Healthy and Natural Weight Loss program

Natural weight loss through modification of food habits is a healthy way of getting in shape. Know how to eat healthy and avoid unhealthy food.

If you have more body fat than is optimally healthy, you are over weight or pre-obese. Among other reasons like genetic predisposition, hormonal imbalance, the dominant reason is excess calorie intake.

You are over weight because, your daily food intake contains extra calories than required by your body taking your life style into consideration. Your body stores these extra calories for future use by converting into fat. The starting places where this fat gets stored is different for men and women- belly for men; hips and thighs for women.

For example, an average man doing office work needs 2000 cal. per day. If his daily food intake contains 2500 cal, this extra 500 cal is stored as fat in different places of the body. If he does not take any action to burn those extra calories, he starts gaining weight and becomes obese over a period of time, initiating associated physical and psychological problems.

Why should you not attempt for rapid weight loss through drastic food control?

Seven nutrients are essential for the body:

• Carbohydrates

• Proteins

• Fats

• Vitamins

• Minerals

• Enzymes

• Fibre

Energy comes from fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Reducing food intake for the purpose of losing weight is not entirely correct. It reduces calorie intake, no doubt, but it also causes nutrition deficiency, leading to body immune deficiency and a many health problems. Hence, reducing food intake drastically is not a healthy way of weight reduction.

Any sudden change in the body has its own side effects. Let your weight reduction process be slow and steady.

What is healthy and natural weight loss principle?

Healthy weight reduction process consists of allowing the body to use up the extra fat- slowly. How?

Your daily food intake must contain fewer calories than required by the body. Then your body converts some of the stored fat into calories. Thus, everyday, a part of your accumulated fat gets converted into energy and used up completely over a period of time. Your food should contain fewer calories but, the required nutrients must not be lost. By choosing such a diet, your weight reduction process is healthy without any ill effects. It is a slow process, but a healthy one.

What type of food to choose?

When you choose food, remember two points:

• Low in calories.

• Rich in nutrition.

• Leafy greens: Low in calories as they contain less carbohydrates and fat. High in protein, fibre, iron and calcium. Eat them raw as in salads or steam cook. Eat in good quantity.

• Vegetables: Products of plants. Include them in plenty. But when you cook vegetables in oil and add spices, the calorie content increases very much. Eat them in salad form. When you want to cook, steam cooking is preferable.

• Vegetable juice: 300ml of juice daily will do a lot of good in the process of your natural weight loss program. Make juice out of three or four varieties of vegetables. Mix one table spoon of honey, squeeze half a lemon, mix it well and drink.

• Fruits and fruit juices: Source of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fibre. Easily digestible. Eat them fresh but be careful about fruits like grapes and apples which are sprayed with pesticides. There are some fruits of high calorie content, take them moderately if you are on natural weight loss program- examples: Banana, mango, jack fruit...

• Dry fruits and nuts: Good source of nutrients. But be aware of high calorie varieties like almonds, pista, cashew, dates and coconut.

• Sprouted grains: Very good for weight reduction. Green gram, wheat, beans, cowpeas… As in dry grains, sprouts also contain carbohydrates, protein, minerals and vitamins. The amount of protein increases and carbohydrates content decreases and vitamin C gets added when grains sprout. Sprouts are also easy to digest.
  Do not use seeds meant for planting, as they are treated with fungicides and other poisonous chemicals.

• Roots: Even though some of the root vegetables contain good amount of carbohydrates, because of high fibre content, they are released to the body slowly in a controlled manner. No chance of chemical sprays. However, it is better to eat them in limited quantity.

What food should you avoid?

Present generation consumes substantial amount of junk food- food with empty calories. It means, with high calories but low nutrition.

Examples:

• Deep-fried foods- Calorie content is very high as they absorbs lot of oil.
• Food prepared out of refined grains such as crackers, cookies, white rice and white bread. All nutrients and fibre are lost during refining process. Rich in carbohydrates.

• Soft drinks, fruit flavoured beverages with very little or no quantity of actual juice.
• Sweets, candy, chocolates and other foods containing good amount of sugar.

• Alcoholic beverages like beer, whisky...

  Avoid junk food, get sufficient daily exercise and eat healthy low calorie food rich in nutrients. You will be on your way to natural weight loss.

  
  

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