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Diet and Weight Loss FAQs

Food

Why is eating healthy food important for weight loss?

No matter what diet plan you choose, you will not get any significant results until you maintain a healthy balanced diet. If you have noticed, taking plenty of fruits or vegetables does not help weight gain. Some times, you eat more of these and still your weight remains balanced. But in cases where you eat processed foods, you have an urge to eat more. The body takes time to absorb fruits, whole grains etc which are high in fiber content. But it digests processed foods quickly giving us the opportunity to consume more. Processed foods are made from refined ingredients, which are tasteless, and require large amounts of sugar, salt and flavors to make it attractive.

The biggest mistake we do is to take away the natural ingredients from healthy food and make it non-nutritional.

Natural foods are rich in fiber. They produce antioxidants, which supports our body from diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. These foods include vitamins and plenty of minerals.

Processed foods are unhealthy and contain large amounts of sodium, preservatives, sugar, saturated fats and Trans fatty acids. It risks your body to various diseases related to the heart and bones.

It is advised to eat healthy, natural foods, which will satisfy your hunger and at the same time keep you away from weight gain and other disorders of the body.

If you learn to eat well, it is the best solution for a long-term weight loss. Where as other diet plans are only effective till they are followed. So it's best to pamper your body with the best natural foods and feel good about yourself.

Why is eating fiber important for weight loss?

Several health organizations have stressed the importance of fiber. The National Cancer Institute suggests that foods, which are rich in fiber, will protect our body against some cancers.

Fiber is not a magic food but it has immense health benefits. Including fiber rich foods in our diet makes good sense. These foods are low in calories. They are inexpensive. It keeps our bowel movements regular and keeps us away from many diseases. It easily makes us full. As it slows down our rate of digestion, it stays in our stomach longer. A single serving of whole wheat bread can be more filling than having two slices of white bread. Fiber also moves fat through our digestive system faster. So it is less absorbed.

Meat and diary products contain no fiber. It is same with the refined foods, which would have removed all their fiber. In order to increase the fiber intake you should eat more natural foods and less refined ones. Some fiber foods include:

Whole grains
Brown Rice
Fruits
Vegetables [ beans, lentils, peas]

Refined foods have been stripped of fiber. They turn in to blood sugar so fast that it causes a spike in our insulin level. A drop in the level then follows it. This produces a craving in us to eat something else with more sugar content. And the cycle starts again. Fiber foods will keep our blood sugar level balanced. Let's see some of the benefits of fiber:

It promotes health by promoting elimination of waste products of digestion and by helping control serum
Different types of fiber encourage health in various ways
It is best to get your fiber from fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes than from any fiber supplements
Soluble fiber is good for lowering cholesterol. Insoluble fiber helps the intestine to function well

So when it comes to fiber and your health, fiber does make a big difference in your life.

How does my blood sugar affect my weight?

A hormone called insulin is created by our pancreas, which transports blood sugars in to our body cells. There it is used for energy. The refined grains that we eat have most of their fiber stripped away. The amount of sugar in it is quickly processed in to blood sugar. The pancreas work over time to produce the necessary insulin necessary for all the blood sugars to be used for energy. This insulin surge tells that enough energy is available and it should now start storing fat. Now the greatest concern is that the insulin level in the body now drops leaving us tired and hungry. We have a craving to eat food that contains high sugar. The cycle continues.

Little things to take note:

Consume less aerated drinks. Stay away from coffee and soda pops
Fat-free products are not always healthy. Many a times sugar is used to replace flavor
The 'no sugar added' contents in the market may originally have lots of sugar in it
Substitute sugar with honey

The effective way to maintain your fat burning capacity is to regulate your blood sugar level. Don't skip any meals. Eat healthy snacks between meals. In order to maintain the metabolism efficiency to prevent hunger pangs and provide energy you have to eat frequently. Don't get addicted to junk food. It is seen that snacking between meals causes weight gain. So make it a point to snack healthy.

How does salt affect my weight?

Salt has no calories. But if you take in a good amount of salt, you will gain weight temporarily. Also low consumption of salt can result in weight loss as it causes the body to expel water. There are many diet programs, which do not allow salt in their diet plans. So there is a temporary weight loss. But as soon as you complete the program and start eating salt contents, you start gaining weight. So it has very little to do with long-term weight loss. But salt does affect blood pressure.

Salt and sodium are different. Sodium is found in natural foods where as salt is what you add to your cooking dishes. So there are some vegetables, which contain a good amount of sodium. Adding more salt to these would mean, putting on more weight.

There are people who are sensitive to salt. If they take in too much of salt, they might end up with high blood pressure. And this can lead to heart attack or stroke. For information on these, you can visit American Heart Association.

What should I know about eating fat?

Fat along with Vitamins A, D, E and K gives you energy to nourish your body. But eating foods high in fat can lead to various complications like heart attacks and strokes.

Too much fat also increases the risk of being overweight. So it's important to know the amount of fat allowed to have a healthy diet. What are the kinds of foods you can choose and what are its limits?

Your daily calories should not exceed 25 to 35% of total fat. Total fat is a combination of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. You can limit your saturated fat intake to 7% of your total calories.

Types of fats

Saturated fat

Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol. The typical American gets about 2/3 of the saturated fat from meat. Whole milk products, poultry with skin, fatty meats etc have high saturated fat. It is also found in sweets, candy bars and pastries. Some of these sweets may contain coconut oil, cocoa butter, palm kernel oil etc. these are vegetable fats and they are highly saturated fat.

Unsaturated fat

Unsaturated fats are better than saturated fats. It does not raise your cholesterol levels. There are two types of unsaturated fats

Monounsaturated fats include vegetable oils such as:
Olive oil, Canola oil and Peanut oil
Polyunsaturated fats contain oils such as
Sunflower oil and some oils from fish

Total Fat

All the fats combined make the total fat. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories. The same amount of protein or carbohydrate has only 4 calories. So to control your weight it's vital you reduce the intake of fat.

Fatty foods

Baked foods like donuts, cakes and muffins, butter, fried foods, butter, oil, meat and poultry with the skin, cheese and whole milk.

Measure fats with measuring spoons. It's not a good idea to make guesses.

Servings per day based on daily calorie ranges

	Maximum daily calories	Maximum daily calories	Maximum daily calories
Fat	1200-1600	1600-2000	2000-2400
	4-6	6-8	8-10

Tips to cut total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol

Substitute unsaturated fats for saturated fats
Cholesterol rich food should be limited
Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
Consumption of animal protein should be limited
Stick to health friendly cooking methods
Choose lean cuts of meat
Poultry skin should be removed before eating
Bake, boil or steam instead of frying
Use beans and peas instead of meats in dishes
Reduce the intake of diary products
Limit oil, butter and Margarine
Skim fat from gravies and soups
Limit organ meats like liver and kidney
Low fat products are often high in calories. Be careful while choosing it
Add more soluble fiber to your diet like oats, oranges, pears, sprouts and carrots

How much fat is there in 2% milk?

Milk	Calories from fat
Whole or 4%	46%
2%	35%
1%	20%
Non Fat	0

If you are a health conscious person, you should watch the fat in milk. Because, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. Whole milk is high in fat. That's why people ask especially for milk low if fat.

How much fat free food can I eat and not gain weight?

Don't be under the impression that you can eat fat free food and control your weight. You simply can't. Fat- free foods are good but it isn't great to the extent that it controls weight gain. Fat free food is certainly free of fat. But in order to compensate for the reduced fat in the product, sugar is added. This is mainly to make the food tasty. The fat free food will have fewer calories when compared to one gram of fat, which has 9 calories. But it still has calories.

The problem with the public is that, they have believed fat free food to be completely calorie free. So they end up having all kinds of fat free products and gain weight.

Reference:- Diet Food

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