8 Healthy Lifestyle Tips, Ideal Weight Loss Programs With Meal Plans

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8 Healthy Lifestyle Tips, Ideal Weight Loss Programs With Meal Plans

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Oscar award winning actor Jennifer Hudson once said: “I’m prouder of my weight loss than my Oscar!” This is an example to let you know how important and rewarding it is to lose the extra weight on your body. Many people think that obesity can be reduced by cutting out on food, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Losing weight is not at all about cutting out, it is about crowding out. A diet plan, which suggests eating less, is bound to affect your health because when you cut out, you deprive the body of essential nutrients that it requires functioning properly. So, whenever you hear advice from some person who says ‘eat less if you want to reduce weight,’ correct them by informing them that cutting down on unhealthy food is the right way to achieve an ideal weight loss. When you eat right and follow proper exercise routines, you automatically instruct your body to function better, which increases the metabolism of the body, resulting in shedding of excessive fat.

Now, you must be thinking that you can take one of the pills available in the market or the weight loss coffee, which claims that it can cut down your fat in a very little time. Most of these tablets will also claim that they are all-organic and contain extracts from green tea and coffee, but you need to know that anything that you haven’t worked for will not be as rewarding or long-lasting as something that you have worked really hard for. The laboratory analysis of the

Food And Drug Administration

(FDA) confirmed that these products contain

sibutramine

, which is a controlled substance. This drug was taken off the market in the entire United States in 2010 because of safety concerns. There have been cases where this substance has been linked with increase in blood pressure and/or pulse rate and has proven to be dangerous for people with past instances of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure,

arrhythmias

, or stroke. The other reason why doctors do not deem sibutramine fit for consumption is because it can intervene with other medications that you might be on, and cause problems. FDA has announced that use of such methods should immediately be stopped, and people who have faced any side-effects of one of these products must seek immediate medical care.

All these short-cut methods to lose weight may even help you, but they come with adverse side-effects, and as soon as you stop taking the pill, you will start gaining again. A healthy diet and lifestyle is the only option you have if you want to become fit and stay like that (

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Game Of Calories

Coming to the specifics, you must have heard people talking about their calorie intake and its management. You have to understand that you should only consume as many calories as required by your body. People who work out more, or who do more physical work in their day, will require more calories in their diet, as compared to a person with minimum physical activity. It also depends on the gender as females require fewer calories as compared to men, unless we are talking about a man with a desk job and a woman who has an active lifestyle and has to stay on her toes every time. In this case, the woman may probably require more calories than the man.

Apart from the number of calories you should consume, you also need to see where these calories are coming from. There are three main nutrients that provide the body with most of the calories that it requires. These are carbohydrates, proteins, and fat.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the powering substances that provide energy to the body, which helps us perform day-to-day activities. It also provides energy for all the organs to work. One gram of carbohydrate gives 4 kcal (calories,) and it is recommended that your diet should contain at least 20-25% of carbohydrates, according to your physical activity. The right carbohydrates are full of dietary fibers, which are required by the body to synthesize the food that we eat, and convert it into energy. You can obtain complex carbohydrates and dietary fibers from various sources like quinoa, barley, oats, muesli, whole wheat food products, acorn squash, bananas, etc.

Proteins

Another nutrient is protein, which is necessary for increasing the rate of metabolism of the body and repairing any muscle damage. When you do weight training, you tear up the muscles and protein is required to fill up that gap. People who lift a lot of weights, or who train with weights, need more protein. One gram of protein also provides 4 kcal, and it is important to include some dietary fibers in your diet to properly synthesize the protein that you have consumed. You can obtain these dietary fibers from complex carbohydrates like whole wheat flour with bran, quinoa, oats, etc. You can have 10-35% of the protein in one day’s diet according to your requirements, which will be explained later.

Fats

The final nutrient that is essential for the body is fat. There are different types of fats; some are healthy, and some are not. Most fats are not very good for your health, and you should avoid them. These include the oils, which are used for cooking, for the most part. The less oil you use to cook your food, the healthier you will be. You must consume good fats, which have omega-3 fatty acids that are really important for the body. They help in proper movement of the body and store energy in the body for later use. Excess consumption of fat will result in accumulation under the skin, which makes a person fat.

The good fat can be obtained from fishes with high-fat content, fish-oil capsules, walnuts, peanuts, flax seeds, olives, etc. One gram of fat contains 9 kcal, which is more than the double amount derived from carbohydrates or proteins. Fats provide energy, but if left unused, they will accumulate on different areas of your body, and subsequently increase your weight. For the same reason, it is suggested to keep the fat content in the diet at a minimum of 4-5%. Same is the case with extra carbohydrates; they will be stored in the body in the form of fat if left unutilized.

For a healthy and moderately active male, a diet with 1800-2000 calories is a good bid. For a person who wants to reduce weight, a diet with around 1500 calories will be sufficient. Any diet that suggests consuming less than 1500 calories will only make you weak, as an adult’s body requires at least 1500 calories to function well. For females, 1200 calorie diet is suggested for weight loss and a 1500-1800 calorie diet for the ones with moderate to an active lifestyle.

Understanding The Increase In Weight and Ideal Weight Loss Strategy

It has been proven that most people put on weight because of insulin dysfunction. Diet plays a big role in this process. A person, who has a diet that is not according to the standards mentioned above, will suffer from insulin dysfunction. People who eat a lot of saturated fats and sugars, like muffins, cakes, cereals, bread, pasta, pizza, pastries, corn, etc. will put a lot of pressure on the pancreas to make it produce extra insulin, which stays in the body and reduces the blood sugar to very low, sometimes negative.

This happens because insulin is supposed to decrease the blood sugar to keep it in check, or at a normal rate, and when we pressurize it to produce more insulin, it decreases the blood sugar more than it is supposed to. Apart from decreasing the blood sugar level drastically, it can also cause

hypoglycemia

or

hyperglycemia

. This will result in constant demand of sugar by the body, which will lead to over-eating and increase in weight. Insulin also eases the process of carrying triglycerides to the fat cells and locking them in those fat cells. This will render the triglycerides, which are a form of fat, useless as a source of energy. This will again result in sugar cravings, and you will be back to square one.

The basic rule is to avoid eating a lot of saturated fats and sugars because the more you eat these items, the more you will gain weight and also the more you would want to eat them.

8 Lifestyle Changes For A Faster And Ideal Weight Loss

1. Avoid CRAP

This isn’t what you are thinking, CRAP is a classification of foods that you must avoid in order to maintain, and manage, your body weight. Cutting down on these 4 elements from your diet, and ultimately deleting them completely, will help to be a very important step towards weight reduction and a healthy lifestyle. Below are the CRAP food items, which are coming in your and the flat belly’s way.

Caffeine:

It is a big no-no because caffeine increases

lipolysis

, which in turn, enhances resting metabolic rate when your body is resting. This is a negative phenomenon because when your body is in the state of rest, the metabolic function should be minimum and caffeine proves to be counter productive here. Caffeine also dehydrates your body, which will make you feel more lethargic, once its effects of waking you up in the morning wear off. And dehydration is definitely not the way to start losing weight (

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Refined Sugar:

It is present in breakfast cereals, ice creams, soft beverages, energy drinks, flavored yogurt, and a lot of food products. It can be said that most of the fast food items and snacks contain refined sugar. So giving it up completely is almost impossible, but you can reduce its consumption to an absolute minimum. One of the ways is to look at the label on any food item, to find out how much sugar is present in it. You can avoid the products that have a very high sugar content. The problem with sugar and other refined carbohydrates is that they provide calories but almost no vitamins or minerals. This makes the synthesis of carbohydrates very difficult and makes you want to eat more of these products, which will ultimately result in weight gain (

3

).

Alcohol:

We all know that alcohol is very common amongst the youngsters these days. Alcohol can include wine, beer, liqueurs, hard liquor, etc. We all know that alcohol is not an option when you want to lead a healthy lifestyle. It dehydrates your body and can increase the demand of energy by the body, which can lead to overeating. This doesn’t hide the fact that alcoholic beverages, especially beers, have high-calorie content themselves, which will contribute towards the increase in weight. If you want a healthy body, you need to stay hydrated, and alcohol and caffeine do the opposite. Hence, you need to steer clear of these beverages and opt for more healthy beverages with minimum sugar content like coconut water, fruit juices, green and other organic teas, etc (

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Processed Foods:

Processed food means any food item that has been modified from its original state from when it was raw. These food items usually contain a lot of refined sugar, salt, unhealthy and/or trans fat, etc. (

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). Researchers have said that food items, which are more and more processed, will not satisfy hunger when compared to less processed food items. This will result in more demand and craving by the body for these food items, which will lead to an increased calorie intake, resulting in increased weight (

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).

2. Fish Oil

Fish oil is a very important but overlooked component of a healthy diet. A lot of people don’t really know about the numerous benefits of fish oil, including its role in the reduction of extra body fat. A lot of studies have been conducted proving the effect of

polyunsaturated fatty acids

, which make up most of the fish oil, on

triacylglycerol

count in the body. It was seen that triacylglycerol was reduced drastically in the people who incorporated fish oil in their diet. Reduced

high-density lipoprotein

(HDL) was also noticed in the people with fish oil in their diet. You can consider fish oil as one of the best components that you have to add in your diet today if you aspire for fat reduction and a flat stomach (

7

).

Consumption of fish oil can be done directly by consuming the fishes that are high in this component, or indirectly by consuming fish oil capsules regulated by your physician. There are a lot of different fishes, which you can eat to obtain fish oil including mackerel, salmon, sardines, etc. Just make sure if you are consuming fish oil capsules, consult with your doctor regarding allergies, sufficient dosage, and intervention with any other medication (

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3. Never Skip A Meal, Especially Breakfast

It is a common myth that skipping meals, especially breakfast will make you consume less calories, but it is totally wrong. When you skip meals, you feel more hungry between meals, which makes you overeat in the next meal. Essentially, you will eat the same amount of food but it will be concentrated in that one meal, which is not recommended by doctors. It will only put more pressure on your digestive system because you have put in more food in it to process than you usually do (

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A study, to test the importance of breakfast in reduction of body mass, especially fat, was conducted with 2 groups of people. One group had proper heavy breakfast with a lot of protein, dietary fibers and complex carbohydrates. Another group was not given any breakfast. People from both the groups went on with their days, performed more or less same physical tasks (including exercise,) and ate the same food in same quantities. They were observed for 12 weeks, and it was noted that the group that had breakfast, reduced 8.9 kilograms of fat, whereas the group that didn’t have breakfast reduced only 6.2 kilograms. It was also observed that the people who had to make more changes in their diet showed better results. This means breakfast helps decrease the accumulated dietary fat and reduces the craving for more snacks during the day between meals which will help your cause of reducing weight (

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).

Breakfast must include all the components of your diet in a regulated proportion. You will find balanced recipes for all meals at the end of this article. You can replace your usual milk with low-fat milk, incorporate berries, use oatmeal instead of breakfast cereal for starters, to make your breakfast healthier than before. You can also replace white bread with multigrain or whole-wheat bread, and spread peanut butter instead of jelly, which has a high sugar content. When you feel hungry between meals, you can eat some healthy snacks like low-fat and unflavored yogurt that has no added sugar, whole-wheat crackers, and boiled veggies with hummus, etc (

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4. Time Your Meals

The right time to have a meal is determined by a lot of factors, like rest and activity time before and after the meal, sleep cycle of the person, and a lot of other factors. The right time for a person, with a normal to moderate active lifestyle, to have breakfast is after the morning exercise, which will help the body recover. Lunch should be at least 5 hours after the breakfast, as your body needs energy for the remaining day. Remember that your breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you should try having a heavy breakfast. Lunch, on the other hand, should be moderate as you need the energy till dinner time. This leaves your dinner which should be at least 2-3 hours before you sleep so that your body is in a complete state of rest when you go to sleep.

If you leave less gap between your dinner and sleeping, your digestive system has to work while you are asleep. And remember, dinner is the least important meal of the day and you should try to keep it as simple and light as possible because you don’t have much physical activities planned after dinner. Sleeping requires minimum energy, and when you eat 2-3 hours before sleeping, your body is in a complete state of rest with only the minimum required functions that need very less energy. Some doctors suggest eating some simple carbohydrates like banana, in the morning before the workout will give you a boost of energy.

A study was conducted to find out the effect of eating at odd hours different than the routine meal times. While it was seen that people lost weight initially when they changed their meal times, it was also seen that this reduction also included a huge chunk of muscle mass, which not the right way to go when you want to reduce weight. It was also seen that the people who ate late in the night and didn’t give a proper gap between their dinner and sleep, showed an increase in weight at 48% as compared to the 20% in the ones who ate meals on right times (

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).

5. Replace With Alternatives

Weight loss talks always start with giving up certain food items, and while that is the right practice, it will be easier if you found a healthier alternative for that food item. Some people love certain dishes so much that they struggle to suddenly give up on eating them. This can be made easier by using the alternative ingredients in the recipes when cooking them. Remember, this is a practice that you can only follow at home or may be at some healthy-food serving restaurants. This practice will not only help you get away from fast foods, which are so processed that they lose their originality, but it will also make you consume healthy foods. This will save your time to look for healthy foods because you know what you have to replace and not produce a whole recipe altogether.

The basic concept is to replace your favorite foods, which are probably high in calories, fats, and/or sugar, with a healthier alternative with lower fat, calories, and/or sugar. By doing this you only make a slight adjustment for your taste buds while making a whole lot of development in the healthy eating department (

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).

Also Read:

3 Day Military Diet Plan

and

Military Diet Substitutes

Below is a list of some high-calorie daily food items, which are unhealthy on most days and their healthy alternative right next to it. This will help you achieve your goals of a lean body and a flat tummy.

S. No

Unhealthy/High-Calorie Foods

Healthy/Low-Calorie Foods

1

Ice cream

Sorbet or frozen yogurt

2

Sour cream

Plain low-fat yogurt

3

American cheese

Fat-free American cheese

4

Cheddar cheese

Low-calorie processed cheese

5

Ramen noodles

Rice noodles

6

Regular pasta in alfredo sauce

Whole wheat pasta in red sauce

7

Regular meat

Lean Meat

8

Oil-packed tuna

Water-packed tuna

9

Soft bread like croissants & brioche

Hard bread rolls like pan bread

10

Regular cookies

Fat-free cookies

11

Regular butter

Light spread margarine

12

Regular cooking oil

Olive oil spray on a non-stick pan

This is just an overview of the ingredients you can replace in your food preparations to get the best out of your diet and help yourself reduce weight. The basic principle is to reduce the number of calories, the amount of fat content, and sugars. You can replace the ingredients with whatever you like, just make sure that the replacement is healthy your you.

6. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise…

Physicians and nutritionists have always put the most pressure on exercise when it comes to weight reduction. The best lifestyle is the one with healthy food and a lot of exercise, especially for someone who wants to reduce the body weight. Cutting down the fat from the body can be really easy if you incorporate exercise into your lifestyle because the less fat you take in, and the more of the fat reserves you burn while exercising, the better it is for you.

Workout and healthy food go hand in hand. A person eating junk food can never achieve the same level of workout as a person with a healthy lifestyle overall. An average woman from the age of 30-50 requires about 1500-1800 calories a day to maintain her normal weight. This number goes up to 1800-2000 calories in the men of the same age group. On the other hand, people who want to reduce weight need to consume much fewer calories, but it should not go below 1500 calories for men and 1200 calories for women.

Exercise can include a lot of activities, which don’t necessarily come under work out, like playing golf or any other sport,

cleaning the house

, dancing, swimming, skiing, etc. All these activities will have a different effect on different people, but essentially they will help in burning calories. The number of calories burnt, during one of these exercises, is directly proportional to the intensity of the exercise (

14

).

Read below to know more on how many calories are burnt with what type of exercise.

S. No.

Type Of Workout

Intensity of workout

Kcal burnt/hour

1

House cleaning, baseball, golf, etc.

Low

240-300

2

Brisk walking, gardening, dancing, etc.

Low to moderate

370-460

3

Jogging, football, swimming, etc.

Moderate to high

580-730

4

Running, racquetball, skiing, etc.

High

740-920

Information Source:

Medicine Plus

Now you know which activity helps more in reducing weight, but as soon as you go up in the list, more energy and stamina are required to perform the activity. To get started, you can just begin walking in the morning or evening for 20-30 minutes. Joining a gym and starting heavy workout in one go is not beneficial and is not recommended, as this will only induce injuries. Baby steps for any new task are the best option. As soon as you develop a good stamina, start jogging and then running, or you can also join a dance class like Zumba or a yoga class. This is your second step in the process of reducing weight.

The next step is toning. As you start seeing the reduction in weight, you can join a pilates class or ask your yoga instructor to introduce toning exercises. Toning of muscles is important because as you reduce weight, your muscles will start to show. These muscles will be flabby because of the lack of any sort of work out. You need to tone these muscles so that they can support your movements, and you can have a better-looking body.

The next step is optional, and a lot of people move towards it because they are already in the zone of a healthy lifestyle. They crank it up a notch by joining gyms and building muscles, which is not an absolute necessity. You can maintain a healthy lifestyle if you continue with your usual workout and a healthy diet; just try to incorporate more and more physical activity in your daily routine by walking instead of taking the bus for short distances, or by taking the stairs instead of the elevator at home and/or work (

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7. Get Away From Those Screens

Looking at screens is all that this generation does. While this activity is not directly related to weight loss, it sure does make you sit all the time. The more you sit, the less is your physical activity. The food, which should have been utilized for physical activities during the day, will be stored in the body as reserves, making you fat. More screen time translates directly to a sedentary lifestyle. It is advised that you try looking at screens as less as possible, to promote a healthy lifestyle. This will not only help you lose weight, but it will also keep you energetic all day long.

It was also found out that people who look at screens right before bed have

problems sleeping

. For the places where you can not avoid looking at screens, like your office, try to keep the brightness of the screen at low, but not too low that you have to strain your eyes to look. At home, you can spend time with your family, read paperback books, go out for fun activities, et cetera to reduce the time where you check social media or watch movies. Below are some ways to reduce looking at screens, and take a step towards a healthy lifestyle:

Select a couple of TV programs to watch, and keep the television off for the rest of the time. Do not keep the TV on while you are busy on your phone or doing some other task.

Try listening to the radio more often, if all you want to do is listen to music or have a sound in the background, while you carry on with your daily routine.

Avoid watching television while you are eating food. The more you concentrate on food while eating it, the less are your chances of overeating. The flow of watching TV and eating food will make you eat more without you even realizing it.

Make a habit of doing other stuff which requires physical work like walking or taking your dog out, or gardening. This will help you avoid watching TV in your free time.

Place a mat in front of your TV and exercise while watching. This will help you achieve your goal for a healthier body, without making you miss any of your favorite shows.

If your screen time includes a lot of video games, try to get the ones that have the virtual reality setting where you actually have to perform the tasks physically, which you would otherwise be doing with the help of a remote’s joystick and buttons (

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8. Incorporate Probiotics in your diet

Digestive system plays a very important role when obesity and weight gain are discussed. Your digestive system should work perfectly to keep you healthy and happy. For this purpose, the bacterias in your gut have a key role to play, as the food is broken down with the help of these bacterias. The better the work of these bacteria, the healthier is your gut and your whole digestive system. The balance of gut bacteria can lead to bloating, which can ultimately affect your body in various ways, including increased weight. Including probiotics in your daily diet will not only balance the bacteria level in the gut, but it will also make up for a really healthy snack to eat between meals, so that you don’t munch on any unhealthy snacks. This suggests that the use of probiotics is two-fold, and it is a very important component that must be included in your diet even if you don’t plan on reducing weight. It can just be an inclusion to your lifestyle to make it healthier.

There are various probiotics available in the market that you can use, like Greek yogurt, yogurt without sugar,

kefir food products

, and other fermented food products. The added advantage of milk-based probiotics is that they also give you all the benefits of milk like protein, calcium, etc. So, it is suggested that you consume milk products by making yogurt or cottage cheese out of it, because it makes the milk products light on the stomach and you get all the benefits too.

Scientists have also seen the benefits of probiotics, not only on obesity but also on other metabolic syndrome diseases, which include high cholesterol, high blood sugar, hypertension, etc. The best starter culture to make a probiotic food product is kefir, as it has so many advantages and is safe for a lot of lactose intolerant people. This has opened up a whole new way for the lactose intolerant people to taste milk products and to enjoy all the benefits attached to it (

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,

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).

All these changes in your lifestyle are very basic, and will work wonders if you abide by them as Bible for weight loss. The basic concept is to avoid processed food, fat, and sugars and incorporate more vegetables, dietary fiber from complex carbohydrates, and start working out. You can start by whatever is possible given your routine, and once you start seeing the results, you will automatically do more and more, and make your lifestyle healthy by eating clean, and giving everything you have while working out.

Also Read:

50 Lipsmacking Keto Smoothies For Weight Loss

Ideal Weight Loss Programs And Diet Plans

Now that your body has slowly adapted to a healthy lifestyle, you need some specific information on programs to follow and an ideal diet for weight loss. This section will include different weight loss programs that are beneficial for different people serving different purposes. You can choose the program that you feel will be best suited for you and follow it, to experience best results. Just remember that good things take time and you will probably not notice any difference for the first couple of weeks. But that’s okay, do not worry and continue to do what is suggested, and you will definitely see the desired results. Another important thing, you need to exercise on a daily basis to see the effects of these diet plans because exercise is the most important factor where doctors lay the most emphasis for weight loss.

1. Basic Weight Loss Program

This is the easiest-to-follow program, which is the best for beginners. It doesn’t put a lot of pressure on you, neither do you have to take a lot of time out of your day to follow this program. Initial programs like these will help you kick-start the weight loss process and will aim at long-term success. For this, you need to exercise at least 40–50 minutes a day, or more if you eat anything out of the diet plan. This exercise must include 30 minutes of cardio like running, cycling, swimming, etc. and 10-20 minutes of stretching, before and after the cardio exercise.

When you exercise, just remember that the ideal heart rate for weight loss exercises is 220 minus your age. For example, a person of age 40 should have a maximum heart rate of 180 beats per minute. Anything above this will be dangerous and would require medical attention. If you follow all the rules, you will experience a weight loss of 6-10 pounds over a period of 2 weeks and will continue to lose 1-2 pounds every week if you continue with it. 10 pounds is the maximum ideal weight loss per week and any diet suggesting more than that will also make you weaker by reducing your muscle mass. The diet chart for this program is given below (

19

):

Breakfast (7AM-9AM):

A glass full of a beverage without calories, like coconut water or spinach juice.

½ cup oatmeal cooked in 1 cup low-fat milk.

1/4th cup mango with 2 tablespoons raisins.

Lunch (1PM-3PM):

Sweet potato and quinoa cakes

Salad tossed in a fat-free dressing with some green vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, etc.

Another glass full of a calorie-free beverage.

Dinner (7PM-9PM):

A pita pizza (personal, not more than 10 inches)

¾th cup assorted fruits.

Any calorie-free beverage.

Snacks Between Meals:

1 cup sliced bell pepper and 2 tablespoons of hummus.

2. Ideal Protein Weight Loss Program

A diet with more protein will be helpful for you once your body has adjusted to the healthy diet. Incorporating protein into your diet will have various advantages as it requires more energy to metabolize and store protein in the body, so you will have to work more to burn the calories from it. This means you will eat less and work out more, which is the whole concept behind weight loss. Another reason is that protein tends to make you full quicker than carbohydrates and fats. This means you will eat fewer calories and stay full for a longer time, which will ultimately help your goal for weight loss.

Protein makes up the muscles of the body, which acts as a support system to the bones. The more protein you metabolize, the higher is your support for physical activities, and the more energy you will get when exercising and burning calories. High-protein and low-carbohydrate diet will help reduce your risk of cardiovascular diseases by improving blood lipid profile (

20

).

This doesn’t mean that all protein is good protein. There are a lot of sources of proteins, which will harm more than they do good because of their fat content. They will increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and blood sugar levels because of their high fat, salt, and sugar content. These sources include some more exercised parts of beef, pork, and processed meat. You should steer clear of these meat products and go for much leaner meats like chicken breast or sirloin from beef, which is best for making steak. All this should be included with exercise to get the best results faster. Exercise should include stretching, cardio, and some weight training to increase the lean muscle mass in the body. Given below is the diet chart based on a high-protein and low-carbohydrates diet (

21

):

Breakfast (7AM-9AM):

1 slice of whole-wheat bread with 2 teaspoons of regular fruit jelly.

½ cup cereal in a cup of low-fat milk.

1 glass of orange juice without added sugar.

Lunch (1PM-3PM):

Roast beef sandwich with 2 slices of whole-wheat bread, 2oz of lightly seasoned roast beef, 1 lettuce leaf, 3 tomato slices, low-fat and calorie mayonnaise or any other sauce.

1 medium apple.

Dinner (7PM-9PM):

2 oz salmon grilled with minimum vegetable oil with ½ cup green beans blanched and tossed in a teaspoon of margarine.

1 medium baked potato with half a teaspoon of margarine or vegetable oil.

One white dinner roll or any other small bread piece.

1 glass of unsweetened iced-tea.

Snacks Between Meals

2½ cups popcorn (cooked) made in margarine, or 2 small bananas (

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3. Weight Loss Program For Achieving That Ideal Shape

You must have heard a lot about a lot of diet programs and plans, which will help you get a flat belly or will reduce your weight in 7 days. While these mostly work, if you follow them religiously, the problem with most of these programs is that they do not provide the general nutrition required by the body to function. For this reason, the body has to resort to the fat reserves for energy, which helps you reduce your weight. Everything is going perfect till now, but the problem happens when body can not utilize the fat reserves for energy because of the poor metabolic activity in the body. This happens because of an unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle.

A diet, which includes minimum carbohydrates and less protein than the previous diet and more vegetables and fruits, will help you achieve that slip you have always dreamed of. Eating clean means eating whole foods, and whole foods mean vegetables in their natural form without any processing, grains in their natural form, and protein directly from the meat that is not processed and is lightly seasoned. Below is a diet that will help you get the flat stomach if you abode by it and exercise every day. The most important exercises here will be core exercises like abs training and plank. Combine these exercises with your regular stretching and cardio, and you will get the best results. The sample diet chart is given below:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM):

½ cup bran flakes or muesli with 8 oz of 1% milk.

4 oz bananas.

Lunch (1PM-3PM):

Sandwich made with a slice of multi-grain bread, 2 oz lean sliced ham or any other lean meat, 2 slices of tomato, 1 lettuce leaf, and mustard as desired.

1 cup raw or boiled carrots.

I medium sized apple.

Dinner (7PM-9PM):

1/3rd cup steamed rice with ½ cup broccoli and 2 oz grilled chicken in no more that 1 teaspoon margarine.

Salad with 1 cup raw vegetables and 2 tablespoons of low-fat dressing.

1 small dinner roll or any other small piece of brown or multi-grain bread.

1¼ cups of fresh strawberries.

Snacks Between Meals

¾th oz pretzels.

8 oz of 1% milk (

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).

Some More Sample Diet Plans

The above diet plans are specific to a goal and are designed specially according to that. While you can abide by them to achieve your goals, it will be very boring to follow the same diet program every day. The key to better health is to break the monotony by giving your body a variety of food items so that it doesn’t become used to one particular diet. If this happens, your body will stop responding to the diet program as it did in the beginning. For this reason, you need to rotate the diet, keeping it healthy and of the same number of calories with similar sources.

To break the monotony of diet, below is a diet chart for 5 days, which can be used in rotation to help you shed the extra pounds off your body in a healthy way.

Sample Menu 1:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM)

1/2 cup scrambled egg whites with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan, ½ cup cherry tomatoes, and 1 teaspoon olive oil.

A slice of multi-grain/whole-grain toast.

1 cup low-fat milk.

Lunch (1PM-3PM)

Chicken salad in a non-fat dressing with 4 ounces chopped grilled chicken, 3/4th cup cooked bulgur, 1 tablespoon low-fat cheddar, 1 cup diced vegetables (at least 1/2 a cup green vegetables.)

Dinner (7PM-9PM)

4 ounces grilled salmon.

1 cup wild rice and 1 tablespoon slivered toasted almonds with 1 cup wilted baby spinach in a teaspoon of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and grated Parmesan.

1/2 cup diced, 1/2 cup all-fruit raspberry sorbet, and 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts.

Snack Between Meals

1/2 cup fat-free Greek yogurt topped with 1/4 cup sliced strawberries

2 tablespoons hummus and 6 baby carrots

Sample Menu 2:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM)

3/4 cup steel-cut or old-fashioned oatmeal prepared with water; stir in 1/2 cup skimmed milk

2 links country-style turkey sausage

1 cup blueberries

Lunch (1PM-3PM)

1/2 cup fat-free ricotta cheese and 1/2 cup raspberries

1 tablespoon chopped

pecans

Dinner (7PM-9PM)

1 turkey burger with 4 ounces turkey breast, multi-grain bun, 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise.

3/4 cup roasted cauliflower and broccoli florets

3/4 cup brown rice

1 cup spinach salad with 1 tablespoon light balsamic vinaigrette

Snack Between Meals

1/2 cup fat-free cottage cheese with 1/2 cup salsa

Sample Menu 3:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM)

Omelet made with 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg, 1/4 cup each chopped broccoli, diced onion, diced mushrooms, and salsa.

Quesadilla of 1/2 of one small corn tortilla and 1 tablespoon low-fat jack cheese.

1/2 cup diced watermelon.

Lunch (1PM-3PM)

Grilled chicken salad made with 4 ounces grilled chicken, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1/2 cup diced mushrooms, 2 tablespoons shredded low-fat cheddar, and 1 tablespoon low-fat Caesar dressing.

1 medium nectarine

1 cup skimmed milk

Dinner (7PM-9PM)

4 ounces shrimp, sautéed with 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 teaspoon chopped garlic.

1 medium-steamed artichoke.

1/2 cup whole-wheat couscous with 2 tablespoons diced bell pepper, 1/4 cup garbanzo beans, 1 teaspoon cilantro, and 1 tablespoon fat-free honey mustard dressing.

Snack Between Meals

1/2 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt with 1 sliced apple and 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1 fat-free mozzarella string cheese stick

1 medium orange

Sample Menu 4:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM)

Omelette of 5 egg whites, one egg yolk, 1 cup chopped spinach and 1 teaspoon crumbled feta cheese.

1 medium orange.

Lunch (1PM-3PM)

3 oz chicken breast grilled in a teaspoon of olive oil with 3 slices of tomato, 1 slice low-fat mozzarella cheese and 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar on a bread roll (multi-grain).

½ pear.

Dinner (7PM-9PM)

2 oz whole wheat penne pasta cooked and tossed in 2 tablespoons of pesto sauce, 1 cup cooked green beans, and ¼th cup low-sodium chicken broth. You can also add some canned cannellini beans.

Snacks Between Meals

14 walnut halves

Sample Menu 5:

Breakfast (7AM-9AM)

Breakfast smoothie made with ½ cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt, half a cup calcium-rich orange juice with no added sugar, I medium banana, 1 cup pineapple chunks, and half cup crushed ice.

Lunch (1PM-3PM)

Tuna salad made with 1 oz water packed tuna, 1 chopped apple, 2 tablespoons diced celery, 2 tablespoons dried cranberries, 2 cups blanched spinach. Toss all these ingredients in 1 teaspoon olive oil and 2 teaspoons honey mustard.

Dinner (7PM-9PM)

Honey-mustard salmon with 4 oz salmon fillet topped with 1 tablespoon honey mustard mixed with I teaspoon olive oil. Broil for about 6-8 minutes.

Serve over ¼th cup wheat couscous, which is cooked and tossed with ½ cup chopped tomatoes and one tablespoon pine nuts.

Snacks Between Meals

¼ cup guacamole with 1 cup sliced red and yellow peppers.

All these diet menus will provide you with about 1200-1300 calories in a day, from the right sources as per suggested by dietitians. You can mix and match the meals to create your own diet plan if you start finding this routine monotonous. Just make sure you do not change anything extra in a meal, especially something with more that 30-40 calories.

Healthy Recipe For Your Favorite Dishes

Apart from the above diet menus, you can also replace some ingredients in your favorite recipes to achieve your goal. You can also enjoy these dishes as your cheat meals, but without really having to cheat. There are some shakes, smoothies, salads, and a lot more to choose from. These recipes are healthy as they have minimum calories from fat and controlled amount of all the nutrients, designed specifically for the people who want to reduce weight, and they are pretty much as tasty as your favorite dishes.

1. Healthy Black bean Pizza

Ingredients:

1 diced medium plum tomato

1 cup canned black beans (rinsed)

1 cup fresh corn kernels

2 tablespoons cornmeal

1 pound whole-wheat bread dough

1 cup shredded, smoked low-fat mozzarella

Method:

Stretch the dough into the shape that you want, and cover it with a damp cloth for intermediate proofing.

Add tomatoes, corn, and beans in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

On a large baking pan, spread cornmeal and place the dough over it. Spray it with some water to keep it moist while baking.

Bake the base of pizza at 180ºC till it becomes golden.

Remove the pan from the oven and spread the mixture, from the second step, all over it. Top it with mozzarella.

Bake it for another 3-4 minutes at 150ºC or till the cheese melts properly.

Serve with multi-grain garlic bread

2. Whole Wheat Pasta With Broccoli

Ingredients:

3 medium sized fresh broccoli heads cut into florets.

½ cup olive oil

1½ lbs whole-wheat penne pasta

1 teaspoon salt and crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Method:

Blanch broccoli florets in boiling water with salt for 5 minutes and drain the water. Pat the broccoli dry so that no water is retained.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet, on a medium flame, and sauté garlic till it turns golden. Add broccoli and sauté for another 10 minutes; make sure you don’t burn it. Turn off the flame once the broccoli is tender yet crisp.

In a large pot, boil a liter of water and add 2 tablespoons of salt in it. Put all the pasta in it and boil for 10-12 minutes or till it cooks. The way to check is that the pasta should become firm to bite but soft within. This will cook the rest of the pasta even after you cut the flame out.

Pour the pasta into a strainer to strain the water once it has slightly cooled down. If you have cooked the pasta fully, you can wash it with cold water to stop it from cooking further.

In a serving bowl, mix the pasta and broccoli. Adjust the salt according to your taste, add pepper, and toss it nicely. Finish with the grated Parmesan cheese.

3. Healthy Burger Patty

We have mentioned the recipe of the patty only because it is the most difficult task to make the patty healthy. You can use multi-grain or whole wheat bun. Put a lot of fresh vegetables and use sauces with minimum fat like reduced-fat mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, English mustard, etc. You can use a chicken or a turkey breast, and grill it with minimum olive oil. For a vegetarian patty, the recipe is given below.

Ingredients:

½ cup rolled oats

2 garlic cloves

2 scallions

14 oz tofu

7 oz fresh baby spinach

¼th cup fresh tarragon

½ cup fresh parsley and cup fresh chives

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and ground cumin

A pinch of cayenne peppermint

¼th teaspoon salt.

Method:

Line a baking tray with Silpat or cornmeal so that the patty doesn’t stick to the bottom.

To make the mixture for the patty, put oats, garlic, and scallions in a food processor, and pulse to mix them properly.

As soon as you see that it has made a paste and there are no chunks of garlic or scallions, crumble the tofu and blend it in the mixture.

Add spinach followed by fresh herbs in the blender, and blend to break down all the spinach. All the spinach may not fit in one go, so you will need to blend some in, and then put the rest.

Add mustard, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt. Blend for one last time to get the final mixture to make the patty. Do not worry if it is a little bit chunky.

Scoop out about half a cup mixture make a ball out of it. Press this ball and place it on the baking tray. Don’t forget to apply a little oil on your hands while shaping it.

Place all the blobs on the baking tray and flatten them out using a spatula.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until you see it isn’t moist anymore. It can be pretty moist on the inside, but that is okay.

Cook the patty for a couple of minutes and place them between the bun, with the ingredients mentioned above and enjoy.

4. Baked French Fries

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons olive oil

4 medium potatoes (scrubbed)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8th to 1/4th teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper

1/4th cup grated Parmesan

Method:

On a baking sheet, spread aluminum foil and brush it with olive oil.

Cut the scrubbed potatoes into wedges of ½-inches thickness.

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

In a bowl, pour the remaining olive oil and the potatoes. Toss nicely to coat all of the potatoes with the oil.

Sprinkle salt and pepper according to the requirement. The less the salt, the less your consumption of sodium. Toss a little more.

Place the potatoes on the baking tray, and place it in the oven to bake the potatoes for 12 minutes.

Turn the potatoes, and bake for another 12 minutes to finish the baking.

Remove the baking tray from the oven, and sprinkle the potatoes with Parmesan cheese while they are still hot.

Serve with any fat-free sauce in a basket lined with paper to absorb any extra oil.

TIP:

You can boil the potatoes for 2-3 minutes after the second step to get more crunch on the outside and tenderness on the inside. Just pat them dry and continue with the next step. The baking time will be less if you boil them before baking.

5. Fish Tacos

Ingredients:

1 mango (peeled, seeded, and chopped)

2 avocados (peeled, pitted, and chopped)

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup diced red pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Juice of 1 lime

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1 dash hot pepper sauce

8 baked taco shells

4 fillets or 6 oz of your favorite fish (cut into 1-inch slices)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

NOTE:

Use a fish that is high in omega 3 fatty acids like mackerel, lake trout, herring, salmon or tuna.

Method:

In a bowl mix mango, avocado, tomato, onion, red pepper, parsley, canola oil, brown sugar, lime juice, cider vinegar, hot pepper sauce, salt, and ground pepper. This will make up your salsa. Refrigerate this salsa for about an hour.

Season the fish with some ground black pepper, paprika, and salt.

Fry the fish slices on a nonstick pan with minimum olive oil sprayed on the pan. Each side will take about 3 minutes.

Heat the oven to 325ºF and place the taco shells in the oven, placed on a baking dish for 5 minutes.

Remove the taco shells from the oven and place some slices of the fish in them. Top the tacos up with salsa, and serve.

Ideal Weight Loss Shakes

After some lip-smacking recipes that are also healthy, we have come up with some shakes and smoothies, which are a boon to the people who want to lose their weight. Even if you don’t want to reduce any further, these smoothies will keep you healthy without any compromises in taste. Below is the recipe for your

ideal shakes for weight loss

:

1. Mango Smoothie

Ingredients:

¼

th

cup mango cubes

¼

th

cup mashed ripe avocado

¼

th

cup fat-free vanilla yogurt

1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon sugar

6 ice cubes

Method:

In a blender, mix all the ingredients and process until the mixture becomes smooth.

Pour it into a glass.

Garnish with any fruits of your choice, and serve.

2. PB&J Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen berries

1 tablespoon peanut butter

2 tablespoons rolled oats

1 cup soy milk

Method:

In a blender, mix all the ingredients and process until the mixture becomes in the consistency of a smoothie.

Pour into a glass.

Garnish with berries and serve.

3. Blueberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup skimmed milk

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

1 tablespoon cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil

Method:

In a blender, mix all the ingredients and process till the mixture becomes thick and smooth.

Pour it into a glass.

Mix the flax seed oil in it with a spoon.

Garnish with blueberries and serve.

4. Peanut Butter And Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

½ cup fat-free milk

½ cup fat-free plain yogurt

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

¼ ripe banana

1 tablespoons honey

4 ice cubes

Method:

In a blender, tip in all the ingredients. Process the ingredients until they turn into a smoothie-like consistency.

Pour it into a glass.

Garnish with bananas and serve.

5. Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

½ cup skimmed or soy milk

6 oz unsweetened vanilla yogurt

¼ cup chocolate chips (

MUFA rich

)

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup frozen raspberries

Method:

In a blender, mix all the ingredients and process till the mixture becomes smooth.

Pour it into a glass.

Garnish with bananas and serve.

Note:

This smoothie may be very thick so you may have to eat it with a spoon.

6. Citra Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk

6 oz unsweetened lemon yogurt

1 medium orange

4 cubes of ice

1 tablespoon flaxseed oil (rich in MUFA)

Method:

Peel the orange, clean it by removing seeds, and slice it into sections.

In a blender, put the orange slices and other ingredients, and process until smooth.

Pour the smoothie into a glass, and stir the flaxseed oil in.

Garnish with an orange slice and serve.

7. AB&C (Almond Butter & Chia) Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 large frozen banana

3/4th cup unsweetened almond milk

1 tablespoon unsweetened almond butter

1 tablespoon chia seeds

Method:

In a blender, mix all the ingredients and process till the mixture becomes smooth.

Pour it into a glass.

Garnish with bananas and serve.

All the things mentioned in this article will only be helpful to you if you really want to do it. The best way, to keep continuing the routine and to get a fit and healthy body, is to imagine yourself in the final lithe, which is your goal. If you do this, there is no force that can stop you from achieving your target. Beginners should take advice from their doctor before making any changes to their diet, especially when it comes to incorporating more protein, fish oil, soy milk, etc. in your diet.

Sometimes people don’t know what they are allergic to because they haven’t tried that thing ever. Try to find out in advance about any allergies or any work out, which you may not be able to perform due to some physical ailment, by talking to your physician. Knowing in advance about your strengths and weaknesses might help you pick the right plan for weight loss. Just remember, the more you have to adjust to the new routine and the more difficult you think it is, the more you will get the benefit out of it.

By eating clean and working out regularly, you not only help yourself, but also the people around yourself. Your family, your parents, kids, spouse, everyone will be influenced by your new persona and may also start following your footsteps. Lets get fit and take a step forward towards a healthier and a fitter nation together.

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