You have a regular exercise schedule and sweating it out day in and day out, still unable to shed those extra pounds. Frustrated right! Have you thought of making changes to your diet by keeping track of your calorie count? If not, now is the time to switch to healthy meal plans. Check out the list below:
1. Stay Hydrated
You must aim to drink 8–9 glasses of water throughout the day. It will keep you sane & fuller, thus reducing the chances to binge on snacks. Also, drinking water before a meal makes you eat lesser, cutting on the calorie intake.
You must go for flavored water by adding cucumber, mint & lemon to make it interesting to sip on!
2. Have A Protein-Rich Breakfast
When you have your protein intake and exercise well, the fat gets replaced by muscles. Reduce your fat intake & rely on food like legumes, tofu, roasted chicken, eggs, yogurt, and alike. It reduces your appetite and helps you burn more calories by providing fuel your body for a longer duration than carbs.
3. Practice Portion Control
You must make it a habit of using smaller plates & bowls to cut back on your meal portions. Along with this start measuring the calories that you put in your body, and track the calorie count of each meal. The ones you love the most but have a high-calorie count must be cut back to the smallest portion size to ensure you enjoy what you eat while losing weight by diet meal plans.
4. Replace Snacks With Healthier Options
We tend to snack on wafers, chocolates, sugary drinks, and what not! Think about mixing up yogurt with fruit, nuts with dark chocolate to keep your meals yummy and healthy at the same time.
5. Cut Down On Carbs
Carbs are the most notorious elements when it comes to losing weight! We grab a high carb meal to get that adrenaline rush and, it fades at the earliest chance possible, leaving us hungry again. Also, the carbs are high in sugar content, which induces insulin to regulate blood sugar & create more fat cells adding on the content of fat in the body.
6. Do Not Over Indulge In Emotional Eating
Snacking yourself up every time you feel a rush of emotions in unhealthy and build on to unnecessary calorie intake leading to weight gain. To cut back on this habit, you can always maintain a food journal, start writing what you like to eat when overwhelmed, how much is the intake & feelings after having that meal. The journal will reflect on your unhealthy practices that can effectively be replaced by weight loss meals like nuts, fruits, oats, or roasted veggies.
7. Stop Starving Yourself
A lot of people starve themselves out to cut back the extra fat on their bodies, not realizing that this has a reverse effect on them! It is unrealistic & makes you eat more whenever you binge back.
The prolonged fasting time increases the level of cortisol, stress hormone in the body thus, making you gain weight by hormonal changes even if you rely on cutting the calorie count. Instead, you can opt for intermittent fasting, where you take a certain amount of food in specified time duration i.e, 8 hours duration to eat what you feel like & then fasting for another 8 hours. You can also eat at regular intervals in smaller amounts to give the energy the body requires!
8. Rely On High Fiber Diet
Have you ever given a thought of having a bowl full of salad before you indulge in that very delicious lunch or dinner? You’ll be surprised to know that soups & salads (of course without heavy loaded cream) can curb hunger and prevent overeating.
You can go for a vegetable soup, tomato soup corn-salads, or any nutritious rich in fiber veggie salad!
9. Cut Back The Red Meat
Replace your meat intake with healthier options like poultry & fish. The reason being lean protein helps you cut back calories by making you feel full and curbing hunger. You must replace the heavy gravy based chicken with the roasted one, this will not only give your taste buds a delightful experience but also will help you lose weight faster.
10. Drink It Up
Replace your soda, sugar-loaded juices & alcohol with healthier replacements like vegetable smoothies & fruit shakes without sugar. It will help you cut on the extra calories hence reducing fat from the body.
You must be wary of even diet sodas as they claim to be low on calories, but in reality, the artificial sweeteners add on to the cravings to have more food!
It is easier to shed those extra kilos by just making small changes in the diet. You can also go for weight loss meal plans & get your diet meals delivered from Insta Diet.
