How to Lose Weight in Simple Terms

Are you wondering how to lose weight? If you want to lose weight, decrease your carbohydrate and fat intake, increase your protein and fiber intake and get active.

That is probably oversimplifying but the basic concept is sound. Before you can put something like that into practice you need to know what foods to eat and which to cut back on. With that in mind, here are some guidelines.

Reduce consumption of carbohydrates and fat

Sources of carbohydrate include:

• Sugar is the primary source of carbohydrate. All types of sugar including glucose, lactose (from dairy) and fructose from fruits etc.
• Baked goods: Processed wheat flour is another primary source of carbohydrate so cookies, cakes, pastries, bread etc should be cut back.
• Potato
• Pasta (once again made with flour)
• Rice
• Vegetables: These are a source of complex carbohydrates which require more processing by the body so are therefore less of an issue.

Carbohydrates are the most readily converted to energy by our bodies. Fat, protein and fiber all require much more energy to digest, process or just move it along the digestive tract as in the case with fiber. An excess of energy from carbohydrates in the body leads to the fastest addition of fat cells. The most important carbohydrates to cut back on are simple carbohydrates like those derived from pasta, and baked products and also staple complex carbohydrates like potato and rice. The fact of the matter is that we consume too much carbohydrate in so-called western society.

Sources of fat include

• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish: Contains a relatively low saturated fat content and has more healthy fats (unsaturated and omega 3).
• Dairy products like cheese, cream, milk, yogurt etc
• Eggs: Only the yolk contains fat.
• Cooking oils: Vegetable based oils like olive oil etc are healthy fats but consumption should still be monitored.
• Fruit and vegetables: Generally low concentrations of healthy fats. But avocado is very high in fat, containing around 300 calories compared to pears with around 75 calories
• Coconut: Did you know that coconut is the only known plant source of saturated fat?

Fat has the highest calorie concentration, containing 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram of protein and carbohydrate. When it comes to fat, there are two things to keep in mind. Firstly, to decrease consumption of saturated fats from meat, poultry, dairy products and animal fats like lard. You should always trim excess fat from meat whether you are dieting or not and chicken should always be cooked without the skin as most of the fat on a chicken is directly under the skin. Cooking with the skin on melts that fat and allows it to soak into the meat. Secondly, you can actually increase consumption of vegetable based oils as these provide healthy oils that the body requires.

Increase consumption of protein and fiber

Protein and fiber are the two food components that satisfy hunger for the longest. For this reason, when dieting we should increase our consumption of them since they help prevent hunger pains when calorie consumption is reduced.

Sources of protein include;

• Meat and poultry
• Fish
• Eggs: the purest form of protein known to man comes from egg whites.
• Dairy products: Milk, cream, cheese, yogurt etc
• Nuts and seeds: Flax seed, sesame seeds, all nuts. Be careful though as nuts are high in fat.
• Legumes: Lentils, fava beans, Edamame (baby soy beans), chick peas etc.
• Tofu: Very high in protein while being low in calories and fat

You’ll note that this list contains several sources that are also high in fat. As mentioned before, trim the fat from meat to decrease fat consumption. With dairy products, select low fat options. Cut down fat consumption by spreading low fat cream cheese spread or ricotta cheese on bread in place of margarine or butter. Add an egg or egg white to shakes and smoothies to increase protein consumption.

Sources of fiber

• Whole grains like brown rice, barley, lentils and oats
• Brown and multi grain bread
• Flaxseed, sesame seeds
• Psyllium
• Fiber supplements: See this post for How to make your own fiber supplement
• Glucommanan (Konjac root): The Japanese make calorie free miracle noodles with this. For more information visit our Miracle noodle review

Of course, the last aspect of how to lose weight is to get active. It doesn’t have to be overly strenuous though of course the more energy it requires the faster you will lose weight. Even just taking a 15-20 minute walk each day will help. Take the dog for a walk, take the stairs instead of the lift at work, walk the kids to school or the shops instead of driving, walk to the park for lunch instead of eating at work. Lots of simple ways to get active and help you with how to lose weight.

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