Healthy Eating Guidelines

In this section I will go over the most important healthy eating guidelines for long term weight loss.

Losing 1-2 pounds of body fat per week should be your goal during an effective long term weight loss program.

If you try to lose more than two pounds per week, there is a good chance that the majority of that weight will come from the your muscle and water in your body.

My advice is to stay focused on maintaing your muscle during your weight loss program. This is very important because if you lose muscle, your metabolism will slow down.

If your metabolism slows down, you will burn less calories during the day, and what was once your daily maintenance calorie intake will become a surplus.

This means you will have to eat less food to maintain your current weight and weight loss will become even more difficult than before you started your diet.

THE FIRST GUIDELINE FOR HEALTHY EATING

So the first healthy eating guideline is to always consume the amount of calories that your body needs to function properly. This means that you must never use low calorie diets when trying to lose weight.

Calculating your daily maintenance daily calorie intake should always be your first step when starting your weight loss program.

This is done by using this TDEE formula, that takes into account your lean body mass and gives an accurate daily calorie intake.

Any approach that does not use calories as the most important element for weight loss, will not work in the long run.

Calories have always been and always will be the most important thing to focus on, if you want to create a lean, healthy body!

THE SECOND HEALTHY EATING GUIDELINE

Nutrient ratios are the second most important part in eating healthy. The nutrient ratio of 50-30-20 is the best place for most people to start their weight loss program.

This means that 50% of your calories will come from carbohydrates, 30% will come from protein and 20% will comefrom dietary fat.

The best approach is to make all of your daily meals with food that that is made up of these three nutrients in these proportions.

By following this guideline, you will create a small calorie deficit on a daily basis.

The reason for this is simple: natural complex carbohydrates and lean protein (foods that should make up the majority of your meals) have a high thermic effect.

This means that anywhere from 15% to 30% of the calories that come from this food gt burned up by your body during the digestion and utilization process.

This calorie deficit forces your body to use body fat as an energy source to make up for this deficit and you lose weight.

THE THIRD HEALTHY EATING GUIDELINE

The third guideline is to eat four average size meals, every four hours during the day, and to make sure that you eat your breakfast as soon as possible after waking up.

This helps your body to burn all the calories that are contained in your food, and there is no surplus to be converted to body fat.

Another advantage of this approach is that you never become hungry during the day, which helps you to stay within your daily calorie intake because you never have to binge because of hunger.

By consuming carbohydrates, lean protein and good dietary fat in every meal during the day, you also provide your organism with everything it needs to function properly.

THE FOURTH GUIDELINE FOR EATING HEALTHY

Consuming natural, unrefined foods is the next important element of healthy eating.

The more a food has been processed the less nutrional value it has. By eating this kind of food you are simply consuming empty calories.

Plus, processed/refined carbohydrates like white flour and white sugar are the most important reason why so many people are currently overweight.

This food is broken down too quickly into your bloodstream as glucose, and the sharp increase in blood sugar forces your body to send insulin to clear it the glucose from your bloodstream and drive it into your fat cells.

This leads to an up and down cycle in your energy levels, and also creates a massive craving to consume more of this low quality processed food.

This is a vicious cycle, and the only way to avoid it for most people is to consume these foods very moderately, if at all.

THE FIFTH HEALTHY EATING GUIDELINE

The fifth and last element that I will cover in this aticle is drinking plenty of water.

This is a very simple step, and at the same time the most overlooked. When you do not drink enough water your body can't properly burn body fat for energy.

Water is also the most abundant nutrient in your body making, and obviously this makes it the most important nutrient that you must provide your organism with for it to function as it should!