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates should consist of about 40% of your daily intake. Get rid of all those empty carbohydrate calories like sugar and processed foods and cereals. The bulk of your carbohydrates should come from real foods in their unprocessed state.
Great carbs to eat are:
Sweet potato
Brown rice
Brown pasta
Brown bread
Rolled oats
All vegetables
Fruit
Far from cutting carbohydrates out of your diet they should be a vital part of it, especially if you a training at the gym to burn extra calories. The aforementioned slow release fibrous carbohydrates will keep you fuller for longer, give you bundles of energy and also keep you regular!
Simple carbohydrates such as dextrose, white potatoes, white rice etc can be taken post workout only. These carbohydrates will promote fat storage at other times of the day, but post workout are perfect for boosting energy levels and will not be stored as fat.
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Protein
Protein should consist of about 40% of you daily intake
Protein is vital for active people and especially for those training regularly. Whilst losing weight we want to keep as much muscle mass as possible to appear toned. Protein will help rebuild muscle fibres after workouts and also keep you feeling fuller for longer
Great sources of protein are
Tuna
Lean chicken breast without skin
Protein shakes
Salmon
Pork
Beef
Egg whites
Prawns
Basically all lean meats, fish, poultry etc!
For vegetarians good vegetable sources of protein are couscous, cottage cheese and wheat based products
Fat
Fat should consist of about 20% of you daily intake
Cut out virtually all saturated fats, these bad fats are terrible for you health and body composition. As a rule of thumb, any fat that is solid at room temperature steer clear of. Any fat that is liquid at room temperature is ok!
Foods that contain bad fats are
Hamburgers
Chips
Crisps
Fried food
Ready meals
Doughnuts
Cookies
You get the picture… basically staw away from all the food you know you shouldn’t be eating and also refrain from drinking fizzy drinks, even the ‘diet’ ones. The ingredients contained in these drinks will heavily promote fat gain and storage.
Good fats
Good fats are essential for healthy living and can help you lose body fat and beat cravings. The body needs these types of fat to perform literally thousands of processes in the body, including normal hormone production, which will aid in a desirable body composition.
Essential fatty acids
The group of essential fatty acids, as the name suggests are absolutely vital to attain through our diet. The body cannot synthesise these fats and they must be consumed in our diet.
The EFAs are Alpha Linolenic Acid and Linoleic Acid. They are abundant in salmon, tuna, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds or an EFA supplement.
Other sources of good mono and polyunsaturated fats are
Olives & Olive oil
Avocado & avocado oil
Salmon
Mackerel
Herring
Almonds
Cod liver oil
Water intake
You can drink as much water as you like, if your body doesn’t need the water it will flush it through the system. Adequate water intake will also keep you from getting dehydrated, many people mistake thirst for hunger and then eat more calories! If you are dehydrated by as little as 2% your performance can be adversely affected by up to 20% so if you are trying to train hard to burn excess calories proper hydration should be taken into account.
Daily Intake
Your daily calorie intake should be split into 5 – 6 small meals daily. This will speed up your metabolism and also keep you from feeling stuffed full and then really hungry throughout the day. This will also prevent you from snacking on bad foods as you are constantly thinking for your next good meal only a few hours away. Eating this many meals may seem hard at first but it really is key to boosting your fat loss.
As mentioned before you protein and carbohydrates should consist of roughly 40% each of your daily intake and fat about 20%. You should also carry this through to an individual meal level. So every meal should be made of roughly this amount of each macronutrient. Without going into too much detail eating the three macronutrients together will help you store less fat.
For the more advanced athlete or if you are cutting your bodyfat to ripped levels try eating the majority of your carbohydrates at breakfast, pre and post workout where the body is the least likely to store excess carbohydrate as fat.
Proper and sustained fat loss will happen slowly over a period of time and the process of dieting should be done correctly and intelligently. Crash dieting is unsustainable and will lead to more fat storage eventually. A sustained, clever nutrition and exercise programme that allows you to slowly burn the fat and keep it off, without too many cravings is a sustainable and healthy way to lose those pounds.
Oh, and remember its ok to cheat every now and then!
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