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If you are trying to lose weight, choose food based on
their weight-to-calorie ratio. You want to eat food that
weighs a lot but has few calories and avoid food that is light
in weight but hefty in calories.
Fruits and vegetables are the big winners in the heavy
weight-low calorie department, according to Tufts
University. They weigh a lot because of their fiber and water
content and yet do not have many calories. For example,
one cup of cantaloupe or 'melon' weighs 5.5 ounces but only
has 56 calories. A cup of cooked spinach weighs six ounces
but only has 42 calories. Now, compare that to six cups of buttered popcorn that
only weighs three ounces and contains 420 calories or, even
worse, one ounce of potato chips that has 152 calories (if
you ate four ounces, you would be inviting 608 calories to
feel at home in your fat cells). That's what I call "small but
terrible".
Most snack food doesn't weigh much but sure have a
lot of calories. This means you can eat a lot of them without
feeling full and without realizing it take in many excess
calories that you don't need. Most cookies weigh ½ ounce and contain 50 calories.
Eat six cookies and you only have three ounces of weight
but you've racked up 300 calories. 1.5 ounces of a chocolate
bar contain 220 calories. A small croissant only weighs two
ounces but has 230 calories.
According to the New Zealand University study, food
that is light in weight but high in calories is probably the
worse kind of food to eat if you are trying to lose weight. It's
sort of like 'double jeopardy' - you are still hungry but you
have already eaten many calories. Choose lower-fat choices of the same weight food.
There can be a world of difference between the caloric
consumption of two people eating the same weight and type
of food. How is this possible? Easy, if you consider the way
the food is cooked or prepared. Here are some examples (all of them weigh 3.5
ounces). Boiled potatoes have 62 calories compared to
french fried potatoes with 328 calories. Sardines in tomato
sauce contain 127 calories while sardines in oil have 372.
Tuna flakes in water have 95 calories while tuna flakes in oil
have 309. You get the picture. Avoid the "light weight-high calorie" way of dieting. I
know many people who don't want to eat regular sized
meals because they think that if their stomach feels heavy,
they are eating a lot of calories. Therefore, they think that
by eating something light like crackers, they will lose
weight. What they don't realize is that just because a food is
light doesn't automatically mean it contains few calories.
One could easily eat nine crackers (420 calories) and still
not feel full because nine crackers only weigh three ounces.
Believe it or not but you could have a satisfying meal of ½
cup steamed rice, a cup of cooked spinach, a small piece of
fish, and a cup of cantaloupe for less calories. This complete meal would weigh a satisfying 18.5
ounces and only "cost" you 378 calories. By making the
right food choices, you can cut down on unnecessary
calories without starving yourself and feeling deprived.
You should also cut down somewhat on your carbs, but
don’t cut them out completely! Because effective weight
loss depends on exercise and activity, without some carbs in
your diet, you won’t have the energy you’ll need to
effectively burn off calories. What you do need to do is begin with a “baseline diet”
that dictates at least half of your calories come from
vegetables, fruits, natural starches, and whole grains. The
rest of your diet should consist of low-fat proteins like fish,
chicken, and lean beef. You need to balance out your carbs with your protein
stay away from those carbs at night. Periodically, you want
to take “carb-up” days to get your energy levels up.
When we talk about protein, many people wonder just
how much is enough or how much is too much. In general,
experts say you should eat 1 gram of protein for every
pound of body weight per meal. That might seem like a ridiculously large amount of
protein, but remember, we’re talking about LEAN proteins.
Plus, eating protein speeds up your metabolism and
accelerates weight loss.
This might be a good time to talk about portion sizes. As a general rule of thumb, you should never eat a serving
that is larger than your clenched fist. The good news about
this is that you’ll be able to eat enough to get full without
overdoing it.
Cravings might be the worst part about weight loss.
Let’s say you love chocolate chip cookies like I do. If you’re
craving a chocolate chip cookie, denying that craving will
only make it stronger. Instead of not having the cookie, go ahead, just don’t
overdo it. Simply have one instead of three. You can
indulge in your favorite foods as long as you keep it within
reason.
Most experts agree that the traditional three square
meals a day shouldn’t be part of a healthy diet. In fact, you
should eat more meals every day. Doesn’t that sound like
great news?!
The idea here is that you overeat when you are overly
hungry. To combat that hunger, you should eat more meals
with smaller portions rather than fewer meals with larger
portions. For women, it is recommended you eat five meals a
day and for men, you should eat six. Try to make these
meals a minimum of 2 hours apart to insure you don’t get
too hungry. The benefits will reveal themselves. By doing this, you
are accomplishing the following benefits:
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