Frequently, women make the same mistakes over and over again with fitness and healthy dieting practices. With so many common misconceptions and unreliable information flying around, here are some easy diet tips to clear the air.
1. Calories in vs Calories out
The name of the game has been and always will be calories in vs calories out. The laws of physics rule our everyday lives in the world around us, why would our bodies be any different?
What happens inside of your body when you eat food is something called an exothermic reaction. Your body breaks down the food and uses the calories from that food to keep you moving throughout your day. Whatever calories you haven’t burned become stored as fat.
In order to rid yourself of this confidence-killing nuisance, you have to burn more calories than you consume on a consistent basis. However, before you go running to a water only diet for the next week, checkout the rest of our easy diet tips for women so you can get a better idea of why that’s not going to work.
2. Crash Dieting Doesn’t Work
I know what you’re thinking. You found out the secret and it’s time to jump into the 100 calorie a day diet! Well, that’s probably a good idea if you like hospital trips or putting on even more fat.
Our bodies developed evolutionarily to survive in times of famine; or better yet when we were cave-(wo)men, times when we couldn’t find food around us. So our helpful bodies would notice the decline in calories consumed per day and slow our metabolism as our food ran out. If your last diet attempts were thwarted, this was likely the cause.
So how can you combat the fat? Think small scale. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will that coveted summer bod.
3. Low Calorie Alternatives
In order to make a lasting difference, drastic change is your enemy. For the average person, looking to low calorie alternatives can greatly improve the likelihood of success in your dieting journey long term.
From low calorie dressings and sauces, to looking for the healthier sweet treat options, your tastebuds can still come along for the ride! Living in the 21st century sure has it’s benefits. Every year, more and more low calorie options hit the shelves, with better taste than they had in years prior.
When you select these low calorie options, small changes can lead to big results. Even if you’re saving yourself 10% on the calories consumed on each meal by choosing lower calorie options, doing that on your three meals daily reduces your caloric intake by 30%.
4. Fat or Carbs
Recently, ketogenic diets have become popular, however anyone who tries one will tell you it’s hard to make stick! Ketogenic diets feel impossible because they focus on little to no carbs in order to put your body into “fat-burning” mode. This is where your body relies solely on the fat from food and fat stored in order to fuel your day.
The problem lies in the fact that your body enjoys burning carbs and frequently prefers burning carbs over fat. A simple solution to this issue is making sure that you don’t combine the two. You can have your carbs and eat them too, just limit yourself to go low fat. On fat days (regular Keto), go low carb. It’s a more realistic alternative to a traditional ketogenic diet that allows you to have less brain fog with very similar results.
5. Increase the output
We’ve focused on the calories in portion, lets take a look at the calories out! If you’ve put on weight chances are you’re not as active as you’d like to be. Let me rephrase that, not as active as you should be (shoutout to my couch potatoes).
Increases in physical activity are linked with increased endorphins, and higher amounts of calories burned per day. This means the more active you are the happier and skinnier you are! Some good places to start are gym memberships, workout videos and step trackers! Overall, the options are endless, if you need to know a good place to start with those workouts: stay tuned for more content!