The 3 facets for Fat Loss are Mind / Spirit, Exercise and Nutrition. The old adage says “You are what you eat” and in a very real way, it’s true. Nutrition is the art and science of eating on purpose. Notice I haven’t used the word “diet”. In today’s vernacular, a diet is often a temporary, deprivation-based program that is used to lose weight. Diets certainly do work to provide short term weight loss, but diets seldom work in the long term. I prefer the idea of nutrition planning or a nutrition program to the concept of dieting. Why? A nutrition plan is something you do as a lifestyle, not as a temporary fix. A nutrition plan can be followed for a lifetime. Even when we reach our goal weight, we should continue to have a nutrition plan to ensure we are eating well.
It is possible to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight and not be healthy. Proper nutrition plays an important part in overall health. Cutting calories alone does not guarantee we are eating healthy foods. In fact, it can be very difficult on a severely calorie restricted diet to eat healthy. This is one of the reasons I prefer to limit the size of a caloric deficit to 500 calories per day or 15% - 25% of my TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is a case of where more is not more.
When beginning a fat loss program, you should work with your nutritionist or weight loss professional to develop a sound nutrition plan. If you are creating your own program, then you need to use care in following a plan that provides well-rounded nutrition. You can track the food you eat on a daily basis to help determine the healthfulness of your plan. There are online and desktop software programs that can help with tracking food and exercise. I use a desktop program to track my calories and nutrition. I don’t use it every day, but I do enter new recipes into the database to make sure they are as healthy as I think they are.
