The diet industry is a multimillion dollar industry. There are innumerable books, videos, websites, and products pertaining to various diets . There are dozens of different diets that are promoted each year. All of them promise fantastic weight loss with a minimum of effort. A lot of these diets can actually help you lose weight and become healthy. Unfortunately, there are some that can have the opposite effect: they can induce ill health and even lead to obesity. Sometimes, it is difficult to decide on which diet to follow because of the sheer volume of information that is being propagated. Let us take a look at some of the basic principles of dieting that can help to effectively aid weight loss without compromising on health.
Cut the calories. We gain weight when our calorie intake exceeds the calories that are expended by our body. There are two ways of losing weight: you can either choose to reduce your calorie intake, or increase the number of calories you burn in a day. A good diet helps you to reduce non-essential calories in a systematic manner without compromising your daily dose of required nutrients. Reducing the daily calorie intake can be done in a number of different ways. You can choose to cut down on high calorie foods, or reduce your meal portions, or eat several small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals. Whatever the weapon of choice, the ultimate aim is to cut down on the intake of calories so that you can lose weight. A good diet will also ensure that you do not compromise on any of the important nutritional elements that are required by the body such as proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
Taste good. The single biggest reason that people can't stick to their diet is because they get sick of eating the same bland food again and again. A good diet will not be bland, repetitive, or difficult to follow. The ingredients should be easily available, the dishes easy to prepare, and the food should be tasty. When choosing a diet it is very important to ensure that you will actually be willing to eat the foods prescribed in the diet happily. If you have to force yourself and fight food cravings while sticking to your diet , you will probably not be able to sustain your weight loss program for very long.
Preparation. Most of the time, it is not the food that we eat that is unhealthy and fattening, rather it is the way in which the food is prepared. For example, a healthy plate of fish can also completely lose all its nutritional value, and actually add to your weight gain if it is deep fried in oil. A good diet uses ingredients from all the major healthy food groups, and then tweaks the method of preparation to ensure that you derive maximum nutrition with minimum calories from the food.
Every effective diet has to follow these basic principles in order to work. The next time when you are confused as to which diet to choose, all you have to do is check whether your chosen diet complies with these basic principles of dieting . In fact, you can even create your own diet by following these diet principles to optimize your weight loss.
