5 WAYS FOOD FUELS WEIGHT LOSS TRANSFORMATION

Eating quality food will help you control your caloric intake and fuel your weight losstransformation. Part of changing your eating habits is learning "what to eat." This might require you to clean out the pantry and start over.

Here are 5 tips to help you eat quality food most of the time and fuel weight loss transformation:

1. Control your eating with a meal plan and food journal. You might have to keep a food journal for a week until you get used to eating the right way.

Don't cut out any of the macronutrients (healthy fats, carbohydrates, proteins) from your diet. Your body needs all three to function properly. Once you have the foundational eating practices figured out, specialized eating tactics like "low-carb days" can be an effective way to burn fat.

One way to eat quality calories is to "eat your calories" instead of "drinking your calories."When you eat food, you have more satiety and you are more likely to take in fewer calories during the day.

2. Junk food, like chips, donuts and sodas, aren't nutritious and have loads of calories. They also have you wanting to eat more in just a short time, loading up on the calories. Hello belly fat!

According to government data, sweetened soft drinks add about 10 percent of the calories in the typical American's diet.

Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard endocrinologist, who is widely cited by obesity researchers, says that sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain. "Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages," said Ludwig, who runs the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital in Boston.

The increase in soda consumption mirrors this nation's obesity epidemic. At the midpoint of the 20th century, Americans drank four times as much milk as sodas. Today, this trend is almost totally reversed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

3. Pack your lunches and snacks instead of eating out at work. This helps you stick with your meal plan better and avoids bad eating decisions on the run. If you eat at a restaurant for dinner, check out the menu online so you know what to order. Most restaurants now have a "healthy foods" menu. Avoid eating appetizers, breads and dressings before your main meal.

4. Another way to control caloric intake is to eat more water-based, protein and fibrous foods. You will stay fuller for a longer period of time. It will also help you eat more while eating fewer calories.

You would basically focus on foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, salad greens, lean beef and skinless white chicken/turkey.

5. To help you drink fewer sugary drinks, drink about half an ounce of water for every pound of your body weight every day. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, drink at least 75 ounces of water a day. If you workout, drink even more water (a cup of water for every 15 minutes of exercise).

The old rule still applies: consistently maintaining a caloric surplus (consume more calories than you burn) will cause you to gain weight. Hopefully a diet high in water content will cause you to consume fewer calories while providing all the nutrition you need.

Source: myfitnesshut