Eat to lose weight
Weight loss and diets arn’t really about not eating and starving yourself to burn fat. You could eat the same quantity and lose weight. Not eating is unhealthy for our body as it effects the immune system and the body’s power to fight infections and slows down the metabolic rate. Would you rather eat healthy and lose weight or not eat and get unfit.
Fresh Fruits(Cr/freedigital)
There are certain foods that are low calorie and some foods provide no calories at all. Our bodies require a certain number of calories per day and eating beyond it would store the calories. Usually when we are eating we give less importance to the calorie intake but rather eat till we feel full. So here are food options that will fill you up and keep the calorie intake balanced and low.
Fresh foods: If you want to eat choose natural food options like fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses etc. The cheese burgers, pizzas, patties, fried foods, heavy snacks, empty calorie food provide less nutrition and are fattening. 1gm of fat provides a lot more calories than whats carbohydrates or protein provide. So changing your habits and eating healthy food will help you consume less calories,keep you full and fat especially which gets difficult to burn.
Fruits and vegetables Salads Read more
Reading Nutrition claims correctly
Whether you are on diet for weight loss, on a muscle gain plan, managing you diabetes, or just looking for healthy food. To know if food is really healthy, you need to know two things: how to read the nutrition labels, and understand the claims that foods make, like ‘low calorie’ ‘high fiber’ and others. We showed you the first. Now, we’ll tell how to decipher claims that a food product makes.
Photo- Free Diet Plans Fail (arkworld@flickr)
Nutrient content claim is a claim that describes the level of a nutrient contained in a food. Here are the claims and what they mean:
Negative Calorie Diet Foods
All foods contain some calories, so calling something a Negative Calorie Food seems like an oxymoron. But negative calorie foods are for real. So we’ll tell you all about the benefits and side effects, along with clarifying others points around these negative calorie foods and negative calorie diets. Read on to know more about these negative calorie foods..
Lettuce- Negative calorie food (baostar@flickr)
What is a negative calorie food? Are they for real?
Simply put, any food that creates a deficit of calories is a negative calorie food. All foods contain calories. When you consume them, energy is used in chewing and digesting the food. If the calories burnt from digesting the food is more than that provided by the food itself, its a low calorie food.
Most vegetables (other than starchy vegetables) tend to be negative calorie foods. Below is a list of negative calorie foods.
List of Negative Calorie Foods
Asparagus, Beet Root, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Hot Chili, Cucumber, Garlic, Green Beans, Lettuce, Onion, Radish, Spinach, Turnip, Zucchini
Are negative calorie foods good for health?
As you can see, the negative calorie foods listed above, most of them are nutritious vegetables provided vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. Also, most of these foods are a part of the Indian diet, so they are easily available.
Should you be a negative calorie diet to lose weight?
Basically, no! Eating a negative calorie diet will create a calorie deficit, but it is much like a crash diet, since it does not provide enough calories. See the side effects of crash dieting. Similarly, negative calorie diets do not provide adequate protein, fat and carbohydrates for your body. Even though many low calorie foods have nutritive value, only eating them is not suggested.
So, how to use negative calorie foods to lose weight?
To use these negative calorie foods to lose weight, eat them along with your regular meals. Ensure you’re getting adequate protein, fat and carbohydrates in your regular meals. For maximum benefits have these negative calorie food either raw, steamed or very lightly cooked. This has 3 benefits:
- It reduces the overall calorific value of your meals.
- Increases your daily nutrition- vitamins, fiber and anitoxidants from the foods.
- Fills you up for longer, so you cut junk food cravings.
