Weight Loss For Idiots - What Food Should You Eat To Lose Weight?

When you're trying to lose weight your first instinct is to start exercising, which is extremely important. However, if you don't set a firm foundation by eating right, you may be doing a lot of hard work for nothing. For many of us this is the hard part; we don't mind exercising for half an hour a day, but giving up our favorite foods seems impossible.

Calorie counting is a good place to start, just as long as you don't starve yourself. Whenever you consume more calories than you burn in a day, they will be stored as fat. To find your recommended daily calorie intake, take your bodyweight times ten in calories. Keep in mind this is for when you're trying to lose weight so don't stay on this for too long as it can change your metabolism and cause you to lose muscle fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn as muscle burns fat for energy.

Aim for 4-6 small meals a day. This increases our metabolism, reduces hunger pangs, improves digestions, and increases energy. This also provides muscle with steady, constant flow nutrients they are trained to burn fat. We're so used to eating the standard three meals a day, but once you get used to it you will reap the rewards.

Remember to eat a balanced diet of foods with protein and complex carbohydrates, these are great foods for weight loss. Protein is incredibly important when burning fat and gaining muscle. Foods such as eggs, chicken breast, tuna fish, organic peanut butter, and whey protein powders will give you the protein you need and are highly unlikely to be retained as fat. When you do get a craving, try to eat foods with complex carbohydrates such as broccoli, green peppers, and cauliflower. Keep portion sizes the size of a clenched fist to help you base how much you should eat in one meal. Drink lots of water everyday. Muscle is composed of 70% water. Water also transports vitamins and minerals throughout the body. It also curbs appetite by filling our stomachs.

Keep foods that are not great for weight loss like cookies, cakes and brownies out of the house. Remember to have your salad dressing on the side. Definitely avoid eating about 3 hours before bed as we are don't burn much calories during the night when we're sleeping. Decrease Carbohydrates. Carbs hold water and can prevent our body form burning fat for energy. Foods rich in carbohydrates include, bread, cookies, and cakes. This can increase insulin levels and blood sugar which can stop fat burning and increase fat storage. Even fruits can contain carbs as they contain fructose which is the one the quickest nutrient to be stored as fat.

The previous examples should be a great foundation to improving your health and losing weight. For more ideas, consult your doctor or one of the many books written about great weight loss foods.

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