Many people who are trying to lose weight want to know what makes a good diet. With so many fad diets out there, it's easy to start a diet that is not healthy. Losing weight can seem almost impossible but we offer helpful tips for dieting. Unfortunately, too many people try bogus quick fix techniques that will never work such as herbs or diet pills. Below are 7 traits to a good diet that you should incorporate into your lifestyle.
1. Include good nutrition such as fruits and vegetables - Whether you create your own diet or use a diet designed by someone else, your plan should include a minimum of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. You can combine both fruits and vegetables. For instance, 3 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruits for a total of 5 servings. Of course you can increase servings of fruits and vegetables to 5 each. As a rule, vegetables are naturally low in calories but fruits have many more calories so sometimes it's a delicate balance to include the proper amount of fruits.
2. Start the day with a healthy breakfast - A healthy breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. Breakfast is important because it helps boost your metabolism. Most people make the mistake of skipping breakfast which only slows down your metabolism. Your body needs healthy foods in the morning to provide nutrition for the rest of the day. Eating breakfast will help you burn fat, lose weight and make you more alert in the morning.
3. Eat fewer calorie and complex carbs - Good diets that work are almost always lower in calories because to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. The common misconception is that carbs are bad and should be avoided. The truth is only simple carbs (found in junk food) are bad but complex carbs found in whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables give you long-term energy and stable blood sugar. This is vital to burning fat and controlling appetite.
4. Eat more fiber consisting of beans, grains, veggies, fruits - This goes back to why complex carbs are good and should not be avoided. Foods that are high in fiber are usually complex carbs. Eating plenty of fiber will lower cholesterol, blood pressure and provide good elimination to help prevent colon and bowel related diseases.
5. Your diet should be easy to follow - Any good diet should be easy to follow. This is accomplished by using common every day foods with easy preparation. If you find a diet too cumbersome, you simply won't follow it. Making a daily schedule of what you will eat makes dieting easier. Make sure your plan is easy to follow and not overly restrictive. Eat 3 to 5 meals per day and try to cut food portions by a third.
6. Restrict total calorie intake when dieting - It's important not only to eat healthy foods but also to not exceed your total calorie limit for the day. By burning more calories than you eat each day, you will lose weight. Most average size women when dieting should restrict their calorie input to 1200 to 1400 calories. An average size man should restrict their calorie consumption to 1500 - 2000 calories when dieting.
7. Have one day out of the week to eat what you want - Have one fun day of eating every 7 to 10 days where dieting is not the priority but be reasonable. In other words, eat liberally but don't binge on your free day.
Most people can design their own diet plan based on their schedule and the foods they like. All you need is a calorie counter book to help with the calorie value of each food item. If you need help putting a good diet plan together, we can help at dietforum.com/plan.htm dietforum.com/plan.htm
Dan Burley is editor and author of the Diet Forum and has written hundreds of weight loss and nutritional articles on the Internet and has been helping people lose weight via the Internet for 10 years. Dan is a fitness guru and nutritionist who has spent a lifetime staying in shape and fighting overweight issues. Checkout sample 1500 calorie diet plans at dietforum.com/diet-1500-calories-day.htm dietforum.com/diet-1500-calories-day.htm
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