Eating a balanced, nutritious diet and embarking on a healthy exercise regime is a healthy approach to weight loss.
In order to maintain a stable weight, your energy intake needs to be balanced with your energy output. In other words, if your energy output is higher than your energy input, you will generally lose weight. On the other hand, if your energy input is more than your energy output, you will put weight on.
The sensible approach to losing weight is to eat a healthy and balanced diet filled with a variety of whole foods. These changes should be a part of your overall lifestyle so that will help you to lose weight and to keep it off.
These simple pointers can help start you off.
Avoid skipping meals
Eating 3 meals per day plus 2 snacks in between will make sure your body has a steady flow of nutrients and energy to work effectively throughout the day.
Skipping meals is not recommended. If you skip meals, you may find that you are hungry at odd times of the day. You will also find yourself heading for the high sugary foods for a quick burst of energy. This sugar rush is a very quick fix and you find yourself plummeting very quickly!
Do not overeat
Studies show that your stomach will stretch in order to accommodate the food that it has to ingest. You will then find yourself eating more than what you need before you start feeling a sense of satiety. It is important to listen to your body and only eat what is necessary.
If overeating is a problem for you, think about when and why you overeat.
Are you:
- A night eater
- A social eater
- An emotional eater
If you can stick to planned eating rather than emotional or night eating, this will help you to lose weight. We all social eat and this is part of the fun of food. However, don’t overdo it. Stick to what is needed.
If you find you are an emotional eater, you should try to find healthy ways to cope with stress or emotional upsets.
A healthier approach to food
- Avoid yoyo diets.
- Eat a wide variety of food from all food groups. These include wholegrain bread and cereals, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and meat, fish and legumes.
- Increase your fruit and vegetable intake. 2 fruits a day is recommended. 5 servings of vegetables are recommended.
- Reduce your intake of foods that are high in added fat, sugar and salt as well as processed foods.
- Exercise.
- Cut down on saturated fats and alcohol.
- Replace sugary and soft drinks with water.
