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Are you a secret member of the “Diet of the Month Club?” Do you run out and try every new diet that comes along, even if it means changing diets two or three times a month? Are you so tired of eating grapefruit you feel you will turn into a grapefruit tree?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are probably not doing your body a favor. The main drawback to fad diets is they usually concentrate on one kind of food, like grapefruit, and they can end up robbing your body of valuable nutrients – leaving you more fatigued and feeling worse than before you started. Another sad part of fad diets is that the weight you lose on the diet often doesn’t stay off once you return to normal foods.
The only sure and healthy way to lose weight is to cut fats out of your regular diet and concentrate instead on nutritionally balanced choices which add to your body’s strength.
Pick high fiber, lowfat foods, such as products ontaining wheat and oat bran, or beans. Eating leaner cuts of meat and taking the skin off of poultry can also greatly reduce your intake of fat. Buy lowfat or skim dairy products. Fresh fruits and vegetables have little or no fat and are paked with vitamins and minerals. Even grapefruit is excellent for the well-balanced diet – as long as you balance it with other types of food.
The key to losing weight the healthy way is to reduce your caloric and fat intake without making your body starve for nutrients. Bacause a pund of body fat equals 3,500 calories, you have to cut 500 calories per day from your diet to get rid of a pound per week. If you normally consume 3,000 calories a day, cut 500 calories out of what you eat and you can easily lose a pound a week on 2,500 calories per day.
Another great way to lose weight is through exercise. Forget those non-exercise diets which promise you will lose 10 pounds a week without lifting a finger. You may lose weight for a short time, but your body still needs action in order to stay healthy. Doing enough exercise every day to burn 500 calories is the equivalent to cutting 500 calories out of your diet. Put together a combination of daily exercise and somewhat reduced caloric intake – and you’ve lost two pounds a week!
Experts recommend not losing more than two or three pounds a week to maintain a healthy body and keep the weight off for good. They also suggest that minimum caloric intake should not drop below 1,200 for women and 1,400 for men. If you disappear below this minimum, you begin to starve your body of essential nutrients.
With dieting, you aren’t reduced to a lifetime of “rabbit food”. Eat vegetable and other clear soups, because they fill you up, are very nutritious, and can help you lose weight even faster. But steer away from the creamy soups and soups loaded with fats.
When you are hungry, load up on bread – as long as the bread is a variety of high fiber, whole wheat type. This kind of bread can fill you up without the fat. When choosing a good bread, avoid soft, white, fat-laden bread. With proper choices, you, too, can lose weight without fad dieting or expensive prepackaged meals.
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