10 Tips to Dieting for Fat Loss

In my previous articles, I have covered the macro nutrients, different approaches to diet, and the general concepts behind dieting. I figured, it would be useful to provide you with some tips to dieting. When you are dieting, you need to be aware of many things, such as starvation, that will prevent you from losing way. Also, you need to understanding what metabolism is. Metabolism is a fancy name for a rate at which your body burns calories. The faster you metabolism is the more calories your body burns. Increasing your metabolism is the number one tip that could help you lose significant amounts of fat. Hopefully, these 10 tips will be useful for you and will contribute towards your fat loss.

By saying eat more often, I do not mean that you should eat 5 big meals a day. You should eat your meals small. For example, if you eat 3 meals a day, 600 calories each, instead, you should eat 6 meals, 300 calories each, so that your daily calorie intake would not change. Some people recommend eating 5-6 meals a day, but I suggest eating 7-8 times a day. That way your metabolism would be going through the roof. You should split your macro nutrients equally as well.

Even if you are not dieting, it is smart to eat at least 5 times a day. Your metabolism will be fast, and you will be less likely to gain weight.

It might be hard to have 8 meals a day, if you have a full-time job. Protein shakes and diet bars are really helpful when dieting. When picking what diet bars to eat, look up the amount of sugar in the bars. Protein shakes are even better, because usually they are low-carb and high protein. However, when you are making protein shakes, be aware that milk has carbs and calories as well. If you are very strict on your carbs, you might want to consider cutting the milk of your diet, and just make protein shakes with water instead. If you are wondering, why you should be eating protein, read my article on the basics of weight loss, that I have attached (Keys To Successful Weight Loss).

Write down everything you eat every day. It might be annoying, but it will pay off in pounds you will shed off. Why is it worth logging everything you eat? When you write everything down, you will prevent you for eating more than you expend. Also, I suggest buying a weight scale for the food so you would know the exact amount of macro nutrients you consume. There is a perfect fitness log for you, I have used before, called FitDay. I am attaching a link to this fitness log. Not only the database is huge in FitDay, but you can also add your own customized products. If you do not like FitDay, there are plenty of other online fitness logs, but I have never used any other logs, so I could not give you my feedback about it.

Eating out is not good for you. I am not talking only about fast food - I am talking about any kind of restaurant. Why are restaurants bad? When you eat out, you go against 3rd tip - keeping a log. You have no idea what people at restaurants put in the food, unless they have a nutritional information, which not many of the restaurants have. However, some fast food places have nutritional information available, but even then, if you were to eat out, it should not be fast food. If you have to eat out, eat a protein-full meal, such as chicken, or a steak.

When you are dieting, the risk of dehydration improves, because you limit your fluids from the foods. To prevent that, you have to consume enough water for you body to prevent dehydration. How much water is enough? I would recommend drinking at least a gallon of water a day, or even more. Water will not hurt you, maybe it will only make you go to the restroom more often. However, it benefits a lot to your fat loss. In addition, it prevent you from getting cramps, and helps you with your food digestion. Make sure you are drinking mostly water during the day, and not water replacements, such as sodas, or juices. Putting some BCAAs or Glutamine into water is not only not bad, but even encouraged. BCAAs and Glutamine helps you preserve muscle mass, and, while dieting, it is likely to occur. Carry your water everywhere you go, and keep sipping it all throughout the day.

Are you an alcohol lover? Then the first thing you need to do is cut out the alcohol of your lifestyle. Everybody knows about the negative effects of alcohol on your health, such as destroyed brain cells and damaged liver. Even without negative effects on health, alcohol definitely prevent you from losing fat. Alcohol is mostly made from sugar. Therefore, one gram of alcohol contains 7 calories. Here I am talking about pure alcohol. A shot of vodka does not contain 7 calories a gram - it has 85-100 calories a shot, depending on what kind of vodka it is. Beer, wine, champagne, and other alcoholic beverages have plenty of calories as well. As you can see, alcohol is no better than sodas. Why would you want to sacrifice your diet and possible results, for some alcohol? AVOID IT!!!

Although it might seem that it will ruin your diet, it will have benefits for you mentally. When you are on your diet, you will be craving some things, some of which you do not even eat when you are not dieting. For example, there was a time once, when I craved pizza really bad, while I don't even eat pizza, when I am not dieting. If you have a cheat meal, it will prevent you from breaking down mentally. In addition, it will boost up your metabolism, because your body will be used to having hardly any fats, or carbs (depending on your diet), and, once you have a cheat meal, which will probably be high in carbs, fat, or both, it will get shocked, and get your metabolism going even faster. It would be even better, if your cheat meal would have plenty of proteins as well, to supply your body with good nutrition.

It is a good idea to have your cheat meal as your last meal, so you would prevent the cravings, cause by the insulin spike. Keep in mind, that cheating should not happen too often. I would not go with any more frequent than once a week.

Since you will be cutting down on calories, and, probably, cutting out most of the fruits and some vegetables, it is necessary that you supplement yourself with multivitamins. Fruits and vegetables are filled with nutrients, and not eating them will prevent your body from receiving the same amount of vitamins that you would normally receive, when not dieting. Fish oil is important for your diet, as it is the necessary fat to keep your brain working and prevents you from getting coronary heart disease. If you feel that you are eating a lot of fish, you might be getting enough omega-3's from your food. However, supplementing on fish oil will not hurt you.

Why would you keep junk food at your house when you are dieting? Those only create temptations, and, eventually, you will break down and take those tempting snacks. I had this situation in my family. People at my house loved candy, and I was trying to diet. It was unbelievably hard to resist a piece of chocolate laying on the kitchen table. If you are experiencing this, talk to your household members, and explain to them that you are dieting and you do not want to see junk food laying around. Tell them to hide those foods into their drawers, etc.

It is an excuse to cheat on your diet, when you have no time to make some nutritious food. You will just pick up a meal to go, or stop by a fast food restaurant. NO!!! Make your meals a day in advance. If you know that tomorrow will be busy, or even, if you have to travel tomorrow, make sure to cook your food a night in advance. Why would you waste money in the airport on junk food, when you can bring a piece of chicken breast and some broccoli in a zip-lock container? Travelling is not an excuse to cheat!