Dietary decisions play a big role in weight loss. Studies have shown that diet is a bigger factor than exercise when individuals are trying to lose weight. Exercise is still important, but you cannot work off continual poor dietary habits. Most individuals consume more empty calories each day than they are able to burn off through exercise, leaving them hungry for nutrients and not any closer to their weight loss goals.
One way to optimize your diet for weight loss is to cut out soft drinks. Soft drinks provide no nutritional benefits and are full of sugar, sodium, and empty calories. Swap out your soft drink for flavored waters infused with fruit instead or try an iced green tea. Eliminating soft drinks from your daily dietary consumption can save you hundreds of calories each week.
Another way to optimize your diet for weight loss is to replace simple carbohydrates for complex carbohydrates. Simple carbs, such as white rice, potatoes, white breads and pasta, spike your blood sugar levels leaving you with that sugar crash a couple of hours later. That spike in blood sugar also affects your body’s insulin production and the rate that your body turns food into fuel. Complex carbohydrates do not spike blood sugar levels and provide stable and constant energy throughout the day. They also tend to be higher in fiber, helping you to feel longer. Trading out your white rice in meals for brown rice or quinoa, can help you optimize your weight loss goals. Trading out your white potatoes for sweet potatoes and white breads for whole grain wheat choices are also easy ways to help achieve your weight loss goals. Pastas are also easy to substitute. You can use whole grain pasta noodles or use a spiralizer with squashes to make veggie noodles. You will cut a lot of calories and also fill fuller longer, helping you to consume fewer amounts of calories and achieve greater weight loss.
Another way to optimize your diet for weight loss is to eliminate processed sugar from your diet. The body cannot process artificial sugars and it can affect your health negatively in many different ways including the decreased function of your thyroid glands and metabolism. Stay away from high fructose corn syrups, saccharin, and other processed sugars. You can use natural sugar cane and honey as a more healthy choice, but still limit that to small amounts. You’ll have more energy and will achieve your weight loss goals faster without having all that processed sugar in your foods.
Optimizing your diet for weight loss is easier than most people think. Simple changes like eliminating soft drinks, adding more fiber rich complex carbohydrates, and eating less sugar can help you see weight loss results more quickly. Healthy dietary habits are not a diet, it is a lifestyle.
Making healthy choices can give you a lifetime of health and energy, and also will ensure that your weight goals will be within reach.
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