Unlike crash diets, long-term weight loss needs to provide the body with optimum nutrition at all times for a diet that doesn’t cause health problems. Find out how to set your goals and eat healthy with the right diet for long-term weight loss.
Healthy Diet for Long-Term Weight Loss
Start by monitoring what you eat and counting calories. You’ll need a daily 250 calorie deficit if you want to lose 1/2 pound every week, but you shouldn’t go under the minimum daily recommended intake of 1200 calories, especially if you plan to exercise as well.
You can still eat your favorite foods every day, but control your portions to 200 calories tops. Spreading out your meals throughout the day is also helpful to kick-start your metabolism and avoiding eating too late in the evenings also helps any diet for long-term weight loss.
Set your own rules, but focus on the good foods: whole grains, vegetables, legumes, fruits, nonfat dairy and lean protein. Reduce sweets and fats that aren’t healthy gradually and work on replacing them with tasty alternatives that won’t leave you too frustrated.
Diet for Long-Term Weight Loss: Controlling Cravings
The biggest obstacle to long-term weight loss is managing to control your cravings. Substitutions work, for example healthy nuts instead of sodium-rich potato chips, but you should also identify the moment in which you’re most likely to overeat or snack too much. Watching TV while eating should be left behind and drinking lots of fluids, mostly water and herbal tea, can help fight hunger pangs in between meals.
Diet for Long-Term Weight Loss: Rewarding Progress
Find an appropriate reward that doesn’t consist of food to make sure you stay motivated. Every time you reach a goal you’ve set for yourself, focus on something you really enjoy, pamper yourself or try older clothes you haven’t been able to fit into for a while. Rewarding yourself is just as important for long term weight loss as having a support system based on the people closest to you.
Diet for Long-Term Weight Loss: Exercising Correctly
Spending a lot of money on a gym membership is not a good idea, at least not in the first weeks of your personal diet plan for long term weight loss. Start by walking more each day and taking stairs instead of the elevator. If you over-exhaust yourself in the first few days at the gym, sore muscles can chip at your motivation very fast and you’ll easily give up your long-term diet.
