Dieting Or Nutrition: choose weight loss with a healthy diet

When you want to lose weight, you may feel that you need to cut meals – you’re “dieting”. However, skipping meals can be disastrous. Especially when you’re dieting, you need to eat three meals and at least one snack to ensure that you get optimal nutrition.

Dieting and good nutrition go hand in hand. Studies show that if you pick a fast diet that doesn’t meet your nutritional needs, you will fall off the diet wagon and regain the weight you lost in less than a year.

So what does a healthy female adult need?

Dieting Or Nutrition: Calories

A middle-aged female couch potato (like me) can usually maintain her weight on about 1800 calories per day. If you are younger or more active, you will require more calories to maintain your weight. If you are trying to lose weight, you can safely cut calories to 1200 to 1500. If you want to cut calories more than that, check with your physician.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Grains

For proper nutrition, you need about six ounces of grains per days. Yes, the dreaded carbohydrates everyone is avoiding do need to be part of your daily diet. For healthiest results, choose whole grain foods. The best news is, you won’t even have to fight with your family—white breads and many pastas now come in whole grains, and if you don’t mention the change, chances are your loved ones will never notice the substitution.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Vegetables

You need to eat about two and a half cups of vegetables per day. The dark green, leafy vegetables like broccoli or kale have very few calories and many health benefits. If you’re not fond of vegetables, perhaps you could choke down some vegetable juice every day. Long known as the “bad boys” of vegetables because of their starchiness, even corn and potatoes can make a great occasional treat for the dieter.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Fruits

Most experts recommend about one and a half cups of fruit per day. Fresh fruits such as apples, berries, bananas and oranges tend to be best for dieters. Dried fruits like raisins taste great, but they can pack a lot of calories.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Dairy

Try to get at least three cups of dairy products per day. If you don’t like milk, try eating low fat cheese or plain yogurt.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Protein

You need at least seven ounces of protein like meats, fish, peanut butter, eggs, or nuts per day. If you eat out a lot, remember than portion sizes in restaurants are often greatly exaggerated. Two scrambled eggs or a cut of sirloin will probably put you pretty close to—if not over the top—of your protein needs for the day.

Dieting Or Nutrition: Discretionary Calories

The adult food pyramid usually leaves around 200-250 discretionary calories that you can use to enjoy a special treat. You can increase your weight loss by occasionally skipping these discretionary calories and just eating the recommended food. Do not deprive yourself constantly, however. If you routinely prevent yourself from eating that one cookie that you want, you may find yourself up at midnight inhaling the entire bag of cookies.

In order for dieting to work, you must continue to meet all your nutritional needs. Otherwise, you will not be able to sustain yourself on the diet and may even gain back any weight you lost.

Worst of all, if you consistently cheat your body of its nutritional needs, not only will you fall prey to every passing influenza virus and other bug, but you’ll also feel tired most of the time.

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