The Best Diet for Female Weight Loss- a Comprehensive Guide to Nutrition and Lifestyle Changes

 What is weight loss in theory? When you get rid of more calories than you consume. Unfortunately, losing weight is not as simple as that, especially for women who genetically have poor metabolism compared to men. It is so much easier to gain weight because of our unknown bad habits that contribute to it. The reason people feel the need to lose weight is because it was something that wasn’t paid attention to in the beginning.

But one thing you need to know is that it is never too late to do the right thing. If you are determined to lose weight, you will be able to succeed as long as you work in the right direction. When you pay attention to a few small changes instead of focusing on the bigger picture at once, you won’t be burdened by the pressure of succeeding, instead, you will find the little achievements more motivating. It is very important to have a positive outlook when dealing with things that are time-consuming.

1. Maintain a food journal

Mindlessly binging on your favorite bag of chips in the middle of the night might not feel like a big deal as it’s “just a pack of chips” but don’t brush it off. If you are sincere about your efforts, maintain a food journal and note down everything you eat and drink. That will give you an insight into everything that you consume in a day. It will also enable smart eating. It will act as a reality check for your eating habits, be it overeating or skipping meals. Journaling will make you more conscious of your decisions. For example, if you eat potato chips at 6 pm every day, you can replace it with cashews and other healthy alternatives. 

 

2. Keep moving

One of the most important parts of losing weight is keeping your body active so that it loses more calories, contributing to your overall weight loss. Don’t sit in one place for too long. Constantly keep moving if you are not required to sit in one place. In a working scenario, if you live close to the office then you can walk all the way. If not, then take walks during breaks. In a work-from-home scenario, take breaks and walk around your house.

 

3. Limit your packed and processed food intake

When it comes to watching what you eat, junk food cannot be part of your healthy diet for weight loss as they are in no way “healthy food”. They contain trans fat, high amounts of salt, sodium sugar, etc. While your regular food might contain some of these ingredients, processed and packed food contain these elements in very high and unhealthy quantities. Be it cookies, chips, candies or any other such food, none of them are free from evils. A healthy alternative here can be replacing these with salads, cucumbers, yogurt, fresh berries, apples, and other fruits.

 

4. Walk more

Instead of using your car for short trips, prefer walking. A lot of people tend to drive for very short distances out of convenience. This is not a very healthy move. Even if you can’t walk for too long, start walking while taking brief intervals. As adults, you should get at least 150 minutes to 300 minutes on a weekly basis and with moderate intensity, at least if you are just starting. If you start with a vigorous routine, you will get tired a lot early and if you don’t do it right, you might even end up harming yourself.

 

5. Use stairs as much as possible

It goes without saying that this is important if you aim to lose weight. More than important, this is the best form of exercise for those who have just started with their goal to lose weight. you can add two to three minutes of stair climbing to your daily routine. Walking up and down stairs helps strengthen your glutes and quads, proving to be beneficial even as a form of strength training. If you live in a housing society and are not much into “exercise” in the most generic forms, then you can just walk up and down the stairs as a form of workout. Make sure to take a few breaks if there are a lot of floors to walk. This is one activity that anyone and everyone should include because of the effortless nature of this practice. If you have joint issues or cannot physically walk the stairs then do not engage in this activity.

 

6. Make your own lunch

This tip goes hand in hand with keeping a check on your diet and avoiding packed and processed foods. Most seen among people who live alone, instead of making their own meals, a lot of times they order, reheat, and sometimes end up having leftovers the next day. Not only is that food unhealthy to begin with, but it also loses its nutritional value the next day (that is if they had any, to begin with). Maybe if you order food through a tiffin service or any place that sells homemade food, it won’t be as bad for your body as unhealthy and junk food would be. But even the homemade food will be made in a generic way, that is, not tailored to your body’s nutritional needs. If you aim to follow a weight loss diet, you must take matters into your own hands. If you need more protein, you can make yourself protein-rich meals, or shakes if you want to improve your protein intake at your free will. The bottom line here is that being responsible for your food intake makes you more aware of what you want to add and remove from your diet based on your requirements.

 

7. Enjoy desert

This might sound contradictory to the whole “desserts are unhealthy and full of added sugar” concept, but treating yourself once in a while is not a crime, especially when you are on a healthy diet plan but you do have to be mindful of how often you treat yourself to these sugar devils. If you decide to completely stop eating sweets, you will end up overeating to compensate for the absence of desserts which will put all your previous efforts to waste. If you order a cake, only have a portion of it. It will take a lot of restraint depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have but take a minute to smell it and savor each bite.

 

A very important thing to remember when you follow a diet plan for weight loss is to replace your unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones. In the case of lifestyle as well as dietary changes, make sure not to make drastic changes as it can lead to lethargy and food withdrawal respectively. Weight loss isn’t a drastic process. It takes time and requires a lot of patience and restraint, but if you overcome the urge to give up or slack off you will truly benefit from the results.