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Planning to Go on a Diet? Know the Reasons Why You Should
Are you looking for Low-fat and Vegetarian diets? Should you go on a diet, or should you not?
With all of the current trends on dieting, it’s not easy to figure out as to whether dieting is suitable for you or not. When it comes to dieting, people have their reasons. Some may have gained an unnatural weight and hence, they need to go on a diet, along with taking note of the eating and exercise habits. On the other hand, there are those who are into sports, and have to be in top condition, and hence, need to diet. While there are those, who would like to look and feel better by losing a few pounds.
While a lot of people actually feel pressurized to go on a diet, it really shouldn’t be that way. You will need to improve your food habits plus, you have to include ‘exercise’ in your daily routine, and add to that, a ‘diet-routine’, combine all these three elements, and you are going to see a whole lot of change, than just blindly following whatever the current trend says.
That said, even if you are still unsure as to whether you should really go on a diet, take a look at the following reasons. Maybe, they will convince you!
Helps in Achieving a Healthy and Balanced Diet.
Maintaining and taking a well-balanced diet is not at all that hard – all you have to do is choose a variety of foods from the major food groups that include fruit and vegetables, sources of protein, grains and cereals etc.
Focusing on the above will also lead you to maintain a healthy weight as they will force you to cut down on junk foods.
Dieting Will Help You in Losing Weight
Blindly following what the current trends say about how you need to lose weight is not the way to go on a diet, and neither can you do so by eating low-calorie foods. You want to go on a diet, and still be able to lose weight and be in the pink of your health?
Your best bet is to go on a diet - a healthy one, and the one that will include a whole lot of fresh fruits and vegetables with fresh low-calorie nutrients. You can also add legumes and high-fibre wholesome grains – they will not only help you lose the excess fat but will also provide you with all the necessary nutrients.
It Also Helps in Gaining Weight More Easily.
Dieting can work in both ways. While some go on a diet to lose weight, there are many who diets because they want to gain weight. The need to gain weight may be for a variety of reasons including illness.
In such cases, they should opt for foods such as dried fruits, nuts and seeds – they are not only dense in nutrients, but they are a much healthier alternative than junk foods.
May Lead to a Reduction in Some Types of Cancer.
Following a poor diet, consuming too much alcohol and red wine, that’s surely a way leading to cancer.
Even though it’s hard to exactly say as to which foods may lower your risk of cancer, but following a healthy diet consisting of nutrient-dense foods may decrease your risk as they add the right kind of vitamins and minerals.
Helps to Keep Your Digestive System Healthy.
Studies have shown that most people take very less dietary food than the recommended percentage. You should know that fibre is very essential for your body to keep a healthy digestive system, and hence, you need to include it in your diet. Fruits and vegetables, wholesome grains, legumes are some of the richest sources of fibre and, it can help in maintaining normal levels of blood sugar and cholesterol.
Few Reasons Why too Much Focus on Dieting Is Wrong
Today, the culture of ‘diet’ is everywhere – in fact, it had reached such a point that a ‘diet’ now means making a lifestyle change.
But know this that if making a change to your lifestyle means enforcing certain rigid food rules that make you feel guilty when you break them, it is a sign that you are on a diet in disguise, though you may not be aware of it yet.
And sadly, the thing is that the ‘diet industry’ will actually want us to fail in dieting so, that we continue to buy and use their products. Do you know that when you begin to follow a certain ‘diet trend’, you are in fact, supporting a billion-dollar industry that simply makes their profits by convincing us that we are flawed?
So, then, what are the reasons for not going on a diet?
Not Associated with Long-term Weight Loss.
Do you know why most people fail on diets? That’s because of the notion that is associated with dieting.
When you begin to diet, you actually begin to notice the food more, and it looks more appealing and tempting. When you begin to lose weight, the hormones that make you hungry increases to a great extent, while the hormones that make you full decreases.
Furthermore, your metabolism also slows down, and it is for this reason that your body will find a way to use calories in the most efficient way and when the body finds that way, calories tend to be left over and which, later on, gets stored as fat in your body. Thus, it comes as no surprise that more than 90 percent of people fail at dieting.
If, you, however, fall in the 10 percent of people who had maintained dieting and are thinking of it as a long-term goal, just think of this – in order to achieve the ‘perfect body’, will it do you any good if it means you are sacrificing eating out and socializing with your friends and your interests?
Certainly Not the Answer to Happiness.
Dieting is not and will never be the answer to lose weight, no matter whether it is short-term or long-term.
Let’s just say that you have achieved your ‘perfect body’ by following a strict diet. But did you think about what would happen in a few months from now? Your body will change size. That’s the reality of life – our bodies change as we age, and if you had to go on a diet to maintain your body size every now and then, know this that your body won’t get the nutrients that are needed and you are going to end up in a hospital due to lack of vitamins and nutrients at regular intervals.
Then, what use is the time, money and energy that you have spent in following a diet? Instead of wasting your life, how about you focus on accepting and loving your body the way it is?
Not a Panacea for All Health Issues
You will either be told that you are overweight, but healthy. Or it may so happen that you may be told that you are thin but you are unhealthy. Know this that the weight of a person doesn’t indicate their overall health. Studies have shown that slightly overweight or moderately obese people often live longer than their normal-weight counterparts, and in most cases, often longer.
Studies have indicated that instead of adding the goal of weight loss, it is recommended that one should adopt a healthy lifestyle by following healthy habits, and that can be achieved by changing the health behaviors, no matter what one’s weight is.
Popular Diets You can Follow for a Better Health
The Mediterranean Diet
No matter what ‘diet trends’ come and go, the ‘Mediterranean Diet’ has always been the clear winner. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, fish and wholesome grains, and healthy fats such as flax oil, virgin coconut oil, and olive oil.
Studies have shown that this diet can greatly reduce the risk of cancer and heart diseases while offering numerous health benefits, including reducing the levels of bad cholesterol. Plus, it also helps that following this diet is also shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The ‘Mediterranean Diet’ is ranked #1 in the ‘Overall Best Diets’ that is evaluated by the U.S. News.
The DASH Diet
Also known as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and hence, ‘DASH’, this diet has been designed in such a way that can help to manage the blood pressure, but according to the experts, it offers many health benefits. In fact, the benefits are so huge that it has been ranked just next to the ‘Mediterranean Diet’.
Similar to the Mediterranean Diet, the DASH diet, too, focuses on healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, wholesome grains, nuts, legumes, fish and skinless poultry, while limiting the inclusion of sweets, salt, and red meat.
Studies have also shown that adhering to the DASH diet reduces the risk of diabetes, besides helping in fighting depression.
The Flexitarian Diet
Ranked at the third place, the Flexitarian Diet is formed by the combination of two words – flexible and vegetarian.
Coined by the renowned dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, this diet ranks quite high in the nutrition list and, it also helps that this diet is very easy to follow, while paving the way for long-term weight loss as well as offering health benefits to the heart.
According to Blatner, in order to follow this diet, you don’t have to cut down completely on meat to reap the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Instead, while following this diet, it is advised that you take meat every once in a while so as to satisfy your cravings. Doing so will not only help in weight management, but it will also improve overall health.
The MIND Diet
Ranked fourth in the list of ‘Overall best diets to follow’, the MIND diet is a combination of the two most popular diets – the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH Diet.
Standing for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neuro-degenerative Delay, the MIND Diet is known to focus on healthy food groups that are good for both brain and heart. Particularly giving a strong focus on fresh green leafy vegetable, this diet opts for the vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, wholesome grains and legumes, fish, poultry and olive oil.
In order to follow this diet, here’s how you can go about – you can go for three servings of wholesome grains followed by a bowl of salad and fresh vegetables later in the day.
WW (Weight Watchers) Diet
Ranked fifth in the list of ‘Overall best diets to follow’ and ranked first in the Best Commercial Diet and Best Diet for Weight Loss in 2019, this diet is backed by Oprah Winfrey, and has taken on Kate Hudson as its brand ambassador recently.
Even though this diet is created to lose weight, it does so while focusing on living healthy. According to this diet, each and every food and beverage is assigned a point value, that is based on their nutritious benefits. This diet has assigned quite high points on foods that fall in the category of saturated fats and sugars, while assigning low points on foods with very high levels of proteins.
Following this diet helps to lay down a foundation that focuses on a healthy pattern of eating. You can eat anything you want, provided you remember to take note of the points that are assigned to food each category.
Wondering how to remember the points assigned to each food category? There’s an app for that – named "WW (WeightWatchers)" on both Google Play Store and the Apple Store, with which you can use the app to take note of all the points that are assigned to the food categories.
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Follow These Diets in 2019 and Take a Step Towards Healthier Lifestyle
"Your Body is Your temple." Whatever you eat, will reflect in your actions, immune system, and productivity. Opt for healthier foods and maintain overall good health.