Keto. Intermittent fasting. Paleo. Volumetrics. If you’re interested enough in nutrition to read this article, you’ve almost definitely seen countless articles that preach about the wonders of “miracle diets”. All of these diets tend to produce really fast results by heavily restricting your nutrition, often requiring you to completely remove necessary nutrients like carbohydrates, fats and even vitamins. They also tend to create unreasonable expectations on your lifestyle. The combination of these two factors almost always causes the person trying it to quit after a short time, leading to a “crash”, or a sudden loss of all of your hard work. Let us tell you right now:
Fad diets do not work for long.
The only thing that you can rely on to give you lasting results is a balanced, controlled diet that works well for you, and only you. Everybody’s needs are going to be different.
In this article, we’re going to explain how to make healthy choices that work for you in the long term without making you hate your life. Specifically, we’re going to teach you about the essential foods that you absolutely must eat, and how much to eat based on your lifestyle and your goals.
But first, in two sentences, we’re going to tell you truthfully everything you need to know about eating for weight control. It is deceptively simple. It is the golden rule of calories, scientifically proven and brutal in its honesty. If you can truly accept and follow this advice, your body can be as healthy and beautiful as you can imagine.
Are you ready?
If you eat more than what you burn, you’ll gain weight. If you burn more than what you eat, you’ll lose weight.
That’s it. It sounds so simple, right? To make it easy for you, here’s some easy tips on how to make your plan based on how to identify and portion the three main food types (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and a few additional simple tips to help you with your eating schedule.
Carbs
Make sure that you’re getting your carbs from the best sources. Brown rice, whole wheat pasta and bread, and sweet potato are all ideal sources, but common Vietnamese carbs like com tam, pho and bun are all acceptable options in moderation.
For weight loss:
One cupped palm sized portion of carbs for breakfast and lunch.
For weight gain:
One to one and a half cupped palm sized portion of carbs for breakfast and lunch, one cupped palm sized portion for dinner
Protein
You should be getting some sort of lean protein, like fish, chicken, low fat beef, eggs or tofu, with each meal. A little bit of pork isn’t going to hurt you, but we advise you to limit your intake as much as you’re comfortable. Meats are all fine to put into the freezer, and will take up less space than dumplings and buns. If you’re a vegetarian, beans, seeds, peanut butter and other nuts; just pair them with a whole grain carb to make it a complete protein. Just trust us, but you can also read more about complete proteins here: link for vietnamese / https://www.wikihow.com/Combine-Food-to-Make-Complete-Protein
For weight loss:
One palm sized portion of protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner
For weight gain:
One to two palm sized portions of protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Fats
You’ve got to be careful with fats as well, as a lot of the foods that you might be tempted to eat will be high in artificial trans-fats, all of which are the processed foods. However, your body needs fats, so make sure that you’re getting it from your protein sources, as well as from sources like nuts and seeds. Another tip is to replace your cooking oils with olive oil, or sunflower oil if you want the same flavor as vegetable oil, to give yourself a much healthier fat source.
For weight loss:
One thumb-sized portion with two meals of your choice
For weight gain:
One thumb-sized portion with breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Extra tips:
- Eat at least one fist of raw vegetables with each meal to make sure that you get enough vitamins and minerals
- Drink at least 2-3 liters of water per day
- Remove as much processed food from your diet as possible (Click here for a list of processed foods)
- Don’t eat more than four hours later than when you’re about to go to sleep, as this will cause your body to store any calories.
We hope that this is a good start for you, but remember, these are general guidelines, and they are only the beginning. For a more personalized plan that works well for you, please follow this link to set an appointment to create a plan that works well for your lifestyle, preferences and goals.
