Introduction
So you want to lose weight quickly but don't want to be hungry all the time, have low energy levels, and feel as if your health is deteriorating despite losing those unneeded pounds? I personally have lost about 50 pounds within a year with minimum hunger pains and feelings of exhaustion during the process. How did I do it? Read on.
Calorie Counting
If I had to choose one thing that I think leads to the fastest weight loss results, I'd choose good old fashioned calorie counting. No tricks and no gimmicks, just facts and results. If you eat bellow the amount of calories required for maintaining your current weight, you will see results. Now let's play with some numbers. One pound is approximately 3500 calories. So say you dip 500 calories a day bellow your maintenance.. 500 times 7 is is 3500, so you'd lost about a pound a week. Say you dip 750 calories a day bellow your maintenance... 750 times 7 equals 5250, so you'd lose an average of one and a half pounds a week. Dip 1000 pounds bellow, and you'd lose about two pounds a week. I think you get the picture (you never want to dip bellow 1000 under maintenance, by the way).
Alright, so now you might be wondering how you can figure out your maintenance weight? That's easy. I just use a free tool provided by "FreeDieting.com." Just put in your stats/info and it'll tell you give you an amount of calories for maintenance, fat loss, and extreme fat loss. Note that dropping to extreme fat loss is not a good idea, but I was fine with sticking to an amount in-between fat loss and extreme fat loss. If you decide that you have the will power and dedication to count calories on a daily basis, just buy a mini notebook you can keep in your pocket and log everything you eat. If you're eating whole or homemade foods (good for you) just search "nutritional information" on Google, pick the website that looks best to you, and look it up there. If it's a homemade meal that you know you wont be able to find the exact nutrition facts for, just find the closest thing to it and stick with that. You don't always have to be exact, I wasn't. As long as you try your best to estimate the amount of calories, you should continue to see results. You don't have be too obsessive, though it may lead to better results. What If you don't think you could handle calorie counting? And how can you make sure you're still getting enough of the nutrients your body needs? Just read on.
A Whole Foods Diet for Maximum Results
Whether or not you decide you're willing/able to count calories, if you adhere to the following advice you'll still see results. If you do count calories, follow the advice to maximize your results. Basically, you should try to follow a mostly whole food, plant based diet.
Plant based foods you should be eating are:
Fruits
Vegetables (click here for tips on getting more fruits and vegetables into your diet)
Nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc.)
Whole Grains (100% whole wheat bread, brown rice, oatmeal, etc.)
Legumes (mainly beans, but peanuts are actually legumes)
The following are also acceptable:
Lean, unprocessed meats (no chicken nuggets!)
Eggs
A moderate amount of skim milk (keep it bellow a glass a day)
If you eat a good balance of the kinds of foods listed above, you'll likely lose weight regardless of whether or not you try to consciously eat less. Why? Well, first, plant based foods are foods that your body understands. It'll be able to use more of the calories for energy and they'll provide more nutrients per calorie. Whole foods are also more filling because they have more fiber than most of the things you eat, and fiber fills you up so you'll naturally have less of a desire to overeat. An additional benefit of such a diet is that it should provide you with all the nutrients your body needs to continue to function healthfully and fight disease, despite eating less. Now I understand that switching over to all whole foods can be challenging, so I present to you the 80% rule. Make sure that 80% of your calories come from whole foods, and allow for 20% of them to come from more processed foods (but preferably not candy bars!). I only recommend using this rule when starting out, though, and not at all if you can help it.
These Foods Need to be Eliminated
These may be food you've been eating all your life (many were for me), but they should be eliminated. Some people may need to do so via a slow transition, and some may never completely eliminate them all. That's actually OK, just make sure that they don't consist of more than 20% of what you eat, and preferably no more than 10%.
Fried, Oily Food - I'm sure you already know this, but these are extremely fattening and also very addicting. Some people may lose weight just by cutting these types of foods out of their diet! And since pretty much all of it is fried, this includes almost all fast food.
Simple carbohydrates - Simple carbohydrates include table sugar, high fructose corn syrup (found in almost everything nowadays!) and even natural foods like honey. So just sugar, basically, right? Actually, no. White flour is also a simple carbohydrate and is used by your body in pretty much the same way as sugar. It took me a long time to accept this as true, but I've learned to live without my white flour. This means you need to cut out white bread, make the switch to whole wheat.
Most Beverages that Aren't Water - Bottled tea, fruit juices, and soda are all full of way too much sugar (simply carbohydrates). Just look at the label, you might be surprised how much sugar bottled tea or fruit juices actually have. But surely fruit juices are good for you anyway, since they're made out of fruit? Not exactly. They wont fill you up because they have no fiber, and the juice of a fruit is not the most nutritious part. Real fruit smoothies, on the other hand, are perfectly acceptable as they contain more than just the fruit's juice. If you want a sweet drink, make a smoothie!
Processed Foods - Basically, if something has more than a dozen ingredients and you can't recognize half of them, don't eat it. You want to focus on eating whole, unprocessed foods.
Fatty Meats - Non-lean meats will be filled with bad animal fats that are harmful to your health and may get in the way of you;re losing weight.
In conclusion...
Count calories if you want the fastest results and feel like it's something you could handle. Focus on eating whole, unprocessed foods and cutting down on animal fats, simply carbohydrates (sugar/white flour), and greasy foods. Is the idea of making such a change to your diet intimidating? Feel free to take one cheat day a week where you can look forward to eating some of your favorite junk food (not too much, though). Maybe two for the first month if need be. Going to a party or event where you know there will be all kinds of tempting unhealthy foods? Make that day your cheat day. I did this when I got started and it helped me make the transition. Eventually, though, I got to the point where I no longer needed it. I still eat a piece of homemade cake or pie every now and then, but it's not a daily occurrence and I can do so without overdoing it. Alright... confession time. If there's homemade goodies around the house I often end up eating them almost every day until they're gone. Homemade treats are the one thing I have a hard time resisting. I'm able to limit myself to a reasonable portion, however, and if such goodies are around for more than a week, I am able to restrain myself. I'd say it's been about six months since I lost my 50 pounds and I have yet to gain more than maybe 3 pounds of it back temporarily. It's normal for your weight to fluctuate after you're near your ideal. If you eat too much one week or around the holidays, you just cut back on the next.
Any comments/questions?
I'll try to reply to any comments I may receive. Want me to write a hub to expand on something specific I mentioned in this one? Just let me know. Want any further advice on something? Leave me a comment and I'd be happy to offer any I may have. I know it's hard to make such a drastic change to your eating habits and I've been through it myself.
0 comments:
Post a Comment