Not getting enough calories slows your metabolism down, causes the loss of lean muscle tissue, deprives you of the fuel you need to perform, and causes your body to hold on to stored fat for energy. In addition, diets are miserable, depressing, frustrating and not sustainable over the long term. Seriously, how long do you think you can survive off of grapefruits and cabbage?

Take it from a gal who has tried almost every diet on the market. Proper nutrition will give you better weight loss results than simply going on a diet. Here are three good reasons why.


Healthy Foods Are Naturally Low in Calories

Unlike processed junk, healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans naturally raised meats, organic poultry, raw nuts, seeds and organic eggs are naturally low in calories. When you eat reasonable portions of these foods, you automatically reduce your caloric intake and lose weight without feeling hungry, deprived or bitter.

There is so much nonsense in processed foods. When you eat them, your body doesn’t have a clue what to do with the calories; so they just get stored as fat. When you eat nutritious foods instead of processed junk, your body actually benefits from the calories so they are less likely to get stored as blubber.


Proper Nutrition Helps Fuel Your Body

All nutritious (and I mean truly nutritious) eating plans will allow plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits and beans in the diet. These foods provide the healthy carbohydrates you need to fuel your body and keep your metabolism performing properly.

If you come across a diet that tells you not to eat healthy carbohydrates, run away from it as fast as you can. Your body absolutely has to have healthy carbohydrates (healthy being the operative word) to survive.


Eating Healthy to Burn Fat

Here’s some great news. Healthy diets that include protein can help you build lean muscle tissue, which can kick your metabolism into high gear. This is definitely a plus if you want to send that double chin packing.

When you eat protein rich foods, your body releases a hormone that helps you burn fat. Protein also helps make meals more satiating so you eat less (bring on the protein, baby). Some nutritious protein sources include naturally raised lean meats, organic poultry, beans, raw nuts and whole organic eggs.

Why put yourself through the drama of dieting just to be disappointed with the end results? Healthy eating is a much better option for dropping unwanted pounds. Remember though, nutritious eating is just one part of the weight loss puzzle. If you want to keep those results coming, get plenty of exercise and drink lots of water.

If you are serious about losing weight, watch this video to learn some of the things that help me lose weight and keep it off.

Visiting the Special K website, you’ll find an easy way to get started. First you choose what type of plan you want to be on. Options such as “Chocolate Lovers,” “On the Go,” “Mix it Up,” and even “Classic” allow you to customize your food choices. Next you pick the start date of your diet, which lasts fourteen days. From there you are taken to a fully laid out, customized, daily meal plan so you can see what you’ll be eating each week.

Once you accept your meal plan, you can sign up to receive support emails, coupons, helpful tips and recipes to keep you on track. According to the site, the average weight loss from being on the Special K diet is 4.8 pounds. Naturally you should consult your doctor before starting any dieting plan.

The idea of a juice cleansing diet is to detoxify your body and lose weight simultaneously. Your body gets the nutrients and minerals it needs to survive from the juice and the process of the cleansing diet rids your body of harmful poisons and impurities. The object is to rejuvenate your body and restore the balance that has been thrown out of whack by an ingestion of toxins, through the process of the juice cleansing diet. Proponents claim a revitalization of body and mind, as the juice cleansing diet removes counterproductive elements from your body and the process allows your mind to relax its burden of triggering the body to fight foreign components of poison and contaminants.

Raw vegetable and fruit juices have natural cleansers as part of their make up and healthy nutrients and vitamins to sustain the body through its purge. Since you eat so little on the juice cleansing diet, your body uses less energy to digest and can turn this effort toward healing and repairing your immune system. Advocates of a juice cleansing diet often point out the increase of energy as one of the major benefits of a cleansing diet routine.

Since a juice cleansing diet is a rigorous form of purging, it is usually recommended that you take a break in your normal work routine while engaging in the cleansing diet. Many people choose this time to take a vacation at the beach or in the countryside. Some people maintain their daily routine while doing a cleansing diet. This is something you will need to determine on your own, before devoting yourself to the cleansing diet ritual. It really depends on how physically demanding your job might be, the amount of time you can devote to the juice cleansing diet, and your current physical condition.

The recommended duration of a juice cleansing diet is from three days to two weeks. No one should try the process any longer than two weeks without the aid of professional supervision.

You will be ingesting the juice of fresh vegetables or fruit. Lemon or limejuice is most preferable for a fruit juice cleansing diet. With vegetables, you can try almost any combination of beets, cucumber, celery, carrots, cilantro, or wheat grass. Garlic and cayenne are highly recommended for seasoning and their nutritional value. Lime or lemon juice can go well in combination with certain vegetables. Mixing fruit and vegetables as part of your juice cleansing diet is not prohibited and some fruits, like apples, mix well in concert with certain vegetables.

It is recommended that you drink about six ten-ounce glasses of juice per day, in combination with as much water as you like. You can very the flavor and ingredients of your juice as much as you want.

The program provides a personalized diet plan for each client, using weight loss manuals and other materials proven to vanish those unwanted pounds. Aside from the personalized diet plan, the Jenny Craig diet also has the Jenny Direct Community where clients can find their own weight loss buddies to help them achieve their weight loss goals.

Jenny Craig is known for giving sensible weight loss plans that provides balanced nutrition. The diet plans are designed to keep up with active lifestyles while providing a holistic approach to life. The program gives enough support for each individual to keep they motivated to stick to their diet plans.

The Jenny Craig diet program consists of three levels which focus on one’s food, mind and body. It aims to help clients lose weight and keep it off.

The first level teaches clients to eat in small portions. The second level focuses on increasing one’s energy levels in doing simple activities. The third level is all about creating balance in one’s life in order to maintain their weight loss activities and stay healthy.

There are many options on how to join the Jenny Craig programs. One can simply go to the numerous Jenny Craig centers in the country and have a one-on-one consultation with the center’s diet consultants. Another option is to avail of the Jenny Craig Direct-at-Home program, where one can participate in the program in the comforts of his home. The consultant will schedule a weekly phone meeting to monitor the progress and to help clients order their food supply as well. There are no exorbitant phone fees for the consultations because they are toll-free. The menus for the diet and other materials will be delivered personally to the client’s home.

Each diet plan is made according to the needs of each client, and the minimum weight loss goal is around 1-2 pounds per week. The food plans follow the recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The products are manufactures according to the specification of expert dieticians. Food items are delivered and will take about 5-7 working days if shipped via UPS; 1-2 days if via FedEx.

Jenny Craig is famous for its 24/7 phone service, where clients can call anytime to inquire and get support on the program. Jenny Craig Inc. has now over 600 centers which are located in U.S., Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico and New Zealand. The company also employs a medical advisory board to make sure that the program is safe and will maintain its top quality. The board consists of medical professionals in the field of nutrition and psychology.

The Mandometer device, a portable computerised weighing scale, was developed at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. It helps to retrain individuals to eat less and more slowly by providing real-time feedback during meal times. The device plots a graph showing the rate at which food actually disappears from the plate, compared to the ideal graph programmed in by a food therapist.

Childhood obesity is an increasing global problem and there is little evidence to support one specific treatment programme. While it is unknown whether specific eating patterns are common in all obese people, in this study the patients ate large portions very quickly.

Researchers at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and the University of Bristol, led by Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield, carried out a randomised controlled trial of 106 obese patients aged between 9-17 years.

One group of participants received Mandometer therapy to lose weight and the other were provided with standard care. Both groups were encouraged to increase their levels of physical activity to 60 minutes of exercise a day and to eat a balanced diet based on the Food Standards Agency “eatwell plate.”

Participants were assessed after 12 months and followed up at 18 months. During the research period they were also regularly monitored and offered telephone support and encouragement.

After 12 months, the Mandometer group not only had a significantly lower average body mass index and body fat score than the standard care group, but their portion size was smaller and their speed of eating was reduced by 11% compared with a gain of 4% in the other group. Levels of ‘good cholesterol’ were also significantly higher in the Mandometer group.

The improvement in body mass index was maintained six months after the end of treatment, suggesting an element of longer term behavioural change, add the authors.

“Mandometer therapy, focussing on eating speed and meal size, seems to be a useful addition to the rather sparse options available for treating adolescent obesity effectively without recourse to pharmacotherapy,” say the authors.

They acknowledge that the Mandometer requires further evaluation in other settings and with different groups of patients, but conclude that “Retraining eating behaviour and reinforcing feelings of satiety, however, does seem to improve weight loss in obese adolescents.”

Source: sciencedaily.com