Best Diet Tips for Weight Management…

We do get lots of diet tips for weight management which are claimed to be the best. But is that so? Let us see.

Whenever we think of losing weight, we get lots of advice from many people like “skip a meal” or “Don’t eat breakfast” or “cut on Carbohydrates” etc. But are they truly the best diet tips for weight management? Do they really work? According to me as a nutritionist, I would consider a diet plan where the food restrictions are not too harsh and the plan needs to be gradually changed to suit one’s need. So it should be so well planned that you can sustain with this healthy lifestyle in the long run. Hence what could be the tips that we need to keep in mind before we sit and start planning our diet.

Diet Tips for Weight Management

The best diet tips are as follows.

1. Know Your Calorie Budget

Do you know how many calories you are eating every day? For this, we need to keep a record or if you say an accurate food record to check how many calories of food we eat every day. In order to maintain the normal weight, a person with the sedentary lifestyle is allowed to eat up to 2000 calories per day. On knowing the calorie intake per day, we can cut back the calories gradually. A deduction of 200 calories per day is recommended without causing any deprivation. Hence from 2000 calories we can come down to 1800 calories per day. Once we get there, we can get down to 1600 calories per day. With 1600 calories per day and exercise, we can achieve an ideal body weight.

2. Never Ever Skip a Meal

People have a notion that if we need to lose few pounds we should skip a meal because the lower the calories that get into our body the faster we can lose our weight. But that’s not true. Skipping a meal can result in hunger pangs by the next meal and you may gorge on the next meal more than what is required.  Skipping a meal causes our blood sugar levels to dip and leads our body into starvation mode as the supply of calories to the body is less. Our metabolism slows down and the food that we take in isn’t burned off efficiently. What should be our strategy? Eat smaller and healthier meals throughout the day. Have nutrient rich and high-quality foods like lean protein in combination with whole grain cereals and monounsaturated good fats. Buck up your workouts so that you can burn calories.

3. Never Skip a Breakfast

A breakfast is the important meal of the day. We can have up to 300 to 400 calories of breakfast. And about 10 gms of protein should be included in the breakfast. Prefer whole grains rather than processed foods, avoid added sugar or syrups.

4. Never Wait Till You Become Too Hungry

Hunger is such a drive that it makes you compromise on your health options. When you get too hungry, you will not be able to wait till you get a healthy meal leading to gorging on fried foods or sugary foods which can put off the weight management plan. Fueling properly with a healthy snack like low-fat yogurt or few pistachios or whole grain crackers apart from breakfast, lunch, and dinner can ward off the hunger pangs and can keep the calories at bay.

5. Incorporate More of Greens, Yellows and Reds in Your Diet

Make sure you incorporate any of these colors in each of the meal everyday. Healthy produce will fill the plate and improve the nutritional quality of our diet.

6. It’s Not Always About Calories

Eating 100 calories of candy floss have a different effect than eating 100 calories of mixed veggies. The trick is to avoid eating high sugary or fatty foods that can provide only calories and prefer foods that give bulk into your diet rather than calories (like fresh fruit salads or vegetable pies)

7. Prefer Healthy Swaps

Swapping not so healthy foods with healthy additions can fasten the procedure of weight management.

1. Eating a handful of nuts is preferable than fried bhajias or French fries.
2. Applying peanut butter or cottage cheese and fresh cucumber spread on the bread can be preferred than having a jam bread or plain sauce bread.
3. Add beans like black beans, lentils, cow pea to soups or salads or parathas tend to be nutrient dense and can improve the satiety.
4. Prefer vegetables which are raw or steamed, rather than fried or breaded.
5. Lean proteins like fish, tofu, eggs or lean meat or soya and legumes should be included in the diet to maximize the satiety.

8. Be a Heavy Drinker

Do drink water regularly at least 8 to 10 glasses per day. I know the statement is very easy to say and write but how many of us practice it literally. We don’t keep an account of how much water are we drinking. Always make a point of stashing a bottle of water in your bag when you go out. Rather than drinking plain, you can flavor the water by adding fresh slices of lime or cucumber or oranges or just adding herbs like basil, tulsi or mint. If you are not able to drink one more glass of water, have more of water-dense fruits and vegetables like cucumber or iceberg lettuce that contain 96% water or tomatoes, celery, cabbage, spinach and peppers that contain up to 92 % water.You can prefer a fruit salad of fresh watermelon, strawberries or grapefruit that contains up to 90 % water. Green teas or herbal teas can also add to the daily water content in our diet.

9. Do Not Stuff  Yourselves With Food

Do not fill the stomach to the brim. Have one bite less as this could save up to 75 calories a day.
With the diet tips given, we can be sure that we can achieve our goal and maintain a healthy lifestyle forever.