About how a healthy diet can help you lose weight
The healthiest way to lose weight is with a balanced approach. Avoid crash diets and bursts of exercise. The body likes progressive changes in terms of food and exercise. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food allowed can cause you to be deficient in the essential nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.
Your body uses food for energy and stores any excess energy as fat. This means if you eat more than your body needs then you’ll gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to get your body to use up these stores of fat. The most effective way to lose weight is to balance the amount of calories you eat with you level of activity.
If you would like to lose weight then you probably can’t continue with your current eating habits. To lose weight, you need to use up existing stores of fat by eating less and making healthier meal choices.
It might take some time before you notice any changes, but they will steadily appear if you stick to the game plan. After the first month or so you’ll probably be able to see the results. You can measure them in terms of looser fitting clothes. Keep up your motivation. Keeping up your motivation is one of the most challenging aspects of losing weight. There will be times when healthy eating goes out the window. Then there may be weeks where you don’t lose weight – or even put some back on. This is normal but stick to the plan for best results in the long term. With the help of a real dietitian you will be able to enjoy a healthy and balanced diet to lose weight. This will ensure that your body receives the right calories, essential nutrients and vitamins.
Try some high fibre foods
These foods are an excellent source of fibre and can help you feel full
- Pears with skin
- Artichoke
- Turnips greens
- Potato with skin
- Whole wheat spaghetti
- Bran flakes
- Barley
- Whole-grain bread
- Brown rice
- Split peas
- Black beans
A significant benefit of many high-fibre foods is that they are low in calories. Include a mix of soluble and insoluble fibre in your diet for more effective weight management. Soluble fibre – fibre that dissolves in water—can be found in vegetables such as peas, broccoli, and beans; fruit, such as apples and apricots; oatmeal and oat bran. Soluble fibres assist in healthy digestion and in promoting regular bowel movements.
Note that insoluble fibre— fibre that does not dissolve in water—can be found in vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, and beets; the skin of fruit such as apples; wheat cereals and wheat bran. Insoluble fibre assists in removing fats, cholesterol and sugar from the body.
When adding fibre to your diet, it is also important to increase your consumption of water. Fibre depends on water in order to move it through your digestive tract. Drink water each day will increase the effectiveness of fibre consumption for weight management.
Change your diet to lose weight
If you have questions about how a healthy diet can help you lose weight contact your local doctor, who will arrange for you to see a dietitian and nutritionist.
