What Is A Healthy Diet? A Simple Guide for Losing Weight!

Losing weight is simple. Eat right and proper, exercise, and be mindful of what you're consuming. From that, be wise on your food intake, and utilize your food as energy to fuel yourself for the day!

Food is not fun and joyful all the time. To be honest, and to be factual, food is a source of fuel. We need food in order to operate. The food we find contains nutrients - to help fuel us up, and for many other things. "Nutrients are chemical compounds in food that are used by the body to function properly and maintain health. Examples include proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals."

Proteins, Fats, and Carbohydrates are all important; they all play a role in hormone, energy, and recovery production. However, you need to select the right foods that aren't processed nor refined or stripped away from their nutrient profile. 

FATS

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends eating the aforementioned fatty fish like salmon. Nuts, avocados, flaxseed, eggs, and olive oil are also healthy fat choices.

Try to avoid of foods high in bad fats including poultry skin, bacon, sausage, whole milk, cream, and butter, stick margarine, shortening, some fried foods, baked goods and pastries. 

Packaged foods that are highly processed also tend to have a lot of extra fat added to them. It is important to limit these types of foods.

CARBS

LOTS of junk food is carb and fat-related. SODA, Pastries, Bread, cookies, crackers, processed foods - meats, sausages, microwavable foods, fast foods, fried foods, fries, etc

Processed foods normally have a low nutrient profile because they're processed - stripped away from its nutrients in order to preserve it longer, etc.

Fiber and other elements are missing when you consume processed foods, so, therefore, it'll impact the body in a way that you don't realize.

We need Fiber and other essential vitamins and minerals to help with losing fat and promoting a healthy body.

The CDC advocates choosing healthy carbohydrates, which refers to those that are low in sugar, calories, and fat but rich in fiber, water and vitamins. For example, eat whole fruit instead of drinking fruit juice and opt for brown rice rather than white rice. Select bread made with 100-percent whole-grain or whole-wheat flour, and avoid bread made with white flour. Try a stewed apple with cinnamon in place of a slice of apple pie.

In other words, get your daily carbohydrate intake from fruits, vegetables and whole grains instead of from refined grains and simple sugars.

 PROTEIN

Protein foods come from both plants and animals.

Plant sources are beans (including soy products), peas, nuts and seeds. Animal sources are eggs, seafood, poultry and red meat.

Proteins as long chains of hundreds or thousands of building units called amino acids.

Eat types of fish that are plentiful in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon or tuna.

Bean dishes like lentil soup or veggie burgers are examples of using plant protein sources as a main dish.

Seeds, nuts, peas and beans, including soy products like tofu.

Unsalted nuts make a nutritious snack.

Limit your intake of red meat and processed meat because they're linked to some cancers, warns the National Cancer Institute.

Putting the Nutrients Together

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health provides the following guidance on how to eat healthy, balanced meals:

• Fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables. Vary the types you eat, so you'll ingest a range of colors. (Different-colored produce contains different nutrients.)
• Fill a fourth of your plate with whole grains. They're better for blood sugar control than refined grains.
• Fill the remaining fourth of your plate with protein foods. Nuts, beans, chicken and fish are healthy options.
• Include healthy plant oils, such as olive oil, in moderation.
• Instead of drinking sugary beverages, drink coffee, tea or water.

• Fruits: Four servings
• Vegetables: Five servings
• Whole grains: Three to six servings
• Oils: 3 tablespoons
• Dairy: Three servings
• Proteins: One to two servings

Balance, Moderation, Nutritious

The Whole goal when it comes to eating is to eat right and proper. It's important to provide the body with nutritious foods in order to live life healthy and reduce the chances of getting sick and improve performance, and recovery. If you neglect proper nutrition, you'll face the consequences that life gives you.

People have a hard time controlling their bad habits, so when dieting, the point isn't to starve but yet to learn a lesson; to understand what is causing you to gain weight, and how "food" works. Dieting is a process of learning about yourself and about nutrition.

You must balance your food intake, moderate what you're consuming, and select the right foods.

It's somewhat impossible to refrain from processed and junk foods but try your best. You can get away with a bit of junk/processed foods, but anything excessive is bad, especially on a daily basis.

People who eat nothing but junk foods, and fast foods, tend to have more health complications than other people, and that's because they're providing their bodies with poor nutrients which will lead to a downgrade in their overall body health. 

Don't go insane, and eat nothing but vegetables and protein; balance it out. Eat right but have fun. Don't indulge in junk foods, just a bit to spice up the taste buds.

There is no "100% perfect" meal plan or 'diet.' A diet is not a meal plan or anything to that sort. A Diet "method" is just a simple way of saying you need to eliminate and/or replace foods within your lifestyle to help with weight loss and becoming healthy. That is called self-control and changing your habits :P.

Keto, low carb, etc is a way to tell someone, you're indulging in junk foods too much - try to avoid them and see what the results are.

A healthy diet includes:

Eating lots of vegetables and fruit. This is one of the most important diet habits.

Choosing whole grain foods.

Eating protein foods.

Limiting highly and ultra-processed foods.

Making water your drink of choice. Water supports health and promotes hydration without adding calories to the diet.

The foods you consume should be healthy and nutritious. If you eat properly, and do not overeat, you won't become obese.

Exercising is very important as well for improving the body's health and overall for weight loss. It'll help tone the body and burn off fat, so why not work out.

Every meal should contain healthy sources of fats, proteins, and carbs. Stop the overeating the cookies, fries, sodas, and other sugary and fried foods.

When it comes to your calorie goal for the day, and on a daily basis, it's complex to understand.

You can use Online Calculators to help with that, but the best way is to experience it yourself. That is what I've done in the beginning of my fitness journey to understand my body and to learn about nutrition.

I had a journey, and for the whole week, I jotted down what I ate, how much of it, drinks, snacks, and anything that contained calories, I wrote down. Every day, I added up the calories to determine how many calories I've consumed at the end of the day. From this, I did this for a week to determine my weekly calorie consumption. And this will help to find out how many calories I should be consuming to dictate weight loss. 

During the week, I am also checking my weight to see if my weight is going up or down or staying. If it's going up, and if my calories are up as well, that is an indication I am eating too much/too many calories, so, next week, I'll restart my "diet" and eat less and repeat this till you see weight loss results! Along with exercise, proper nutrition, and hygiene, you'll lose weight easily.

LETS DISCUSS BELOW!

COMMENT BELOW IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, OR ANYTHING. I'm willing to help y'all and/or if you have a story to share, share it below! Got any tips or want to add to my post? comment!