Even for those of us that avoid fad diets to help us lose weight, we know we can’t just eat every single thing we might want to eat – unless you’re already a health nut that truly loves tofu for the taste. The second biggest thing that engenders groans is the prospect of giving up our favorite snacks and meals (the first is probably the exercise, itself, for those just starting out.) The wonderful thing is you do not have to give up these foods entirely, and with a committed weight-loss program of eating nutritious meals, moderate aerobic exercise and building lean muscle, you can have a portion every day!
Weight-Loss Substitutions
The first order of business is identifying some of the things that are simply no good for you at all, which can be easily replaced with healthy substitutes without much downgrade in taste. Butter, please stand up! Replacing this beacon of saturated fat (butter usually consists of at least 63% saturated fat, with the rest being cholesterol – there isn’t a single good thing about it from a weight-loss point of view) with any of various oils, particularly olive oil, can do wonders for calorie-reduction and heart-healthfulness. You should certainly avoid frying with butter when you can, although the FDA does say that for the average, healthy adult, 20 grams of saturated fat per day is quite acceptable which equals about one-sixth of a cup of butter. Placing olive oil in the refrigerator will give it the consistency of butter, for those that like to spread it on bread. The taste is different, but from experience, you will likely become acclimated to it.
Look around the house for other things with little nutritional value that you can replace; most of them are termed “empty calories” because all they do is give your body fat to store, without providing the essential minerals and nutrients that help us heal, repair muscle tissue, fight off disease and become generally much more efficient human beings.
Eating Some of What You Want While Losing Weight
Once you employ a few necessary substitutions for your weight-loss designs, you can tackle the problem of finding ways to eat what you like. Fortunately, this is the easiest part of all, once you are committed to a balanced diet that provides the things you need to be a fit, fighting machine. Your favorite foods can serve as portions after your balanced meal. You can even eat smaller portions of the highly-nutritious stuff, in order to be able to get the ‘good’ stuff in. Since the latter, for most people, usually consists of high-calorie, low-nutrient stuff, you can ensure that your body has the stuff it needs to function properly, as well as fight fat. This is the principle behind the “cheat days” that many weight-loss programs espouse; the body can take it easily, so long as you are providing it with proper fuel most of the time.
So, the next time you are hankering for a heaping plate of high-saturated fat beef or cheese, consider only getting half a heaping plate of the beef, with the other half comprising fatty fish, which have the excellent fatty-acid Omega-3. As always, your body will thank you for it right away, and you’ll see the results in the weeks to come.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used for diagnosis or to guide treatment without the opinion of a health professional. Any reader who is concerned about his or her health should contact a doctor for advice.
Christina Thomas - Christina Thomas is a physics grad student who has recently taken up an interest in internet article marketing, file sharing and web ...
