Dieting is the practise of eating food in a regulated and supervised manner to increase, maintain or decrease body weight. There are different categories of diet and they includes; low-fat diet, low-carbohydrate diet, low-calorie diet, very low-calorie diet, detox diet and religious diet.
Using a very low-calorie meal plan for months perpetually can actually do more harm than good. Dieting creates a stressful environment for your body. Your cortisol level could stay high for an extended period when you add in exercise. Cortisol is a stress hormone and one of its function is to increase blood sugar. It is important to take a break from your diet to allow your body to recover from the stress.
Maintaining a healthy weight can be tough, losing weight can be even tougher. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight, and if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. This sounds easy but why is losing weight so hard?
Weight loss is not a linear event over time. When you lose weight, you are losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows down and your body changes in other ways. So in order to continue shedding weight each week, you’ll need to continue cutting calories.
Many of us always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress which can derail any weight loss effort before they begin. Extreme diets may promise rapid results but they are more likely to leave you feeling cranky, starving and losing more cash than weight. The good news is that: by making smarter choices everyday, adopting healthy lifestyle changes and developing new eating habits, you’ll not only lose weight and be able to keep it off, but also improve your outlook, mood and have more energy.
To get started with healthy weight loss, you need to:
Think about lifestyle changes, not short term diet- various popular diets can help jump start your weight loss, but permanent lifestyle changes and food choices are what will work in the long run.
Drink water because they help to manage your appetite. Substituting water for sugary juices can make a major dent in your daily calorie count.
Don’t skip breakfast. Don’t give excuses about not having time before work. Whole grain cereal like oat is one of the best breakfast meal for dieters.
Find a cheering solution- seek out social support from either friends, families or support group to get the encouragement you need. Social support means a lot.
Set goals to keep you motivated- short term goals usually don’t work. When frustration and temptation strike, concentrate on the many benefit you will reap from being leaner and healthier. Losing weight is for good health.
Use tool that will help you track your progress- you can create your own food log, keep the food log, weigh yourself regularly and keep the record of each pound you lose. By keeping all this record, you’ll see the results which will help you stay motivated.
1 pound= 0.4535kg
1kg= 2.2046pounds(Lbs)
Put a stop to emotional eating- if you eat when you are stressed, find healthier ways to calm yourself by doing exercise, medication or soaking in a hot bath. If you eat while you are feeling low on energy, try walking around, listening to energizing music or taking a short nap. If you eat when you are lonely or bored, reach out to others instead of reaching out to your refrigerator. You can put a call through to a friend who can make you laugh.
It is always tempting to look for a short cut but they only set you up for failure because you will be deprived of some nutrients by cutting out entire group of foods which is simply unhealthy. Restricting certain foods or relying on ready-made meals might work in the short term but they don’t include a plan for maintaining your weight so the pounds quickly come back. When you drastically restrict your food intake, your metabolism will temporarily slow down and once you start eating normally, you’ll gain weight until your metabolism bounce back. Moderation is key.
It’s too easy to mindlessly overeat. Pay attention to what you eat, choose foods that are both nourishing and enjoyable and eat slowly.
When it comes to fitness, consistency is the key and not perfection.
Well, dieting and fitness are concept that still needs to be ingrained in Nigerians. Dieting could still be followed religiously by a handful, but as regards fitness, majority still have a long way to go.
ReplyDeleteSo, the question I would like us to ponder on, individually, is this: when was the last time you engaged yourself in a thirty-minutes, sweat-dripping exercise, even if it is brisk-walking, on a regular basis?