Healthy Weight Loss by Dieting

When people want to lose weight, the most common mistake they make is they go on a starvation diet. You'll lose weight, alright, but that's not healthy weight loss. It's called an eating disorder, and you don't want that.

Here are the differences between a healthy weight loss diet and one that isn't:

1. A healthy diet will have you eating 6 small meals a day. An unhealthy one will not have you eating.
2. A healthy diet will include sources of fiber, carbohydrates, proteins and fats. An unhealthy one will include water.
3. On a healthy diet, you'll lose around 1-2 lbs. of fat per week. On an unhealthy one, you'll lose a lot more, most of it muscle.
   

Actually, those are the most basic differences only. There's a lot of specifics involved, but a rudimentary understanding of these facts will be enough for most people. Always know your fundamentals. Now that we've discussed that, let's talk about how your diet will affect your healthy weight loss goals.

A few facts:

Think of the body as a machine. This machine has a lot of functions, from breathing to running errands to exercising to sleeping. As all machines, the body needs fuel. The fuel your body uses for its activities are units of energy called CALORIES. The rate at which your body uses this fuel is called your metabolic rate.

I guess the question you're asking now is "How many calories should I be burning to drop this weight?"

Healthy weight loss is all about losing FAT. Now a pound of fat is around 3500 calories. To lose a pound of fat a week, you will have to have a calorie deficiency of 3500 calories a week, or 500 calories a day (while doing resistance training to preserve muscle).

That's easy, right? Starve yourself for a week, and create a calorie deficit of 14000 calories. That's an easy loss of 4 pounds! A month of this and you've got a total loss of 16 pounds! Easy as pie!

Well, that's true. A caloric deficit, no matter how unhealthy, will always result in weight loss. That's basic science. Of course, the majority of the weight lost will be muscle. See, the body is made to adapt to certain situations. If you go on a starvation diet, your body will set itself into starvation mode. It will try to hold onto as much fat as possible, to store for future use. I'm sure we've all seen people who are skinny, yet lack muscle tone and actually have bellies. Is that the kind of look you're looking for? Not only is it unattractive, it is also dangerously unhealthy.

So now that we've covered the basics, let's get to setting up a proper healthy weight loss diet:

1. Consult your doctor first - Always the first step when dealing with any sort of weight loss or exercise program. Once you get your doctor's approval..
2. List down your normal diet for a week - This will give you something solid to improve on and work with. Also, try to determine your calorie intake using that list. You can get a rough estimate of calories in your food by using Google.
3. Take your weight and list it down - This is self-explanatory.
4. Reduce your daily calorie intake (based on the list you made) by 500 calories - 500 calories is not a very big number. If you take out the sodas and the ice cream, I'm sure you can achieve this easily.
5. Eat 5-6 small meals a day, spaced 2-3 hours apart - This will have your body believing that there is plenty of food to be had, and keep it burning calories. In short, this will RAISE your metabolic rate, letting you burn more calories.
6. Make sure your diet includes sources of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats - The amounts will vary, but protein and HEALTHY fats (i.e. fish oils) should make up the most of your diet. Your carbohydrates will preferably be vegetables and fruits.

Remember, weight loss happens in the kitchen, not in the gym. No amount of cardio will help you lose weight if you continue to eat more calories than you burn. It's basic math. Good luck, and I hope this helps with your diet for healthy weight loss.