6 Tips to Build a Weight-Loss Diet

FROM ACTIVE​.COM

Your body needs fuel to exer­cise, and the source of that fuel is food. That’s why some peo­ple report feel­ing hun­grier when they start to work out. If you’re try­ing to lose weight, this could be counterproductive—unless you find the right bal­ance of healthy, fill­ing foods.

The typ­i­cal Amer­i­can diet is loaded with refined or sim­ple car­bo­hy­drates such as white flours, rices, and pas­tas, and pas­tries, sodas, and other sug­ary foods and drinks. These carbs, which lack the fiber found in com­plex carbs (whole grains, fruits, and veg­gies), are metab­o­lized by your body quickly. So while you may feel rar­ing to go after eat­ing them, that energy boost will soon be fol­lowed by a major energy slump, mak­ing it hard to give your all dur­ing your workouts.

In addi­tion, if many of the foods you eat are metab­o­lized quickly, you’ll find your­self feel­ing hun­gry more often, which could mean more snack­ing and a higher calo­rie intake. To keep from eat­ing back all the calo­ries you’ve burned, stick to a diet based on these six science-backed components.

1. Fiber

Eat at least 20 grams of fiber per day from whole grains, fruits, and veg­eta­bles. Fiber helps keep you feel­ing full longer—a big ben­e­fit when you’re try­ing to lose weight. A 2009 study from Brigham Young Uni­ver­sity Col­lege of Health and Human Per­for­mance demon­strated that women who ate more fiber sig­nif­i­cantly low­ered their risk of gain­ing weight and fat. Each gram of fiber eaten cor­re­lated to ½ pound less body weight. The researchers sus­pect that the higher fiber intake led to a reduc­tion in total calo­ries over time.

2. Cal­cium & Vit­a­min D

Strive for three serv­ings of cal­cium– and vit­a­min D-rich foods a day. These nutri­ents often occur together in foods, espe­cially dairy.
Cal­cium and vit­a­min D work together in your body, pri­mar­ily to strengthen your bones. But if the lat­est research is any indi­ca­tion, both of these nutri­ents may flex some mus­cle in your weight loss suc­cess. Dairy foods are the prime source of cal­cium and vit­a­min D in the diet. In a recent study from Johns Hop­kins Bloomberg School of Pub­lic Health, col­lege stu­dents who came clos­est to meet­ing the three-a-day dairy require­ment while eat­ing an oth­er­wise healthy diet weighed less, gained less, and actu­ally lost belly fat, com­pared with stu­dents who con­sumed lit­tle or no dairy.

More­over, vit­a­min D by itself may play a role in weight con­trol. Extra body fat holds on to vit­a­min D so that the body can’t use it. This per­ceived defi­ciency inter­feres with the action of the hor­mone lep­tin, whose job is to tell your brain that you’re full. And if you can’t rec­og­nize when you’re sati­ated, you’re more likely to overeat.

You may also want to con­sider a vit­a­min D sup­ple­ment. The lat­est research sug­gests that this nutri­ent may be a fac­tor in pro­tect­ing you from every­thing from heart dis­ease to mem­ory loss and even chronic pain. Evi­dence is mount­ing that we need more than the cur­rent rec­om­mended intakes, espe­cially as we age, because older skin pro­duces less vit­a­min D (and sun­screens block the body’s abil­ity to use sun­light to pro­duce this vit­a­min). That’s why the lead­ing experts in vit­a­min D research are now rec­om­mend­ing a daily sup­ple­ment of 1,000 IU of vit­a­min D—the kind most read­ily used by the body.

Daily Rec­om­mended Cal­cium Intake
Men and women ages 19–50: 1,000 mil­ligrams
Men and women age 51+: 1,200 milligrams

Daily Rec­om­mended Vit­a­min D Intake
Men and women ages 19–50: 200 IU
Men and women ages 51–70: 400 IU
Men and women age 71+: 600 IU

3. Good Fats

These include monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids, found in oils, nuts, avo­ca­dos, cer­tain fish—and yes, even choco­late! Eat three to four serv­ings daily.

A recent study pub­lished in the jour­nal Appetite shows how these fats—besides being good for your heart—can help you feel fuller longer after meals. The study par­tic­i­pants with a higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids (more than 1,300 mil­ligrams a day, either from foods or from sup­ple­ments) reported feel­ing less hun­gry right after their meals, as well as 2 hours later, com­pared with a lower omega-3 intake (less than 260 mil­ligrams a day). Less hunger means less munch­ing and an eas­ier time keep­ing calo­ries in check.

More spe­cific research has been done on wal­nuts, a good source of monoun­sat­u­rated fats. An Aus­tralian study had par­tic­i­pants fol­low a healthy low-fat diet, either with wal­nuts or with­out. Both groups ate the same num­ber of calo­ries and lost approx­i­mately the same amount of weight at 6 months. But dur­ing the next 6 months of the year long study, the walnut-eaters con­tin­ued to lose weight and body fat, while the other group stopped losing—even though they were still fol­low­ing the same diet.

4. Pro­tein

Aim for three serv­ings of lean pro­tein (such as fish, white meat chicken and turkey, pork loin chops, and lean beef sir­loin) per day. In addi­tion to being an essen­tial nutri­ent, pro­tein helps to keep you feel­ing full longer, which is a big ben­e­fit when you’re try­ing to lose weight. In a small 2009 study, par­tic­i­pants who ate a higher-protein break­fast were more sati­ated after­ward (and took in fewer calo­ries at lunch) than those who ate a low-protein breakfast.

5. Water

Stud­ies from Stan­ford Pre­ven­tion Research Cen­ter sug­gest that water helps pro­mote weight loss in two ways. First, drink­ing more water—at least 4 cups per day—was linked to a 5-pound weight loss over the course of a year. Accord­ing to the researchers, this amount of water increases the amount of energy or calo­ries your body burns. Sec­ond, sub­sti­tut­ing water for sug­ary drinks—sodas, sports drinks, fla­vored drinks, and sweet­ened milks, cof­fees, and teas—resulted in even more weight loss. The exact num­ber of pounds lost depended on how many sug­ary drinks were con­sumed in the first place, and how many were replaced with water.

Still don’t think you can give up your sodas and mochac­ci­nos? Then con­sider this: It’s been shown that when peo­ple con­sume a cer­tain amount of calo­ries, they’re more hun­gry and more likely to overeat at their next meal when those calo­ries are in liq­uid rather than in solid form. Trans­la­tion: If you eat a 200-calorie snack, you’ll be more sat­is­fied after­ward and eat less later than if you drink a 200-calorie bev­er­age. So fre­quently drink­ing calorie-dense bev­er­ages could increase both your hunger and your calo­rie intake through­out the day.

6. Green Tea

Sip at least 3 cups of green tea every day. Cat­e­chins, the antiox­i­dants found in high amounts in green tea, have been shown to be help­ful in pro­mot­ing weight loss, specif­i­cally belly fat. If caf­feine is a con­cern, decaf tea is an option. Some decaf­feina­tion processes, how­ever, can lower the antiox­i­dant con­tent so you might want to have an extra cup or two.

In a study at the USDA Human Nutri­tion Research Cen­ter on Aging at Tufts Uni­ver­sity, par­tic­i­pants who drank the equiv­a­lent of 3 cups of green tea a day lost twice as much weight as those not drink­ing tea. The tea-drinking group also lost sig­nif­i­cantly more belly fat than the non-tea drinkers.

If you like cit­rus, the news gets bet­ter. Replac­ing some of the tea brew­ing water with cit­rus juice, such as lemon, lime, orange, or grape­fruit, allows your body to use more of the tea’s cat­e­chins. You can drink your green tea freshly brewed for a warm­ing hot drink, or chill it after brew­ing for a refresh­ing cold drink.

Excerpted from Walk Off Weight by Michele Stan­ten (Rodale, 2010).