Nutrition is a hot topic on social media. Some pages and websites find ways to make it complicated and have new “biohacks” for you to shred fat, all at high prices. Unfortunately, simple and basic do not get likes on social media. Many time-tested and easy-to-use nutrition tips often do not rely on hacking your metabolism.
Tracking your total macronutrients intake is the most effective way to succeed in any diet. Eyeballing portions and having an objective measure help make this less stressful.
Related: What is Tracking Macros and Why People Do
It can be easy to find behind diet fads, and the following social media cleanse tend. After a while, if you genuinely want to make real long-term results, there is no shortcut. However, there are ways to help make it easier. By learning how calories and macronutrients work with energy and body composition, you can feel confident in knowing you have regained control of your health.
Counting calories does have its drawbacks; it can start to drain you and be time-consuming. But, before you jump down the rabbit hole that is macro counting, there are other nutrition and diet tips to look at. With countless ways to eat healthily and diet, different methods will work for different people.
Do You Avoid Foods For Particular Reasons?
For many reasons, people might not eat a particular food. Environmental, religious, and maybe it is the new fad, some food people won’t touch. That is okay, and everyone has their own lifestyle choices. However, this can add some additional stress to your diet when dieting.
If you are getting into a diet that restricts foods, you might want to try a calorie reduction and not remove foods. Food trends are not always the best to jump onto unless it is a lifestyle choice. Keeping the diet simple will help with long-term results no matter your goal.
That being said, there are many tweaks to your diet that may be needed if you do not eat a food type. For example, in vegan diets are harder to get complete protein for each meal. To the meat-eating counterpart, meat is a whole protein food source. A complete protein is said that the protein within the food contains an adequate proportion of each of the nine essential amino acids necessary in the human diet. Vegetables, while containing protein, do not have the total amount of amino acids. With vegan diets, you need to match foods when making meals.
While you can still achieve your fitness goals, eat a diet like a vegan. If you are looking at vegan to lose weight faster than eating meat, you are making it more challenging. Find a diet or eating style that fits your lifestyle.
Go Slow Or All In
Beach season or an event seems always to be next week causing many to panic and start their diet with an immediate need for results yesterday. When starting any diet, there are short and long-term goals. An event can fit both sides, but don’t let an event coming up in a few weeks cause you to lose focus on your long-term health.
The same can be said about how people start their diets. Some go all the way with changing their eating habits, lifestyles, and working out. Others might need a little more time and add or change habits over a few weeks. Each has its pros and cons, but if you have the willpower to go 100% from day one, go at it. If not, that is okay as well. Not everyone jumps into the deep end of the pool; some like to walk in slowly. However, the goal is to swim, no matter how you enter the pool.
When starting a diet, choice the first week based on how you would like to approach it. It is okay to move slowly and make small changes every few days or weeks. Allowing yourself to get comfortable with the new lifestyle is normal for many.
Have Protein With Every Meal
Protein is the building block for muscle growth but did you also know that it is critical for long-term weight loss? Body composition compares the percentages of fat, bone, and muscle in your body. If you are looking to change how you look and feel, keeping the muscle you have and gaining more is part of the long-term goal.
Protein intake helps reduces appetite while helping you feel full, preventing muscle loss and metabolic slowdown. All of which are significant benefits to any diet program. However, eating enough protein can be difficult for many people. After all, if you are going for 0.8-1g of protein per body weight in pounds each day, you begin to see how this is not easy.
Luckily, there are many ways to help get your protein intake, like protein powder and protein bars. Just remember that whole food sources of protein should be your number one choice.
Eat Or Drink Your Greens
Protein will be number one on most people’s lists regarding foods for any diet. Unfortunately, many people do not feel the same way about green veggies. They are not treated as necessary, even though they place a lot of roles in our body’s functions.
Veggies help balance your body’s pH level and contain high amounts of fiber and antioxidants. However, it can be hard to eat the daily recommended amount of veggies in the modern diet. Finding ways to eat your greens easily can be an essential part of any healthy eating habit.
Making food with veggies inside the dish, rather than on the side, may help eat them. The monster mash from the Vertical Diet is an excellent example of using veggies within a dish that can be easily meal prepped.
Juicing is also a great alternative. This can be a little more costly than just eating the veggies, but go for it if this is your preferred way of waiting green.
Lastly, for others, the idea of even eating veggies does not close their mind. This is where vitamin packs and green powder supplements come in handy. Once a day, scoop with your daily needs in an easy-to-drink shake once a day. You can also add the green powders to a protein-packed smoothy for a healthy homemade meal replacement.
Looking for ways to get your veggies in your daily diet is an essential part of a diet and everyday life. Sometimes taking a cheat code with a supplement is nice. But remember to focus on whole food options first.
The Importance Of Fat In Your Daily Diet
Eating fats will not make you fat. The demonizing of fat and healthy fats have been going on for too long and is not valid. Fat plays a critical role in nourishing and optimal body composition. Our body needs good fat to support hormone production, transport fat-soluble vitamins, and keep us sated while supporting a healthy metabolism.
There are four primary dietary fats in food, and they are not all the same in how our body digests them: saturated fats, trans fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. The “bad fats” are saturated and trans. We see these more solid at room temperature, like butter. Compare this to nuts, which are monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats, the good fats. Another good fat you may have heard of is omega-3 fatty acids, the fatty fish fat.
The goal is to eat good quality fats and avoid the bad fats in everyday life. Eating good fats helps with body functions and will help you with your diet and energy levels.
Be Smart With Carbs
Carbs are delicious and extremely easy to eat. Especially when cooked in the bad fats from above, potato chips. You can lose weight and eat carbs; yes, this is 100% true. However, most diets will remove or restrict them because it is an easy way to remove calories from your meals while keeping the more healthy macros. Remember, protein is for muscles, and fat is more body functions. Carbs’ primary function is for energy. Therefore lowering carbs and keeping protein and fats high and their daily needs can be used for diets.
However, we know fat loss comes from reducing calorie intake, not just one macro. If you eat your daily protein and fats, you can use the remaining calories for carbs and not gain fat. Life is too short not to eat carbs.
Wrapping Up
The tips above are examples of ways to keep your diet and turn it into a lifestyle. Many more great tips can be combined with the six above. Think of them as the first steps in your new healthy lifestyle and long-term fitness results. Knowledge is power, and you have the strength to achieve your weight loss goals.
