When you are ready to lose weight, choosing the right diet plan is extremely important. There are certain things you need to consider before you start any new diet plan. You want the plan you choose to not only help you lose weight, but help you stay healthy as well.
These days it seems like a new fad diet comes out just about everyday. And while those diets will help you lose weight, it won’t be in a healthy manner. As soon as you return back to your old eating habits you will gain all the weight back. That’s because fad diets lack balance. That’s why it is so important you find the diet plan that is healthy and works best for you.
Here are 4 things to look for when choosing a diet plan:
Realistic Expectations
A healthy diet plan won’t promise to help you drop 40 pounds in 30 days. That’s not realistic. You have to understand that losing weight takes time. You didn’t gain all the weight overnight and you won’t lose it overnight. How quickly you achieve your weight loss goals will depend on two things.
How much weight you have to lose and how committed you are to the process. Never pick a crash diet. They are very unhealthy. Pick a diet plan like the Paleo Diet. It has a good balance of diet and exercise.
Nutrition
Before you choose any diet plan look over the nutrition. Find out what and how you will be eating. You want a plan that has the right amount of foods from the main food groups. If it has those things it is probably a safe plan.
If the diet calls for you to cut out whole food groups or eat less than 1200 calories a day, it is probably not safe. And while there are some exceptions, for the most part you want to stick with eating no less than 1200 calories a day.
Does It Suit You And Your Lifestyle
Many times people will pick diets because everyone else is doing it. The diet plan you choose has to be something that fits you and your lifestyle. If you are a busy person you don’t want a diet that requires a lot heavy cooking or time in the gym.
If you don’t like to workout a lot you don’t want a diet that calls for you to be in the gym two hours a day. The key is to find a plan that you will actually stick to. That way you will be more likely to reach your weight loss goals.
Calorie Levels
As stated before, never choose a diet plan that requires you to eat less than 1200 calories a day. While you will need to decrease the amount of calories you eat, you don’t want to cut back so much that you cause your body to go into starvation mode.
Once that happens it will become even more difficult for you to lose weight. Each person is different and will need a different amount of calories everyday. There are free calculators online where you can find out the number of calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. Once you know that number you can cut back a little bit to start losing weight.
