Planning a low calorie diet is easy and simple. The first thing you have to do is to look how do you normally eat and try to identify some foods which are high in calories, high calorie foods mostly tend to be either high in sugar or high in fat. High sugar foods mostly come from soda beverages, soft drinks, smoothies, sports drinks and juices. All those types of beverages tend to have high calories, now let’s say you want to drink a soft drink, the good thing you have to do is to flip over your can and make sure you check how much is the serving size, sometimes the calories written on the can is not for the entire can, maybe it is just for half of the can or less, for example if the calories written were 50 calories for 1 serving that is not necessarily means the whole can contains 50 calories, thus when you drink it you will maybe be taking 100 or 150 for the entire can instead of 50 calories, so again check the serving size it is really important to read the food labels very carefully, focus on the serving size. You can take sugar-free beverages but not frequently because it has artificial sweeteners that may harm your health, you can go for unsweetened tea or barely sweetened or simply water, by that way you will be eliminating a lot of calories from your diet.

The next steps is to watch your actual meals, how they are cooked or prepared, if it’s deep fried there will be a lot of calories that’s because all of the additional fat. If you are eating fatty meats such as bacon and sausage that’s going to have a lot of calories too. So you have to choose food tend to be so lean if you are going to choose meat, and if you are looking for plant sources, it is going to be healthy fats but still they contain high calories, so you have to practice how to control your portion size. For example if you want to eat some nuts you have to limit your intake to 1\4 cup not more, if want to eat avocados which contain very healthy fats you have to split it in half and share it with somebody, eat quarter of 1  small avocado at a day if you are watching your calorie intake.

 When it comes to olives, limit your intake to 3 large olives. When cooking or stir-frying food or vegetables or any item don’t use too much oil, just add a small amount to prevent sticking the food in the pan. One thing I do when I stir-fry my vegetables is to add a little bit of oil about 1 tablespoon to the entire pot and when it starts sticking I just sprinkle few drops of water and stir the food again, do it again and again until your vegetables are done, but do not use  a lot of water that will spoil your stir-frying.

Make sure you choose fat-free or low fat food when it comes to dairy products. Choose skimmed milk or low fat cheese.

If you want to enjoy a sandwich with mayo, why don’t you choose low fat mayo, you are going to save lots of calories by that, spread a little bit on your sandwich or you can substitute it with avocado spread, yes it’s high in calories but at least you will be taking healthy fats but remember to use it in moderation about 1 tablespoon  of avocado into your sandwich.

Another thing you have to know is to see how often do you eat at the end of the day, it is better to eat small frequent meals than eating large big meals that will help you not to feel hungry frequently between meals but you have to practice portion control, even when it comes to healthy fats such as seeds or avocado or olive oil.

One last thing to keep in mind when planning a low-calorie diet is to learn about food calories, it is all over the internet, just search for the food you want to eat to know what actually you are eating or how many calories you are consuming a day, some good sites are nutriotindata or calorieking or caloriecount . Try to search also for healthy recipes over the internet, most of them have nutrition fact list, so it is easier to know how much exactly your meal is going to be. I have written an article before about how to make pizza at home in a healthy way, it is going to cost you 300 calories for the entire pizza. Common pizza restaurants will cost you 350 calories for 1 slice.

So at the end I have to say that following a low calorie diet is so easy just follow the steps I’ve mentioned then see the great results in losing your extra weight permanently, it is not like the diet scams that make you lose 10 pounds in a very short period of time that you will gain it later so fast after going back to your normal eating patterns because it is mostly water loss not fat loss, following a low calorie healthy diet will make you lose weight slower than those fad diets (3 day diet or 7 days what you can eat and others) but it will certainly make you lose fat not fluids, in addition it keeps your body healthy not making you lose muscles and fluids.

Be active, plan to walk or jog at least 3 to 4 times a week, it is summer time what are you waiting for, why not to enjoy swimming, . Ride your bike, get out there walk or run with your friends or family even your pets, use your roll skates and enjoy, there are million of ways to get and stay active just use your imagination. All of that will help you keep your lost weight away in addition of getting and staying active, fit and healthy.

I hope you found  useful tips in this article that may help you in your daily diet. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me and ask through Q&A page.

What are fad diets?

“Fad diets” phrase refers to diets that promote a restircted eating plan which is not healthy at all because it lacks in sufficient calroies. There are also liquid fad diets such as cabbage soup diet and grape fruit diet.

Fad diets are diets that promise you to do miracles in a very short period of time. they promise to make you lose more than 3 pounds per week or even more. We all know that is not true ….come on!!!! but before denying these kinds of diet lets enjoy talking about their silliness. There are some diets that really make me laugh or they make me feel like I am stupid to believe their claims, if you want to laugh, here are some of the silliest fad diets:

• Eat whatever you want and keep losing weight (7 day all you can eat diet) the idea of believing this is really funny
• The (3 day diet) lose your extra weight by the 3 day diet, it’s a miracle isn’t it?

I am sorry if am not helping you lose weight but trust me, there is no combination of special food that will make you lose weight,some fad diets claim to contain special fat-burning, but losing weight has no magic key.. it is a fact, it doesn’t matter which hook the fad diet is using to let you believe them, it just doesn’t make sense to expect any miraculous weight loss that will last through following these kinds of diets.. all what you need is a healthy diet plan that will gaurantee your weight loss for the long-term not only for the short-term, you need an everyday plan to help you maintain your weight and keep the pounds you’ve lost off, you need a diet plan that provides you with the adequate amount of calories and nutrition that your body needs, it’s all about balance.. to lose weight you have to consume calories less than your body burns and you have to increase your activity level. That’s it.. it’s really simple.

But some people may ask : I tried a fad diet and it really worked BUT I GAINED WEIGHT AGAIN AFTER SKIPPING THE DIET.

A fad diet is most of the time a very low calorie diet… so any low calorie diet will make you lose weight but you will put on your lost pounds again as soon as you return back to you normal eating patterns, another thing about fad diets that it promotes fast weight loss which is considered to be unhealthy, and most of the time it is not fat loss it’s mostly water loss.. so that’s why the dieter will regain weight after resuming his normal eating. because it is water and it is easily lost and regained….. the result would be here that fad diets are short term plans.

Now listen to that, fad diets may lead to obesity, how is that?

Fad diets sometimes can lead to weight-cycling or yo-yo dieting which means weight loss followed by weight regain then weight loss and regain again new studies suggets that yo- yo dieting may lead to obesity.

You’ll know it’s a fad diet if it:

• Promises magic or miracle foods that burn fat.
• Requires you to eat unusual quantities of only one food or food type.
• Requires rigid menus of a limited selection of foods to be eaten at a specific time and day.
• Requires you to eat specific food combinations in certain sequences or combinations.
• Promises rapid weight loss of more than two pounds a week.
• Has no warning for those with diabetes or high blood pressure to seek medical advice before starting the diet.
• Does not include increased physical activity as part of the plan.

source: American Heart Association

At last we have a conclusion over here: Avoid fad dieting, instead follow a healthy diet plan based on the food guide pyramid which is the healthiest way to lose weight and keep it away, choose from all the groups the right serving size and you will have the adequate nutrition and calories your body needs.
Eating a balanced calorie-controlled diet is not only more appealing but also more likely to help you develop the sort of good eating habits that lead to permanent weight loss.