Eating to lose weight sounds counter-intuitive doesn't it? After all isn't eating excessively what leads to weight gains for many of us? The advice to eat less and exercise more to reach your weight loss goals is extremely common. But perhaps the problem is more what we eat than the amount. Perhaps too why we eat over much, if we in fact do, is because of what we are eating. Maybe other foods would be more filling and provide longer lasting energy.
There are a few different authors and researchers who take a view sympathetic to the latter points. My experience tends to support these views as well. The type of food, the type of calories we consume has more of an impact on our body composition than just the amount consumed.
So you ask: what should i eat to lose weight? It's actually not too complicated. Most of the common meals we all consume on a daily basis, in part due to government recommendations, are based on a few different products. Unfortunately these products aren't conducive to maintaining an ideal body composition. For example corn is a major ingredient in most food products found in grocery stores. Soy and wheat are others. In order to lose weight or maintain an ideal body composition it's more beneficial to base our meals around some of the following foods:
1) Meats: Chicken, beef, fish etc.
2) Greens: Lettuce, spinach and similar leafy greens.
3) Root vegetables: Carrots, parsnips, turnips etc.
4) Nuts: Pecans, walnuts and almonds among others.
5) Some squashes such as butternut and acorn squashes.
6) Low glysemic impact fruits like: Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.
When eating food products like this we're more likely to consume fresher, higher quality meals that contain less processed foods. These meals also have a reduced impact on blood sugar compared to what some call the Standard American Diet (SAD). This reduced impact on blood sugar means that our production of insulin is reduced and less glucose (perhaps none at all) from the blood stream is converted to fat deposits. Sounds like a good thing to me! Just think of all the meal possibilities available. Omelets, sausages, bacon and such for breakfast. You can even make lower impact pancakes from almond or coconut flour and top them with mixed fruit. All types of salads for lunch and a hearty steak dinner in the evening. If you're not convinced I'd encourage you to do a little research. This type of eating is sometimes called paleo or primal but you can just call it your own.
