Top Five Weight-Loss Tips
Well, I thought I might give you some information about what I would consider some great weight-loss tips. Many of us hear about fad diets and weight-loss pills to make us thin in the blink of an eye, but only consistent diet and lifestyle changes ever will get you the body you want and deserve over the long term. The following are my top five general suggestions for a healthy diet, while pursuing your weight-loss goals.
Smaller, More Frequent Meals
Eat smaller, more frequent meals spaced throughout the day. I know most of us have heard this suggestion before, but it really does work. Even spreading out the same amount of food you normally consume in three larger meals into five smaller meals would enhance your body’s metabolism, ultimately resulting in more weight loss. In my mind, the smaller and more frequent the meals, the better provided you stay within designated calorie limits. I have been known to eat up to nine or ten meals a day when trying to lose weight. The smaller, more frequent meals also reduce hunger, and get one in touch with satiety signals (in contrast to gorging as much food as possible before the body can respond to its fullness).
Dietary Fiber
Include tons of dietary fiber, mainly found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, oats, beans, legumes, and flax. Incorporate many of these foods into your diet each day, preferably with each meal. Fiber increases satiety to reduce hunger. It has numerous beneficial health effects, including lowering cholesterol, along with improving the microflora population in your large intestine. In addition, high-fiber foods are almost all what I would consider healthy, so they provide many key nutrients, in addition to their other health benefits and satiety-inducing aspects.
Protein
Eat tons of protein. High-protein foods include meat, eggs, fish, poultry, milk, cheese, yogurt, and beans. Make sure the dairy products are low-fat or fat-free. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient in the human diet. Furthermore, your body wants to break muscle tissue down for energy when you are losing weight, so providing a consistent supply of amino acids (from protein consumption) for muscle synthesis helps to prevent muscle loss. Muscle burns calories, not fat. Losing muscle is counterproductive to the weight-loss goal. Maintaining muscle mass while losing weight will make it easier to keep the weight off in the long term.
Healthy Fats
Include small amounts of healthy fats in your diet each day. Healthy fats come from foods such as olive oil, nuts/seeds, nut/seed butters, avocados, and dairy products/meats from grass-fed (I repeat, grass-fed) animals. Such animals produce meats with high conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) contents. CLA is a fatty acid associated with increased muscle synthesis and abdominal-fat reduction, both key elements of any sound weight-loss plan. Healthy fats will help keep you full. They provide that “savory” aspect of food most of us desire. In addition, what they say is true: You must eat fat for your body to burn fat. Eating at least some fat is a signal to your body that it does not have to hold onto every bit of fat it has or is exposed to, because more can be expected to come in through dietary consumption. Include small amounts of healthy fats with one or two of your meals each day during your weight-loss plan.
Stick With It!
Most people expect to lose all the weight in a week. Well, I can guarantee that anyone losing too much weight too fast will gain it all back—plus some more. The main reason is the loss of muscle tissue with quick weight-loss regimens. A good goal would be about one to two pounds of weight loss each week for the first few weeks, followed by about one pound per week until you reach your goal. Weight loss may slow to literally nothing during the later stages, because your body will want to resist the changes. During this difficult finish, make sure to throw your body for a loop by constantly changing your meal frequencies, food selections, and exercise regimens. The art of “body confusion” really gives metabolism a good kick in the rear end, which means more weight loss faster.
