How to Lose Weight without the Sacrifice

We’ve all seen the glossy covers of magazines on sale at the grocery store or newsstand proclaiming that they have the ‘once and for all’ answer for how to lose weight. Turn on your TV, and there’s commercial after commercial touting diets, pills, and fasts that are guaranteed to help you shed the pounds. It's almost impossible to escape the deluge

The thing is, if all of these sources truly had the answer to the dilemma of how to lose weight, everyone would already know about it by now. Obviously, when you take a look around, there are a growing number of people who are completely unaware of the proper ways to lose weight in a safe and healthy manner.

Go to the Experts

In the January 2013 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics the AND put forth their position statement regarding the most healthy and effective means of losing weight. In the statement, the Academy notes that the most common method of dieting, such as excluding certain foods from the diet, or even entire categories of foods, is perhaps one of the most ineffective ways to lose weight. In outlining their position on healthy eating and how to lose weight, the AND states that the best approach is what they call a ‘total diet approach.’

“In contrast to the total diet approach, classification of specific foods as good or bad is overly simplistic and can foster unhealthy eating behaviors. Alternative approaches are necessary in some situations. Eating practices are dynamic and influenced by many factors, including taste and food preferences, weight concerns, physiology, time and convenience, environment, abundance of foods, economics, media/marketing, perceived product safety, culture, and attitudes/beliefs,” states the AND.

Given this line of logic, based upon decades of research and findings, the question of how to lose weight can actually be transformed into an entirely different question altogether – ‘How do I eat my way to a normal weight?’

Weight Management through Lifestyle Changes

‘But I already gained the weight,’ you say, ‘Now what?’

The approach that bistroMD takes to weight loss is exactly the one outlined by the AND. Rather than focusing on the changes that you must make to your diet to lose weight, which may result in dietary exclusions, and ultimately the potential for unintended adverse health consequences, it is best to instead think about how to lose weight through the lens of lifestyle changes.

So just what does a lifestyle change mean in relation to food? It means that instead of viewing food as something to turn to when sad, bored, or just interested in eating, our relationship with food must be one centered on providing our bodies with the nutrition they need to function effectively. When our relationship with food becomes one of fueling our bodies for success, weight loss and better health are natural consequences.

How to Bring about the Change

When you are ready to make a commitment to better health, simply follow the guidelines as outlined below:

• Eat three meals a day. One when you wake up in the morning, one halfway through your day, and another several hours before you go to bed.

 

• Focus on consuming lean proteins with every meal. Your plate should contain no more than ¼ protein during any meal.
  • Examples of lean protein:
    • Fish
    • Pork tenderloin
    • Chicken breast
    • Turkey breast
    • Lean cuts of beef

     

• Fill half of your plate with colorful non-starchy vegetables.
  • Examples of non-starchy vegetables:
    • Artichokes
    • Beans (Italian, green, wax)
    • Brussels sprouts
    • Cabbage
    • Carrots
    • Cauliflower
    • Eggplant
    • Mushrooms
    • Peppers
    • Spinach
    • Summer squash
    • Tomatoes

     

• Choose complex carbohydrates when consuming grains.
  • These include:
    • Oats
    • Millet
    • Wheat germ
    • Barely
    • Wild rice
    • Brown rice
    • Buckwheat
    • Rye
    • Quinoa
    • Amaranth

These simple guidelines, when combined with the philosophy of eating to sustain your body with healthy nutrition, are the answer to how to lose weight. Sound nutrition and a healthy relationship with food are the only proven methods for helping people lose weight and maintain a healthy weight thereafter.

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