Meal Plans For Weight Loss

September 22, 2013 admin Nutrition

An intelligent exercise plan is a must for losing weight, but as any experienced personal trainer will tell you, it is your diet that will make or break your results. The calorie deficit required for appreciable weight loss is quite difficult to achieve via exercise alone. The minimum deficit is approximately 500 calories. This means that if you could maintain your current weight eating 2,000 calories per day, you would have to cut down to 1,500 calories to lose about one pound for week.

How The Math Works

The average moderately intense workout will burn 250-300 calories per hour. This means you would have to work out for nearly two hours every day just to lose one pound per week!

Now that you understand why a proper diet is crucial to your success, let us talk about some good meal plans for weight loss.

Calorie Reduction

The first principle that all decent meal plans for weight loss will have to adhere to is calorie reduction. As mentioned above, exercise alone will not provide an adequate deficit, so we will need to modify the diet to accomplish it. The first thing you should do is go to a calorie calculator website and determine what your maintenance calories are. Once you have that number, you will subtract 500-1,000 from it to get your ideal calorie intake for fat loss.

Men will usually be able to achieve a larger deficit, as their maintenance calories will be higher. As a general rule, men should not go below 1,800 calories per day, and women should stay at or above 1,200 calories.

Limiting Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are not bad for you, but they must be reduced if you want to lose weight. All reputable meal plans for fat loss will involve moderate to low carbohydrate intake as a basic principle. Eating carbohydrates causes insulin to be released from the pancreas. Insulin limits fat burning and increases fat storage, so it is a hormone you want to limit while dieting.

Adequate Protein

Protein protects muscle tissue, and it is almost never stored by the body as fat. Appropriate protein intake is a must, and all the meal plans for weight loss that you will come across will recommend it. Recommendations vary, but in general, women should consume 5-100 grams of protein per day, while men should consume 100-200 grams. Lean meats, eggs, fish and quality protein powders are all good options.

Fresh Vegetables and Fruit

Fibrous vegetables like leafy greens, cabbage, green beans, asparagus and kale should be included in any decent meal plans for weight loss. They are full of nutrients and low in calories, making them the ideal diet foods. Fruits contain natural sugars, so while they are very healthy, limit yourself to two small servings a day, preferably of berries.

Putting it Together

If you can go through your diet and check of all of the suggestions I have made here, you most likely have a top notch weight loss diet that will give you great results. Ignoring even one of these recommendations can sink the whole ship, so pay equal attention to all of them.

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