Weight Loss - Effective diet

What should you eat?

If you were given a top of the range Ferrari, would you put cooking oil in it instead of petrol? That's exactly how we treat our bodies, yet, we do not seem to worry about it, until we are diagnosed with heart disease or cancer.

So what foods should you avoid:

• Refined food (such as white bread, white rice etc.)
• Ready made meals and junk foods
• Any food that contains preservative or coloring.
• Saturated and Trans Fats.
• Chocolate, cakes, biscuits, ice cream etc.
• Avoid any sauce that is high in calories.
• Alcohol is extremely fattening, specially Beer, as it has a lot of empty calories.

Processed food have a lot of "empty" calories. They put a lot of calories in to your body, but, you will be hungry soon after, which means you will then eat again. The result is that you will end up eating a lot more calories than you are supposed to. In addition, most of the processed food has flavorings. Flavoring by definition is designed to play with your mouth flavor receptors. Making you enjoy the flavor of the food you eat, which means your body will crave for that food even if you are full! Food companies spend millions of $ on Flavoring.

What foods should you eat?

You should always try to eat food that are natural and low in sugar, saturated fat or trans fat. Which are often the things that people who are unaware of weight loss and obesity facts tend to indulge in.

• Whole grain foods (wholemeal bread, whole grain rice)
• Nuts for weight loss (in moderation), Fruits and Veg
• Skin less chicken
• Lean meat (in moderation)
• Fish

When cooking your food try to grill rather than stir fry. If you have to use any oil in your cooking then try to use Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This is the purest type of oil you can get. It is important to include some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a diet low in fat as your body needs fat to process the vitamins in your body.

What foods will speed up your metabolic rate?

There are certain foods that will actually help you loose weight. These are:

• High Fiber Vegetables - This is because your body uses more calories digesting them than there are calories in these vegetables.
• Non-Farmed Fish - Choose from cold ocean waters. Non-Farmed fish are high in Omega-3 and protein. Farmed fish do not have as much Omega-3.
• Berries - Berries are good for weight loss because they are low in calories but high in fiber. If you crave sweets, then Berries are excellent substitute. They are low in calories and high in nutrition.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - This may sound strange that we have listed Extra Virgin Oil as a food that speeds up metabolism rate, but, Extra Virgin Oil increases the testosterone level which indirectly speeds up the metabolism rate.
• Egg Whites - Egg whites are high in slow digesting protein known as casein. Protein feeds the muscles and muscles burn fat. You do not need to be body builder, but the more toned your body becomes the more fat your body will burn off.
• Water - Not many people know the importance of water in weight loss. Water will help in preventing you feeling empty and hungry. Research has shown that quite often when we feel hungry, we are actually thirsty. The brain knows that it can get water from food and there for sends signals that makes you feel hungry. Also, remember that cold water helps you burn more calories. This is because the body will have to spend energy to bring the water up to the normal body temp.

How often should you eat?

You should try to have 5 small meals a day. This means your body has time not only to digest the food, but that it stops the body from storing calories as fat. This is because you would be training your body not to store food. If the time taken between each meal is too great then all you do is to lower your metabolism rate down and encourage your body to store as much fat as it can. This is why after any "quick fix" diet, people almost always get even more obese than when they started.