Don't know where to start with your slimming diet? Do you have any doubts about what calorie intake will be appropriate for body fat reduction and what to eat when reducing? We introduce you to a list of information necessary to start a weight-loss diet and show you a sample menu for a reduction diet.
Weight loss diet - how to choose the number of calories?
A slimming diet can be healthy and does not have to be full of sacrifices. You don't just have to drink water and eat lettuce. More and more people are aware of macroelements and microelements as well as the needs of the organism, which means that miracle diets are being replaced by well-composed slimming ones..
What is a slimming diet? It is a diet with lowered calories concerning the needs of the body. Usually, on a reduction diet, the percentage of protein and fat is increased while the number of carbohydrates decreased. It helps to control glycaemia and hunger, which means it helps you lose weight.
How to know how many calories a weight loss diet should have? There are two methods to choose from. The first is the classic method, where calorie requirements are calculated manually using the formulas for BMR (basal metabolism), TMR (total metabolism) and lean body mass (LBM).
Calculation formulae for a weight-loss diet
BMR
- BMR for women BMR [kcal] = 665.09 + (9.56 x weight [kg]) + (1.85 x height [cm]) - (4.67 x age [years])
- BMR for men BMR [kcal] = 66.47 + (13.75 x weight [kg]) + (5 x height [cm]) - (6.75 x age [years])
TMR
- TMR = k x BMR (k - activity ratio can range from 1.2 to 2.4)
LBM
- LBM for women: Due weight [kg] = height [cm] - 100 - 0.5 x (height [cm] - 150)
- Male LBM: Due body mass [kg] = height [cm] - 100 - 0.25 x (height [cm] - 150)
We can also use applications in which we enter our body parameters, the objective, describe the level of physical activity, while the application counts everything for us. Such calculations can be done in web calculators or phone apps. Many tools also offer the counting of calories and macronutrients from your meals, which makes a reduction diet very easy to control.
A slimming diet should be rational, which means that you should not reduce the calories by about 500 - 1000 kcal concerning the body's needs. You absolutely should not follow a reduction diet, which is lower than your BMR.
Recommendations during a reduction diet
A reduction diet will not be the same for two different people. Apart from the basic recommendations on how to determine the calorie content of a weight-loss diet and the basic products (as little processed, close to nature and prolonging the feeling of satiety as possible), the rest should be adapted to the preferences of people following a weight-loss diet.
The number of meals in a weight loss diet usually ranges from 3 to 5. There is no reliable research that shows that eating five meals helps you lose weight. Instead, studies agree that the key to a slimming diet is a caloric deficit. It doesn't matter what portions you supply yourself with these calories. Many people feel better eating three larger meals a day than five smaller ones. Some people prefer a combination of 3 meals and one snack. The same applies to macronutrients. There are people for whom the ideal reduction diet will be the one with a high proportion of protein and fat, others need more carbohydrates. However, the latter should certainly not be severely restricted if the weight loss diet is combined with physical activity.
There is no one the best and the only right diet for fat reduction. Specific recommendations should be fitted to your needs since an individually composed slimming diet is the best one.
Recommended products for a reduction diet
How to deal with hunger on a reduction diet?
A reduction diet is a diet in which we provide ourselves with fewer calories than our body needs. It is natural to feel hunger, which is a signal of a lack of energy from food. We cannot expect not to feel hungry at all on a fat loss diet, but it should not be with us all day long and lead to obsessive thinking about food. If we feel intense hunger several times a day, even just an hour after a meal, it means that the reduction diet is improperly designed - it provides too few calories or the calories come from the wrong products. The most common problem with feeling hunger is the excess of carbohydrates. It causes large variations in blood glucose levels, caused by too little protein and fat, from which energy is released slower and give a longer feeling of satiety.
To eliminate hunger as much as possible, meals on reduction should contain large amounts of vegetables, as they provide fibre, which gives a feeling of satiety and simply can fill the stomach with a small number of calories provided. Recipes for reduction should be rich in protein and contain fat, rather than relying on carbohydrates. Protein and fat are the ones that make hunger come later, as they are much slower to digest than carbohydrates. Drinking plenty of water helps to reduce the feeling of hunger on a reduction diet, and meals for fat reduction should provide real food, not worthless snacks. So, what to eat on a reduction diet?
Reducing body fat - what to eat?
Weight reduction requires some attention and awareness in meal composition. When we restrict calories, it is important to make meals filling even though we eat less.. What to eat to reduce weight? A slimming diet should be based on:
- vegetables - fresh, cooked, roasted; preferably at every meal and in large quantities,
- fruit in limited quantities; 2 portions a day are enough, as it is a source of simple sugars,
- protein - meat (lean beef and pork, chicken, turkey), fish, eggs, pulses and their products, cottage cheese, natural yoghurt and skyr,
- complex carbohydrates - groats, brown rice, wholemeal bread, pasta cooked al dente (not necessarily wholemeal), oatmeal and rye,
- fats - olive oil, flax and rapeseed oil, nuts, seeds, avocados.
It does not mean that during fat reduction you are not allowed to eat duck, butter or a spoonful of Parmesan cheese. You can eat almost anything, as long as you do it in reasonable portions. The products which are best to exclude from your diet during fat loss (just as from any healthy diet) are sweets, crisps and other salty snacks, fast food, ready meals and sauces, low-quality meat products such as sausages which contain less than 90% meat and sweetened fizzy and non-carbonated drinks.
Fat reduction will be more effective if you get rid of liquid calories in the form of fruit juices (a glass contains about 5 teaspoons of sugar), sweetened coffee and other drinks with added sugar. If you need a drink, we recommend water, unsweetened tea and herbal teas, sugar-free coffee or ginger infusion.
Cheap weight loss diet - sample menu
A cheap and simple weight loss diet is possible. Usually, reduction diets are not more expensive than standard diets either. A low-cost weight-loss diet is very easy to create, relying on local, seasonal and widely available products in Poland. Indeed, reduction diet plans often include avocado, coconut oil or oat milk, but their use is not necessary, and these products can be easily replaced by others at affordable prices. Meals for reduction are not more complicated than ordinary everyday cooking. The Internet is full of inspiration. Without much time we can find tasty and simple recipes and even whole menus for slimming diets.
Sample fat loss diet - menu
Breakfast:
- 1 slice of wholemeal bread thickly spread with cottage cheese with chives + 1 slice of wholemeal bread thinly buttered with poultry meat + bunch of cherry tomatoes + bunch of radishes
- approx. 320 kcal
Lunch:
- 2 small boiled potatoes + chicken breast (200 g) marinated in spices and fried in 1 tbsp rapeseed oil + short-cooked broccoli
- approx. 550 kcal
Snack:
- Natural skyr + bunch of raspberries + 2 tablespoons of almonds
- approx. 310 kcal
Dinner:
- 2 frankfurters + half a kaiser roll thinly buttered + lettuce with tomato topped with 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- approx. 400 kcal
Total: 1580 kcal.
