Natural weight loss at home with diet, nutrition, fitness, and training tips from theory to practice

Healthy eating guidelines – 10 tips for diet success

Healthy eating guidelines are not hard to find if you think logically about dieting. Here's where my eating guidelines failed when I was growing up, and how you can avoid these mistakes by following these 10 eating tips to lose weight.

Hold on! Before you go thinking that I’ll tell you to go exercise or exercise daily to lose weight, stop right there! Because I won’t. You already know you need to do that, right?

This article is all about giving you 10 healthy eating guidelines you can follow to lose weight, in addition to an exercise program. So… it is all about eating; not exercising!

When I was growing up, we did all of the wrong things where following healthy eating guidelines is concerned.

Here are a few examples of our not so healthy eating guidelines:

1. Eat very large meals.
2. Eat very large meals after 9 p.m..
3. Don’t manage food portions well.
4. Skip breakfast or eat a very small breakfast.
5. Eat for fun.
6. Eat fast foods; McDonald’s and Pizza Hut were my favorite, but also Baskin Robbins.
7. Don’t pay attention to fat intake.
8. Eat very little to no fruits and vegetables.
9. Eat foods that are almost void of nutrients and high in calories; I call them empty calorie foods.

The list goes on and on, so I’ll stop here… What I’m trying to say is that I had to reprogram myself to follow healthy eating guidelines once I had learned about diet, fitness, and nutrition.

You can do the same. Here’s how…

Healthy eating guidelines – 10 eating tips to lose weight

Now that I’ve listed a few of the not so healthy eating guidelines, let me give you 10 tips for turning your not so healthy eating habits into healthy eating guidelines you can follow to succeed on your weight loss program.

Healthy eating guidelines #1: Eat a large breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Have you ever heard the saying: "Eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper"?

The logic behind that saying is that early in the morning your body is completely depleted of nutrients and water after sleeping for 6-8 hours, so you need to replenish your body in the morning with 2 vital things: Water and food.

During the day, your body converts food into energy for you to use and be able to function properly. At night, your body slows down in preparation for rest, so it needs less energy to function.

If you want to eat a large McDonald’s meal or pizza, eat it in the morning at breakfast. Your body will have enough time during the day to convert that food into energy for you to use it up, and thus less chance of it being stored as body fat.

Healthy eating guidelines #2: Eat a small dinner

In most countries around the world, dinner time is around 6 p.m. Remember, the later you eat, the less time your body has to digest the food before you go to bed. And energy that is not used up is highly likely to be stored as body fat.

For example, if you eat at 9 p.m. and go to bed at 10 p.m., your body will only have 1 hour to process the food. Bear in mind that it takes approximately 3 hours for your system to digest food.

Healthy eating guidelines #3: Manage your portion sizes

Your stomach is not much larger than two fists. While it can stretch, you should strive not to stretch it by overeating.

If I’ve learned one thing about losing weight, that’s to restrict my portion sizes. When you eat smaller portions, you tend to eat slower, because you know that if you eat fast, you’ll finish eating too quickly. Therefore, you unconsciously or consciously slow your eating down, which in turn sends signals to your brain that you’ve eaten enough. You’ll also enjoy your food more and look forward to each meal.

After a while your body will adjust to receiving smaller portions and eventually you’ll lose weight, because you are putting less calories into your body.

Healthy eating guidelines #4: Eat smaller meals throughout the day

This is more of a bodybuilding principle that I’ve lived by throughout my life, but can honestly say that it works and one of the healthy eating guidelines you could follow. And here’s why…

If you eat let’s say every 2-3 hours, you tend to keep your blood sugar levels stable, which in turn diminishes the chances of getting insulin spikes and thus food being converted and stored as body fat.

In addition, if you are awake for 16 hours during the day, you’ll manage to eat 6-8 meals if you eat every 2-3 hours. Since your body is receiving food so often, you’ll tend not to overeat and will have to keep your portions small, because your stomach will not be able to process that much food so often. These two things will help you lose weight.

Healthy eating guidelines #5: Eat more fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables add bulk, that is, fiber to your diet. Fiber not only helps keep you regular, but also gives you the feeling of being full or having eaten enough.

For myself, I cannot eat fruit on an empty stomach, because of the sugars in some fruit, which make my blood sugar levels rise and drop as if I had eaten chocolate. So what I tend to do is eat some complex carbs first, and then eat fruit behind that, or eat some kind of nuts first – almonds are my favorite – and then eat fruit after that. This helps better regulate my blood sugar levels.

Healthy eating guidelines #6: Eat 20 grams (0.7 oz) of raw nuts every day

Nuts contain the good type of fat that can help you burn fat. They are one of the foods that help you lose weight.

Healthy eating guidelines #7: Eat less processed foods

While you don’t have to go on the raw food diet to be able to eat less processed foods, you need to be aware of the amount of processing that has gone into creating certain foods. This includes the amount of preservatives that have been added to the foods.

Just remember that the closer a food is to its natural form, that is, the less processing it has gone through and the less preservatives it contains, the higher its nutritional value will be to you and your body.

Go for high quality; not quantity. This is one of the healthy eating guidelines you should always follow.

Healthy eating guidelines #8: Reduce the amount of fast food you eat

Fast food is generally high in fats, sugar, and salt. These are the things that taste good to you, but which also make you put on the pounds.

High fat foods tend to keep you full longer. That’s because high fat foods also contain a high amount of calories. In addition, your digestive system takes longer to digest fats than it does carbs or protein.

So if you eat high fat foods, you won’t be able to follow many of the tips outlined in this article and thus make it hard on yourself to reach your weight loss goals.

Healthy eating guidelines #9: Avoid foods that contain empty calories

Empty calorie foods are foods that have a very low nutritional value and mostly just provide you with calories. Some good examples are alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine, but also sweets and candy.

Remember, to lose weight you need to change your daily calorie intake to achieve a deficit. And since you need to eat less calories, eat foods that have a high nutritional value (such as fruits and vegetables) while still providing you with a low amount of calories.

Healthy eating guidelines #10: Drink lots of water

As mentioned previously, your body needs water first thing in the morning, but also throughout the entire day.

Your body consists of 40-60% of water and your body needs water to perform vital functions. And if there’s one thing that does not make you put on weight, that’s water. So drink up and stay hydrated!