By DualFit.com
Losing weight may be the most difficult journey someone will go through. Although there are numerous fad diets promising to help you lose weight fast, the sad truth is that there is really no magic formula for losing weight. All weight-loss programs should not only require eating healthy, low-calorie food, but also exercise and lots of self discipline.
To keep the weight off without starving yourself, you must choose foods that are rich in vitamins and nutrients, and at the same time rich in fiber to keep you feeling full. Filling your grocery cart with these kinds of food will bring about positive changes not only in your weight-loss program, but in your life in general.
By simply changing your dietary routine and including weight-loss inducing food, you will notice big improvements within a couple of months. It's as easy as substituting one dish or food for another, and gradually making more healthy changes as you progress in your diet.
Having non-sugary cereal for breakfast is probably the easiest way to include fiber in your diet. You may notice that fiber is the most often mentioned food to help you lose weight. The reason for this is because foods that are rich in fiber make you feel full so that you can resist the urge to eat more than you should. But aside from losing weight, there are other important health benefits in eating fiber.
Unlike protein, fats and other carbohydrates, which the body can break down, fiber is a special kind of carbohydrate coming from plants that cannot be broken down by our bodies. Therefore when eaten, it passes through our stomach unchanged. The health benefit of this is that unhealthy things in our digestive tract, such as carcinogens, bind themselves to it and move more quickly though our colon thus preventing illnesses such as colon cancer. It also helps to bring out the cholesterol from our bodies, reducing the risk for heart ailments. Having high-fiber cereal topped with fruit will ensure you get your daily recommended dosage of fiber.
There are certain fruits that have a bigger advantage over others in the weight-loss department. Fruits such as grapefruit are not only rich in fiber, they also have other weight-loss inducing qualities that make them crucial for your diet. Research shows that grapefruit may block the enzymes that are involved in storing fat and carbohydrates, thus letting our bodies burn fats faster.
Grapefruit has a high fiber content and low glycemic load. Glycemic load is the ranking of food based on its carbohydrate content and the impact it has on blood sugar levels in our bodies. A glycemic index below 10 is considered low, and these low glycemic foods are those that help us lose weight. The glycemic index of half a grapefruit is 6, making it an ideal fruit to include in our diet. Grapefruit also has a high water content, and the more water you take in, the healthier you are. You can add this delicious fruit to your diet by eating it alone or by adding it to your salads and fruit smoothies.
You may be surprised to find potatoes on the list. However, French fries and potato chips are not what I’m talking about. The real problem why potatoes become fattening is because of the way they are cooked. By baking or boiling potatoes instead of frying them, they become a healthy addition to our diet. Potatoes are 99.9 percent fat-free and 100 percent cholesterol-free. They have a high water content, are low in calories and are filling and especially nutritious when eaten with their skin. They also are loaded with Vitamin B, C, potassium and protein.
Aside from keeping you full, the protein will help you build muscle and the carbohydrates will provide you with energy. So even if you are working out, you won't feel starved and weak as most people who are on a diet do. For an easy potato dish, wrap a potato in foil and bake it. Drizzle it with a little extra virgin olive oil and top it with rosemary and thyme.
This supermarket staple has many weight-loss benefits that can keep the pounds off at the same time boosting your health. Sardines are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which is the fat that's considered healthy and good for the heart. New research shows that an increase in Omega-3 fatty acids balances our leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that tells our brain to burn fat and triggers appetite suppression. Stress and an unhealthy diet can wreak havoc on our leptin levels and cause it to become imbalanced, causing our bodies to gain more weight. By increasing your intake of food such as sardines, our leptin levels work at optimum level to help us achieve weight loss.
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