3 Simple Tips In Creating an effective Diet

The diet industry is a multibillion dollar affair. For most of us, dieting means eating less. It is ironic that eating less should often cause us to spend more money. This makes little sense except to those peddling expensive diets and weight loss supplements.

In the broadest sense, there is no secret to effective dieting. Eating less and moving more should result in weight loss. However, many people want to know secrets about accomplishing tasks that are not particularly easy. Weight loss is simple, but it is not easy. Self-deprivation is rarely easy.

With that in mind, here are three secrets of effective dieting. In a way, this information is not secret at all. Anyone who thinks realistically about diets should be able to arrive at these keys on their own. But with so many diets and "methods" of losing weight being promoted, it is easy for us to lose our way. Once we have lost our way, the revelation of time tested truths often resonate as secrets.

3 Simple Tips In Creating an effective Diet

Eat Healthy - No weight loss regimen should be predicated on eating unhealthy foods. If we keep our caloric intake low enough, we could probably eat a diet of cakes, candies, cookies, puddings and pies and lose weight. This would not be good for our health though.

The foods we eat should be based on building our bodies even while we are looking to shed fat. Our muscles and organs need to be supported by quality vitamins and nutrients. A low calorie, junk food diet will not do that.

Additionally, if we utilize lots of sweet, fatty and salty foods low in nutrients in our weight reducing regimens, the instant we stop restricting our caloric intake our weight will probably balloon back up to where it was previously, or beyond. It is imperative that we eat healthy foods when losing weight. Weight loss at the expense of wellbeing is a deal made with the devil. In the long run it will do us no good.

Follow a Sustainable Regimen. If we do enough reading in the diet, health and fitness fields we will marvel at the limitless eating routines and regimens touted as magic weight loss formulas. There are pills, potions, shakes, exotic foods, etc. all designed to help us shed pounds.

The big question is, "How sustainable are such regimens?". What good is it if we lose 20 lbs. on a diet of shakes only to go back to our old eating habits? Diets composed of special foods do not take into account that when we have arrived at our goal weight we will return to regular eating. Will we have magically learned to eat healthy and utilize portion control?

Doesn't it make more sense to devise a healthy diet from the beginning, based on nutritious, satisfying food? Shouldn't we learn during our weight loss phase to base our portions on our level of physical activity and how much we need to eat to lose or maintain weight?

Diets based on special foods are a form of fool's gold. We are creatures of habit. If we force ourselves to follow an unrealistic eating plan, eventually we will rebel and go back to our typical patterns of eating. If, on the other hand, we adopt a superior, sustainable way to eat we will be able to maintain our new way of eating once we are at our goal weight.

Principally, the difference between a weight loss and maintenance diet should be the quantity of food we eat, not the kind of food we eat.

Real/Affordable Food-There have been diets based on eating relatively luxurious things like steak, shrimp and lobster. Without getting into the pros and cons of those foods from a health and nutrition standpoint, one thing is obvious. Those foods are expensive.

All of us would do well to seek congruence and complementary functioning between the various facets of our lives. For example, if we are on a tight budget does eating expensive food to lose weight make sense?

Many people find that the more stressed they are the more they eat to soothe their emotions. If we want to lose weight does it make sense to choose foods that are so expensive that we are going to be stressed wondering if we can continue our eating regimen?

Diets that are more plant based tend to be more affordable and may well be healthier than diets that are based on animal products. That is not to say that meat, chicken, fish, eggs and milk do not have nutritional value. Animal products may make good adjuncts to mainly plant based diets, but they should probably be just that, adjuncts.

A diet comprised mainly of whole grains, beans, lentils, vegetables and fruits with a judicious use of animal products may help us lose weight, stay healthy and not break our piggy banks in the bargain. Eating less should not cost us more.

Diets that are healthy, sustainable and relatively inexpensive are those that are bound to do us the most good in the long run. Remember, there is no quick fix to a long term challenge.