Weight Loss - Diets

Healthy diets can be identified by the fact that they do not cut out any food groups, not even fat. Healthy diets do not result in rapid weight loss, and yet their effect is far more sustainable.

Before explaining in detail what healthy diets are, lets clarify one thing:

Complex Carbohydrates are the most essential food group in your weight loss diet. DO NOT cut out your carbohydrate for weight loss.

While on the topic of carbohydrate, we have to distinguish the difference between Complex Carbohydrates and Simple Carbohydrates. Complex Carbohydrates food groups are essential to all healthy weight loss diets. This is because your body is designed to function using Complex Carbohydrates and when you deny your body of this essential food group, your body has to use alternative food groups which in long term will result in serious and fatal organ failures.

What are the five golden rules of healthy diets?

• Do not skip breakfast.

  Having a healthy weight loss breakfast will raise your blood sugar levels, which means you are less likely to feel hungry through the day. Its important that you eat food group that provides you with slow release of energy, such as Porridge, museli, whole grain cereal and fruits. Avoid sugary cereals as you may as well have a bar of chocolate!

• Drink plenty of water.

  Any safe weight loss diet uses water for weight loss. This is because the body depends About 80% of your body is water. Therefore it is important to the healthy functioning of your organs that your body is hydrated at all times. From weight loss point of view, dehydration can make you feel hungry. This is because if your body thinks its unable to get water, it will try to get it from food. Therefore, your brain will send signals that makes you think you are hungry, which results in excess calories in a weight loss program.

• Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

  Quite often when your body doesn't get the right nutrition, your brain will trigger the hunger hormones which makes you feel hungry. Its important that you realize that your body needs vitamins and minerals for the healthy functioning of your organs.

• Reduce Saturated fats.

  Only saturated fats are to be avoided. Fats such as Omega 3, 6 & 9 are called essential fats. These fats also help the body to absorb the vitamins. However, healthy weight loss diets requires that you control the amount of saturated fat you take in. Saturated fats not only cause obesity, but eventually cause heart disease and cancer.

• Avoid diets that promise fast result.

  Weight loss diets that promise quick result are inevitably dangerous and the weight lost will be replaced, and more, in the long term.

• A perfect daily portions of all food groups.

  Perfectly healthy daily diets consist of 35% Complex Carbohydrates, 33% Fruits and vegetables, 15% Dairy products and yogurt, 12% Protein, 5% Fats and sugar.

• Do not eat carbohydrate after 5pm.

  Although complex carbohydrates are essential to the healthy functioning of your body, it is important that you realize that carbohydrate is converted to glucose and is absorbed into the bloodstream ready to be used as energy. Any unused glucose is stored in the liver and the muscles as glycogen, ready to be used as glucose again when the body needs it during exercise. However, once the liver and the muscles are saturated with glycogen, the excess glucose is then stored as body fat. Its therefore important to ensure you do not eat any complex carbohydrate before your body has had a chance to digest it.

• Eat foods that encourage weight loss

  There are Weight Loss Foods that speed up the metabolic rate and therefore encourage weight loss.

Considering these golden rules, lets examine some of the more popular diets:

• The Ultimate NY Diet.

  This is a three stage diet and exercise program. The first stage is a simple crash diet. The second stage introduces carbs and you are allowed one treat per week. The third and final stage, involves introducing a more stable range of foods and calorie intake. This diet will help you loose weight fast, however, as explained above, all diets that involve loosing weight fast do not last. You will soon put on the weight you lost, and more, as soon as you come of the diet.

• The Holford low GI diet.

  This diet uses the food's Glycaemic Index for weight loss. It takes into account how quickly each food increases the blood sugar levels, therefore it helps you feel fuller by eating less of the correct foods. This is in fact one of the safer and more sustainable weight loss diets.

• Food Combining.

  This diet involves eating carbohydrate and protein at different times. Its basically the way you combine different food groups to help you loose weight. This is because carbohydrate and protein are not digested properly at the same time. This concept has been followed in the far east for thousands of years and so has stood the test of time! As with Low GI plan, its one of the safest diets you could follow.

• Weight Watchers.

  Weight Watchers has been around for many years and is a effective way of counting calories. This again is one of the tried and tested weight loss diets, and it works! It allows food groups by giving them points, depending on the amount of calories they have which helps people to identify how much calories they have consumed.