How to go on a diet? Everyone says they need to go on a diet to achieve the desired physique, but only a few know what and how to do it to lose weight and sculpt their abs. If dieting were easy, everyone would be able to stay in shape, and we would all be slimmer. However, losing weight and staying in shape require some precautions. Let’s see how to properly go on a diet to lose weight and then maintain the achieved result.
How to go on a diet?
You want to go on a diet, and suddenly you start eating very little, but it’s not enough. Moreover, how little is too little? Eating too little is not dieting; it deprives your metabolism of essential elements, and it’s not good, it cannot work in a healthy way. It should be noted that when fasting to try to lose weight quickly, it always works. You can lose up to 3 kg (6.6 pounds) in a week. The problem is that we often regain the lost weight just as quickly (often with interest). So, let’s clarify the precautions to take immediately to follow a healthy and balanced diet that doesn’t make us starve but still helps us lose weight until we reach our ideal weight.
Follow a good diet: complete, healthy, and balanced
How to properly go on a diet? Do you want to go on a diet while staying healthy? You must follow a good diet, a complete diet, which means not eliminating anything from your diet, such as diets that are almost carbohydrate-free. You need all types of nutrients, so fats and carbohydrates should be part of your diet but in the right amount.
To be balanced, a complete diet must ensure a proper intake of all macronutrients and micronutrients. Only then will your diet be varied (not boring), colorful, and tasty.
Choosing healthy foods for your diet is not everything; you also need to consider the quantity of what you eat. Eating a lot of healthy food, even beyond your energy needs, will make you gain weight rather than lose it. Therefore, the advice is to follow the 80-20 rule: 80% of what you eat in a day should consist of healthy foods, while the remaining 20% can be indulgent but less nutritious options.
Thanks to a small amount of less healthy foods, you will be able to stick to your diet correctly without accumulating cravings for your favorite (yet calorie-rich) dishes or feeling the urge to give in to temptation.
Always eat fruits and vegetables and avoid processed foods
How to follow the diet correctly? One piece of advice that you have surely already received from everyone, starting from your grandmother to your nutritionist, is to eat more fruits and vegetables compared to the processed foods found in supermarkets. The reason is simple: processed foods contain a high number of calories despite having low nutritional value. They won’t satisfy your hunger, and as a result, they make you gain weight or feel unwell.
It is very convenient to consume ready-made food such as cookies, ice cream, snacks, and chips. You can include these foods in your healthy diet, but remember the 80-20 rule. The majority of the 80% of healthy foods you need to eat to follow the diet correctly should consist of fruits and vegetables.
Fruit-based snacks are the best. Pair them with yogurt or herbal tea, and you’re done. Vegetables, on the other hand, are excellent as side dishes for dinner or can be used to make a delicious dressing for lunch. Ideally, consume 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, according to your energy needs.
Fruits and vegetables, especially those in season, are rich in nutrients, so they have high nutritional value and are low in calories. They won’t exceed your calorie deficit, which is necessary for weight loss.
Replace bad old habits with good new habits
How to diet properly? Forget about easy diets like “-11 lb in 7 days.” It doesn’t work on the eighth day. It’s pointless to make sacrifices if you’re just going to throw everything away as soon as you deviate from the predetermined path. What you need are good habits, healthy habits. But it can be difficult to adopt good new habits, just as it can be challenging to abandon bad old habits. The solution is to replace the bad old habits with good new habits that help you reach your goal faster. With this method, if you manage to lose weight, it will be for good.
What do you think I’m about to advise you? Engaging in physical activity promotes weight loss and helps you lose fat exactly where you want to, in the areas you want to slim down to feel better. However, engaging in physical activity requires consistency. That’s why I mentioned new good habits. It’s pointless to diet if you don’t also engage in physical activity consistently. To make it feasible, start with easy activities: 30 minutes of walking every day is a good starting point. As you progress, you can choose how to increase your exercise routine and which direction you want to take: yoga, pilates, swimming, dancing, crossfit, and even bodybuilding are all options you can consider later on.
How to diet properly? Maintain a calorie deficit to lose weight, and then follow a maintenance diet
How to diet properly? The real secret to dieting for weight loss is to maintain the calorie deficit established every day, every week, and every month of your diet. When the nutritionist tells you never to exceed a certain amount of calories per day (for example, 1200 calories), you must absolutely follow their advice and count the calories of the food you consume, even if it’s healthy.
Dieting means taking responsibility for your nutrition and, as a result, committing to understanding how and what to eat. Counting calories every day may seem challenging at first glance, but soon you will remember exactly how many calories your favorite foods have, and you will be able to calculate them easily without using apps or calculators five times a day.
Remember that to have a successful diet, you need to be passionate about your nutrition because that’s the only way you’ll achieve your desired weight goal. Once you reach your target weight, you won’t need to know how to diet properly anymore but how to maintain your diet.
The maintenance diet should be followed without a calorie deficit. Your nutritionist will be able to guide you regarding the exact number of calories you need based on your physical activity and basal metabolism. It’s crucial to fully adapt to the maintenance diet because that’s the diet you should follow if you don’t want to start over in a few months! Commit until the end so you don’t undermine your initial efforts.
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The information provided in the Diet and Italian Recipes articles is for INFORMATION ONLY and does not intend to replace the opinion of professional figures such as a doctor, nutritionist, or dietitian, whose intervention is necessary for the prescription and composition of personalized dietary therapies.
