Welcome to a new episode of The Diet of Common Sense Podcast!
The Diet of Common Sense is a common-sense approach for active people to stay healthy, improve energy and mental power! It’s the nutrition of entrepreneurs, busy professionals, and other active people who lack time but value their health and well-being.
Here’s the place where nutrition and research meet common sense.
The Diet of Common Sense Podcast brings you simple and actionable information to help you make the best decisions for your health and well-being, despite your limited time. Healthy living, simplified.
In the last podcast episode, we talked about a burning topic – weight loss, or how to burn calories with diet hacks that can accelerate your metabolism.
And in particular, we talked about 4 mini-habits that can help you lose weight in a healthy manner:
1. A hypocaloric diet rich in fruits and vegetables
2. Drink water and green tea between meals
3. Other fat-burning foods that accelerate your metabolism
4. Physical exercise
In this episode, I will try to answer some of the most burning questions related to weight loss.
Listen to the podcast episode or read the transcript below.
1. How to cultivate the right mindset to stay on track with your diet goals?
Everything you do starts in your mind. Your mind is powerful and when you command it properly you can achieve incredible results in all areas of your life. After all, why do we feel so good and inspired after we attend a motivational event or watch an inspirational video? It seems they unlock a hidden force inside ourselves and we are capable of achieving our goals with energy and determination.
Healthy weight loss can be challenging, especially if the progress is slower after a while. We all want fast results, however the first thing we need to acknowledge is that healthy weight loss may take times, it needs consistency and patience to achieve the desired results.
Especially in the beginning when you might not feel committed to the process and healthy habits didn’t have time to stick. It’s motivating to view the end result as your long-term health, and losing weight as a happy consequence.
Secondly, view healthy food as your best friend – because it can keep you healthy and add years to your life.
2. But I don’t have time to eat healthily.
To eat healthy on a regular basis, the process should be simple enough – it should simplify your life, not be another burden in your busy life.
The Diet of Common Sense, with its simple 5 key principles, and fast and easy meal recipes, is a place to start and almost everything a busy individual should know. Start by downloading the FREE Food Recipe E-Book for Busy People: 30 Recipes To Kick Start and Encourage Your Healthy Eating Habits for Life and start to make healthy eating easy and fun! You can download it here:
And order food when you cannot prepare your own meals. You can order the ingredients or the already cooked meals to your home or office. There are many restaurants that deliver healthy food options, or you may choose a subscription-based provider to make sure you follow-through with your meal plans.
Especially in the beginning when you’re starting out, ordering healthy foods can be of great help, since you’ll cut the time and effort with shopping for ingredients, cooking, you’ll have diversity and with a subscription-based service, you’ll stick to the plan.
I mentioned some of these meal delivery services in a blog post:
Resource Page: Meal Delivery Services, Cookbook Recipes and Supplement Brands You Can Trust
Here are some examples of meal delivery services:
Hello Fresh – America’s Most Popular Meal Kit. Now offering the most recipe variety and meals starting at $7.49.
Real Eats – Healthy Chef-Prepared Meals. Delivered fresh, ready in minutes. Eating healthy has never been easier.
Vegin’ Out – Vegin’ Out is a premier online vegan food, vegan meals and vegetarian meal delivery service for Los Angeles, Southern & Northern California and nationwide. They offer simple, healthy, organic, well-balanced and affordable freshly prepared and cooked weekly vegan meals and vegetarian meals conveniently delivered right to your home or office. The vegan meals can be made gluten-free, soy-free and low carb.
Jet Fuel Meals – Eating healthy has never been so easy. Jet Fuel Meals is a healthy food delivery service. They offer fresh, high-quality, and all-natural meals that are healthy and delicious. Join thousands of people who found their perfect plan to stay healthy!
Here’s to making healthy eating easier – so that you will have time to eat healthily and save time too. Find the healthy meal plan that works best for you!
3. What foods are good for losing weight?
A hypocaloric diet rich in fruits and vegetables, low in calories and rich in fiber is ideal for weight loss.
So, prioritize green vegetables rich in fiber such as:
– Greeny leaves (kale, spinach)
– Cruciferous vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts.
– Beans and legumes including lentils, black beans, kidney beans, which are also high in protein and fiber, contributing to feelings of fullness and lower calorie intake.
– Fruits – although they are very healthy, in weight loss diets some moderation is recommended, because of their sugar content. It’s best to eat berries or fresh fruits that are not so sweet. Also, the fiber content in fresh fruit prevents sugar from being released too quickly into the bloodstream, making them a healthier alternative to dry fruits or even worse, candies and sweets. You should avoid them if you want to lose weight. Berries have the lowest sugar content, so eat plenty of them.
– Vegetable soups and creams – some studies suggest that soups provide less calories versus eating solid foods, making them effective as part of a weight-loss diet. Also, their liquid content acts like water – being an appetite suppressant.
Minimize or cut off completely: all processed and junk foods, refined bread, sugar and other foods with high caloric value.
So, one of the healthiest ways to lose weight is to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, rich in nutrients and low in calories. Studies have shown that foods with low energy density make people eat fewer calories overall.
Also, increasing the fiber content has been associated with a decrease in calorie intake.
So make fruits and veggies your best friend if you want to lose weight, maintain weight and stay healthy!
Especially now during summer, it’s easier to get more vegetables and fruits in your meals.
4. Is green tea a fat burner?
If you look at the label of every weight loss supplement, you will most probably see green tea listed as an ingredient. This is because several studies have shown that regular consumption of green tea – or of supplements containing green tea – may influence energy metabolism and weight loss.
Increasing evidence suggests that green tea and green tea supplements are effective when you are on a weight loss plan. Drink green tea in the morning for a boost of antioxidants (catechins) or in between meals, to maximize the nutrients’ absorption. Green tea contains caffeine, making it a good substitute for coffee too.
Green tea extract has been linked to fat burning and a metabolism boost, especially during exercise, one study suggests. It accelerates metabolism and fat burning by 10-17% and helps you lose up to 100 calories daily.
Green tea can help you lose some weight, but it depends on how much you want to lose and how fast. But green tea can be part of any weight loss management program.
5. What about Garcinia Cambogia?
Garcinia Cambogia is a tropical fruit and is a popular weight loss supplement.
A review published in the Journal of Obesity found that people who took Garcinia Cambogia in studies lost about 2 pounds more than people who didn’t take it. However, it has also proven to have some serious side effects – including liver problems, and it can also interact with some medication. So since the results are mixed and the weight loss is not so significant, it’s best to talk to your doctor if you should take a Garcinia Cambogia supplement for weight loss.
6. Why I cannot lose weight?
It can be the fact that you are losing weight slowly after a while. It comes that you eventually reached a plateau – when losing weight happens very slowly.
Here’s why, according to the Mayo Clinic:
„As you lose weight, your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight. Your slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight. When the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau.
To lose more weight, you need to either increase your physical activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked initially may maintain your weight loss, but it won’t lead to more weight loss.” – according to the Mayo Clinic.
Or your metabolism slows down as you age, so be prepared with flexible interventions – either eat less or lower caloric food or exercise more.
In both cases, remember the calorie balance should favor weight loss: eat less (and quality food) and move more.
Which leads us to the next question:
7. What is more important for weight loss, diet or exercise? Or can you lose weight by eating less and not exercising?
Both diet and exercise are important in a weight-loss strategy because adding physical activity helps you burn more calories than dieting alone. The more intense the workout and the more frequent, the more calories you will burn. Again, you need to burn more calories than you take in, and you will gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn.
But the food quality counts too – because you can actually lose weight when eating foods with a poor nutritional value just by focusing on cutting the number of calories, but in the long term it is not building your health capital. You need quality food to stay healthy – and ideally lose or maintain weight loss too.
8. Why do people look younger after weight loss?
Some people, especially at a younger age, can look even younger after weight loss, especially if the weight loss was progressive and they included some sport in their weight loss plan.
However, a rapid weight loss often leaves a person with loose skin and wrinkles, which makes them look older than their age. Especially in the face area, fat can smoothen the wrinkles and help you have a younger appearance.
9. Can you tighten loose skin after weight loss?
As mentioned earlier, loose skin is a consequence of losing too much weight too quickly. Also, skin elasticity will naturally decrease with age.
When losing weight too quickly, you are losing both fat and lean muscle, which will leave you, literally with layers of loose skin.
At a younger age, this can be addressed with proper weight management, which includes losing weight gradually, not too quickly, staying hydrated – water helps with skin elasticity, eating the right foods which help build muscles: quality proteins from vegetables and fatty fish which can help build lean muscle and help with skin elasticity too.
But instead of talking about how to tighten loose skin after weight loss – let’s talk about how you can avoid this issue in the first place, especially if you’re planning to lose more weight.
In a study, researchers found that small, but progressive changes in diet and activity caused a healthy, nice appearance. This type of slow, steady weight loss can also avoid the discomfort of loose skin that comes with a quick weight loss without physical exercise.
The Diet of Common Sense, with its simple 5 key principles, and fast and easy meal recipes, is a place to start and almost everything a busy individual should know. It can not only help you lose weight but actually help build your health capital.
Start by downloading below the FREE Food Recipe E-Book for Busy People: 30 Recipes To Kick Start and Encourage Your Healthy Eating Habits for Life and make healthy eating easy and fun! Or for more information, check the course preview by following the link below.
Real People, Real Weight Loss Stories
And if you’re planning to lose some weight, you can find inspiration and motivation from real people, with real weight loss stories who share their best weight loss tips.
I selected one for you:
*My 30 Kg Weight Loss and Fitness Transformation
Lucy says: „Over the last several years I have completely changed my entire life by losing 30 Kgs and finding a passion in bodyweight training. In this video I show where I have come from and what got me there, to where I am today! If you are interested in losing weight and getting fitter and stronger, but like I was, are unsure of what the best way to do it is then hopefully this video can give you the motivation or ideas to make that change today! I am so happy I have been on this journey and experienced all of the battles and emotions that come with a weight loss and fitness transformation as it has enabled me to help others who are just like me!”
For more inspiration, check my Youtube Playlist dedicated to weight loss stories – just follow the link.
You can also read the transcript on my blog, and subscribe to get exclusive content delivered by e-mail.
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To your health and success,
Sarah