Nourishing Dieting Tips: Learning To Manage Food When Dieting

Are you embarking on a weight loss journey?

For a lot of women, dieting has become a normal part of life. There are a lot of misunderstandings about dieting. As a result, many struggle with consistent weight management.

Truth be told, the pandemic has made it incredibly difficult for anybody to maintain a healthy relationship with food. In fact, many have turned to food for comfort during a time of hardships and high stress. However, several years after the pandemic, you may still be struggling with the aftermath of the COVID-19 diet. As most households embrace home baking, sweet treats, and high calorie recipes, the weight piled up. More importantly, our taste buds and stomachs got used to the pandemic food culture. As such, it makes sense why it is so hard for countless women (and men) to transform their diets and regain control over their weight. 

So, the first step you want to take if you are going to use dieting as part of a weight loss strategy is managing a sustainable approach to eating. Ultimately, while fad diets may be appealing as a quick way to drop a dress size, they are best to be avoided. These crash and popular diets are not only unhealthy, but they are counterproductive. You are more likely to gain the weight back. So, instead, you want to introduce tricks that make it easy to fuel your body while creating a sustainable calorie deficit. 

Save time and effort with advanced prep

Do you know why most people complain about having a healthy diet? The preparation time! Preparing ingredients is time-demanding. So, when you are in a rush, it’s easy to see how appealing pre-made meals can be. After all, we all know that buying a frozen pizza needs zero preparation time. On the other hand, making a healthy protein-rich dish with vegetables will require a lot of time in the kitchen.

So, you want to make it easy for yourself to stay healthy by preparing your ingredients ahead. Chopping all your veggies and keeping them in safe containers in your fridge will significantly reduce your cooking time. 

Use smart meal replacements

Even with the best of will, it can be tricky to make time for food preps. In a busy household, you might find that you can’t make time to prepare lunch boxes to take to work with you. Similarly, if you’re someone who is constantly on the road or needs to meet clients during their work day, bringing a lunch box may not be practical. 

So, it’s important to look for meal replacement solutions that can support weight loss without leaving you starving. While there is a huge variety of shakes and diet bars available, you want to consider brands that have a range of flavours. For instance, Shake That Weight is a popular choice for dieters who seek a better range than Exante or similar service. Shakes and bars are great tips for a weight-loss plan that’s easy to follow. However, lack of product diversity and limited flavours can lead to boredom.

Meal replacement options are a fabulous way to kickstart a diet plan, and you can gradually reintroduce everyday food once you feel more confident. Additionally, these plans also ensure dieters can still have access to all the nutrients and vitamins they need, even while cutting on calories. 

Don’t cut your calories too much

Yes, you can’t lose weight without creating a calorie deficit. But you need to keep this calorie deficit within  a healthy range. 

There are numerous reasons why a crash diet that keeps your calorie consumption under 1,000 calories a day is ineffective: 

1. Your body has a basal metabolic rate, which is the minimum amount of calories it needs to perform all bodily functions. Extreme low calorie diets can affect essential functions. 
2. If your calorie consumption gets too low, the body enters in survival mode, which means that it will focus on storing calories rather than burning them. This not only slows down your metabolism further (which brings your metabolic rate lower), but also makes it harder to lose weight. Less is not necessarily better when it comes to calories!
3. You are more likely to give in to cravings and increase your portions dramatically. 

Understand macros

Macronutrients, commonly known as macros, are the nutrients your body requires in large quantities: Carbs, proteins and healthy fats. Achieving a macro balance for your diet can be a lot more effective than reducing your calories. For example, increasing your protein intake while reducing carbs, without changing the amount of calories you consume, can already transform the way your body processes food and burns energy. 

The bottom line, dieting doesn’t have to be synonymous with depriving yourself. You can still have a balanced and healthy diet that brings all the nutrients and macros you need without cutting your calories by too much. More importantly, dieting is about being smart about the ways you fuel your body. It’s never about starvation!