Most people think that simply limiting the amount of food they eat will make them lose weight fast. For many people however, this does not work.
The vital piece of the puzzle that most people are missing is that how they eat is just as important as what they eat. Common eating patterns for the majority of people include eating three large meals every day until they are full. This method of eating can be detrimental to weight loss.
Benefits of Grazing
There are several health benefits that you gain from grazing healthily:
- It keeps your metabolism moving fast
- It prevents hunger and overindulgent eating
- Stabilizes your blood sugar
- Reduces cravings for comfort foods
- Fills you with energy all day long
- Speeds up weight loss
How Grazing Makes You Lose Weight
Grazing has a completely different effect on your body than if you were to eat large meals. Usually when people eat large meals, they eat until they are full and can’t eat any more.
Doing this is almost like expanding your stomach. At every meal time, you need larger amount of food to compensate for what you haven’t eaten since your last meal. Being as your stomach expects lots of food every time you eat, it needs more room to store it all. Thus, you put on weight.
Every time you eat a meal, it is important not to eat so much food that you feel full. If you eat until you are full it is like putting a speed bump in front of your metabolism. To keep your metabolism moving fast, you need to keep your meals small.
What to Eat
Your between-meal snacks should contain as many natural foods as possible.When food is eaten it gets converted into glucose (blood sugar) so the body can use it as energy. Natural unprocessed foods release energy slowly, while unhealthy foods like crisps and chips release energy quickly.
When foods get converted into glucose quickly, the body reacts and releases a lot of insulin. Insulin converts sugars into fat and thus prevents the body from burning it.
Eating natural foods helps to maintain your blood sugar levels and gives you stable insulin levels. This means your body won’t burn fat so quickly and you will be able to lose weight fast.
Grazing Tips
Ideally, your between-meal snacks will contain lots of vegetables. Vegetables contain an abundance of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy. If you have the chance, you can prepare various salads to snack on throughout the day.
You could prepare a different fresh salad each day and carry it in a lunch box when you go to work. You can make things fun and create a new original salad every day.
If you are really not used to eating vegetables you should try to bring them into your diet gradually. For instance, start by eating just two or three new salads a week, and then start eating more. Chances are you will gradually begin to enjoy various kinds of vegetables.
You could also carry a snack pack with you to work including quick and easy healthy snacks to eat if you don’t much time at hand.
If you really don’t want to eat veggies all day then stick to natural healthy alternatives. Always choose healthy pieces of fruit, cereal bars, dried fruit or nuts over things like chocolate bars and crisps.
A Balanced Diet
While you will receive an abundance of goodness from vegetables, your diet also needs other good food sources to provide a healthy balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Include things like salmon, chicken breast, lean pork, tofu and boiled eggs in your diet for a good source of protein.
Complex carbohydrates are contained in foods like brown pasta, brown rice, rice crackers and wholemeal bread. Carbs can help supply your body with sustained energy.
Also, be sure to drink lots of water and exercise regularly. Water flushes toxins out of the body and keeps energy levels high, while exercise can provide that extra boost you need to lose weight faster.
Grazing is being recognised more and more these days as a vital component to successful weight loss. For many people, learning the proper way to eat throughout a day is the missing piece of the puzzle they were looking for. Whilst eating healthy meals is obviously very important for losing weight, the frequency and size of your meals is just as vital. One of clear winners when it comes to grazing diets is the Lunch Box Diet which has been called ‘the best diet ever’ 5/5 by Elle Magazine. Even Cameron Diaz is said to be a fan of this healthy plan that becomes a ‘way of life’. Click here to find out more.
All the best
Daryl