The topic of how to eat for fat loss can easily become complicated and overwhelming. However, like learning to drive, dance, walk, or play the guitar, success comes by mastering the basics then practicing them over and over and over again, until one day they become automatic. Here we look at seven basic fat loss tips that will help you become leaner, stronger and healthier.
- Eat 5-6 meals and snacks every day.
- Eat lean protein with every meal.
- Eat high quality, fiber filled carbohydrates with every meal.
- Eat some fat with each meal.
- Drink at least 64 oz. (2 litres) of water each day.
- Eliminate sugary drinks such as pop and fruit juice from your diet.
- Limit Starchy Refined Carbohydrates
Eat 5-6 Meals And Snacks Every Day
You’ve heard it before, I’m sure. That’s because it’s a basic skill required for lasting, ongoing weight loss success. Eating five to six times a day…
- Helps keep your blood sugar levels from dropping too low, triggering overpowering hunger. So you feel less hungry and satisfied-not deprived of food throughout the day.
- Provides you with regular doses of energy. You get through your day without experiencing periods of lethargy, grogginess or fatigue.
- Helps improve moods. Again, it comes down to controlling the hormones of your body. Eating regularly throughout the day helps maintain proper hormone levels, which results in better moods.
- Allows your body to digest and use food more efficiently. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Let’s say you need 2000 calories per day. What would be easier on your digestive system: a) Eat all your food in one sitting or b) Divide your food up into small meals? I hope you said “b”.
- Has been shown to lower cholesterol, promote weight loss as well as lower insulin and cortisol (stress hormone) levels compared to eating the exact same food and calories divided into three meals.
Eat (Mostly Lean) Protein With Every Meal
Your body requires protein on an ongoing basis to use in the creation and repair of cells and tissue. But unlike fat and carbs, your body can not store protein for future use. So it’s up to you to provide your body with the protein in needs in regular intervals throughout the day.
Eat High Quality, Fiber-Filled Carbohydrates With Every Meal.
As a bulking agent, fiber makes you feel fuller, longer. It improves digestion and helps maintain a healthy digestive system. Because fiber does not affect your blood-sugar levels, you can eat more food than if you choose highly refined low-fiber food.
Eat Some Fat With Each Meal
Fat slows down the digestion of carbohydrates, resulting in a more favorable insulin response. Lower insulin means your body returns to burning fat for fuel more quickly. Eating fat, especially omega 3 and 6 fats help curb hunger and maintain proper health. Most people, includng me, have a difficult time getting enough Omega-3 fats from the food they eat. That’s why I strongly recommend using a high-quality Omega-3 supplement.
If you believe fat is the enemy when it comes to gaining and losing weight, you really should read Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill (insert affiliate link) by Udo Erasmus.
Drink At Least 64 oz. (2 litres) Of Water Each Day
Water is a vital part of our health and well-being and offers these benefits:
- Helps digest your food.
- Acts as a solvent for minerals, vitamins, amino acids and glucose.
- Carries nutrients through your system.
- Lubricates the joints.
- Maintains body temperature.
- Serves as a shock absorber inside the spinal cord and eyes.
- Rids the body of waste products.
- Eliminates heat through the skin, lungs and urine.
- Keeps your skin supple.
- Assists with muscular contraction.
- Helps you feel fuller longer when consumed with a meal.
Eliminate Sugary Drinks Such As Pop And Fruit Juice From Your Diet
I don’t believe in saying “never”. I’ve found that if you tell someone “Never eat this food again”, it will have the opposite effect. You can be certain they’ll eat it. But to achieve maximum weight loss results and to maintain good health, you should make it a goal to avoid drinking any drinks containing sugar and that includes any type of fruit juice on a regular basis. Yes, you heard me right…
Juice is not…never has been…and never will be a health food. When you make juice, you take all the sugar from the fruit, leaving all of the good stuff in the garbage – namely the fiber.
There is just no good reason for drinking sugar. The calories you gain from them are completely empty. Now, I know that some of you will argue that juice is a source of vitamins. And to that I say, take a multivitamin pill and ditch the sugary drinks.
Limit Starchy Refined Carbohydrates
As public enemy #1, refined carbohydrates cause rapid spikes in blood sugar, resulting in loads of insulin being released, inhibiting the fat burning process and increasing the chances of becoming type II diabetic. To add insult to injury, refined carbs help hide the most insidious substances every devised for consumption…Trans-fats.
Take A Quality Multivitamin Every Day
It would be great if we could get all the vitamins and nutrients our body needs just by eating a good diet. Unfortunately, most of our soil and hence our crops have become stripped of their nutritive value. So it’s important that you take a high-quality multivitamin every day – to fill in any gaps created by a less than ideal diet or by healthy food that is low in minerals and nutrients.
Yeah, snacking frequently keeps your metabolism high and active. For snacks, I recommend some nuts and fruits, if you don’t want cooked foods.
[...] an article by Curtis Penner, he laid out the seven basics of an effective fat loss diet which are sound advices if you want to [...]
Just an additional info from me. Beware of the Crash Diets. Most people think that trimming down the calories can alone shed off their unwanted excess. Probably this is because of the fad there is in advertising about low-calorie food products and beverages.
What people don’t know is that this could be dangerous because when they decrease their calorie intake way to below the required levels, the body begins to digest the fats. Sounds good but it doesn’t actually. Burning fat requires a lot of energy. Since there is not much energy in the body to facilitate metabolism of fat, it will run at a very slow pace resulting to fatigue, illness and weak immune system.
Low-calorie diet is also compensated for by the body by burning muscle. People on this type of diet who revert back to their old eating habits end up gaining back some, if not all the weight they have shed off. This would consist mainly of fats. And since fats have more volume per mass than muscle, they end up having the same weight as before but more bulkier. In losing weight, one should keep in mind that they should lose excess body fats only.
However, one can try out eating small meals at more frequent intervals. This way the body will not think that it is being starved and will not store food as fat.