Get Off The Weight Loss Roller Coaster With A Balanced Diet
Let's be honest; each diet out there sounds good. As a matter of fact, each diet you try may result in some pretty nice weight loss. If you follow the rules and stick to the plan, you probably will see some reduction in weight, inches, or both. That's all good.
Then it's back. Maybe it takes a month or two, or maybe a year, but eventually many of us slide back to our old eating habits. The reason this happens varies. The diet may have required recipes that were too complicated, or expensive, or time consuming. The food on the diet may have been bland. Perhaps the food allowed on your diet was not filling, leaving you hungry all the time. Or maybe you were eating food that the rest of the family wasn't eating, exiling you to the kitchen while everyone else enjoyed your old favorite recipes around the table. Well, that won't do for long.
None of these scenarios are very happy. Diets, by their very nature, are often limiting. If you are eliminating whole food groups for your diet or tediously picking apart every dish to cast out unapproved ingredients, you are most likely headed for a diet disaster somewhere down the road.
But, all these popular diets sound so good! Most people who want to lose weight want to lose it fast, right? So who wouldn't want to sign on for a diet that promises these kinds of results? Lose it fast and keep it off - that's the ticket!
The fact is, there are no indications that this type of diet succeeds in the long run. Most people regain the weight they lost because they eventually fall off the diet. But, there is a way to lose weight and keep it off for a lifetime. Unfortunately, this diet will never take any nation by storm or make headlines anywhere.
The Most Unpopular Diet Of All Time
This diet is so unpopular that it doesn't even have a name. Although most of us learned about this diet in grade school, many of us have long since pushed it aside and out of our mind. This diet is called the 'Balanced Diet.'
Yes, that's the boring diet we all know from our food pyramid from the old days. It's changed over the years as scientific research into nutrition has found a few changes needed to be made. But, the basics have been, and still are, the same - eat a balanced diet to maintain a healthy weight.
The science behind a balanced diet is simple; our body needs a certain amount and variety of nutrients to operate under certain conditions. The key here is balance and variety.
Balance May Be Boring But Results Are Real
A very basic principle in dieting that still exists suggests that we only need to be concerned with calorie reduction to lose weight. The theory is we will lose weight if we keep very close tabs on our calories and made sure we only take in the calories that we will burn during our day. It doesn't matter where the calories come from, just as long as you don't go over your calorie intake for the day.
But this principle doesn't explain why some people fail to lose weight when they reduce their calorie intake. This is where the boring old balance comes in, and works. If a person relies totally on calorie reduction as a way to lose weight, that person may not be getting the nutrients they need to maintain the weight loss. We know, for example, that protein builds muscle and muscle burns calories. A person who is reducing calories would do well to eat plenty of protein and exercise to build muscle which in turn burns fat. In other words, a few extra calories consumed from a protein rich source would add balance to that particular diet.
Another popular method to lose weight is to eliminate carbohydrates from the diet. Most people who do this will see some weight loss almost immediately. This is encouraging, but may be short lived if the diet is not nutritionally balanced.
People who follow a low-carb diet must realize that not all carbs are bad, and some are actually essential. For instance, complex carbs are necessary for energy and healthy brain function. Those little neurons in the brain simply won't fire without proper care and feeding. Again, a good balance of complex carbs, the slow burning so-called 'good carbs,' with plenty of protein, vitamins, and minerals, may not make the bestseller list of diet books, but the long lasting healthy results speak for themselves.
These are just a few examples of some of the diets that many of us follow from time to time. And, yes, many of us see results quickly and enjoy watching the scale numbers drop. But, many of us also see those scale numbers start climbing back up again before long. Sadly, we then fall into the same trap and it starts all over again.
Isn't it time you got off that weight loss roller coaster? Following a nutritionally balanced diet is the proper way to promote healthy weight loss. It may not be fancy, fast, or glamorous. You may have the most boring diet stories to tell your friends. But, you'll be losing weight and feeling great, and there's nothing boring about that at all!
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