How to go on a Diet?

We all know – the athletic body is “ordered” in the gym, but you “get it” in the kitchen. Or in other words – you can not make it up for the lack of proper diet with more exercise. Even worse – you threaten to overtrain yourself… But How to go on a diet? To diet effectively is not an easy task easy. There are so many rules – “eat this”, “do not eat that”, “eat X times a day”, “eat at that and that hour”.

It’s difficult to diet everyday or every other day and to combine all of this with your dynamic lifestyle.

Does this mean that we must say goodbye to our dreamed sculpture body or we must become “slaves” of our own diet?

… Just forget all the rules you know about nutrition and start to follow only those that are actually important. In this article we will show you how to be on a diet easily and this means not only for 1 month.

How to choose the right diet?

There are many theories (we call them diets) for proper nutrition. But that does not mean that one of them is “the right”. Not necessarily only one path (diet) leads to the goal. And if you had to choose between several different effective strategies, you must choose the “path” that will most easily walk you through. The way of eating that will best fit your lifestyle and your personal comfort is the one that answers the questions How to go on a Diet and How to Diet Effectively. Even if there is “a shortcut” if this road proves to be a “thorny path” on which it is difficult to walk, you may reach nowhere.

Learn how to Diet Effectively

Even the best eating plan in the world will be useless if you can not apply it in practice and be on a diet for even 1 month.

So let’s look at the main components of a diet and find out which ones are worth the effort and which can be tailored to your personal comfort and lifestyle.

How to plan a Healthy Diet Meal – Food selection

If foods in your diet do not suit you, they are expensive or hard to find, you will hardly be able to follow it for long enough. You can not force a person to eat mainly chicken and rice for a long time if he does not like chicken and rice. Or to eat salmon if he does not have the financial capacity for it. Another problem are foods that are hard to find and a person has to make a tour to all stores until he finds what he need (specific brands, unpopular foods, etc.). And why, since in most cases it is not necessary? The selection and planning of a healtht diet can be made according to personal preference by foods with a similar nutrient profile.

The most important thing is to choose real food!

No ingredients that do not exist naturally in nature and are created by man.

Jack LaLanne (fitness icon in the USA) said:

“If you created it, do not eat it!”

It is generally important for foods to be less technically processed (refined). Although in most cases (unless your purpose is to eat super healthy, you do not have health problems or do not chase very high goals) nothing bad will happen if sometimes you diversificate your meals with more refined foods (for example to replace rice with pasta or bread ), as long as you provide about the same calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Personal preference for whole food groups can determine the strategy of nutrition (diet). According to your nutritional profile, we can select a regime with more fat and more carbohydrates.

High Fat Low Carb Diet example

For example, high fat low carbohydrate diet (HFLCD) can fit perfectly for a man who prefers pork steak, but not if he prefers cereals, grains and legumes, more fruit or he is a vegetarian (or vegan). Then the nutrition can be moderate to high carbohydrate (if it meets the objectives and individual circumstances, of course) or to include more vegetable fats.

We hope you understand the idea that there is no irreplaceable food, but the calories and macronutrient are more important.

How many times a day should I eat?

How many times to eat a day to gain weight? If the regular eating is a problem for you and this prevents you from following a weight gain diet – there is No problem.

Not long ago science proved that the frequency of eating does not affect the metabolism and it is not so important whether you eat 3 times or 7 times a day.

More important is the amount of calories consumed per day for 24 hours.

Therefore, the frequency of meals can vary a lot according to your personal comfort. Some people prefer to eat more often in smaller portions- this way they do not feel they are on a diet because as they think of food again and it’s already time for the next meal. For others, frequent meals are a waste of time or they forget and miss meals.

All this does not mean that the frequency of eating is of no importance. Aside from personal preferences, it depends on total calories, protein, selection of food and others. For example, if you need to eat more calories it will be hard (uncomfortable) to take them in a relatively small number of meals.

How frequently do I have to eat?

The frequency of meals depends on the selection of food (diet). If you eat foods with low caloric density (clean sources of protein, vegetables and fruit) you will need to eat more frequently than if you eat high-calorie foods.

The time for the absorption of food is also important. The way to eat less and not feel hungry is to choose foods that are digested more slowly (rich in protein and / or fat and /or fibers).

How many meals are you supposed to eat a day?

The number of meals depends on the amount of protein that you should take. Depending on the source you can intake between 30 and 60 grams of protein in one meal (so the body can use them as intended, and not to oxidize them for energy). The exact amount can not be defined, but it depends on the muscle mass, the features of the digestive system, the time of admission (eg morning and especially after exercise the body has increased needs of proteins) and the time to absorb the actual protein source.

Best time to eat certain foods

Do you adjust your organizer to remind you that the hour for eating has come? Many people find it difficult to go on a diet with precisely accurate meal times –

“eat at 8:00, at 12:00, at 16:00 and at 20:00”.

Well, if exactly at 12:00 you do not have the time or you’re not hungry? …

The time for eating (especially the exact time) is not so important for a diet.

Again we say that it is more important that the total calorie intake and the macronutrients per day need to meet your objectives. This does not mean that to be on a diet effectively the approximate time for eating does not matter. If there is too much time distance between meals, it is very likely to get really hungry and reach for “forbidden” foods. But if you’re not hungry at the right time or you are busy – eat a bit later. If you get hungry sooner – there is no need for you to wait patiently for the exact hour for the meal.

What you eat before and after training

The sequence of meals is really important before and after exercise. Depending on the objectives and strategy for eating, certain foods are better suited for reception respectively before and after training. But in the rest of the time in most cases, it is not a problem to reverse the sequence of two consecutive meals, if it is more comfortable for you (for transporting the food; the length of time that will cost you to consume, etc.).

“Mandatory” breakfast and “fasting” dinner.

A very old proverb says: / “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” /. And since most people with overweight follow this saying in reverse order ( “dine like kings”) it is believed that the cause of obesity is a violation of this proverb. This is absolutely false!

The main causes of obesity are overconsumption (intake of more calories than the amount used), junk food and lack of exercise. Many people do not experience any hunger morning, but force themselves to eat breakfast because “it must.”

Well, we will tell you that breakfast is not mandatory.

Its absence will not slow down your metabolism if during the rest of the day you are getting enough calories. There are even strategies for diet, with no breakfast (such as “Periodic fasting”). There is no need to stop eating breakfast from tomorrow if you have done it until now. Do not stop your breakfast if it is comfortable for you and it brings you results. The idea is that people who can not eat breakfast, do not take it as unwritten law – there are other proper eating strategies that do not include breakfast.

Should I eat Dinner tonight?

The same goes for dinner. There is an unwritten rule saying you should not consume a lot of calories at night, especially carbohydrates ( “dinner like a pauper”). But guess what – larger amounts of food and carbohydrates in the evening will not make you fat if you do not exceed the total allowance for the day. And if you train in the afternoon or evening – on the contrary – you will load the muscles with glycogen and improve your recovery.

Imagine that you exercise in the evening, but you follow the “rule” – you eat very little after training. The body recovers best during sleep, and for this purpose it needs nutrients.

Even if you do not train in the evening, on non-training days, and even if you do not exercise at all- also there is no problem for you to consume most of your daily calories in the afternoon / evening if you do not take more calories than the needed caloric ballance.

– More important is the total intake of calories and macronutrients over a 24 hour period ie eat less during the day and more at night, if that is more comfortable for you, but do respect the law of calorie balance.

This way you can enjoy a dinner with your family and you will no longer be only an observer while your children eat noodles or rice.

These were the main components of a diet. They are not essential or endure large variability according to the strategy of eating and your comfort. Learn more about nutrition and your body type. Adjust your routine to make it compatible with your diet and your lifestyle.

This way you can concentrate only on the essential things for a diet – the intake of quality food in the right quantities and proportions.

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