What are the guidelines for an effective diet and nutrition?
- Eat as many calories as you use
- Consume a wide variety of food
- Reduce intake of unhealthy food
- Combine it with healthy habits
Every single one of us has a strong desire to stay healthy and fit and, despite our different approaches, we do our best to achieve this goal. Some people like to limit their food intake to keep their bodies within the recommended weight for a healthy person. Others go to the gym on a daily basis and build as much muscle as possible. There are also those that rely on technology and products and avail of different kinds of treatments like skin and facial services in the Philippines. These methods, although important, must be accompanied by other things to ensure optimal health.
Proper diet and nutrition are what those ‘other things’ are. People often forget that this is at the base of health and fitness. In order to achieve our goal, which is to stay healthy, we must first monitor what goes in and out of our body: the food and drinks that we consume every day. It is only after we adopt a proper and balanced diet can we move on to the other important practices such as keeping our weight within normal range, exercising or going to the gym, and having skin and facial treatments.
There are some of us who already know what it takes to achieve a proper diet, but most are still oblivious to the fact, which is why we’ve laid out a guideline for an effective diet and nutrition:
Eat as Many Calories as You Use
Before you make any diet and nutrition plans, the first and most important thing you have to do is figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight and how many you spend regularly. There are many ways, applications, and devices to get these numbers, so you shouldn’t have a problem acquiring them.
Once you have the numbers in your hands, try to balance out your food intake and only eat as many calories as you spend. If you need to lose weight to enter the normal BMI range, then avoid eating more calories than you burn. On the other hand, if you need to gain weight, then eat more. There’s also no harm in going over the recommended calorie consumption as long as you increase the intensity of your workout and burn it all up afterward.
Consume a Wide Variety of Food
Most people think that the only way to achieve a healthy diet is to go vegan or vegetarian, but that’s actually not the case. When it comes to diet and nutrition, it is important to consume a variety of food types from meat to fruits all the way to vegetables. It is the only way for your body to naturally and safely acquire the nutrients it needs—a task that is next to impossible when you stick to specific food groups. As additional information, try to put emphasis on fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, poultry, fish, nuts and legumes, and non-tropical vegetable oils.
Of course, you don’t have to force yourself to eat things you don’t want, but try to at least add variety to your daily meals. Doing this not only helps with nutrition but also makes healthy eating better and more fun since you won’t get easily bored with your daily meals.
Reduce Intake of Unhealthy Food
On top of eating a wide variety of nutritious food, it is also important that you limit consumption of unhealthy or nutrient-poor food. The reason for this should be pretty self-explanatory, so try to reduce the intake of food that are high-calorie but low-nutrient. Under this group are, of course, junk foods and soft drinks, refined carbohydrates, food with added sugar, unhealthy fat and more.
Notice that we only said to reduce intake and not to abandon these types of food. Although the latter would be healthier, it is near impossible to do especially for those who are just starting to transition into a healthier diet. It also drives people off if you tell them to keep off of certain kinds of food—particularly those that they like and grew up eating—so it’s best to just advise them to limit or reduce intake.
Combine It with Healthy Habits
As said in the introduction, proper diet and nutrition is only the base of optimal health and fitness. In order to really achieve your goal, you must pair your dietary plans with other healthy habits such as exercising. You should also stay away from harmful vices such as smoking and drinking. There’s no way to completely abandon these habits in a single day, so take your time and treat it as a process.
Other things such as getting the recommended amount of sleep and staying hydrated by drinking eight glasses of water every day are also important. Stress management is also crucial to get to your goal since many health problems have been linked to long-term stress. These things, when paired with proper diet and nutrition, are sure to help you achieve optimal health.
Key Takeaway
Availing the help of skin care services in the Philippines as well as going to a gym in Manila are two of the effective ways to help your body. However, they will have no effect if you continue to stick to an imbalanced diet that doesn’t give you the nutrients you need. So if you want to really lead a healthy life, start by transitioning to a healthy diet and follow the guidelines written above—it won’t be long before you start to feel the changes!