The importance of proper nutrition for weight loss is difficult to overestimate.You need to accustom yourself to healthy and wholesome food without torturing yourself with endless diets and hunger strikes.It is enough to know the principles of nutrition and understand which foods you need to eat and which ones are better to forget about forever.We’ll talk about the basics of losing weight through proper nutrition and methods of preparing food in this article.
Diet rules for weight loss
The menu for weight loss should be varied - then the body will receive the necessary nutrients, vitamins and microelements in sufficient quantities.But it should also be tasty, because constant stress from hunger and boredom from monotonous, tasteless food are not good for either the psyche or the body.
Basic principles
Before you start creating a menu, you need to understand the principles of healthy eating.
- Eat small and often
It is best to divide the entire daily diet into 5 meals and eat at the same time.The last time you should eat is 2-3 hours before bedtime.Such a system does not allow the body to starve, which means you will not overeat.Fractional meals for weight loss are irreplaceable.
- Give up fast food
Ready-made food is extremely high in calories, contains a large number of preservatives, artificial colors and flavors that give it an appetizing smell and taste, as well as fatty or hot sauces.In fast food establishments, hundreds of servings are made with the same burnt oil containing carcinogens.If you still have doubts, think about this - one standard set of a hamburger, a glass of cola and a bag of french fries is 1200-1400 calories, that is, almost the daily requirement, but at the same time there are no vitamins, healthy fiber and almost no proteins in such a lunch.
But in excess there are saturated fats and simple carbohydrates. - Chew your food thoroughly
Experiments have proven that if you chew your food about 40 times, you can lose some weight without changing your eating habits.And when combined with a healthy diet, this simple technique gives truly amazing results.Thoroughly chewed food is easier to digest.In this case, we eat much more slowly and the brain receives a signal of satiety in time, which eliminates the risk of overeating.
- Drink water
Water is a catalyst for all life processes.Two liters of clean drinking water a day will help speed up metabolism, remove toxins in a timely manner and avoid fluid retention - that is, edema.The concept of “water” does not include tea, coffee, juices and other drinks: for example, black tea and coffee, on the contrary, dehydrate the body, and fruit juices and drinks contain sugar.This does not mean that you should not drink juice, but for the body, juice is more of a food than a liquid.
What can you eat while losing weight?
Protein products
Foods that contain a lot of protein require more energy to break down.Such foods quickly relieve hunger and help maintain muscle mass.
Whey protein, beef, fish, and chicken are high in protein.Consume 0.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight if you want to burn fat and build muscle.
Table with protein food options that are acceptable during weight loss:
| Lean meat | Beef and its offal, broth.Rabbit, low-fat pork ham without rind |
| Poultry meat | Turkey, chicken, offal, natural poultry ham |
| Fish | Low or medium fat content - red mullet, halibut, mackerel, pollock, cod, tuna, hake. |
| Seafood | Squid, crab, shrimp, mussels and more |
| Egg | Any |
Fermented milk products
This food contains calcium, protein, vitamins A, D and the entire line of group B. These elements will charge you with the necessary energy for the whole day and will help in building muscle mass.Sour milk also helps improve the functioning of the digestive tract.
Make it a rule to drink 100 ml of fresh biokefir at night, about an hour before bedtime.
Introduce into your menu such dairy products as kefir, cottage cheese, natural yogurt without additives and sugars, low-fat cheese,
curdled milk.
Vegetables and fruits
Do you know that water helps you lose a couple of extra pounds?When you consume foods high in water, glucose digestion slows down and keeps you feeling full for a long time.
When you are hungry, eat raw vegetables.These are the best low calorie foods.A cup of raw vegetables or green salad contains less sugars than 1 piece of fruit.This is not a complete list of such wonderful products.
Complex carbohydrates
The best porridges for weight loss are oatmeal, buckwheat and barley.Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which requires a lot of energy to break down.This burns a lot of calories and increases your metabolism.A bowl of oatmeal topped with fruit or almonds is a good way to start your day off right.
Polyunsaturated fats and acids
It has long been proven that polyunsaturated fats promote weight loss.Such substances normalize blood sugar levels, reduce cholesterol and speed up metabolism.To lose extra pounds, you need to introduce foods rich in these essential fats into your diet.
Nuts are rich in fatty acids.Therefore, before leaving the store, buy 100 or 200 grams.
The exotic fruit avocado is also rich in fatty acids.It can be eaten both in the morning and in the evening.This product contains an important element - the natural amino acid L-carnitine.It also speeds up metabolic processes, promotes fat burning and protects the cardiovascular system from malfunctions.
What should you not eat when losing weight?
Quite often you can hear from a woman that she has a very poor diet, but something is preventing her from successfully losing weight.Often, these women’s diets contain foods that are enemies of weight loss.
Sugar
Sugar is first on the list of enemies due to its rapid conversion into fats.By consuming sugar, you can say goodbye to your thin waist.Therefore, you should avoid drinks that have added sugar.
Sweet carbonated drinks and juice
You should not consume excess calories along with liquids.Considering that on average such drinks contain fifty calories per hundred milliliters, drinking one glass will add an average of one hundred and fifty kilocalories to your daily diet.You can eat a nice portion of salad instead.
High fat dairy products
There is no difference if you replace kefir with standard fat content, one percent or completely low-fat.
In the same way, you should replace full-fat milk with milk where the mass fraction of fat does not exceed one and a half percent.And the calorie content of cottage cheese, cheese and yogurt should be minimal.
Fatty meats
Meat must be present in the diet, as it is an essential source of protein.However, it is better to choose chicken breast rather than leg, and lean beef instead of the usual, but very fatty pork.It is necessary to eat only lean meats.
Sweets consumed with tea
Most women are accustomed to drinking tea along with sweets.On average, waffles, cookies, candies or snacks have from three hundred fifty to four hundred fifty calories, which significantly interferes with the successful process of losing weight.
Sauces
Even if you eat a small amount of food, but combine it with mayonnaise, ketchup and other high-calorie sauces, the fat and calorie content of such a dish will increase several times.
It is necessary to completely eliminate any sauces from your daily diet.
Fast food
One hamburger can contain up to six hundred and fifty calories, which is more than half the diet of a girl who has decided to lose weight.
Nuts
The benefits of nuts cannot be denied.However, they contain a lot of fat, and if consumed daily, the weight loss process may slow down or stop.
Dried fruits
One of the healthy but high-calorie foods is dried fruits, the consumption of which should be limited when following a diet.
Flour products
Pancakes, dumplings, cakes, bread and other flour products contain a huge amount of simple carbohydrates, which very quickly turn into fat cells.It is necessary to exclude all flour products from your diet.
Calculation of daily calorie content of consumed foods
The daily calorie intake is the optimal amount of calories consumed per day to maintain your figure and health.So, if the food consumed is too high in calories, then there is a greater risk of gaining extra pounds, but if there are not enough calories in the daily diet, then you can harm your body.
There are many different formulas for individual calculation of daily calorie intake.For example, according to one of these formulas, your weight in kilograms must be multiplied by 14 (for women) or 15 (for men), and then divided by 0.453.The result obtained will be the optimal amount of calories to maintain this weight.
Another formula for calculating the daily calorie intake takes into account a person’s weight, age, and height.To find out your daily calorie intake using this formula, you need to add your weight in kilograms, multiplied by a factor of 9.6 with your height in centimeters, multiplied by a factor of 1.8, add the number 655, and then subtract your age in years, multiplied by a factor of 4.7:
655 + 9.6*(weight in kg) + 1.8*(height in cm) - 4.7*(age in years).
The result obtained is the daily calorie requirement at rest.If you need to calculate the daily calorie intake required to maintain your existing weight at different loads, then you need to make a slight adjustment to the result.For example, you need to multiply the result by a factor of 1.38 if a person does fitness at least once a week or does morning exercises every day.
The result of calculating the daily calorie intake should be increased by a factor of 1.55 if the number of sports activities is from 3 to 5 times a week.If training is carried out more often, 5-6 times a week, then a coefficient of 1.73 should be applied.If you need to lose existing weight, then the results obtained in each case must be reduced by 20%.
Proper nutrition menu for weight loss
Make a grocery list.It must include:
- whole wheat bread;
- lean meats (beef, rabbit, chicken, turkey);
- seafood and lean fish;
- mushrooms;
- eggs;
- fermented milk products with low fat content;
- fruits and vegetables;
- durum cereals and pasta;
- nuts, seeds and dried fruits (in limited quantities).
Water in proper nutrition
Fluid leaves the body constantly.Every day we lose more than half a liter of water through our breath.Total fluid loss through sweating and natural excretion is about two and a half liters.
Therefore, nutritionists recommend consuming at least one and a half liters of fluid per day, regardless of diet (a certain amount is compensated from other sources - food, air, etc.).It is better to drink regular drinking water than tea, coffee, juice and any other drinks.
You need to drink water in accordance with these rules:
- Daily water consumption should be increased to a normal level gradually, half a glass per day.
- It is best to drink filtered water rather than boiled water.Mineral water and other carbonated drinks are not considered substitutes.It is also better to replace compotes and juices by eating fruit.
- Contrary to popular belief, strong tea and coffee contribute to dehydration.Proper nutrition implies complete abstinence from them.It is better to drink green tea without sugar or weak herbal infusions.
- It’s easy to identify the body’s need for water: you need to pay attention to the liquid that is excreted naturally.Proper nutrition ensures its transparency.Dark urine with a pungent odor will indicate that it is necessary to increase the amount of clean water in the diet.
- It is best to drink water at room temperature.Too cold or hot water leads to cramps in the stomach and slows down digestive processes.
Cooking methods
Cooking foods so that they retain their beneficial properties and also reveal interesting flavor notes is a whole science.
Cooking
The most classic option for preparing dietary dishes is cooking.In order for food to remain healthy using this cooking method, it is important not to overcook the dish.
It has been proven that cooking reduces the calorie content of foods.The exception is starchy vegetables, which are best baked in a dietary diet (potatoes, corn).
While cooking, make sure that the vegetables remain a little crispy.If they are overcooked, they will lose all their beneficial components.
Extinguishing
The main thing is not to use additional fats during stewing.If you can’t do without it, use low-fat sour cream.
The ideal stewing process occurs at low heat; it is also important that the heat is evenly distributed across the bottom of the saucepan (or other utensils).
Baking (roasting)
Again, the main rule is not to use additional fats, otherwise the food will become high in calories.
Let us note that food from the oven is never fresh.The main thing is to allow the products to brown.Remember, if you bake, for example, meat, do not forget to open the foil or sleeve 15 minutes before cooking.This will give the dish an appetizing crust.
Frying
In dietary nutrition, it is permissible to eat fried foods.The main thing is that it is prepared without oil.After all, what is dangerous for your figure is precisely the fact that oil increases the calorie content of certain foods.
The best option for fried food is grilling.This is especially true for cooking meat or fish.
Conclusions, recommendations from nutritionists
Proper nutrition is the main basis for your successful weight loss.Follow simple tips, give up foods that are harmful to weight loss, introduce more healthy foods into your diet, create your own weekly menu and stick to it - and the result will not be long in coming!