In today’s modern world maintaining a healthy weight long term can be difficult. Rather than going on a crash diet create a lifestyle that supports your weight management goals. In the largest study ever done comparing a low fat diet to a low carbohydrate diet over a year found that both worked to reduce excess weight in middle aged healthy adults1. This study showed that what was more important was eating high quality natural unprocessed foods.
Here are our tips based on the latest research
- Eat foods in their most natural form
- Eat lots of vegetables
- Cook as much as you can from scratch (if you can’t cook learn)
- Quality nutrient dense foods include: eggs, meat, fish, avocado, nuts and seeds, lentils, chickpeas, beans, vegetables, kumara, coconut, olive oil, berries, paleo bread, non-gluten grains; quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat, sorghum, fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso, tempeh or plain yoghurt and iodine rich seaweed
- Soups and salads are a good way to increase vegetables and are easy to make
- Limit or avoid processed foods, sugar, cakes, biscuits, white bread, cereal, noodles, gluten containing grains, fried food, trans fats, margarine or processed refined oils (soy, vegetable, sunflower, canola, rice bran oils) and alcohol
- Don’t go hungry
- Clean out the pantry and only buy healthy food (to reduce temptation)
- Eat mindfully and only when hungry
- Try green tea instead of another coffee
- If you need treats eat small amounts of dark chocolate or fresh fruit
- Find ways to make your favourite foods more healthy
- Drink pure water or herbal tea around 2 litres per day
- Find an exercise that you like and do it! If you don’t like exercising try dancing or yoga
- Interval training and resistance training are also good types of exercises to try
- Prioritize sleep, meditation and relaxation as these activities help weight loss
- Avoid technology before bed
- Manage stress (stress hormones make us hungry and prevent fat burning)
- Seek professional help if you have trouble losing weight despite following good habits, our lifestyles affect our hormones which in turn can affect our metabolism or maybe your thyroid is sluggish or you have leptin or insulin resistance
- Try intermittent fasting to help reset your body (if this feels right for you)
Create a healthy lifestyle with nutrient dense food, exercise, sleep, meditation and fun of course and your body will reward you with a fit body, wellness, resilience and lots of energy
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2673150?redirect=true