The trouble with being overweight is that it is so tough to lose weight and lose it quickly. Further, think of the health hazards being overweight poses. So, you have to plan carefully how to lose all that excess weight without further jeopardizing your health. The biggest problem with most diet plans is that they focus on simply losing weight; but often lose sight of the nutritive requirements of a person, especially with reference to his/her daily activities. Instead of following a fad diet, just eat sensibly at regular intervals, and sleep adequately. Loss of sleep disrupts your hormones and your hunger levels.
Don’t go for an abrupt calorie drop: Remember, cutting down on daily calorie intake abruptly slows your body metabolism rate, thereby tricking your body into thinking you are starving. This results in all those kilos piling back as soon as you go off the diet. A very low carb diet won’t help as your heart, brains, muscles, and lungs all run on blood sugar.
The biggest mistake people make is to skip breakfast. Don’t skip breakfast as your brain needs a basic amount of sugar (glucose) to think. Your body will be playing catch up all day, making you eat more than you should to ward off the lethargy which dogs you when you miss your breakfast. Further, beverages like a coffee laced with chocolate syrup, or an aerated soft drink, even most energy drinks have massive quantities of refined sugar content. You should consider cutting out, or at least going easy on the alcohol. Snacking between meals, dips, sauces, and toppings can throw your diet off target.
Your breakfast should have food rich in proteins like soaked almonds, eggs, tofu, pistachios; legumes like beans; and fruits which have vitamins A, C, and folate, minerals like potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and fiber. For example, an omelet stuffed with bell peppers, onions, carrots or shredded cabbages, cottage cheese pieces, tomatoes, mushrooms, and celery would provide you with all the nutrients you require. Just remember to fry it in a healthy oil like olive oil or safflower oil, and keep the salt usage normal. Oats are a good way to start your day for they are densely nutritious, and add considerable fiber to your meal.
To add variety, you could eat whole wheat pasta, barley, brown bread, mixed cereal flakes, rye crackers, quinoa, or bran. Try sprinkling various kinds of seeds and nuts like chia seeds, pecans, or even roasted peanuts on your cereals to add nutrition and crunch. Upma made of semolina, using buttermilk for cooking, and liberally loaded with fresh vegetables like small pieces of cauliflower, sweet potatoes, coriander leaves, tomatoes, green chilies, peas, sprouts of green moong, or Bengal gram, cashew nuts, and/or Brussel sprouts would make a very filling, tasty, and satisfying meal without heaping calories. Obviously, if you drench the item with ghee, you would be destroying the weight loss program. Portion control holds the key making your diet a success without compromising on taste.
Avoid sugar-loaded tea or coffee, pasta, white bread, highly sweetened milk and cornflakes, and confectionary like tiffin cakes, pastries, and muffins. Refined carbs like processed foods cause a huge spike in your blood sugar levels, making you feel hungry soon afterward when those levels fall. Bagels, croissants, French toast, waffles, fudge, regular bread made of refined flours, and pre-packed meals like heat and eat parathas and pies are horribly carbohydrate-dense. Substituting them with fruits like oranges, grapes, papayas, pineapples, avocados, figs, pears, cantaloupe, and cucumbers would be a wiser action.
For lunch, make sure you load up on non-starchy vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, onions, peppers, cucumber, peas, spinach, kale, cabbage, and tomatoes. Add lean proteins like fish and seafood like salmon, tuna, shrimp, rohu; lentils like various dals, rajma, and chana; and lean meat like a chicken. Various kinds of gourds would lend variety to taste but would be very low carb as they are mostly watery vegetables. Round it off with some fruit to serve as dessert.
One of the best ways to lose weight without starving is to eat a meal which is loaded with fibers. Since your body needs something to gnaw on, the fibers give it enough to digest over a long time. That keeps you feeling full, thereby keeping at bay hunger pangs. However, letting yourself get hungry at proper intervals has numerous health benefits. It stimulates cell renewal by boosting the growth hormone. Being hungry means improved digestion and better-regulated blood sugar.
Broth-based soups are superb food for dinner as you feel full easily, and they are very nutritious. Salads with sufficient greens like lettuces, vegetables, and fruits, peppered with nuts and seeds, and using an oil-free dressing would be an excellent way to ensure that you have an option which is delicious and nutritious without being fattening. Reserve the whole grains for breakfast and lunch.
Eating healthy food not only helps you lose weight, and be properly nourished; it aids in warding off inflammations in joints to reduce pain.