For many years, the thought was: we need to consume fewer calories than we burn in order to lose weight. However, in recent years, we have discovered that what we consume is much more important and will have a larger impact on our weight loss. Creating the correct nutrition plan for your lifestyle will be what matters the most when it comes to your weight loss. Taking the necessary time to pay attention to what you are eating.
Creating a Nutrition Plan to Boost Your Weight Loss
When you eat right, it will help you stay in the right mindset for your weight loss journey. Both taking the effort to sticking to your weight loss plan and taking the time to exercise is vital to helping you stay on that path. Creating a nutrition plan keeps you focused on your fitness goals. Here are the steps you need to take in order to create a comprehensive nutrition plan.
Understand Your Own Body
Weight loss needs to be more than simply losing pounds. It needs to be about creating a balanced a body composition. You need to be creating the best balance of muscle mass and body fat in your body. You need to be losing body fat and looking to increase your muscle mass. The first step you need to take is to take a DXA Scan in order to understand your current body composition so that you know how much weight you need to lose in order achieve that perfect balance in your body.
Once you understand everything you need to know about your body composition, you can begin working on creating the right nutrition plan that will help you reach your goals.
Purge Your Home of the Wrong Types of Food
Whenever you begin on your weight loss journey, it’s important to start fresh. You need to remove the foods from your house that will be a temptation and will set your back when it comes to reaching your goals. Take all that junk food and throw it away. This may be difficult, but it is an important step. If you have people who are living in your home that may not be supportive of this action, request that they keep their food in a non-communal area where it will not be as visible to you. As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind”.
When you create your meal plan, it’s important to make sure that you are not eating food that your body is intolerant to. When you eat food that you are intolerant to, it can make you sick and can cause you to gain weight. Once you understand what foods you are intolerant to, you will also need to remove those foods from your home as well.
Develop a Meal Plan
Planning ahead is the most important thing that you can do when it comes to managing your weight loss. If you do not create your nutrition plan, you are going to be much more likely to eat what you should not be eating and therefore will not see the results that you want when it comes to your weight loss. Planning what you are going to eat will help you feel much more prepared and confident about what you are eating every day. It will help you understand how many calories you will be eating every day and ensure that you have a balanced diet with all the correct amount of nutrients.
We would recommend creating a chart with the 7 days of the week and at least 5 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner and 2 snacks). Write down exactly what you will be eating for each meal. Do the research to find some recipes that you will like. Make sure that you change up the meals. You don’t want to be eating the same thing everyday. You will become bored and will be much more tempted to stray from your meal plan.
What Types of Food Should I Be Eating?
It’s important to make sure that your diet hast the right combination of foods to help you boost your weight loss. Here are the foods that you need to make sure that are including in your diet.
Lean Proteins
Proteins are vital for your diet. They give you energy that lasts for longer so that you feel fuller for longer and you won’t crave more food throughout the day. The best type of proteins for weight loss are:
- White meat chicken or turkey
- Beans and lentils
- Fish
- Tofu
- Nuts and seeds
- Pork tenderloin
- Eggs
Complex Carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates are beneficial because they provide energy to your body, but your body takes more time to digest them. This helps boost your thermogenesis (the number of calories that your body burns while it digests). Also, just as with the lean proteins, they also help you keep you fuller longer. Here are some complex carbohydrates that you need to include in your diet:
- Sweet Potatoes
- Quinoa
- Squash
- Oats
- Brown Rice
Make sure that you stay away from simpler carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, potatoes, and other sugary food that break down easily and turn into fat if they are not burned off right away. If you are craving something sweet, grab your favorite type of fruit.
Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables are high in fiber and contain a low amount of calories. These vegetables will fill you up faster and will keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. Cruciferous vegetables have a low glycemic index, so they don't cause spikes in your blood sugar that will lead to the release of insulin -- the chemical in your body that will convert your calories to fat. Here are some cruciferous vegetables that you need to be eating:
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Brussels Sprouts
- Turnips
Do Your Weekly Meal Prep
Make Sunday your cooking day. Go to the grocery and get all of the ingredients that you need for the week. You will also need all of the containers that you need for all of your meals. Have all of your meals and snacks cooked and prepped on Sunday night so that you can simply grab your meals for the day before you head out for the day. This will ensure that you have your food for the day and you will not crave foods that will take you off your weight loss plan.
Your Body’s Specific Nutrition Plan for Weight Loss
Your body’s DNA has a large difference on your weight loss and your nutrition plan. Understanding your DNA and how your genetics are related to your fitness, health, and nutrition. Once you have this understanding of your genetics, you can work with a customized nutrition plan that will optimize your weight loss and keep you on track to reach your fitness goals. Nutrition is what will keep your body thriving for longer.
Nutrition is not simply a diet that you are on for a short while and your body gains all the weight that you have lost. Nutrition is about changing your lifestyle so that you are providing the right nutrients to your body that will keep your body in shape and will keep you feeling great. Eating the right foods will help you life a better, healthier life in a body that you love.
