How to lose weight with a healthy diet

Stop! It’s a Trap!
                True weight loss is not about eating less, it’s about eating more of the right foods that are nutrient-dense, to help flush out the empty calories and keep you full and running all day. This is important due to the fact that restricting food will slow down your metabolism. When you cut back on how much you eat you basically tell your body, “Food is scarce, time to store up all that you can!” Your body obliges by slowing your metabolism and holding onto the energy stores that it already has.
                If your body continues to believe there is a food shortage (a diet or crash diet) it will start breaking down muscle tissue for food. This will slow your metabolism even more and gives more room for fat to build in the vacated area.

Hit the Hay
                Recent studies have shown that people who get less sleep are under more stress and stored more visceral fat. So rearrange your schedule a bit to get a full night’s sleep and can wake up with less stress.

Protein: The Super P!
                Protein is a major building block in maintaining lean muscle. Researchers have argued that the current recommendation for daily intake of protein (0.36 grams per pound of body weight) is not enough for those doing resistance training. They have recommended that women bet between 0.54 and 1 gram per pound of body weight. For those that are trying to lose weight use your target body weight as the guide.
Try adding a serving (3oz of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8oz of low-fat yogurt) to every meal and snack. It has been shown that protein can raise postmeal calorie burn by 35%.

Go! Organic! Go, Go Organic!
Another research has shown that those who do not eat organics while on a diet have seen a larger-than-normal decrease in their metabolism while on their diet, possible from the toxins (from pesticides) impede the energy-burning process. Basically, pesticides make it harder to lose those unwanted pounds.
Today it is not easy to afford organic produce, but traditionally grown fruits that you peel (bananas, grapefruit, and avocado) are ok. Go organic when possible on: grapes, potatoes, cherries, collard greens, kale, spinach, bell peppers, nectarines, blueberries, apples, strawberries, peaches, and celery; these typically have the highest levels of pesticides.

Wiggle it! Just a Little Bit!
If you sit or stand at work plays a big role in weight loss. In a university research on inactivity they found that 4 hours or more of inactivity causes a close to full shut-down of an enzyme that helps with controlling cholesterol and fat metabolism. The best way to keep this enzyme active and increase the fat-burning in your body is to break up long periods of downtime by standing up and moving around a bit. If you are in an office try standing up, stretching a bit, rotate your ankles to increase circulation, and/or move a bit. If you have a file that needs to get to the file cabinet get up and file it, or go get a bottle of water.

Cold Water vs. Luke Warm
It has been found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day can raise resting metabolism by 50 calories a day. That’s enough to lose 5 pounds in a year with no further work! The theory behind this is that the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature is increasing the metabolism slightly.

Muy Caliente
Did you know that the compound capsaicin that gives chile peppers their heat can raise your metabolism? Adding 1 tablespoon of chopped peppers boosts your sympathetic nervous system (it is in charge of your fight-or-flight response). The end result is that your metabolism with temporarily rise approximately 23%. So, stock up your pantry on salsas and red-pepper flakes; these can be added to pizzas, pastas and stir-fries.

Give Your Morning the Go Go
It is widely known that breakfast gives your body and your metabolism the jump start that it needs to get up and going. With this it is no surprise that those who skip out on breakfast are 4.5 times as likely to be obese. The healthier your first meal of the day, the better. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who got 22 to 55 percent of their total calories at breakfast gained an average of 1.7 pounds over 4 years. While at the same time those who got 0-11 percent gained nearly 3 pounds.

Coffee or Tea? Will it Help Me?
Caffeine is a known stimulant, so typically your daily cup of java can increase your metabolism by 5-8 percent, effectively burning from 98-174 calories a day. In a Japanese study, a single cup of brewed tea can raise your metabolism by 12 percent. These effects come from the antioxidants (catechins) in tea that provide the boost.

Fight the Good Fight with Fiber
Fiber is known by its fat burning abilities, as much as 30 percent. Those that eat the most fiber grain have been found to gain the least weight over time. Set your goal for about 25 grams a day, which are three servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Be Rich in Iron……Foods that is!
Iron is the essential element in blood that carries oxygen to your muscles to burn the fat your working so hard on removing. If you don’t replenish your stores of iron, you run the risk of a drooping metabolism and low levels of energy. The best sources of iron are: spinach, beans, fortified cereals, lean meats, and shellfish. So eat up!

Super D to the Rescue!
                Vitamin D is crucial in preserving muscle tissue. Salmon is the biggest supplier of Vitamin D due to giving you 90 percent of your daily intake in a 3.5 ounce serving! Eggs, fortified cereal and milk, and tuna are other great sources.

Moooo!
In many studies there’s data that supports that calcium deficiency (common in many women) may decrease metabolism. From these studies research has shown that consuming  calcium from dairy foods (fat-free milk and low-fat yogurt) may also reduce fat absorption from other foods.

Ok, Who Forgot the Watermelon?

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