How To Lose Weight By Eating | Diet and Exercise | Real Life Fitness | PhitZone

Eat your way to success

Guest post by Chris

The food we eat provides us with fuel to go on with our day and provides energy for our organs to function properly. So eating is as important as breathing the air for oxygen. People, who follow a starvation diet, could probably lose weight; however they are also placing their lives at risk for doing so. The only healthy way to lose weight is by eating a balanced diet coupled with regular exercise.

A balanced diet includes eating foods from all the food groups and types, and that includes protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, and calcium.

Protein helps in building and repairing the muscles, carbohydrates supply us with ready to use energy, fats keep our body insulated, vitamins and minerals help in fighting diseases and cleaning our body while calcium help keep our teeth and bones strong. Although these food groups provide great benefits for our bodies, they also contain different amount of calories. Calories are generally good because they supply us with energy, however if calories are left unused, they are stored in the body as fat deposits, thus the problem of weight gain occurs. So, if you want to lose weight, eat low calorie foods or just the right amount of calories that your body needs.

Low-, Reduced-, Non- Fat Labels

As you do your groceries, you could probably read labels that say “low-fat”, “reduced fat”, and “non-fat”, do take advantage of them because they will allow you to eat the same food that you usually eat but with way lesser calories. Some examples are:

High Calorie Low calorie

Regular salad dressings                                 Lemon juice, olive oil

Cookies                                                                 Peanut butter cookies

Party crackers                                                   Pop corn

Chocolate Muffins                                             Carrot muffins

Coffee cream or nondairy creamer             Low-fat or reduced-fat milk

Regular cottage cheese                                    Low-fat or reduced-fat cottage cheese

Eat with moderation

Losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean depriving yourself from eating delicious food or limiting yourself to eat greens all the time. You may still eat bacon for breakfast, chicken for lunch, beef steak for dinner and cakes and ice cream for snacks. These foods are known to be delicious but contain high amount of calories, however these foods are a good source of energy giving valuable nutrients so go ahead and have a serving but take care of the size of the portion. Eat 2 pieces of bacon instead of 5; mix your steak with boiled vegetables instead of fries and generally try to moderate the quantities you consume. Moderation is the key for a successful and long lasting weight loss.

Food Alternatives

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute recommend eating alternative or modified foods from all the food groups that contain lesser calories.

High Calorie Low calorie

Whole milk                                                     Fat-free or Skim Milk

Ice Cream                                                       Frozen Yogurt

Regular Chicken or turkey                       Skinless Chicken or turkey

Bacon or sausage                                         Canadian bacon or lean ham

Beef (chuck, rib, brisket)                          Beef (round, loin) (trimmed of external fat)

Cake (pound, chocolate, yellow)            Cake (angel food, white, gingerbread)

I personally love to eat-who doesn’t? But, I also want to lose weight and be healthy. The solution-eating foods from all these food groups but choosing the foods with lesser calories. You may use a free online calculator to know your daily calorie requirement and know how much calories each food contains. This is all about balance, a balanced diet plus regular exercise can help you reduce to the weight that you always wanted.

Chris writes about healthy weight loss topics on how to lose weight. His latest post talks about how to lose 10 pounds in a week.