The most tricky part – calorie counting. Why is it so? Although the body indeed suffers, obesity is not an actual bodily disease – the root cause is in the mind. Dieters self-deceive themselves in calorie counting – while this sounds blunt, honesty is important. Losing weight is your decision and your responsibility. Half of dieters fails because they artificially lower their calories score while counting.
In order not to do this you have to be aware of this psychological process, which is where the biggest problem lies. None likes becoming aware of one’s omissions. The television series “Secret Eaters” has participants followed by the reporting crew; they are to keep a 1500 kc diet – in each case it turned out that the diet is actually 5000 kc. Even when presented with the video evidence of overeating and not recording it the participants wouldn’t still believe the results. Acts of violence happened which was also a part of my experience when I tried to reason with women who believed their bodies defy the laws of physics. What chance of convincing the unconvinced does my website have then? Be honest. If you ever dieted to no avail, you must have miscalculated your calorie count. If you cannot face this blunt truth, you can go ahead and look for a magic potion which will make you jo-jo after a month.
I myself also did have a reverse issue in the past – I could not put on weight and only thankfully to a very rigorous regime of counting, error analysis and learning on my mistakes I was able to dismiss the cliche of “fast metabolism” and put on kilograms. I was actually unwittingly starving myself – exactly the thinking mechanism I can see with dieters. We are lazy and it is easier to deceive oneself rather than work hard.
Buy scales. This is vital – when counting the food by teaspoons, glasses or slices the portions quickly become suspiciously copious. You can get reliable scales for next to nothing – and you cannot deceive it. Secondly, you have to count every single calorie you ingest – even a coffee, a tiny snack or a ball of ice cream. Remember that dressings and additives can add an enormous calorie load to your meal – your green salad may well be only 30 cal but the dressing can boost it by an additional 350 (and this may be a fact to fail to record). Finally, do not use Internet calorie counters – always use the ones provided by a producer of a given food. In case of doubts – ask a flatmate; it is very helpful to search for help from an objective person.
OK, let’s think how to stay within the 2500 calories and be satiated. Easy – foods low in calories but dense in nutrients are the answer. Your veggies and fruits. Forget about fructose – yes, apples do contain sugar but a kilo of apples means only 400 calories of intake. Fruit have so many nutrients that only after a couple of days on fruit diet you will feel full. Animal-derived products are usually also highest in calories. We are brain-washed into believing we need huge amounts of protein – yet, medical literature only names few cases of protein deficiency. In reality, we die from the excess of it. Usually, a good figure is a side-effect of vegetarianism even if one doesn’t really diet.
You can also try foods high in fiber – while it will increase your weight as well as belly, do not fret. Calories are what you are after – the stuffed belly will go within days the fiber is out of the menu, while the calories will help you to stay slim.