How to Diet Properly

Edited by Sexybabe123, ImaniiKolailat, Ace10, Teresa and 26 others

We all know the general rules about dieting. Count your calories, high nutrition, low fat, blah blah blah. Here are my own unique rules to get the most out of your diet.

Steps

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   Know something about calories. Not enough calories can be just as dangerous as too many. If you don’t get enough calories, your body thinks that there is a food shortage, and starts hoarding calories. This is called starvation mode. Your body will store every single calorie that enters it as fat because it doesn’t know when it will get more food. Obviously this is counterproductive to weight loss.
   • Some people think that if you cut enough calories for long enough, that you will lose weight even in starvation mode. This may be true, but it won’t be just fat you’re losing, but your body will start breaking down muscle and organ tissues to get the nutrients it needs. This can adversely affect your health.
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   Don’t drink your calories. If you are on a calorie prescription, drinking things like soda, fruit juice, and other sweetened beverages can add up in the calorie department, and cause you to either go over your prescription without realizing it, or leave less calories for more filling foods and you will be hungry all the time. The occasional sweet drink here and there probably won’t hurt if you plan for it, but don’t make it a habit.
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   Know what you need to eat. All the experts tell you how to eat healthy foods and about portion sizes, but what they don’t say is that if you eat less, more often, you will boost your metabolism and lose fat faster.
   • By providing your body with a steady flow of energy in small amounts, you are keeping your blood sugar at a steady level and your body thinks there is plenty of food, but gets just enough to use at a time and doesn’t get much chance to store any. If you eat less often, your blood sugar fluctuates. It will burn fat during the lows (right before meals) but will store more fat during the highs (right after meals).
   • When walking, which method do you think will get you there faster, walking at a moderate pace in one direction, or alternating between running 10 feet, then running back 5 feet? The recommended schedule is three 300-400 calorie meals and three to four 200 calorie snacks, and you should eat about every three hours or so.
4. 
   4Let yourself cheat, but don’t go overboard. People who occasionally cheat on their diets are more likely to stick to them. Some people have a cheat meal, where in one meal they eat whatever they want, as much as they want, once a week. Some people have a cheat day, where they don’t count calories for a whole day but still watch what they eat (keep it reasonable). Others simply give themselves a certain number of “cheat calories” a day that they can spend on junk food, such as soda or chocolate cake. As long as you keep cheating to a reasonable amount, it can actually help you stick to your diet and some people report losing weight faster with a little cheating.
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   If you are starving, eat. If it is still an hour and a half until your next meal and you feel like your stomach is going to implode, have a very small bridge snack. A slice of plain toast. A single rice cake. Four ounces of skim milk. The trick to bridge snacks is to keep them under 100 calories and don’t have more than one or two a day. These are for emergencies only. A good example: get these 100 calorie packs of cheddar cheese and keep a few in the fridge at work.
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   Don’t weigh yourself every day, or more than once a day. And when you do weigh yourself, use the same scale every time and pick a time to do it. Some people weigh themselves on a schedule, such as once a week, on the same day, at the same time. Some prefer to weigh themselves after an event, such as a workout or a bowel movement. Work something out and stick to it. A person’s weight can fluctuate by as much as 5lbs from one day to another, and stepping on a scale and being 2lbs heavier than yesterday, while perfectly normal, can be discouraging. You don’t need the discouragement.
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   Measure your waist. If you are working out regularly, you may be building muscle while burning fat. If this is the case, you may be getting thinner and leaner without losing weight or even gain weight. If you’ve been trying hard and the scale won’t budge, try measuring your waist at the smallest part every few days and see if you’re losing inches.
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   If you are an active person, carbs are important. Have you ever met someone on the Atkins diet? They’re tired and cranky. This is because carbohydrates are where your body gets most of its energy, and they help regulate your mood. If you work behind a desk and never exercise or if you are bedridden, cutting carbs is a great way to lose weight, but if you work out regularly, play sports, and/or have a physically demanding job, YOU NEED YOUR CARBOHYDRATES! Try to get in more complex carbs than simple ones by choosing wheat and whole grain over white and processed. Wheat bread. Brown rice. Multi-grain cheerios instead of honey-nut.
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   Don’t listen to naysayers. If something is working for you, keep doing it. Unless it’s a licensed medical professional, don’t listen to people when they tell you not to do something, or suggest you do something else instead. Everyone is different. If the diet plan you’re on is working for you (and isn’t going to harm you), don’t listen when people tell you it’s bad.
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    Be wary of fad diets, but don’t be afraid to try new things. If someone suggests something to try along with your current diet, and it sounds reasonable, try it. If they say not to eat anything white (ever) or to only eat vegetables for three days and eat like normal the rest of the week, that’s a fad diet and be wary. Also, if diets make you lose more than 2 lbs per week or encourage you to eat one thing all the time, they are most likely fad diets.