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Fat Loss Diet Basics

By Matt Lisk

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Published: 04Jan2009
Word count: 668
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There are diets that claim to be the best way to weight loss. There are others that claim to offer the fastest way to lose weight. And other that promise you everything under the sun. Many diet programs have something going for them and many have a lot. But as a nation of addicted dieters, we often overlook the basics.

Before embarking on any diet plan it's important to know why your body needs certain foods and what it does with them. Understanding this will help you in choosing the fat loss plan that is best for you.

1. Eat frequently and at regular intervals. What's that, you say? Eat frequently when I am dieting? Yes, funny as it sounds, it an essential of fat loss. When your stomach is empty, your blood sugar drops and this causes strong hunger pangs and a feeling of lassitude. Eating small sensible meals 5 or 6 times a day prevents this and also provides your body with regular inputs of energy.

An empty stomach cause the hormone levels in the body to fluctuate and affect your mood and perhaps your desire to lose belly fat. Motivation has a major impact on your diet's success and unstable hormone elvels affect this. Eating small meals allows your body to digest your food more easily and efficiently. Fat loss is not just about controlling your food intake but also about how and when you consume it.

2. Eat lean proteins. Your body cannot store proteins as it does carbs and fat, but needs regular quantities of it to create and repairs cells which is an ongoing process 24/7. So include some lean proteins in most, if not all, of your meals.

3. Eat fats. That's right. Fats, in limited quantities can help you lose weight. Fats slow down the digestion of carbs and keep the insulin levels in the body low. Low insulin means your body starts burning the stored fats for energy. Limited quantities of omega 3 and 6 fats reduce hunger pangs and provide essential nutrients for your body.

4. Eat high fiber carbs. Besides the well known benefits to digestion, high fiber carbs are a bulking agent that creates a long lasting feeling of fullness.

5. Avoid refined carbohydrates. Refined carbs cause sudden and sharp increases in the body's insulin levels. High levels of insulin slow down the fat burning process. Excess refined carb intake, epically while on a diet, can, in extreme cases, lead to type II diabetes.

6. Drink lots of water. You need to drink 64 oz. of water every day. Adequate water consumption is an important part of not just fat loss, but for your overall health in general. Water helps to digest food, is a solvent of minerals and vitamins and carries them throughout the body to where they are needed, keeps the joints supple, helps control the body temperature and acts as a flushing agent to remove toxins and waste from the body. Besides all this, drinking water while you are eating makes you feel fuller with less food. Remember, water has no fats or calories.

7. Avoid fruit juices. Fruits are healthy and you need them to lose weight. But when you extract juice from the fruit, you are taking out water, sugar and a small quantity of vitamins. Water and vitamins are fine, but sugar and weight loss? We all know better than that. Sugar contains just empty calories which will just add on to your belly fat. The important part of any fruit is the fiber which is what you throw away after making the juice. And as for the vitamins....

8. Take a vitamin supplement. A good multivitamin supplement is always good since it will fill any gaps that your diet may have created.

What is given above may not gel with what rapid fat loss programs tell you. But these are things you need to know before you embark on any plan to lose weight.

Matt Lisk is a fat loss expert who has used his knowledge to lose over 80 pounds of body fat, reduce his body fat percentage to under 10% and to resolve a variety of health issues he was experiencing. He is the author of Lean State University's Fat Loss 101 Newsletter.

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