How to Approach Your Diet
When thinking of the word "diet", we often associate this word to a special fixated set of restrictions, whether that be what type of food to eat, how much to eat, and others. Although these may be true, a diet doesn't need to be a taboo restriction of food that makes you miserable. If your goal is to lose weight, there will be certain restrictions you will have to maintain, but making these restrictions too rigid or unrealistic can cause you to relapse on your weight loss goals in a phenomenon that is known as "yo-yo dieting". "Yo-yo dieting" is an occurance where someone can possibly lose a certain amount of weight, but end up regaining all of the weight they have lost, similar to the motion of how a yo-yo can go up and down on a string. When you approach your diet from a perspective of making long term lifestyle changes, it can be easier to set your restrictions to something you can realistically maintain.
Food is not only a means for nutrition and survival for humans in our times. Unlike the cavemen of the past, we eat food for social reasons, emotional reasons, and even for no reason at all. Making simple cutbacks on unnessecary eating can help us to lose and maintain lost weight.
Some of the food-related habits that can lead to weight gain include:
Social eating : eating with family or friends.
Night eating : snacking throughout the evening and night.
Emotional eating : eating in response to a varety of emotions
Distracted eating : eating when doing something else (working, watching television, doing household chores).
Making substiutions in actions or changing the way you eat during these times can help to alleviate the overconsumption of food. Maybe instead of snacking when youre bored or feeling down, you can talk to a friend or go for a walk outside. When you eat a main meal such as breakfast, lunch, or dinner, try eating without watching the TV. If you eat at a table and focus on the meal you eat, you can be mindful of what you eat and find it easier to know when you are full.
Below I have provided two different tools you can use to give a basic guideline of where you're at and how you can change your weight. First I have the BMI (body mass index) calculator. A BMI is a calculation used to estimate your body fat percentage. Next I have a simple calorie calculator that allows you to see how many calories you need to consume to maintain your weight, and how many calories you need to consume to lose weight. This is not an exact measurement but rather an estimate of where the numbers are based on your measurements. These tools can be a good first step into understanding your weight and where you want to take it.
BMI Calculator
Use the BMI calculator to check your body mass index based on your weight and height.
Calorie Needs Calculator
Use this calculator to estimate your daily caloric needs based on your weight, height, age, gender, activity level, and goal.