Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating and drinking in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular, short-term objective of loosing excess body fat. Some dieting is prescribed to achieve particular medical objectives, such as sodium-free diets, bland diets and soft food diets, while some dieting is actually designed to increase body fat and/or muscle weight gain
Types of diets
Low Fat Diets
This encourages people to eat foods low in fat or without fat altogether and instead eat foods high in carbohydrates.
Atkins Diet
People can lose weight while eating significant quantities of fat and protein but strictly reducing carbohydrates
Natural diets
The Paleolithic Diet eating plans include basically natural foods (those not processed by humans). It excludes milk and grain-foods
The Evolution Diet excludes human-made ingredients such as partially hydrogenated oils but allows some processed foods such as whole-grain crackers and dairy products.
Vegetarian diet
There is a growing body of evidence that vegetarian diets can prevent obesity and lower disease risks.
Very Low Calorie Diet
The Very Low Calorie Diet is a prescribed diet for obese patients where daily intake consists of milk formula drinks like milkpowder concentrate and water providing necessary vitamins and minerals
Dieting, especially extreme food-intake reduction and rapid weight loss, can have the following side effects :
· Prolonged hunger
· Depression
· Fatigue
· Irritability
· Fainting etc
In general the best and easiest way to lose and maintain weight is sensible eating combined with regular physical activity. A combination of the two results in loss of more fat and retention of muscle.
Some Dieting Rules
. Don’t eat a large meal in the evening when you’ll have little opportunity for exercise afterwards. It’s best to eat more at the times when you are going to be the most active. Eat a hearty breakfast, a substantial lunch, and a light dinner.
. Never skip breakfast.
· Eat slowly and thoroughly chew food.
· Never watch TV, using the computer or doing your homework. While eating.
· Frying /Junk foods like pizza , burgers should avoided
· Daily meals should contain restricted amounts of whole grain cereals such as brown rice, chapattis and roti (made of wheat flour), whole wheat bread, finger millet and oats. Best to avoid refined cereal like white bread, white rice. Restrict the intake of roots and tubers like potato, sweet potato, tapioca and yam as these have a high carbohydrate content.
· Diet should contain adequate amounts of protein from vegetarian sources such as pulses, dals, nuts instead of from animal sources as they do not contain cholesterol and also add fibre to the diet.
· Snack on fruits in between meals instead of fried and sugary snacks and fast foods.
· Make snacks healthier by baking or roasting them rather than frying them.
· Low calorie snacks like raw vegetables/ sprouts salads are fibre rich and low fat yogurt are good.
· Brisk Walking 30 –45 m in the morning and evening is great way to maintain good health. Involve in yoga, physical activities like swimming, instead of taking elevators or escalators, take the stairs. do some house hold work etc