How to eat healthy
Eating right doesn’t have to be hard. It’s all about making smart choices. Find out what you need to do to eat healthy and feel great every day.
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Not exactly. Although losing weight can seem like a big problem, in reality it is quite simple: you lose weight when there is a caloric deficit. In other words, when you burn more energy than you consume.
And although a caloric deficit is the most important driver of weight loss, there are also other contributing factors that can accelerate or slow down the process:
A simple conclusion you can draw from all of this: to lose weight and burn fat you need to plan your diet depending on your daily activity level and stick to it. Even if you eat 5000 calories a day but still manage to burn it off, you will lose weight.
Absolutely not. Many people cut their calorie intake to the minimum or even begin fasting. However, any change in your schedule and daily routine is a stress for your body and it is really important that this transition goes as smoothly as possible.
Dieting works like this: when you cut your calorie intake drastically, your body turns on its stress mode and starts sending all the extra energy straight to your fat deposits. At the same time, it can adjust to changing conditions, which means that you’ll have to cut your calorie intake more and more to keep losing weight. In her book Food for love, Catrin Finkenauer calls this ‘a vicious circle’ and notes that it is not so easy to break in the future.
So, let’s say you’ve lost a couple of kilos and stopped dieting. But your body is still stressed and in saving mode and is not going to turn it off that easily. In this case you are likely to gain back even more than you lost: your body is trying to save as much as possible.
During the famous Minnesota Starvation Experiment, a group of young men volunteered to starve for six months to help figure out how to treat victims of mass starvation in Europe. Their caloric intake went only as low as 1200 calories but the results proved the same: when you do not consume enough calories your metabolic rate goes down by 10-15%. The participants also experienced other side-effects, like anxiety, lack of motivation, indifference, and mood swings.
Basically, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anywhere up to two pounds a week is considered a healthy rate of weight loss. As long as you stay within these limits you can be sure that it will not take a toll on your health and you will not gain the weight back.
You just lost the water your body was retaining. In the first couple of weeks you usually lose weight very fast. This happens because when we do not watch our diet we tend to eat a lot of salt and sugar which causes our body to retain water.
When we start eating healthy (or stop eating at all for that matter), the body releases the water and we lose weight which is actually water weight rather than fat weight. When you get into a routine and start eating healthy all the time, you stop losing water and your weight loss rate slows down. Which is why you should not get euphoric over losing weight during the first couple of weeks and remember that slow but steady wins the race. It is the quality not speed that matters. Anywhere up to one kilo a week is considered a healthy weight loss rate and this is what you should aim for.
If you cut your calorie intake too much, here’s what will happen:
You also need to consider that even if you do everything by the book you will still lose some muscle weight, which is why it is extremely important to control your diet, especially protein intake and train regularly to restore the muscle mass.
To sum up, you need to know that you are in this for the long haul and that there is no easy or fast way to do it. Stick to your normal calorie intake and do not get discouraged if you do not lose weight as fast as you thought you would. As long as you do everything by the book the results will follow — you just have to be consistent and passionate about it.
It is pretty easy to calculate but it depends on your age, height, and activity level. To plan your diet properly, first of all, you need to calculate your daily caloric needs. To do that you need to know what a Basic Metabolism Rate (BMR) is.
BMR is the amount of calories your body burns to sustain its functions while resting. So even if you spend your day at home not doing much you body still burns a considerable amount of energy. For every person the BMR is different and it depends on your age, height, and weight. When calculating your daily calorie intake (use this calculator first) you also need to factor in your activity level, the nature of your work and the way you spend your free time.
If you lead a sedentary lifestyle you need to multiply your BMR level by 1.2, if you are just doing light exercises 1-3 times a week, then multiply it by 1.375. You can find a good table to use for reference here.
The rule of thumb is: you can’t consume less calories than your BMR if you want to avoid health complications, stress, and a weight-loss plateau.
When you’ve calculated your BMR you can break it down into carbs, fats and protein which you can consume and then plan your diet accordingly. The best carbs, fats and protein ratio is 50%/30%/20% but you should use this just for reference: slight alterations are perfectly acceptable.
A high-protein diet has been strongly connected with weight-loss, but protein should not make up more than 40-50% of your daily macronutrient intake, otherwise you may face serious kidney and other health problems. Carbs are a source of energy so do not cut them to less than 30%, just make sure you are eating mostly slow carbs. As far as fat is concerned, there are different kinds. You should avoid trans-fats, typically a product of deep-frying, but the fats that come from vegetables, seeds, raw oils, and fish are perfectly fine.
Once you’ve figured out the ratio use apps like Lifesum (iOS/Android) or FatSecret (iOS/Android) which will help you not to overeat on certain macronutrients and control your diet. If you stay within limits, your body would not care about where your food is healthy or not, nor will it care about the time when you eat it.
Basically, even if you only eat cake and candy, as long as you don’t exceed the required amount of calories and nutrients, you will still lose fat. Medical News today has published an article about a nutrition professor from Kansas State University who managed to lose 27 pounds in two months eating only Twinkies and Oreos. And though we do not recommend trying it, it still proves the theory.
It can come as a surprise but, actually, not at all. There is no immediate correlation between doing sports and losing weight. Caloric deficit still remains the most important element in the weight-loss process. ‘You can’t out-exercise a bad diet’, says Rachel Talbott, a nutrition expert, in her interview to Huffington Post.
In other words, if you go to the gym a lot but still eat too much, you will not lose weight. Workouts can, however, help you burn more calories to create a deficit and lose weight faster.
Cardio exercises will burn more calories at first, which can contribute to the amount of weight you lose. You should not count on it too much, though and here is why:
Strength training, on the other hand, has significant benefits:
Overall, staying active is very important if you want to have a healthy body. You need to have a considerable muscle mass for it to function properly and to avoid joint problems, impaired movement, and a slow metabolism in the future. Exercise also help increase HRV, which will help you cope with stress and have more energy, which is important for losing weight.
We hate to break this to you but targeted weight-loss is impossible. The thing is, muscle growth and exercise can, overall, contribute to weight loss, but training a group of muscles will not lead to the reduction in fat in that specific area. Again, it only works if you create a caloric deficit, then you body will start to burn fat all over your body. You may, of course, notice that some areas slim down faster than others (for women it is typical to lose fat in the upper-body first), but it depends on your sex and individual characteristics, like hormones and genetics.
Exercise is, indeed, responsible for an increased blood-flow and lipolysis in the area near the contracted muscles, but in fact it does not contribute to the weight-loss process in the targeted area.
So if you think that overall you look well, it’s just the tummy you need to take care of, we have bad news for you: doing abs exercises will not help you get a six-pack faster. How visible the shape of your muscles is (which is exactly what a six-pack is — the shape ab muscles take when they are toned-up) depends on you overall fat percentage.
It all boils down to this: some parts of your body may become leaner a little faster than others but you will still lose weight more or less evenly all over your body. Just make sure you:
There is no supplement currently on the market that can burn fat specifically. Most of those you see marked as “A Unique Weight-Loss Pill/Tea/or any kind of supplement” are, basically, diuretics, i.e. they cause the body to release the water it’s been retaining. But not just the ‘excess water’ but all the water in your body, causing dehydration and other harmful effects. They also cannot promise a long-term effect: as soon as you stop taking the supplement your body will start retaining water again and you will gain the weight back.
There are, however, supplements, which, although do not directly contribute to weight loss, can increase the level of energy expenditure. As a result, your metabolism spikes, you spend more energy, and you lose fat. A study conducted in 2009 showed that the following food supplements can increase energy expenditure up to 8%:
Supplements like whey protein can be a good low-calorie food substitute. You can have it as a snack or even instead of a regular meal once in awhile if you are short of time. It will make you full for a couple of hours and also contains less calories and a lot of protein.
A study by the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed that protein can improve the overall body composition of both men and women.
Although some supplements, like L-carnitine are marketed as weight loss aids, research has shown that there is no direct connection between taking L-carnitine and burning fat, though taking it does have other advantages. So there is no supplement or sports nutrition product that will help you burn fat, but if you want to enhance your performance and overall wellbeing, you can work some of them into your diet. Of course, you need to talk to your doctor first, but basically these are all elements that can be found in regular food.
You need to have some more information before you start to be able to track your progress and see what you are doing wrong.
No, you do not have to set specific hours and eat only within the allowed time.
There are, however, some ground rules to be followed:
1. Breakfast
Try not to skip breakfast. Make sure you get some complex carbs for breakfast: that way you won’t feel hungry right after you’ve eaten and it will give you energy to start your day effectively.
2. Snack
When you feel hungry in between meals next you can have a snack (normally it should be within 3-4 hours after eating)
3. Lunch
Get some complex carbs and do not forget about vegetables, try to introduce as much of them as possible into your new diet
4. Dinner
try to avoid eating anything heavy for dinner as you should let your body rest at night rather than process the food. There is no specific time of night after which you can’t eat anymore. Just try to have dinner three to four hours before going to bed: that way you will not overload your digestive system and will not be hungry.
You need to learn to feel your body and teach it to eat only when you are really hungry. As long as you are sure that your hunger is not emotional or caused by boredom, you can basically eat whenever you want.
It is ok to feel a little hungry at first because your body is still adjusting to the new routine. However, there are a few things you can do to help you ease in.
Plan your diet
Alan Aragon, a nutrition expert and author of ‘Lean Muscle Diet’ says that you can eat as many times a day as you want as long as you stay within the allowed limit. If you know that taking large breaks between meals leads to you overeating, try to eat 5-6 times a day, i. e. every 2-3 hours.
That way as soon as you feel hunger you can eat something that will last another couple of hours. Conversely, if you feel comfortable just eating bigger portions twice a day you can still lose weight provided you stay within the limits.
You can arrange your meal in a number of ways:
Always carry healthy snacks with you just in case you have an emergency and break your schedule.
Here are some ideas for you:
Start eating more complex carbs.
These are carbs which your body takes longer to process and does not cause your insulin level to spike (as do fast carbs) and the feeling of hunger starts gradually and won’t catch you off-guard.
The most common slow carbs are:
Get enough protein
If you are suddenly craving sugar in the middle of the day, this might be because you are not eating enough protein. The recommended protein intake is 0.8-1 g per kilo. If you look at the ingredients list of the food you eat you’ll notice that most of it has more carbs than protein, sometimes ten times or so more. So try to look at the nutrients list of the food you eat and see what the carbs/protein ratio is. You want to choose food with the ratio close to 1:1 and try to avoid those with 5:1 or more. The latter are mostly chips, fries, and junk food. This may not be the most accurate strategy but at least you can be sure you are not eating too many carbs.
If you follow these recommendations you won’t feel hunger as much and your insulin level will stay stable through the day, which means you won’t binge-eat.
After making these changes, you will notice the difference in how you look and feel. But remember that you need to change your habits gradually — do not try to cut out anything unhealthy all at once.
Basically, the same rules apply here. The rule of thumb is to choose food that is processed as little as possible:
Even if you had no choice and ate too much or could not resist having a dessert, remember that there is still time to make it right. Try to plan the rest of your day so that you do not exceed your caloric limit and you will be fine. Alternatively, try to be more restrictive the next day, that way you’ll compensate for overeating the day before and restore the balance.
There are a number of tricks you can use to stop yourself from eating too much:
The most important thing to do is try to really feel your body when you are eating. If you pay enough attention you will learn to notice when it is sending you signals to stop eating and can use them in the future. It does require practice but once you’ve learned to understand what you body is telling you, it will rule out emotional hunger and you will stop overeating.
First of all, do not panic. We know it is a lot to take in, but remember that you do not have to start a completely new life all at once. We are all individuals with our own specific traits and physical characteristics and there is no universal solution for everyone. The more reasonable you are at the initial stage, the more durable the results will be in the long term.
Save this checklist to start your losing weight:
Remember: these rules are not set in stone and what you need to do is find a method and pace that is comfortable for you. Stick to what makes you feel and look good and do not rush the process.
Regular measurements in the morning will indicate how your body reacts to a lower caloric intake, workouts, and other changes in your routine.
Welltory Team, 23 Dec. 2021
Eating right doesn’t have to be hard. It’s all about making smart choices. Find out what you need to do to eat healthy and feel great every day.
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