Dietary Strategies to Support Weight Loss
Starting a weight loss process requires good organization, so as not to give up at the first obstacle. It’s a long-term quest that can be accompanied by several nutritional strategies that will help you stick to your diet and lose weight as you wish. Here are some effective dietary strategies to support weight loss!
Dietary Strategies to Support Weight Loss
–Meal planning
The main advantage of planning your meals over a week is to avoid eating anything when you are hungry, because you have not planned your lunch or dinner. It’s also a good way to vary your menus and save money, since you will focus on the weight loss foods included in your recipes during your shopping.
The idea is to establish complete menus for the week, which will allow you to have a healthy and balanced diet. You will only have to draw from the recommended weight loss foods to create different menus every day while ensuring you have all the required intakes.
To do this, you can absolutely ask for help from a nutritionist who will help you establish the right menus for you, according to your body type, your lifestyle and your weight lost goals.
Please note that to save time, you can cook in large quantities and store the surplus, in order to have a healthy preparation available when you cannot cook.
-Portion control
To lose weight, you absolutely must reduce your daily calorie intake. This is the basis of any diet and to do so it is advisable to control your portions and therefore your calories. Here are 5 tips to do it:
- Use a calorie monitoring application to record the calorie intake for each meal and have daily visual monitoring
- Never refill
- Opt for small plates to fool your brain
- Eat slowly: it takes about 20 minutes for the feeling of satiety to reach the brain; in this period of time, wait until the information reaches your brain
- Buy single foods rather than family sizes to reduce temptations to have more.
–Mindfulness of food
Eating mindfully is a good dietary strategy for effective weight loss. This involves listening to your body’s signals, before, but especially during and after a meal, to understand when you are truly hungry or when it is just a desire to snack.
To apply this food mindfulness technique, it is advisable to eat slowly, savoring each mouthful and chewing gently. You need to reconnect with food and avoid distractions during a meal. Indeed, eating in front of the TV can lead to swallowing many more calories than necessary, because your mind is elsewhere.
Sometimes we turn to food to compensate for an emotional lack, to cope with a feeling of boredom or sadness, to seek comfort with foods which offer an instant feeling of well-being but which are unfortunately contraindicated in the framework of a regime. We must analyze these emotions and differentiate between hunger and the desire to eat associated with one of these feelings.
It is essential to know how to recognize the feeling of fullness, keeping in mind that you should not be too full. In many healthy diets, it is recommended to stop eating before reaching complete satiety, which will come within about twenty minutes. This allows you not to overeat and avoid stomach aches, bloating or gastric reflux.
–Healthy alternatives to snacking cravings
Rather than turning to foods to avoid to lose weight, when a desire to snack arises, or to deprive yourself completely, which is never good because frustration often leads to the failure of a diet, it It is preferable to choose from the following alternatives:
- A fruit with a low glycemic index, such as apple, pear, grapefruit or orange (with cinnamon, for an increased appetite suppressant effect)
- A handful of seeds or nuts
- Raw vegetables, to dip in hummus or homemade guacamole
- A serving of low-fat cheese
- A hard boiled egg
- A slice of chicken
- A glass of water with a slice of lemon
- Tea or infusion
If you are hungry between meals, eat without shame but turn to this type of healthy food.
–Combine diet to lose weight and physical activity
While it is obvious that eating better β healthier and more balanced β helps promote weight loss, it is an initiative that must be associated with a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity. .
Sport helps increase metabolism and therefore burn more calories. Thus, in addition to the reduction in daily caloric intake due to your diet, the calorie deficit will be accentuated for faster weight loss. Practicing physical activity is also beneficial for optimal functioning of the body, with improvement in blood circulation and heart rate. In addition, it is a way of clearing the mind and reducing stress (via the secretion of dopamine), while improving one’s mood: all elements that affect weight gain and which, when regulated, will help you lose weight. .
As our daily lives become more and more sedentary, we need to find good ways to integrate sport into an already busy week.
Here are 3 tips to do it:
- Find a physical activity that you enjoy and that does not require demotivating logistics: either sport at home if you have the necessary discipline, or registering for a club/gym near you.
- Choose walking whenever possible: stairs rather than elevator, walking rather than car or Uber, end of journey on foot by getting off one or two bus stops from home, etc.
- If you sit a lot, get up regularly to stretch, take a few steps, and get active
Sport, combined with weight loss foods included in a healthy diet, will be the tools for the success of your weight loss diet. Do not hesitate to consult a doctor, nutritionist or dietician to design the best weight loss program for you.
For more health content and tips, click here.
I hope you enjoyed these dietary strategies to support weight loss and found them useful. Comment down below what you think of these strategies. What would you add? Or share with us the best strategies to get back on the health wagon! Just remember, rock your curves and be proud, no matter what size you are, you are perfect just the way you are. You don’t have to be a certain size to be beautiful. All that matters is that you are healthy!
Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!