A healthy diet has been a constant health concern in both developing and developed nations.
Have you been struggling to keep your weight within your desired range? One of the best ways to achieve this is by adjusting your eating habits and adopting a healthy diet.
Unfortunately, most accessible diet plans make it tricky for individuals struggling with diet and weight management to meet their goals. In most cases, some diets plan suggest that you cut on what you eat, while others indicate that you reduce your calories intake.
In essence, some of these plans are only helpful in the short- run, but they are not the ideal weight management strategies in the long run.
This article will highlight the six best diet and weight management strategies that will help you enhance overall health.
Six Best Diet And Weight Management Strategies
1. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting involves alternating periods of eating and fasting. This means you are only allowed to eat at specific times.
You are restricted from taking any food during the fasting period, but you can drink water and non-caloric drinks such as tea and coffee. You can also take supplements with no calories during this period. Avoid sugary drinks like juice and soda as they contain a large number of calories and contribute to excessive weight gain.
This strategy is ideal for diet and weight management as it helps your body break down the excess fats and use them as a source of energy for normal body functioning.
There are various schedules, including a 16/8 plan where you can eat within 8 hours and fast for 16 hours, and the one meal per day for two days in a week schedule.
Intermittent fasting helps to reduce excess body fats up to 8% within 24 weeks. This equally helps to trim down waist circumference by up to 7%.
Moreover, intermittent fasting has been linked to reduced cases of early aging, reduced cardiac diseases, increased receptors sensitivity to insulin, reduced inflammation, and many more.
2. Low-Fat Healthy Diet
The low-fat diet entails cutting down your daily fat intake by about 25-30%. A low-fat diet reduces the build-up of low-density lipids (harmful lipids), responsible for weight gain and increased body mass index.
A low-fat diet includes lentils, vegetables, fruits, white fish, lean meat, and more. These feeds help reduce calorie intake two times more than other macronutrients, carbohydrates and proteins.
Additionally, a low-fat diet has several other health benefits, including improving heart functioning, which helps to reduce cardiac diseases, Hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. However, it would help if you always were careful not to completely restrict a fat diet as fats are essential for the absorption, hormone production, and cell development.
A Must-read: 6 Common Myths About Dieting
3. Low-Carb Healthy Diet
Carbohydrates are the most significant source of energy for cell functioning. However, excess carbs result in extra energy (glucose), which is then stored in body muscles resulting in excessive weight gain.
Low-carb-diet meals include lean meat, leafy vegetables, eggs, grains, milk, nuts, and more. Examples of these diets include keto, low carb, and Atkins. What’s more, diets help to manage your weight differently. Some reduce weight drastically while others work gradually.
This diet works by reducing carbs intake while increasing protein and fat intake. In this case, proteins help to enhance metabolism and reduce your appetite. Similarly, it breaks down body fats to help provide energy for normal cell functioning.
Additional health benefits of taking a low-carb diet include:
- Reducing vascular disease.
- Fewer risks of heart diseases.
- Improving insulin receptors sensitivity.
- Reducing risks of hypertensive disease.
However, it would be best to be cautious of low–carb diets, which may lead to excessive fat and proteins breakdown to provide energy for the cells. This leads to the production of excess ketone bodies, resulting in ketoacidosis. This may be fatal if one does not receive medical attention on time.
4. Plant-Based Healthy Diet
A plant-based diet may be for weight management. This entails restriction of intake of animal-based products and only taking plants products. Nonetheless, some plant-based diets allow you to take animal products in moderation.
Most diets involve the removal of all meat, fish, and poultry, while others entail avoidance of dairy products and eggs. Likewise, vegan diets involve the systematic removal of all meat and animal-derived products. Most restricted feeds contain high calories, so lowering their intake helps significantly manage weight.
Plant-based diets are high in fiber content, which helps improve absorption, metabolism, and excretion. Simultaneously, this diet helps to improve skin elasticity, which helps reduce inflammation. The diet also helps maintain blood vessels elasticity reducing risks of vascular disease, heart diseases, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
5. Dash Diet
The DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is ideally aimed at eating foods that prevent elevating your blood pressure, clinically known as Hypertension. For decades, Hypertension has been associated with most chronic diseases such as heart diseases and stroke.
The DASH diet emphasizes reducing salt intake, red meat, low fats, and increased fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It also emphasizes on cessation of smoking, reducing alcohol intake.
Although the DASH diet does not directly work on your weight, it helps to reduce health risks that may interfere with your weight management schedule.
6. Don’t Forget To Exercise.
Exercise does not only help keep your body fit, but it is also essential in weight management. During exercise, your body burns down excess fats for energy.
This helps in weight management and improves your muscles’ flexibility. Moreover, it helps maintain flexible joint movements, which reduces injury occurrences.
Most importantly, burning the unwanted body fats during exercise sections reduces the risks of developing chronic diseases that may be fatal. Such conditions include hypertension, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis.
Also Read: 9 Benefits of A Healthy Diet For The Skin
The Bottom Line
Many people have had a tough time choosing the proper diet and weight management strategies to help them achieve their weight goals. Some of the best weight management strategies proven to be effective in the long run include intermittent fasting, low-carb diet, low-fat diet, DASH diet, and regular exercise.
Even so, different programs work differently for individuals depending on several factors such as genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle. Therefore, ensure you choose any of the six best diet and weight management strategies that will work best for you.
