One key element to being successful with your diet is determining what diet option is best for you.
Everywhere you look, you see conflicting diet advice. Do you have to cut out carbs? No sugar? Go vegetarian? Eat only meat? What do you need to do to lose weight?
The answer is: it depends. In terms of weight loss, there is no one
best diet. The best diet is the one that works for you. It's important to
remember that you may have to try a variety of diets or eating methods before you find
the one that works for you. You may even discover that different diets work for you at
different times in your life. Remaining flexible and being willing to adapt your eating
habits will help you find the best plan for yourself.
You really can lose weight
by following any diet that restricts your caloric intake, but maintaining the weight
diet to maintain the weight loss can be hard.
Follow the diet links for
more information about various diets.
If you're feeling overwhelmed about finding the right diet, just start where you are. You don't have to follow any particular diet, you just have to eat fewer calories than you consume.
- Before you jump into dieting, get a handle on tracking your food. Start with an app or even just pen and paper, and write down everything you're consuming. This gives you a baseline for your intake.
- You can calculate your daily caloric needs and set a calorie goal for losing weight. To lose one pound per week, you have to reduce your intake by 500 calories per day. It's a lot easier to make sure you're doing this by tracking your food.
- All of this can be done without chaning what you are eating at all, you simply have to change the amount you are eating. If you have a diet that is typically heavy in calorie dense foods, you may find that you are hungry when reducing calories. If this is the case, you can focus on slowly making different choices to help keep you from being so hungry.
- Lean proteins such as boneless skinless chicken, lean beef, and seafood can help you feel fuller longer and help make it easier to eat fewer calories without being too hungry.
- Eating a variety of vegetables, especially leafy green vegetables, can also help you feel fuller without going over your calorie budget. Fruits and other starchy vegetables are also filling and not too high in calories.