Nutritional information is easy to find, yet people still feel confused when it comes to setting up a diet. This simple 5 step process will get you started.
This purpose of this article is to keep things simple by providing you with five steps to help you get started.
Step One: Eat protein at regular intervals throughout the day.
Include a serving of protein in all of your main meals. If you can’t eat whole food sources at every meal, supplement with a high quality protein supplement like Warrior Blend.
Moderate to high protein diets are one of the things that most diet systems and nutritionists agree on. Protein is an essential nutrient for the human body for many different reasons but also helps when it comes to fat loss.
Protein reduces hunger by making you feel full for longer, naturally reducing your daily calorie intake. Its higher thermic effect raises your metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories when digesting protein. Eating adequate protein helps preserve muscle mass which also helps maintain your metabolic rate.
Female daily recommendation: 1-1.2 g protein for every kg of lean bodyweight
Male daily recommendation: 1.2-1.8 g protein for every kg of lean bodyweight
Step Two: Eat single ingredient foods.
Gradually replace processed foods in your diet for single ingredient foods.
Eating natural, single ingredient foods 85% of the time should form the foundation of any diet.
Natural foods support fat loss because their high fiber content takes longer to digest, leaving your hunger sated for longer, which helps you control and regulate appetite and hunger. They also contain many of the nutrients needed to help support fat loss, and tend to contain fewer calories than processed foods
You’re more likely to over-consume eating processed foods than you are eating natural foods.
Natural foods help maintain stable blood sugar levels and increase energy levels as well as lead to higher motivation levels so you are more likely to stick to a fat loss diet.
Step Three: Track your daily calories.
Find the easiest way for you to record calories (Either write them down or record the calories on an app) and record how many calories you are eating each day.
In my opinion, it is important to track your daily calories if the goal is fat loss. Tracking your daily calories provides a starting point from where you can modify a diet and learn the nutritional needs of your body.
An important point to consider when tracking calories is that the type of calories eaten will have a massive effect on how they are used by the body. For example 100 calories of sugar will not be used by the body in the same way as 100 calories from protein would.
You can estimate how many calories are needed to maintain your body weight and introduce a 10% calorie deficit below this daily maintenance level to promote fat loss. If this does not result in fat loss, continue reducing your calories by a further 10% each time until fat loss begins (make certain to consult a physician to know where healthy cut-off would be for you).
Tracking daily calories provides an insight into what you are eating. Many people think they are eating less than they actually are and this may simply be the reason they are not losing fat.
Step Four: Learn the macronutrient split best suited for your body type.
Meet your daily protein requirements for each meal then experiment with different ratios of carbohydrates and fats to find what works best for you.
Tracking your calories and the macronutrient split of the foods you eat can be time consuming at first but both are very important first steps towards setting up a fat loss diet.
As mentioned earlier, by tracking your calories, you will discover the macronutrient split of the foods you are eating. By playing around with the macronutrient split of your meals you will learn what foods are better suited for your body type.
So how do you learn what macronutrient split is best for you to feel good?
Start by choosing a meal that you eat at the same time every day. So for example breakfast. By tracking your daily calories you will have an estimate of how many calories each meal should consist of to lose fat.
Start by setting up the meal to meet your daily protein requirements. (Your protein requirement for each meal will be worked out from your daily protein requirement divided by the number of meals you eat each day).
Over the next three days experiment with a low carb and high fat meal on day one, a medium carb and medium fat meal on day two and a high carb and low fat meal on day three and record how each meal makes you feel after eating it and when you feel hungry again.
By doing this, you will learn what split works best for you and your body type.
Step Five: Stay hydrated.
Aim to consume a litre of water for every 25 kg of bodyweight.
Water makes up 55-75% of your total bodyweight. Staying hydrated is important for fat loss because water is necessary for the liver to metabolize fat.
Water is also important in helping reducing stress levels that can impede fat loss. Drinking water makes you feel fuller, especially before a meal meaning less calories will be consumed and staying hydrated makes you feel good. Water also helps flush out toxins and waste products.
Staying hydrated let's your body's system perform at an optimal level.
Setting up a diet does not have to be complicated, and by following these five simple steps, you can now set up a diet plan that will work best for you.
Learn about ways to transition into a different diet pattern.
