Restriction is not the way to go when dieting.
If we have learned anything from the endless diets and detoxes that flood the market year on year, it is that they do not work on a long-term basis.
Yes, you may get some initial weight loss, but you will ALWAYS reach a point where you can no longer sustain what you are doing and you will go back to normal habits.
These diets don’t teach you anything, nor do they give you new habits that you can carry through to maintain the weight you have lost.
I have talked about portion control many times in my past articles and on my Facebook page it works extremely well and is a great way to visually plan out your meals.
This article looks at the next step after portion control.
It involves a bit of calorie tracking, but it also gives you some freedom in your diet and isn’t built on exclusion of any foods.
Alan Aragon’s model of balancing your diet is a great way to do it, and it is a step up from the 80-20% rule and portion control.
As the image above shows;
> 70% of your diet is based on whole foods you love the taste of. Think of non-processed foods that are rich in all the essential vitamins and minerals you need.
> 10% of your diet is whole foods you might not love, but you know you need them. For most people, I have found that this is usually vegetables. You can take or leave them, but you know that they are of huge benefit to you.
> 10% is semi-junk foods you love the taste of. Think of this as diet drinks, protein bars, and other convenience foods that can work within your diet but are processed. Not complete junk, but not what your diet should be made up of 100% of the time.
The last 10% can be blatant junk you love the taste of.
The percentages are based on total daily calories, so you aren’t going overboard on the fun stuff as you are limited to a certain amount.
If you are eating 2000 calories a day, your ‘fun’ allowance is 10% of this, which is only 200 calories.
If your daily calories were 1700, your ‘fun’ allowance would be 170 calories.
If you can make that fit, and not go overboard on it, it shouldn’t do any damage to your goals.
This way of balancing out your calories gives you what you need and also allows you to have what you like in reasonable amounts.
If you are insure on how to calculate your calories, you can read about that here.
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To download 40 free recipes, head over to my website http://www.rushefitness.ie/ .
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