WHICH DIET AND FOODS IS BEST FOR WEIGHT LOSS?

​Hey yall (years of living in Oklahoma has broken me, I now say “yall”). Hope your weekend was an epic one. My family and I met Stan Lee, it was literally a dream come true. He was such an awesome guy and chuckled at the fact that we named our son Logan after his character “Wolverine.” My fiancé met Lucious Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, so this was a weekend to remember. This weekend really made me realize how much I appreciate my life, my clients and YOU! If your reading this then I am talking about YOU specifically. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read my blogs, as a token of appreciation I am now leaving the blog topics open to you, the readers. Recently I was asked to write about what diets/foods are best for weight loss. While this is such a broad subject I will break it down as best as I can.

​First off I am a strong believer in changing your eating habits and keeping a calorie deficit to lose weight, anyone who has trained with me will tell you I am AGAINST specific diets. While these fad diets as I call them do work, eating the same foods daily becomes repetitive, boring, and discouraging. Also science has shown many of these fad diets to have adverse effects on long term health. For example, Low and no carb diets are one of the current fads, while these diets can help you lose weight, they can also affect your hormones and metabolism. When the body has little carbohydrates, insulin levels lower, the drop in this essential human hormone can alter our metabolism and hormone balance. Also, fad diets have a high rate (80%) of weight regain once the dieter has finished following it. One reason people see a rapid weight gain when they begin eating normally from a no/low carb diet is simple; every gram of carbohydrates has 4 grams of water. This means the 10 lbs. you lost in 3 days from cutting carbs was actually water weight and not actual fat loss.
 
Now my second point, while all these specific diets claim to make you lose a ton of weight faster than the others, science proves otherwise. In a study between the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone diets, scientists concluded “no statistically significant differences between diets.” in fact the study showed the decrease in inches, weight, and overall health to be similar with each diet. Overall health, size and weight did improve in every participant at the conclusion of the year. One interesting fact about this study, the participants had a hard time following these diets for a duration of two months, much like my earlier point of fad diets being discouraging/boring to follow.
 
Back to my topic, if specific diets aren’t the answer then what is?
 
This is actually more simple then you think, have a caloric deficit big enough to reach your goal.  3,000 Calories is equal to 1 Lb., so every 3,000-caloric deficit we have we lose a lb. The trouble we as humans have is eating the correct food. Many of us tell ourselves that we don’t have time to cook meals, so instead we eat fast food thinking it is healthier than it actually is. For example, a grilled chicken sandwich meal from McDonald’s, while grilled chicken sounds healthy is actually equivalent to 720 calories assuming we drank water instead of pop. Now for someone whom is on a 1600 calorie plan, that is almost half of their daily allotted calories.
 
So, to answer what foods are best to eat, stick with low calorie foods that have the proper nourishment values to support our lifestyle.
Here is a list of recommended foods per nutritional value.

​Proteins
Chicken breast
Turkey breast
Ground Turkey
Tilapia
Salmon
Tuna
Crab
Lobster
Shrimp
Steak
Lean ground beef
Buffalo
Lean ham
Egg whites
Trout
cottage cheese
Wild game meat

​Carbohydrates
Baked potato
Sweet potato
Yams
Squash
Pumpkin
Brown rice
Wild rice
Pasta
Oatmeal
Barley
Beans
Kidney beans
Corn
Strawberries
Melon
Apples
Oranges
Fat-free yogurt
Whole-wheat bread
High fiber cereal
Rice cake
Popcorn
Whole grains

​Vegetables
Broccoli
Asparagus
Lettuce
Carrots
Cauliflower
Green beans
Green peppers
Mushrooms
Spinach
Tomato
Peas
Onion
Brussels sprouts
Artichoke
Cabbage
Celery
Zucchini
Cucumber

​Fats
Avocado
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Cold-water fish
peanut butter
Low-fat cheese
Low-sodium nuts
Olives & olive oil
Safflower oil
Canola oil
Flax seed oil
 
Fats to Avoid
Butter
Fried foods
Mayonnaise
Sweets
Whole Dairy
Soda

These foods are all high in their respective daily values and when proper portions are consumed they are also friendly on the calorie consumption side. Pair these foods together to make a low calorie nutricious plate, be sure to stay aware of the serving sizes as this will effect the amount of calories consumed.




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