It can Lose Weight Following a proper diet, eating healthy foods, exercising frequently and generally leading a healthy lifestyle.
Surely it takes a long time to lose those extra kilos even if you have not got it. You will have tried several diets and sport but you have not seen results.
Do not worry, there is a proper way to lose weight, just follow the right advice.
Nowadays we are constantly bombarded by all kinds of information about food, nutrition and diets.
Having too many stimuli and options on this topic, it is normal to have ideas a little confused about which path to choose.
As a nutritionist my mission is to give you all the resources and knowledge to make you aware of what a balanced diet is and so you can achieve your ideal weight, lose weight and get fit in a healthy, balanced and above all serene.
I am going to reveal to you a"secret": the word diet comes from the Greek word Diaita what does it mean Lifestyle .
The diet should be nothing more than a healthy and balanced way of feeding us, easy to incorporate into our daily life, allowing us to enjoy the food while taking care of ourselves.
The diet after all is a way of life that has the natural and immediate consequence of having a healthy weight.
It should not be something that is done on time, perhaps before the summer for the bikini operation, or something that does not make us enjoy the food, which is and always will be one of life's greatest pleasures.
So how to lose weight? You will be wondering.
For having a balanced diet, that is to say a way of feeding that has a correct proportion among all the nutrients necessary to obtain an optimum nutritional state.
What is optimal nutritional status?
It is that state that allows:
- Have a sufficient caloric intake to carry out all metabolic and physiological processes.
- Provide sufficient amount of nutrients for the correct functioning of the organism in all its functions.
- Maintain or achieve the ideal weight.
In this article I want to offer you very simple guidelines so that you get a balanced diet and lose weight naturally, and some small"tricks"that maybe can help you manage those situations that often distant you from it.
1- Incorporates complex carbohydrates ( Of slow absorption), daily
I am talking about whole grains (whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, brown rice) and also other less known ones that are an immense source of properties for our health and to maintain the levels of insulin in the body as constant as possible.
Which are? For example, black rice, quinoa , he Son , Buckwheat, amaranth among others.
If we get used to replacing white bread, bimbo bread, peaks, white rice with all these types of food, our body will begin to react differently.
The concentration of glucose In the blood will increase in a balanced and constant way, thus avoiding a peak insulin. This is responsible, among other things, for excess glucose to be stored in Adipose tissue , Becoming fat.
By introducing whole foods into our diet you will discover that your satiety will be longer and this will make you eat less and more evenly.
It starts with small steps, you do not have to change everything in a radical way. For example, you can substitute the peaks or bread and the white rice with the integrals.
You'll be amazed at the changes you'll make in a short time.
2- Avoid consumption of processed foods
Processed and / or precooked food usually has a very high caloric intake and a high glycemic index which is responsible for a sudden increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood.
Two to three hours after the insulin has been produced in large quantities (insulin peak), thus fulfilling its function of lowering glucose levels, we go to a state of Hypoglycemia , Ie the concentration of glucose in the blood falls below normal.
As our brain needs glucose to function properly (as a car needs gasoline to move), this drop in sugar suddenly makes us need to eat more.
If we eat more food of this type, to calm the hunger caused by the rapid descent of glucose, we re-segregate another large dose of insulin, and so we enter a vicious circle that will be repeated again and again every few hours.
For this reason cakes, industrial and processed sweets, bauble and pre-cooked food (lasagne, pizzas...) become addictive: because it triggers this vicious circle.
So stop buying bakery and if you feel like a dessert make a sponge cake with natural ingredients, using whole wheat flour and reducing sugar doses.
"What if I do not have time to cook?" You will be wondering.
My answer is: stop looking for excuses. I have also done so for a long season of my life and I can safely say that heating a frozen pizza takes the same time as preparing a quinoa and buckwheat salad with tuna, avocado and vegetables.
Get your hands on the works! Try new foods!
3- Increase the consumption of legumes
Legumes (Beans, chickpeas, lentils, azukis) are one Very rich source of iron , Slow absorption carbohydrates, vegetable proteins and mineral salts.
As well as whole grains help you keep your insulin production balanced and maintain a good level of satiety throughout the day.
Start eating vegetables a few times a week.
You can combine them with cereals offering to your body, in this way, the contribution of all the essential amino acids you need.
Learn new ways to cook them out of the traditional: you can prepare meatballs or hamburgers of chickpeas or lentils, for example, that are a good substitute for meat burgers that, as you know, are full of saturated fats.
You can also prepare fresh salads of chickpeas, simply boiling them and adding tomatoes, avocados or other vegetables.
You know that legumes are sometimes a bit heavy because they have the ability to produce gases (and then cause tummy ache). For this reason cook them with a piece of kombu seaweed, a special Japanese seaweed that has the capacity to absorb many of the substances responsible for the formation of gases. Remember to remove it by cooking.
4- Take only healthy fats
When we want to lose weight we mistakenly think that fatty foods are not good.
You're wrong. In a balanced diet we should have a daily intake of 30% of fats against 55% of carbohydrates and 15% of proteins.
Fats aside from providing you with a feeling of satiety and helping to regulate blood sugar, are also a structural part of our cells.
They also actively participate in the production of substances essential for our organism involved in the correct Functioning of the central nervous system , In the inflammatory processes and in the responses of the immune system.
There are several types of fats: saturated, unsaturated and hydrogenated.
You can find good (unsaturated) fats in vegetable oils (extra virgin olive, sesame, flax), nuts (walnuts, Almonds , Hazelnuts, cashews and pine nuts), and seeds (chia, hemp, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and flax).
It limits the saturated fats (of animal origin) and eliminates the hydrogenated ones that you find in potato chips, industrial pastries, sweets or crackers. These are the major responsible for the increase of bad cholesterol, many cardiocirculatory diseases and weight gain.
5- Manage the drink
Most of the time, apart from food, the uncontrolled factor of our diet is drink, because we undervalue the high caloric intake that comes from what we drink.
For example, The drinks Have a very high amount of sugar (almost 8 teaspoons per can) that causes a sudden, high and sudden production of insulin, with everything you already know it entails.
The same goes for industrial fruit juices.
Another"enemy"of a balanced diet is alcohol. How many beer do you usually drink when you go out to eat? And how many glasses of wine? If the answer is more than one then learn to look at quality rather than quantity.
For example, if you are a lover of came , Indulge yourself with a special one that you do not usually drink every day and enjoy it fully. Have a drink and accompany the rest of the meal with a few glasses of water: they help you not to exceed alcohol and soda and give you a quick feeling of satiety. The same goes with beer: choose a craft and enjoy it fully.
Defeat yourself
Adopt habits to help your body to purify itself and then to feel better, full of strength and energy.
When you get up fast, have a glass of water shaken with the juice of half a lemon. This fruit, besides increasing your defenses by the contribution of vitamin C , Has a cleansing effect on liver and intestine.
In the afternoon, take a cup of BAN-CHA TEA.
It is a quality of green tea very rich in minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium) and has a low concentration of teina. It also has a diuretic, antioxidant effect and usually lowers cholesterol levels.
You can infuse a few pieces of ginger Fresh, optimal anti-inflammatory and natural cleanser.
Drink 2 liters of water throughout the day (6 and 8 glasses of water daily).
Change soft drinks for water, lemon water, natural fruit juices, teas or infusions.
7- Measure the amount of what you eat
Quiet, you do not have to go through life with a scale to weigh the food. This would be neither realistic nor useful because you would obsess.
Here I propose a very fun and simple method that you can adapt to any food and situation to regulate with the amount of what you eat.
How does it? Simply using your hand that is the best balance they invented.
Do you know why? Because they are tailor-made so you can measure your portions.
In addition, the five fingers remind you to make five meals a day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner) and eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
To eat"according to the size of your hands"remember that:
- Vegetables : Both raw and cooked, should occupy the space that include the two hands together in the form of a bowl.
- The carbohydrates : (The pasta, the rice, the potato and the bread), the corresponding amount is the closed fist.
- Proteins : When we refer to a fillet of meat or fish, it will be necessary to choose the one that is the size of the palm of the hand, that goes from the wrist to where the fingers begin. The thickness of the piece should be more or less that of the little finger.
- Legumes : Its nutritional content stands out in proteins of high biological quality although they are also a good source of carbohydrates, so you can count it as a protein supply or as a contribution of carbohydrates (with its corresponding measure).
- Fruit : All that fits in an open hand in the form of a bowl
- Cheese : A piece of cheese should not be larger than the size they occupy, both widthwise and lengthwise, index fingers and heart together
- Fats and Sugars : The ratio of fats (butter and oil) and sugars should be limited to the size of the first phalange of the index finger, ie the segment where this finger is folded for the first time.
7- Do not skip meals
Many people think that less eats more will lose weight and this is not entirely true.
When we begin to eat very little and even more to skip meals our body, which is very wise, reacts in a very logical way.
What happens is something like when your mobile or computer have low battery and go into a state of energy saving.
By getting less nutrients and uncontrolled (without schedules), our body to maintain optimal nutritional status, begins to slow down metabolism.
That is, all those physiological processes involved in metabolism begin to be slower and our body starts to"burn"less because it does not know when it will be the next time more nutrients will arrive.
If on the contrary you eat in a balanced way and distributed in 5 meals throughout the day, the message that you send to your body is that the nutrients are going to enter constantly, when you need it and you will not face a moment of Nutritional shortage. The result will be that the metabolism will start to get faster.
Learn then to have a good breakfast, a mid-morning fruit snack, a lunch, a snack and a dinner.
If you want to make your metabolism increase even more and"burn"more fat then you start exercising every day.
Muscles (lean mass) burn more calories (need more energy) than fat mass. So by exercising you will increase your muscle mass and make your basal metabolism faster.
8- Manages the excesses
Sometimes, although knowing exactly what is best to lose weight, in the end we get carried away by the excesses of the weekend, by the temptations of a work meal, with the traps of a party full of delicious things and good wine .
So I want to leave you one little trick to manage these punctual excesses.
If on Saturday night you have eaten a lot and drunk more than the bill, then the next day eat white meat (chicken, turkey) or grilled fish accompanied by vegetables. Do not eat cheeses or fast-absorbing carbohydrates (rice, white bread, pasta).
During the next 2 days drink more water from the account (away from the meals) and infusions that help you purify your body (horsetail, banana tea, ginger).
If you eat more than the bill at noon compensates for the food at night.
If you eat very fatty foods and very caloric always accompany them with fiber (vegetables, whole foods) to slow their absorption and avoid the peak of insulin.
9- Learn to divide food during the day
Knowing how to distribute food throughout the day is a very useful"trick"to help your body function in the most effective way and then to make it easier to reach your ideal weight.
Organize your dishes so that they always have a contribution of carbohydrates, healthy fats and proteins, and all surrounded always with vegetables. However, during lunch, make your plate have a greater amount of carbohydrates than the dinner plate. On the other hand, make sure your dinner plate has more protein for lunch.
These proportions are not casual. During the day we are more active and spend a lot of energy, much more than when we sleep.
Carbohydrates directly contribute energy to our body in the form of glucose, and therefore their amount is greater during the day.
In addition, during the day the production of hormones involved with the metabolism varies. This means that some nutrients are metabolized better during the day and others during the night, as in the case of proteins.
10- Add fiber to all your meals
Remember to accompany both main meals with Fiber rich foods .
Fiber is poorly digestible by our digestive tract so it passes quickly through the intestine to be eliminated. During this process you also take part of what you have eaten (proteins, fats and carbohydrates).
The result of all this is that the mechanism of insulin is more controlled.
In addition, fiber, by filling your stomach a lot, will give you a fast and prolonged feeling of satiety that will help you eat in a more controlled way.
You can find fiber in the fruit, in the vegetable, in the integral cereals and in the legumes. An adult person needs about 30 grams of fiber daily, so always accompany your dishes with some vegetable and snack with some fruit.
And what other ways do you know about losing weight?
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