Diet Planning for Weight Loss
In order to lose weight, you need to decrease your daily calorie intake. This means you need to take fewer calories daily than you consume. But you need to be careful while reducing calories from your daily diet, as drastic reduction might leads to slower metabolic rate and your body might end up in the state of starvation. In starvation state your energy consumption slows down because of the reduced metabolic rate. Starvation and reduced metabolic rates are not healthy states for body and you don’t want to lose weight the unhealthy way. With extremely low calorie diet you might end up burning almost as much muscles as fat. With muscles loss your calorie consumption slows down and this compounds the problem of slow metabolic rate. You don’t need to go down that road.
The best way is to reduce weight in a healthy way. The best way is to gradually reduce calories from your diet. My advice is to reduce 250 extra calories from your diet weekly. If your daily calorie requirement is around 2500 reduce 250 calories per week, till you reach your targeted daily intake for weight. This reduction will not result in reduced metabolic rate as it will adjust accordingly.
Rules for weight lose are simple. Since 3500 calories equals 1 pound of body weight. If you intake 3500 less calories than your daily calorie requirement over a certain period of time you lose 1 pound of body weight. Same goes for mass gain, obviously in the reverse manner. So if someone wants to reduce 1 pound per week and his/her starting calorie intake 3000 calories, then he/she should remove 500 calories from the diet. This reduction over the week would account for 3500 less calories, which in turn result in 1 pound lose in body weight. But remember you don’t need to rush. Follow the rule described above; reduce 250 calories per week till you reach your targeted calorie intake.
Rest of the section, will cover factors like - meal frequency, macronutrients (protein, carbs) intake, rest - that play an important role in weight loss diet planning. This discussion will be followed by a free sample diet plan for weight loss.
Meal Frequency
Follow the “6 meals a day” rule. You need to eat frequently throughout the day, this way your body metabolic rate does not slow down and keeps on burning fat at a higher rate. You need to check you total daily intake as it should be as per your diet plan. Each meal should be a balanced one with right amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats (details discussed below). So as per “6 meals a day” routine, you should consume 6 meals a day with 2-3 hour of break in between. With each meal your metabolic rate will increase, taking fat consumption to another level. This also helps in avoiding starvation and your body keeps on getting energy for exercise and daily routines.
Macronutrients
As already discussed, for healthy weight loss your diet plan should contain all the necessary nutritional components. The information regarding nutrition values is already discussed. You should never compromise on proper nutrition when it comes to weight loss. Each meal you take, “6 meals a day”, must contain a balance amount of protein, complex carbohydrates and fats. You should also count the calories you intake everyday. (table for food and calories in them).
