To lose weight in a healthy way, changing habits is fundamental. While it is not an easy task, there are a few steps you can take to make the transition easier.
Remember that this is not a diet that will end and you will be able to eat as before. It is a change of habits.
The plan here is to change the way you eat so that when you reach your goal, you don’t even have to think to maintain it.
Ah, one more thing. Start now. Do not wait for the ideal moment or the motivation to arrive, because it will not happen. You can adjust the details along the way, but it is important to get started.
Contents
Have a food diary (logging)
Registering each of your data is one of the most important steps. You can use a notebook and pen, your cell phone or one of the several existing measure counter applications for this, for example MyFitnessPal .
There you can record your current weight, your goal, how much you consume per day, how much you spend per day, whether you would like to lose, gain or maintain weight and various other information that will help.
The application calculates how many calories you should consume per day to reach your goal, in addition to helping in the caloric calculation of each meal.
This record is extremely important because you need to know exactly what you are doing, how many calories you are eating and how many you are spending. It is also important as it is a step towards losing weight.
In the first week you don’t even have to make changes to your habits. The goal is to get used to recording, to always follow. Knowing about your habits and which ones will be changed is the most important.
Or what to write down?
Some things are important to write down: what did you eat, at what time, how much, why did you eat (hunger? Anxiety ? Boredom?) And how you felt after eating. If possible, the amount of calories is also important.
Having this information can help you identify patterns that can be changed over the course of days so that your diet becomes more balanced over time.
Plan
Decide how much you want to lose and how you want to lose. You don’t need to set a time limit, just take the step and decide what your goal is. It is with this in mind that you will work.
Apps will help you to define how much you are eating and then set a goal and reduce the amount of food or make healthier choices. It will serve as a record and you will know exactly how much you are reducing.
Follow your plan . Decide how much you will reduce per week (without exaggeration!) And do not break these numbers. If you follow your plan, it is only a matter of time before the scale shows smaller numbers.
Remember that each body is a body and the applications may not be 100% correct as yours, so to know about your caloric expenditure, a visit to the nutritionist is recommended.
Don’t go hungry
You don’t have to be in a hurry. Losing real and healthy can take a while, but it is long lasting. If you lose weight too fast, you risk suffering from the rebound effect , which causes your body, when feeling hungry, to store more of what you eat.
The rebound effect is a mechanism by the body to compensate for a radical change. If there is a very big change in diet and consequent weight reduction, the body compensates, slowing down the metabolism so that this change is less.
Your body doesn’t want food to be lacking. The result is weight recovery after the end of the diet. In addition, losing weight too quickly can lead to several health problems, such as cholelithiasis ( gallbladder stone ).
Gradually reduce the amount of food. Instead of removing 600 calories in one day, remove 100. Instead of eliminating a meal, reduce it.
Therefore, the ideal is a dietary reeducation accompanied by a professional nutritionist.
Starving is not going to help you create a habit. Losing weight in a healthy way is to make your body accept and work well with less food.
Do not give up
Eating less is easy. Refusing that extra piece of pizza or drinking a glass of water instead of soda is not the most difficult thing in the world. The hard part is doing it every time, every day. But it gets easier.
The most important thing to lose weight is not to give up . Even on days when it is difficult to choose more natural foods, even on days when you slip and don’t follow your plans, don’t give up. Just continue your dietary reeducation, as eating should not be a bad or painful process.
As long as you are registering and working hard, you have not given up on bringing more health into your life.
It is important to remember that healthy weight loss involves better food choices that result not only in aesthetics, but in an organism functioning properly.
Avoid weight loss diets
The truth is that most diets work to make you lose weight through sacrifice, suffering, starvation. The result is that the person loses weight fast, but we have already seen what happens.
When a diet is followed, especially the more restrictive ones, the body seeks to compensate when it regains access to food. It absorbs what it can, you are more eager to eat and lose less calories due to basal expenditure.
In addition, all the suffering caused by these diets, which suddenly cut half of your daily caloric intake, does not make it easy to stay on track.
Weight loss diets without professional accompaniment bring rapid, dangerous and often temporary weight loss. Their biggest flaw is that many do not strive to create a healthy and accessible habit for the person who tries to join.
Losing weight is difficult because changing habits is difficult, but once this challenge is overcome, your ideal weight and easy maintenance is within reach.
Make healthy choices
Replacing foods is much easier than removing them from the menu. Exchange something greasy for a vegetable during dinner. Exchange the bread and cheese for an apple for breakfast. Gradually reduce the calories ingested.
Instead of eating a packet of biscuits (or biscuits) in the afternoon, choose a fruit. Take a walk instead of watching a video on YouTube. It’s the little things that together make the difference.
To put together a menu, it is important to know what types of food you plan on having on it. Modifying your own current menu is the easiest, but that alone shouldn’t be your ultimate goal.
After analyzing your own eating patterns, you should start to change them little by little. Replacing a portion of French fries with spinach leaves at one of the meals of the day can help you get started, but gradually, you should aim for a healthier, lower-calorie menu.
For this, it is recommended to consult a nutritionist . Only the professional can say with certainty what your body’s real caloric need is and tell you which foods are right for you.
However, some tips you can take are the following:
Breakfast
For breakfast, look for whole grains. Oats, for example, contain nutrients and fiber. Fruits are also recommended because of their nutritional benefits and eggs have the necessary proteins for your body.
Lunch
For lunch, you can get lean meats, salads, whole grains and avoid fried foods. This will give you the energy you need for the day without overdoing it, preventing fat from accumulating. Follow your nutritionist’s instructions.
Dinner
Dinner should be a small meal. As the meal is followed by the night, a time when most people sleep, it is indicated that there is not a lot of caloric intake since this energy will not be spent in the following hours, being accumulated instead, in the form of fat. Prefer light foods.
Snacks
At mealtimes, also give preference to food in small portions. Fruits, seeds and nuts are good options to kill hunger at these times. Remember that spending too many hours without eating can also disrupt your diet.
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