Diet Plan

If diets have uniformly failed you, look for the common denominator. Perhaps, they have been too drastic and unreal, or you did not take them seriously.

With obesity having become such a worldwide epidemic, diet plans that promise weight loss have mushroomed and new ones keep surfacing from time to time. Although you are advised in most of these plans to maintain strict discipline with regards to the choice of foods, you need to completely ignore some others which proclaim magical cures for your problem of extra weight. If lack of discipline has made you fail in achieving the results from diet plans, you are in need of comprehensive diet plan.

Essential elements of any weight loss diet plan are:

Weight Loss Menu – Maintain a record of your daily calorie intake. If you have not done so already, make a list of foods which can help you achieve your aim of losing weight. Always conscious of your BMI scale to know the ideal weight. The basic aim of a weight loss plan is to consume lesser calories than burning. You can monitor this by keeping tabs on what you have eaten along with the exercises. If you have not tried to make sure that intake of calories and calories burned are favourable for weight loss or not, it is time you did that.

Regular evaluation – You need to make short goals and have weekly evaluation about whether you are achieving them or not. It is convenient to start with a week as a plan for monitoring. The great benefit of monitoring your diet and exercise plan is to motivate yourself by having a look at the progress of your weight loss initiative. If you lose weight in the first week, it would be a motivating factor that pulls you to continue with it. But do not set your goal too high. One pound a week is a reasonable aim for weight loss.

Are you denying yourself too much? – In order to sustain your weight loss program, it is important that your plan includes a few of your favourite food items too. You just need to ensure that the healthy ones along with your favourite foods are included in your plan, and learn portion management. All these issues of making the right diet plan can be easily resolved by going through the food guide pyramid.

Are you tempted too easily to overeat? – In order to avoid overeating, you need to recognise what tempts you to overeat. Some tips can help you in this. Stop yourself from visiting grocery store when you are hungry, do not have second servings in your meal, drink three to four litres of water daily in the form of fillers and more importantly, for keeping yourself hydrated. Make a variety of salads by dicing the fruits and vegetables into much smaller portions. These should prevent you from overeating habitually.

Know the right way to eat – Water should be drunk at least half an hour before your meal. When eating your food, chew it so much that it becomes pulp before swallowing. Drink water an hour after your meal so that your food can be properly digested. These tips give your body the best chance for digestion.

The right way to drink water – Do not gulp down the whole glass of water in one go. Take little sips instead. Moreover, consciously try to get as much of your saliva mixed into the water as you can. Your saliva is a very useful digestive agent. It has enzymes that help in digestion.

Whatever weight loss diet plan you chose from the plenty available these days and new ones that keep coming out every year, lack of sustained effort would not take you far. These tips can help you sustain your efforts for enduring weight loss.

1. Midnight snacking is a no-no. If you are truly hungry, eat a low-calorie food like apples, kiwi, singkamas (sweet turnips). But never anything sweet like cakes and pastries, chocolates, ice cream. These are best eaten during the day and only after meals. In short, do not make any dessert your main meal or snack.

2. Go vegetarian if you need to lose weight in 30 days. It works. And if you want to speed it up, go on a raw food diet. That’s right. Nothing cooked.

3. Exercise daily, at least 30-45 minutes of any cardiovascular exercise regimen.

4. Take chromium picolenate, a supplemental form of chromium, a mineral which helps increase lean tissue and reduce fat. But this is only effective if you exercise.

A daily dose of 50-200 micrograms should be enough. Natural sources are black pepper, cheese, whole-grain cereals and brewer’s yeast. So, this is good news for cheese lovers. With one precaution—try not to finish the whole cheese platter!

5. Take zinc, 15-30 mg daily. This is recommended for people on low-calorie diets. This also addresses hair loss, brittle nails and bleeding gums. Best taken with copper. Remember: 1 mg of copper for every 10 mg of zinc. Natural sources are seafood, nuts.

6. Magnesium supplements improve the efficiency of the heart. Take 400 mg daily, but best to consult your doctor first. Natural sources are seafood, green vegetables, low-fat dairy products.

7. The most common ailment of dieters is borderline anemia due to iron deficiency. Symptoms include heart palpitations, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath. To get iron from natural sources, go for tofu, soybeans, bitter gourd (ampalaya), moringa olifera (malunggay).

8. Load up on calcium, at least 1,500 mg daily (especially if you have menopaused). Natural sources are dairy, green leafy vegetables, nuts.

Betacarotene, the nutrient that gives carrots their orange color, is considered by many health experts a champion in fighting heart disease and boosting the immune system. So eat lots of carrots.

Another way is to remove the fats from your diet. Say no to fried food.

Take this liver tonic: sugar beets, carrots, singkamas

Juice and drink up.

Do not panic if your trip to the toilet leaves a radish color after you’re through. That’s not blood, it is the sugar beets.

Eat less, weigh less. It turns out it's not quite that simple.

Losing weight is simple in principle. The rule of thumb has been that if you cut out 2100 kilojoules a day - the equivalent of two large lattes or a blueberry muffin - you will lose about half a kilo a week until you reach that magic number on the scales.

When you start to lose weight, your body slows down your metabolism. In other words, you use less energy for the same activities.