Losing weight has become prevalent in recent times thanks to medical outfits and their expositions on the health hazards of accumulating unhealthy fat. However, losing weight is not the goal otherwise, underweight people would be the crème de la crème of society as far as being medically fit is concerned. Being and staying healthy is the goal, and underweight people seem to miss this mark as well.

Since good health is the whole idea behind weight loss, dieting becomes a key component, initiating a symbiotic relationship that proffers an accurate solution to a problem. However, there’s an important question to ask yourself. Does the certainty in the relationship between diets and weight loss mean that the problem has been struck out?

In 2016 alone, 1.9 billion adults were classified as overweight. This meant that at the time, 1.9 billion adults were susceptible to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and osteoarthritis. An average of 4.7 million people dies from obesity and related causes yearly. The recent case of Covid-19 showed that diabetic patients and people suffering from these cardiovascular diseases were more disposed to dying than most. The resulting death toll from Covid-19 is startling, but obesity and overweight have long since stayed under the radar, causing just as many deaths.

If being overweight and obese is not a pandemic, then it’s close to one.

Now, more than ever, the awareness of the relevance of diets and weight loss to a healthy body is key to survival.

Diet And Weight Loss: Why Not Exercise and Weight Loss?

Almost anything can become an industry nowadays as far as there’s demand and supply. So speaking, the rise in demand for ways to lose weight has met a fair share of people willing to supply paths or methods to weight loss. However, the methods are not thick on the ground for weight loss and keep coming back to two things – exercise and diet.

Most experts tout exercising as the staple method to lose weight. Since excess calories in the body lead to fat accumulation, the solution would be to burn it all out. Vigorous physical activity has proven, times without number, to be very good at burning out excess fat. However, what good is exercise if you keep eating foods that cause unhealthy fat accumulation? It’s like walking a circle: you’re fighting something and indulging the same thing you’re fighting. This is the major reason why people complain of not getting results commensurate with the amount of time and energy they invest into exercising. Their plan to lose weight is redundant in its very nature.

Diets are all about healthy foods – eating healthy foods. They work best with weight loss because you’re eliminating unhealthy and dangerous foods to the body and going for those that will fill you with nutrients. With diet, it’s not just eating a particular meal to lose weight. It’s a major lifestyle change – redoing the types of foods you eat and creating a wholesome plan that includes eating healthy meals.

Once there’s no room for accumulating unhealthy fat in your body, it’s easier to lose weight and stay that way and enjoy other dividends of a healthy lifestyle.

Myths About Diets and Losing Weight

We cannot address diets and their relationship to weight loss without counteracting the plethora of myths and bad information out there. In other words, we say what it is not for you to learn what it is.

· Eating fatty foods makes you fat.

The outcome of an idea like this is that people stop taking in fatty foods as though it is these meals that are responsible for their weight. True, French fries, chips, cheese, crackers, and so on can lead to fat accumulation, but they’re not solely responsible for obesity. Fatty foods can only make you fat when you make a main meal out of them. Kathleen M. Zelman of Webmd says that fats are crucial to a healthy diet and that the human body cannot do without them. The contention here is differentiating between unhealthy fats and those that will keep our body in great shape.

· A low carbohydrate-based plan will make you lose weight.

Do you know that carbohydrates are of two types? If you didn’t know this, you might have fallen prey to pieces of advice that bend towards the elimination of a vital nutrient from your body. There are simple carbohydrates and complex ones. Cookies and sweets, for instance, are simple carbohydrates that have a lot of sugar but offer little or no nutrients to the body. It is foods like this that cause weight gain. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, are healthy for the body.

· Fasting is the quickest way to drop off calories.

You must have heard this one a lot. The problem with fasting as a plan for weight loss is that it is useless to end the fast with foods that give your body more calories than you avoided earlier. Sometimes, depending on co-factors like the stress of work, family, et cetera, fasting ends up making you hungrier. And to make up for your empty stomach, you go on an eating spell. Before you know what’s going on, you’ve gained a year’s worth of fat in a month.

If fasting is the method you intend to use to lose weight, you should factor in healthy diets.

· Omitting breakfast is a way to gain more weight.

No study has ascertained the truth behind this statement, and it’s not from a lack of trying. The fact is that there is simply no truth to the relationship between breakfast and weight gain. If you feel like having breakfast, it should be a healthy one.

· Taking supplements can make you lose weight.

Supplements exist as aids to healthy food, not as a weight loss plan. Supplements have some of the nutrients found in healthy foods and can be taken directly in the temporary absence of some of these foods. They are not magical pills that downsize your weight overnight or in two days. They supply your body with the necessary nutrients required for it to function properly.

· Stop taking sugar

A verdict like this is possible because of the high-calorie content of sugar. But sugar is also important to the body when taken in appropriate quantities.

Like it or not, the body cannot do without any class of food. Eating anyone in excess is sure to have its downsides. But eating a meal that’s a harmony of equal and healthy amounts of each class is the real deal.

You can exercise all you want, but there is no weight loss without eating balanced diets.

The Relationship Between Diets and Losing Weight

It’s been established medically that good diets are just as crucial to weight loss as exercise. Being determined alone won’t cut it. You have to apply that determination towards changing the type of food you eat, so it doesn’t affect your body negatively. According to the CDC, eating healthy foods can help you maintain the weight you’ve lost and is part of the key to healthy living, the second half being “physical activity” or exercise.

Eating balanced diets has not enjoyed the spotlight as it is doing now, courtesy of thorough medical research on foods and their relation to weight loss and general health. As the day goes by, more and more research continues to prove the indelible part that dieting has to play in losing weight and maintaining a healthy body. The foods that we need to keep a healthy weight are not strange and new to us. They are not ferried from the Orient either. They’re items that have been close to you all this while. With the right amount of information, you can strengthen your body against obesity-based diseases, shed off unhealthy fat, and maintain a good weight, all of this without journeying to and fro in search of specialists. All you need is a weight loss diet, and you’re good to go.

Healthy Diets for Weight-Loss

There are many diet plans for losing weight, most of them made up of different classes of food and their nutrients and vitamins. Following them religiously would lead to a loss in unhealthy weight and the beginning of a healthy lifestyle.

The Mayo Clinic Diet

This weight-loss routine is as reputable and trustworthy as the name of its creators – Mayo Clinic. The diet routine is geared towards helping you lose weight. As a diet plan, it doesn’t just include a list of healthy foods and nutrients needed to keep your body at peak capacity. It also involves a proper dose of physical activity to ensure efficiency.

If you’re looking for something short and snappy, then this diet plan is not for you. The professionals who put the plan together intended it to be a long-term program because they understand that whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. The road to true weight loss is not a short one because while trying to adjust to the lifestyle of new diets, there’s bound to be fluctuations in your body weight. With time, the loss of calories stabilizes, and you can detect the loss of fat. For Mayo Clinic, there is no need to shed calories if you can’t maintain the loss of weight; that’s why their diet plan is targeted at creating a new lifestyle that’s healthy and twice as beneficial as the one that led you to search for a weight loss regime.

The Mayo Clinic diet seeks to eliminate certain parts of your eating lifestyle, fix in other habits like making fruits and veggies a part of your diet, and teaching you to engage in exercises for at least thirty minutes of the day.

The Mayo Clinic Diet serves as an ideal plan for preventing obesity because it’s the brainchild of not just one medical expert but a group of medical experts in Mayo Clinic.

If you’re reading this, you should be aware of the health hazards that being obese and overweight can cause. If you’re looking for a healthy path, regardless of whether you’re obese or not, this plan is tailored to provide limitless solutions by configuring your diets and pruning your lifestyle. As a result, you can say goodbye to the fear of being susceptible to diseases.

In essence, the Mayo Clinic Diet asserts that the best way to lose weight is by making some major lifelong changes in your diet.

This diet plan is divided into two parts, namely “Lose it” and “Live it.”

Lose it

This part eases you into the crux of the diet plan and has a timeframe of two weeks. Therefore, in two weeks, you’ll be trying to learn ten healthy lifestyles and drop five old ones. The target is to lower your weight by a minimum of six pounds at the end of this part.

Live it

If the first part of the Mayo Clinic Diet was the foundation, this part is an offshoot that should go on for the rest of your life. Here, you learn of healthy food choices and maintaining the new lifestyles you’ve adopted. The weight loss here is not as drastic as that in the first part. You’re estimated to lose anything from 1 to 2 pounds every week until you attain your desired weight. The lifestyle that this Mayo’s diet plan has eased you into is enough to maintain your wealth for the rest of your life.

The Mayo Clinic Diet does not aim to portray a diet change as an easy transition. It’s going to be difficult breaking up with foods you’re used to. But the outcome of their diet plan is irrefutably beneficial to your longevity and health.

When it comes to food choices, the Mayo Clinic Diet makes provision for the gamut of healthy foods you should take by grouping them in the form of a pyramid. Thus, you’re to eat less from the food groups going up. In other words, you should eat less from the food groups as you head towards the pyramid. The idea is to help you ration the amount of food you eat from each group to attain a healthy lifestyle. Here’s the order of foods in the pyramid from bottom to top:

• Fruits – Daily Physical Activity – Vegetables
• Carbohydrates
• Protein and Dairy
• Fats and;
• Sweets

The Mayo Clinic Diet doesn’t require that you stop eating any foods, hence the pyramid. The majority of the diet plan is made up of food and vegetables. It’s not an indication to go vegan but an attempt to make sure you don’t accumulate much fat. Fruits and vegetables are low on calories. Eating a diet based on fruits and vegetables gives you the perk of being full and taking in way fewer calories than is obtainable with other foods. After fruits and vegetables, you start to go up the pyramid, taking moderate amounts of each food class, not forgetting exercises, of course.

The Mayo Clinic Diet is fun because you don’t stop eating any type of food. Rather you limit the intake of those that can be hazardous to your health if taken in excess. As a result, the diet plan has a tremendous effect on weight loss. The Mayo Clinic Diet has the edge over other diet plans because while others are short-termed and focus on making you lose weight quickly, Mayo Clinic Diet wants you to lower and maintain your weight for the rest of your life. It doesn’t just tackle weight loss. It also prevents you from falling prey to diseases like diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, among others.

Perhaps, the greatest perk of all is that the Mayo Clinic Diet is adjustable to your person. If you’re not used to a diet built on fruits and vegetables, they warn that you may experience mild disturbances such as intestinal gas. Don’t fret when such happens. It’s just your body getting used to the new diet plan. Those who have diabetes should eat more veggies than fruit because of the sugar content in fruits. If you need any more tweaks, your doctor can help you adjust this diet plan to your condition.

Eating a Healthy Diet to Lose Weight

As established above, not all diets are helpful if you want to lower your weight, while others are crucial. However, since we can’t discard all foods, it’s paramount you know the foods you can eat for weight loss.

WebMD has a list of foods you can eat to lower your weight.

· Pureed Veggies

We all know vegetables are a staple diet where weight loss is concerned. However, pureeing them can make them go along with your cheat foods. This regulates the number of calories that goes into your body with the cheat meal.

· Beans

Beans are rich in protein, possess low fibre content, and curb overeating because it takes a bit more time to digest.

· Yoghurts

Greek or traditional yoghurts are great for weight loss because they possess calcium and proteins, which are great fat burners.

· Nuts

If you’ve been a fan of nuts, don’t listen to people telling you to shun them. If you aren’t a fan or have already shunned them, you should pick them back up and include them in your diet. Nuts have high-fat content, but they make up for that by being exceedingly rich in nutrients and vitamins like folic acid, antioxidants, and copper, among others. Besides, their fat content is made up of unsaturated fat, not the kind that’s likely to increase your cholesterol levels.

Nuts boost your heart, making it healthy and functional, and reduces the risk of being diabetic. However, as nutritious as they are, it’s important to exercise control over how you take them. Too much of everything, you know, is bad.

· Grapefruit

Grapefruit is ideal for a weight-loss diet because it’s got low-calorie content and high nutritional value. Having fibre and antioxidants allows it to aid weight loss and prevent heart diseases at the same time.

Grapefruits boost your immune system by providing the body with vitamin C. Its fibre content reduces your affinity to eat too much. It also has vitamins that curbs insulin resistance, prevents kidney stones, and keeps your body well hydrated.

· Grains

Since a healthy diet is the goal, it becomes important to differentiate between two categories of grains – whole grains and processed grains. Processed grains are not recommended for a healthy diet because of the chemicals involved in their processing. Whole grains, on the other hand, are ideal because of their fibre and protein content. The nutrients of processed grains have been reduced because of the processes they had to go through to become a finished product. However, you should apply moderation while eating whole grains (Remember the Mayo Clinic Diet and their pyramid).

Grains to include in your diet include brown rice, oats, and barley.

· Dairy

Asides from yoghurt, you can also make dairy products like soy milk and cottage cheese part of your diet. Like yoghurt, these too are rich in calcium. Dairy products that are low on fat are also recommended. It depends on you.

· Salmon

Salmon has great protein levels, healthy fat, and iodine; all of this for very few calories. The iodine content of salmon, fish, and seafood, in general, boosts the functionality of your thyroid gland. Healthy fats like Omega-3 helps to reduce inflammation.

You can also eat sardines, herrings, trouts, and other types of fish that have healthy fat.

· Tuna

With tuna, you don’t have to bother about fat and whether it’s healthy or not because its fat and calorie content is very low. In exchange, it’s rich in proteins.

· Avocados

Avocados are special because, unlike most fruits rich in carbohydrates, avocados are filled with good fats. They also have a good dose of fibre, water, and potassium. It is highly advisable, though, to limit the intake of avocados.

· Chilli

The possession of capsaicin makes it a staple part of a healthy weight loss diet. Research on chilli has shown that their capsaicin content enhances the loss of fat and lowers appetite.

Conclusion

Some of the foods in the list above may surprise you, but like was established earlier, the relationship between diet and weight loss does not call for the preclusion of certain meals. The meals you may have been told are unhealthy are actually healthy. They are highly recommended if you having a healthy body is what you’ve got in mind. Remember, it’s not important to focus on losing weight if you gain it a few moments later because you have a poor diet plan.

Some of these foods can make a great serving when you mix them but ensure that you make fruits and vegetables part of your regular intake. The goal of a balanced diet is to have every class of food represented. In other words, changing your diet to ensure the loss of weight does not equate to suffering. You don’t have to miss out on your favorite snacks or sweets. You’ll have to be disciplined enough to eat less of them and more of foods that’ll facilitate the weight loss process.

As much as diet and exercise are important to weight loss, you also have to pay attention to your psychological state. It requires more than learning to drop old habits and pick up new ones. It takes will, determination, and discipline. Sometimes, it can be difficult to stick to the new weight loss regimen, but your determination and discipline will keep you right on track.  Your insistence on sticking to your new lifestyle will produce marvelous results with limitless benefits in the long run.

The journey of a lifetime, they say, begins with a step. If you don’t take this step and incorporate a healthy diet into your life, you may never achieve that weight-loss goal you’ve got in mind.