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Weight Loss Diets
Whatever you might think about the weight loss process, if you think anything about it at all, it must become quite plain that one of the most effective ways of losing weight is by modifying your diet to avoid those foods that cause weight gain, while including those foods that promote the loss of weight.
The problem for most people is that they do not know exactly which food fall into either of these two categories, or they do not want to know.
This can be plainly seen by the soaring numbers of overweight and obese people in the country today.
On their behalf, countless books, magazine and Internet website articles have been written on the subject to try and raise awareness of what people should be choosing to eat over what hey should be avoiding. This article is no different I that it will try and assess what are the most effective kinds of diet for different people.
The reason for that is because not everyone has the same weight loss needs or is caught in the same set of circumstances that may be preventing them from eating a healthy, sensible and simple to do diet most if not all of the time.
What is Dieting?
First of all, it might seem to some to be overly pedantic, but you might be surprised at how many people actually don't really understand what dieting is all about and what it entails. Again, this is evident by the many cases of eating disorders we find in our society, where people get it into their heads that of they simply starve themselves for a while, they will lose weight and everything will be great. The reality is not quite so clear cut and dried.
Starving yourself is probably the fastest way to bring ill health upon yourself as you can bring about dangerous medical conditions associated with malnutrition, while compromising your immune system to allow all manner of disease to enter your normally well protected body.
Healthy dieting is a process of eating certain foods that while promoting good health through being rich in a good balance of essential nutrients, also promotes the full processing of that food. That's so that no excess fat gets stored by the body, while raising he metabolism to a great enough elevation so that some of the stored fat that is already present is also used up to provide the body with the energy it needs and does not get from a shortfall of calories in the food eaten.
It helps to understand how diet affects health as well as body size and shape and modify yoru food intake accordingly. This entails eating foods that are naturally low in calories in combinations that provide the body with a balanced set of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and fiber, along with essential fatty acids and macro nutrients that the body needs for normal, healthy functioning.
At the same time, sufficient water should be drunk throughout each day to ensure correct hydration. This is a step often missed by many people who either go without and go through the majority of their day in a state of partial dehydration, or compensate by drinking sugar-rich drinks such as soda or flavored fruit drinks, neither of which are remotely healthy or desirable.
The part of the process that is most important for ensuring success is in sticking to the eating strategy without cheating. The best way to accomplish that is to make dieting easy on yourself by choosing a simple system that includes a lot of tasty, enjoyable meals that are varied and interesting without containing any foods that are not healthy or free of added sugar/sweeteners.
For busy people that don't have the time for preparing and cooking traditional low calorie, healthy home cooked meals, there is the alternative meal replacement diet food delivery option available. This simplifies things even further by taking the hassle of preparing and cooking food out of your hands by having all your meals ready-made and delivered to your home and is suitable for busy moms as well as hard working dads!
What is Healthy Food?
In general, food that can be labelled as healthy are those that provide healthful nutrients for the body without the addition of unwanted excess sugars, saturated fats and artificial additives. This will include fresh lean meats, fish and poultry, fresh vegetables and fruit, legumes, berries, some beneficial seeds, grains and nuts.
There is strong evidence to suggest that different people will gain more or less benefit from certain groups of foods, but in general, those that are fresh and in their natural state and then prepared into balanced meals will provide all the nutrients and health giving properties necessary.
Foods that are not healthy or that are prone to cause weight gain in particular are those that contain high levels of sugars, saturated fats and artificial additives. A large group of foods that fall into this category are those that are produced commercially from refined white flour, such as white bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits and cookies, pies, pastries and certain dessert products.
All these are generally labelled as high Glycemic carbohydrates and they cause a fast rush of sugars to enter the bloodstream. This is rapidly followed by the body's reflexive response in the form of the release of high levels if insulin to combat the sudden rise in blood sugar. Insulin is responsible for carrying the excess sugars out of the blood stream and storing them as fat, for later use.
Unfortunately for most people, these stored fats are never used "later" and are simply added to each time the person indulges in a "naughty" treat from the above list of unhealthy foods. Other unhealthy foods are those that are fried in fats or (most) oils, those that are derived from excessively fatty meats and meat products and those that contain high levels of dairy produce, particularly full fat cream, butter or cheese.
Small amounts of the second group of foods is acceptable as long as the bulk of meals is made up of fresh produce, but portion sizes should be considered as often people with a weight problem have gotten into the habit of eating too large portions of foods for their bodies to realistically use without any excess. That excess also gets stored as fat.
How to Eat Right
Eating the right foods is often simply a case of applying common sense in portion sizes as well as the ingredients that are use in meals. Avoid all processed meals such as ready meals and frozen meals bought from the store as a convenience. The best food is home cooked meals made from fresh ingredients because you know exactly what has gone into them and you can choose to omit all artificial additives and keep sodium levels to a minimum.
Eating fresh fruit as a dessert in place of a cake of slice of pie is a much better choice and provides not only nutrients and fiber, but will generally provide far fewer calories for your body to have to burn while also providing slow release sugars, or low Glycemic carbohydrates which do not trigger the rapid insulin response which is so dangerous when allowed to happen too regularly or often.
The bottom line is to eat healthfully as you can and drink plenty of water every day. Avoid soda and other flavored drinks and you can then be assured of not contributing to the country's overweight statistics while being able to enjoy a much more energetic lifestyle thanks to not being slowed down by stodgy, sugar-laden, processed, junk or fast foods that are undoubtedly a pertinent factor in the underlying cause of the nation's obesity figures when all is taken into account.
