From infomercials selling worthless workout equipment to your local gym selling memberships exceeding seventy or eighty dollars per month, society has entrenched in everyone's mind that in order to lose weight you need to spend a lot of money. That is the furthest thing from the truth. In reality all you need is the information that I am about to give you.
In order to lose weight you need to eat the right things, eat them more often, and eat them in reasonably sized portions. Sounds simple right? Well it is and here is how you do it.
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You need to understand what the right foods exactly are. I can tell you they are not cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream and donuts. But of course you probably knew that already. The right foods come in three basic groups, proteins, carbohydrates and green veggies. Your proteins are lean meats, fish, chicken breasts, eggs or egg substitutes or a variety of healthy nuts. Your carbohydrate sources are multigrain breads and cereals, potatoes, and brown rice. When it comes to your green veggies, well, they need to be green. Spinach, broccoli, and salads are good to name a few.
Now that you know what kinds of food you should be eating you need to understand how often they should be consumed and why. In order for this part to make sense you need to understand your metabolism. Your metabolism is the process at which your body burns fat. Your metabolic rate is the rate at which it burns fat. These two terms go hand in hand. So it goes without saying that in order to burn fat, your metabolism must be running and of course the higher your metabolic rate the more fat your body will burn.
Since you know the basics here is why you eat more often. Every time you consume a meal, specifically the right foods mentioned earlier, your metabolism gets cranked up as your body breaks that food down so the food's nutrients can be used by your body. What happens when your metabolism is running? What happens is that your body is burning fat to be used as the energy it needs to break down the food you just consumed. So putting all of this information together, eating more often of the right foods leads your body's metabolism to be constantly running and in turn your body is burning all of that fat.
So how often is too often? I recommend that you consume no more and no less than six meals everyday. Each meal should be consumed about 3 hours apart from the previous (or next meal). Also do not forget to drink 10 ounces of water with every meal to help your body digest the food you just ate.
But at what point is eating to much of the right foods a bad thing? That is a good question because your body only needs a certain amount of nutrients at any given time and if you are consuming more than what your body needs, your body will turn that into fat for later use (especially carbs). It kind of defeats this whole process if you do not know how much to eat. But do not worry you are in luck. On your body right now is the perfect measuring tool to make sure you never overeat. You will never need to carry around a scale or any other type of device because the human body already has it. It's your hand, more specifically a clenched fist. Go ahead and make a fist with your hand. That is the portion size of each item in your meal (proteins, carbohydrates and green veggies).
In a nutshell that is it. Eat the right foods, at the right times, in the right amounts and you will be on your way to losing about 1 to 2 pounds each and every week until you get down to your goal weight. Just remember before you start any type of fitness or nutrition program to get a complete physical from your primary care physician.
Weight Loss - It's All About What You Eat, When You Eat it and How Much
About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A guide to vegetable gardening for the rest of us, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and where ever gardening books are sold. He can be reached at his website: AveragePersonGardening.com where you can sign up for his free newsletter and he will send you a pack of vegetable seeds to get your home vegetable garden started.