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What is Diet?? The dictionary defines diet as “a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons”.
Diet restrictions for medical reason is a whole different topic to discuss. I have shared many restricted diets like veganism, sattvic diet, rawism etc.
In this page, I would like to concentrate on Diet for Losing Weight. It simply means changing an individual’s food intake over a period of time like 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. It is commonly referred to as going on a diet. Losing weight is very important for overweight and obese people in order to reduce the risk of heart problems. Moreover, maintaining a good BMI makes you feel good about yourself and more energetic.
Shedding some extra weight is often a very challenging task for many. It requires some determination and will power. There are many who have attempted but only few come out successful. Each of these successful weigh losers will have their own experience. Here, I would like to share some tips and food that will promote weight loss to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Disclaimer: All the information provided here is based on my personal experience in dieting and weight loss. If you have some chronic conditions or if you plan to go on a very strict diet program, please talk to your doctor or dietitian before you start.
My husband was able to successfully reduce 15 kgs over a period of 6 months. His target was to reduce ½ kg per week. So below are the tips and tricks that we followed.
10 Secret Tips For Weight Loss That We Followed
- Before starting to diet, a crucial thing to remember is that while dieting you have to eat a nutritious and balanced diet. It simply means that no matter how much less food you consume in a day, it must contain food from all the food groups – whole grains, proteins, vegetables and fruits and dairy in the right proportion.
- Dieting does not have to be boring. You can choose any regular food that you enjoy eating and make it healthier. For e.g: If you enjoy dosas, try to make dosa with healthier ingredients like oats or ragi.
- Portion Control is the secret. Irrespective of the food you choose, have a strict control over the portion you eat.
- Try to restrict your calorie intake to 1200-1500 calories per day. I would recommend eating 3 meals of about 300-400 calories each and enjoy 3 mid meal healthy snack around 100 calories each. There are many online tools to help track the calorie count of the food you take.
- Once a week, enjoy a meal of whatever you fancy throughout the week. This will reduce your craving as well as speed up your body metabolism.
- Keep yourself mind busy with some work to stop it from thinking about food. The busier you are, the less likely you are to crave for food.
- Dieting is recommended along with exercise of some form in order to reduce body weight. It is good to work out for 30 minutes to 1 hour in a day. This should include some walking and some moderate exercises.
- Never skip breakfast. It is one important meal that in fact helps in weight loss. Also, eat your dinner light and early enough. Try to finish dinner no later than 8 pm, a minimum of 3 hours before going to bed.
- Avoid fatty, oily and sugary foods as much as possible. Also avoid processed food. Instead, try to include more of low calorie and low carbohydrate food. Also, include lot of healthy snacks like fruits, buttermilk, salads, etc. Always have these healthy snacks on hand easily available so that you don’t end up eating junk.
- Invest in a weighing machine. Checking your weight every day will surely motivate you and will also help you to plan out your meals.
Our Average Weekday Meal Menu When Dieting
- Early Morning (between 6 am to 7 am) - A cup of milk without sugar
- Breakfast (between 8 am to 9 am)– 2 Dosas or 2 Rotis or 2 Bread slices with some side dish or omelette.
- Mid-Morning Snack (around 10:30 am) – 1 cup of any fruit or 1 cup of buttermilk or coffee
- Lunch (between 12 pm -1pm) – 1 cup Rice or 3 Chapatis or a sandwich with 1 cup of Vegetables and some protein like chicken, fish, soya or mushroom.
- Evening Snack (between 3:30 om to 4:30 pm) – Tea with ½ cup of snacks
- Dinner (between 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm) – Soup or Salad or Pasta or 2 of any Roti varieties
- On Sundays, we indulge in whatever we love and do not bother much about the calorie count.