Every successful weight loss story or transformation includes a mental aspect and two physical components. As you may have guessed by now, the mental aspect is sheer determination, which is the attitude that pushes you forward even when your entire mind and body are screaming at you to go back to your old lifestyle. The two physical components are exercise and diet.
I firmly believe that determination and strong willpower are essential to changing your body in any way, whether it is gaining muscle or losing fat. However, that is not the topic I am going to talk about in this post.
First I want to illustrate to you the importance of dieting and also why I feel dieting is so much more important than exercise when it comes to deciding if a person will be successful in their weight loss transformation. Typically, a maximum of one hour is spent on each gym session, with five gym sessions per week. That equates to five hours of time in the gym. Of the entire week, less than five percent of your time is spent exercising! The rest of your time is spent outside of your exercise regimen, and therefore what you do outside of the gym or running track is that much more important! Many people tend to neglect the foods they eat, thinking that they can get away with a poor diet as long as they exercise. That is not true.
So how should you approach this aspect of weight loss? There are many diets, some recommend following a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein. Some claim that you can continue to take high carbs while you can still lose fat.
In my opinion, there are only three main things to keep in mind when it comes to choosing foods to eat for weight loss. The first is to keep carbs low, as most people don’t burn them easily and they convert easily to fat. An easy way to tell if you’ve eaten too many carbs at a particular meal or day is if your face is puffier afterward.
Second, keep your level of sodium intake as low as possible. The salt clings to the water and will increase the weight of the water. On top of that, it will also blur the definition of your muscles.
Lastly, always maintain a caloric deficit. You must burn more calories than you take in, otherwise losing weight is an impossible task.
