A BMI of less than 25 is considered healthy. A BMI of 25-29.9 is considered over-weight, and a BMI of 30+ is considered obese.Note down your daily food intake. Now that you know how much weight you need to lose or gain, you will know how much more or less you need to eat. Write down what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, as in-between snacks, beverages, absolutely everything that you consume in a day. This is your current food intake at a glance.
Tweak your diet to better suit your weight (gain or loss) goals . Using a generic calorie chart helps as a safe measure of how much over or under you are in your daily calorie intake. For best results, use a calorie chart that gives you counts for the food you cook and eat. Avoid estimations and generalisations like ‘curried chicken is the same as grilled chicken’ since the counts vary greatly as per ingredients and cooking methods. A thumb rule is to keep the three meals at even counts – 500 calories per meal, or to keep breakfast and lunch higher than dinner. You must count your snacks and beverages in this list as well.
Eat every 2 hours (if you eat light) and every 4 hours (if you eat heavy). This is a safe estimation of how often your body needs food through the day. Make it a point to sip on water every hour or so, and avoid any fried, salty, sugar-laden treats as these will elevate your daily calorie intake.
Eat at least three servings of fruit in a day. Fruits introduce important fibre and nutrients to your body and ensure that your digestive systems run well. A diet that lacks fruits will always fall short of the daily nutrients your body needs. Fruits like apples and pears are great appetite controllers, while bananas can be great energy providers at short notice. Invest in a steady supply of seasonal fruits and you’ll see that your unhealthy snacking habits are greatly reduced.
Include at least one portion of vegetables with each meal. Vegetables are essential for dietary fibre, vitamins, iron, calcium and potassium, amongst many other essential nutrients. Many people neglect vegetables, especially at breakfast, since they seem daunting to prepare as opposed to ready meats for breakfast and lunch in sandwiches etc. Avoid this problem by stocking up on easy-to-cook vegetables and watch those kilos melt away.
Protein will help you boost your metabolism . Although this is a sweeping statement, there lies an element of truth in it. Protein helps you build muscle. Muscle burns energy more efficiently than fat. This boosts your metabolism. Therefore, in the long run, and combined with adequate exercise, protein does indeed aid healthy weight management – well into your older years.
The important extras. No weight loss diet plan is complete with routine injections of fats and energy, or as we better know them – fluids and nuts. Eat a small handful of nuts and seeds every day when you haven’t eaten in a couple of hours. Aside from the regular glasses of water, guzzle some coconut water and some buttermilk or plan milk, and you’ll boost your chances of healthy weight loss even more.