Eating to Lose Weight

A healthy lifestyle includes exercising regularly, eating healthy and maintaining a healthy weight. Eating healthy can be a hard task with so many choices today, so here are some do's and dont's to eating to lose weight.

Do

Eat fresh foods, like vegetables and fruit, they are nutrient rich and healthy low fat foods. You will feel full longer than if you eat processed foods, and so much healthier for you. Vegetables and fruit are high in fiber, fiber promotes weight loss. Eating fiber makes you feel full longer, and cuts your craving between meal times, also fiber helps you to stay regular and lose weight. If increasing your fiber intake make sure you drink plenty of water, 6-8 glasses a day.

Eat smaller meals and eat more often, have your main three meals, but have healthy snacks in between. This helps to keep your metabolism higher and you burn more calories. A healthy snack could be almonds and walnuts, or raspberries, blueberries and blackberries wich are high in fiber.

Make sure you eat breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that if you eat breakfast, you tend to eat proportionally fewer calories the rest of the day. Try having eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, you will feel full longer, and is a healthy choice in eating to lose weight.

Drink enough water, lots of time we mistake thirst for hunger. Keeping yourself hydrated will make you feel less hungry, and give you a clearer complextion and shinier hair.


Dont

Don't drink concentrated orange juice, or other concentrated fruit juices. During the concentration process the juices are stripped of their natural fiber, and all you are left with is the sugar, wich can spike blood sugar levels and put your body into fat storing mode. Concentrated juices usually contain more sugar than soda.

Margarine is another unhealthy choice, it is high in trans fats, which cause you to gain weight, wipes out good cholesterol, and increases bad cholesterol by building up plaque in your arteries. Try butter instead, it has fat to but its saturated fat. Just use sparingly, one tablespoon of butter has 11 grams of fat.

Also try to cut soda out of your diet, soda is high in sugar and what you call empty carbs, no nutritional value. Water is the best, if you want some flavour add some fresh lemons or limes, also adding cucumber to your water bottle gives a nice flavour.

One that was a suprise to me and probably most people is wheat. Try cutting wheat from your diet, wheat has been genetically modified to the point it has lost a lot of its nutritional value. And studies have shown that wheat can cause blood sugar levels to spike more rapidly than eating pure sugar. In the book  Wheat Belly it claims eating two slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than two tablespoons of pure sugar can,  and that cutting wheat out of you diet can speed up your weight loss.     
                                             




Remember when eating to lose weight, make small changes gradually, trying to change overnight will not work, only burn yourself out. Make losing weight your long term goal, 1-3 pounds a week is a good weight loss, and you will likely be able to keep the weight off. Start small, try cutting out 25 grams of fat a day, that translates to 25 pounds of body fat loss in a year, and who wouldn't be happy with that!

What are Health Foods

  What are health foods?  Health foods are foods that are considered beneficial to your health. The term health foods usually refers to natural foods, organic foods, whole foods and sometimes dietary supplements.

These health foods will not only help you lose weight, but they are full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Also high in antioxidant compounds, low in calorie density, and readily available to buy at your local grocery store.

Almonds
Packed with nutrients (fiber, riboflavin, magnesium, iron and calcium). Most of the fat in almonds is monounsaturated fat, which may help to lower blood cholestrol levels. Also a excellent snack food because it helps to curb your hunger.

Blueberries
Loaded with phytonutrients, a compound that may help to prevent chronic diseases. Blueberries also help to improve short term memory and promote healthy aging.

Broccoli
Also broccoli contains phytonutrients, and is high in vitamin C and A. Vitamin A is linked to preserving eye health.

Spinach
High in vitamin A and C, spinach can boost your immune system and help keep your hair and skin looking healthy.

Sweet Potatoes
Full of vitamin A and C, but also a good source of fiber, vitamin B-6 and potassium. Sweet potatoes are also fat free and low in calories.

Vegetable Juice
High in vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Vege juice that contains tomatoes may help to reduce the risk of heart attack, prostate cancer and possibly other cancers. Just make sure you get the juices low in sodium.

Wheat Germ
A small part of the wheat seed, the wheat germ contains many nutrients. And excellent source of thiamin, and a good source of folate, magnesium, phophorus and zinc.

So what are you waiting for, add as many health foods to your diet as you can, you will not only feel great, but it will help you to maintain a healthy body and lose weight.

Food for burning fat

  Everybody needs a little help losing weight, so here is a list of food for burning fat, that not only will make you feel great when you include them in your diet, but will also help to burn more calories.

Whole Grains
The body will burn twice as much calories breaking down whole foods than processed foods. Especially oats and brown rice, which are high in fiber and make you feel full longer. Excellent food for burning fat!

Lean Meats
Protein has a high thermogenic effect, you burn about 30% of the calories the food contains during digestion. So a 300 calorie piece of chicken breast will require about 90 calories to break down.

Low Fat Dairy Products
High in calcium and vitamin D, low fat diary products are a must for a robust metabolism, and in helping to preserve and build muscle mass.

Green Tea
It has a compound called EGCG, which temporarily speeds up metabolism, to make it a daily habit try keeping a jug of iced tea in the fridge.

Lentils
One cup of lentils packs 35% of your daily iron, and since up to 20% of people are iron deficient, this is a must for your diet. When you lack a nutrient, your metabolism slows down because the body is not getting what it needs to work properly and efficiently.

Hot Peppers
Peppers have a compound called capsaicin, that gives chilli peppers their kick. Capsaicin heats up your body, and in turn, helps to melt additional calories.


Cinnamon
Studies have shown that eating 1/4 to 2 teaspoons a day of cinnamon helps your body metabolize sugar, reduces blood sugar levels and cuts cholestrol from 10 to 25 percent.

Eggs
Which at one time were deemed to high in cholesterol, are starting to be seen as a healthy breakfast choice. Eggs are packed with protien, but not the added fat that comes with meat. So having eggs for breakfast instead of traditional breakfasts like toast or cereal, studies have shown you can lose twice as much weight as people eating breakfasts full of carbs.

Salmon & Tuna
Full of omega-3 fatty acids, salmon and tuna have a hormone called leptin, associated with higher caloric burn.

Berries
Are a great source of fiber and a excellent roughage source.

Almonds
Full of healthy fats your body needs to function properly, they are great for a snack food, because they can curb your hunger.

These are great food for burning fat, include them in your everyday diet and you will feel great and look great!