weight loss meal plan
So you need a weight loss meal plan!!
Some people believe that a weight loss meal plan is better than exercise for controlling weight. It is more effective simply to not eat a high calorie cake than burn it off during exercise later. While that is quite correct, for the purposes of this piece we will focus on a weight loss meal plan rather than physical exercise. The benefits of physical exercise and a weight loss meal plan working together will be covered in another article.
Outside of physical activity The two key elements in lossing weight are food choices and eating behaviour. We can make a far better decision on how to develop our weight loss meal plan when we understand the basics of the food we eat. The main factors for us to take into consideration are calories, metabolism, fiber and sleep. I know you are probably wondering why we are mentioning sleep in an article about diet. As you will see later sleep plays an important part in how we lose weight and if it is not taken serious it can undo everything we are trying to achieve through the weight loss meal plan.
Calories
A Calorie is a unit of energy in the food and beverages we consume. The energy fuels all physcial activity including metobolic systems such as building muscle and maintaining a regular heartbeat. 4 calories are found in proteins and carbohydrates where fat contains 9 calories pergram. No calories can be found in minerals or vitamins. If your weight loss meal plan has too many calories you will put on weight. These will be stored in the body as fat which increases your weight. The 2 main ways to get rid of this fat is eating fewer calories and burning more calories. The two working together will produce the best results.
Eating fewer calories requires a strategy commonly referred to a calorie counting. It’s a straight forward process of finding out how many calories you consume at the moment. It is recommended to keep a food journal so that you can review it at a later time which will help to perfecting your weight loss meal plan. Once you have identified high calorie foods in your diet they can be replaced with low calorie foods. Physcial activity such cycling, walking and jogging will burn calories. An increase in the amount of physical activity will lead to an increase in the number of calories burnt and speed up your metabolism.
Missing meals is the worst thing you can do so it is important to follow a strict weight loss meal plan.
Metabolism
Your metabolism is your bodies ability to turn what you eat into energy. The slower you body can process food the quicker you put on weight. So it is important to take action to stop the decline of your metabolic rate. When you are planning an effective stratergy to lose weight it is important to avoid big meals. These contain a larger number of calories and increase the possibility of the calories being stored as fat. To use your metabolism to it’s best potential these meals need to be broken down into smaller meals numbering 5 to 6 that are consumed more often. Missing meals is the worst thing you can do when you are trying to speed up your metabolism so it is important to follow a strict weight loss meal plan.
Sleep
This might be little off the topic of developing a weight loss meal plan. But it has been proven that there is a link between the amount of and sleep someone gets and body weight. People who sleep less will have larger percentage of body fat. At first it seems unlikely for this to be so but the hormones gherlin, cortisol and leptin play a big part in how we manage our body weight.
Ghrelin is a homone responsible for telling your body it’s hungry. Someone who is not sleeping enough will generate higher Gherlin levels which will lead to eating more food resulting in more calories. This increase in Ghrelin could lead to an unwanted craving for food this will deviate from a carefully crafted weight loss meal plan. Leptin hormones tell you when you are full. Lack of sleep causes the Leptin hormones level to drop making your body believe it requires more food. This could be counter by consuming more fiber but the best way to combat this is to get the right amount of sleep. Lack of sleep also increases the stress hormone Cortisol which is also known to lead to an increase in belly fat. If you are not getting enough sleep all your weight loss meal plan efforts can be undone so it is important to make sure you are getting at least 7 hours a night.
Fiber
When developing your own weight loss meal plan it is very important to consider the benefits of fiber. Health benefits include reduced risk of heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes as well as being very effective in weight loss.
Fiber is the portion of plants which is indigestible. At first it makes no sense to consume food the body cannot digest. But the health benefits speak for themselves. Fiber is classified into two main categories: those which can not dissolve in water know as insoluble fiber and those that can know as soluble fiber. Besides its long-standing reputation for maintaining regularity, fiber has other advantages. Insoluble fiber (Wheat bran, beans) holds water, increases bulk and increases the rate stool and cancerous toxins are removed. Soluble fiber like oat bran, apples, and citrius fruits forms a gel that slows absorption of carbohydrate and binds cholesterol for removal from the body. Soluble fiber may also produce a chemical that slows the rate of cholesterol production.
Ok now you have the foundation to get your weight loss meal plan in place it’s time to take action. While implementing your weight loss meal plan it’s important not to attempt to lose 2 pounds per week or 8 pounds per month.
The weight loss should be slow and gradual as to not cause any bad side effects while you implement your weight loss meal plan.
http://www.weightlossmealplantips.com/weight-loss/lose-abdominal-fat
http://www.weightlossmealplantips.com/weight-loss/water-to-lose-weight
http://www.weightlossmealplantips.com/weight-loss/calories-to-lose-weight
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