Nutrition

One of the most important factors in weight loss is nutrition. In fact, eating a nutritionally sound diet is more than half the weight loss battle, considering that food intake directly affects the amount of fat and calories the body burns.

Most people believe that limiting themselves to an extremely low caloric intake or eliminating carbohydrates and living off of rabbit food will result in faster weight loss. The reality of it is that this approach can actually cause weight gain.  The exception in this case is the Dr. Simeon’s hCG diet, whereas the hCG actually allows your body to utilize the calories from the fat stores so your body is not put into starvation mode.

Extreme diets of any kind cause the body to go into what is often referred to as "starvation" or "survival" mode, in which it begins to store fat instead of burning it. This in turn causes weight gain as opposed to weight loss.

The good news is that eating a healthy diet is not hard, and it can completely eliminate this problem and turn the body into a fat burning machine. The key is to eat the proper foods and eat them at regular intervals throughout the day to boost metabolism and get those fat burning engines running.

A healthy fat burning diet consists of three main food groups – proteins, carbohydrates and vegetables. Eating the proper foods will ensure that the body is receiving all the vitamins and nutrients it needs to function properly.

Eating the right foods consistently throughout the day will provide the body with much needed energy to help it recover after workout sessions and continue burning fat as opposed to reaching that dreaded plateau that many dieters have trouble with when trying to lose weight.

The easiest way to incorporate healthy, fat burning foods into a well-balanced diet is to portion them out evenly across all daily meals. There is no right or wrong way to do this, so long as all the necessary servings of each food group are included.

One way to accomplish this is to include one serving each of a vegetable, protein, and carbohydrate of for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In between meals, eat one carbohydrate serving and one protein serving.

Fat burning proteins include eggs, whey protein or other protein powder supplements, salmon, turkey, chicken, milk, yogurt and flank or top round steak.

Fat burning vegetables include broccoli, salad greens, bell peppers of any kind, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, asparagus and mushrooms. Any of these make great choices for vegetable intake while offering enough of a variety to avoid getting tired of eating the same old foods.

Fat burning carbohydrates include whole wheat bread or toast, pineapple, grapes, bananas, grapefruit, apples, oranges, blueberries, strawberries and peaches.

Pair these nutritional tips with a solid 15 to 30 minute workout about three times each week and watch the fat and pounds start melting away.