Weight Loss Resolution Is Weight Loss Going to be One of Your
New Year's Resolutions?by Nutrition Consultant, Penny Hunking
If weight loss, or more precisely fat loss, is what you want, the perfect solution is to get active and follow a low fat eating plan. But that's where the problem starts. What do you actually need to do in order to achieve your aim? Instead of following the fad diets found in women's magazines, keep the following guidelines in mind.
A sound weight loss eating plan should:
- Be nutritionally sound, providing all the nutrients you need
- Never promise fast weight losses
- Offer an eating plan based on real food
- Allow you to eat out
- Avoid expensive meal plans, products and supplements
- Avoid calorie counting
- Not avoid carbohydrate foods, e.g., bread, rice, pasta, cereals and potatoes
- Make gradual dietary changes
- Provide knowledge
- Allow you to eat all foods
- Offer recommendations of portion sizes
- Recommend physical activity
- Take into account your personal eating habits. For better success, any changes you make should be small and gradual.
Fat calories are more fattening than carbohydrate calories. Your body can easily convert the fat you eat in food into body fat, so to lose weight you need to cut down on fats and foods that contain it. Consider the following steps to reduce fat in your diet and tick the box when you have achieved it:
- Use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk in drinks, cooking and on cereals
- Buy a non-stick frying pan
- Buy a cheese slicer
- Cut the visible fat from meat
- Eat very little pastry, e.g., in quiche, pies, pastries and desserts
- Learn how to read a food label
- Substitute low fat yoghurt or fromage frais for cream
- Remove the skin from chicken and turkey
- Eat fruit as snacks rather than eating chocolate and biscuits
- Eat fewer burgers and sausages
Fact A realistic weight loss is around ¼ to ½ kg per week. Fast weight losses are not fat loss but glycogen and water. If you lose weight quickly then you will probably return back to the weight at which you started as quickly as it was lost.
Fiction
- Weight loss is quick and simple.
- Exercise is not necessary.
- Certain exercise can spot reduce.
- Carbohydrates (for example, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta) are fattening.
This handout is provided by Network for Fitness Professionals
P0 Box 57, Neutral Bay, NSW 2089.
Web site: www.globalfit.net