There are several valid criteria that help you realize that there is nothing wrong with your diet. Or vice versa. They show the very essence no matter what your clothing size or the number on the scale.
What Gives Away the Wrong Diet
The main drawback of many diets is that they quickly put the body into a chronic state of hunger and lack of important nutrients. This eventually translates into some pretty typical and well-known problems for dieters:
- Constant desire to eat. This is a sign of a significant caloric deficit.
- Frequent binge eating. This is the body’s way of trying to get its own.
- Severe weakness and apathy. You feel tired even after playing a few games at BetLabel or completing the easiest task at work. After all, without the right amount of fats or carbs, the body has nowhere to get energy.
- Bad mood as a consequence of constant hunger and discomfort, as well as a lack of B vitamins.
- Painful sensations in the abdomen due to a disorder of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Insomnia due to malnutrition and hunger stress.
- Skin, hair, and nail problems due to lack of animal fatty acids and vitamins in the diet.
- Soreness in the back area. This is a signal from the kidneys being overstressed on a high-protein diet.
- Feeling cold due to impaired thermoregulation from carb deficiency.
5 Principles of Good Nutrition From a Nutritionist
Consider Your Caloric Intake
Before there were smartphone apps for calorie counting, it was necessary to calculate the indicators manually. To estimate metabolism, the formula took into account: height, weight, and age. Basic or basal metabolism is the number of calories that our body expends at rest (for breathing, heart function, and all organs). The energy value of products is indicated on the package. Modern applications are convenient, you can enter your goal: weight loss, maintaining a stable weight, or weight gain. The program will give the necessary number of calories and recommend products. Who is suitable for this type of self-control? Most likely those who don’t yet know the characteristics of products, their benefits and harms, as well as the basic laws of metabolism in the body.
Eat When You’re Hungry and Stop When You’re Full
It sounds simple, but in a world that constantly preaches restrictive diets, the idea of listening to your body can seem strange. We are all born with the skill of intuitive eating, which translates into the ability to sense hunger and satiety, yet often people go on diets for so long that they forget what normal eating feels like. The same thing happens because of other stresses that throw off the body’s rhythms.
Enrich Your Diet With a Variety of Foods
A healthy diet involves a wide variety of foods, not excluding those traditionally reviled for being high in calories. There is no such thing as good or bad food — all foods can have a place in a healthy diet. The main thing to remember is moderation and balance: if you eat a candy bar, add a carrot to it. And not necessarily in the same moment, you can have it later. Harmonious use of food isn’t determined by one day. It considers everything you have eaten for at least a week.
There are days when you eat only carbs, but later make a big bowl of salad and cook meat, providing the right combination of fats, proteins, carbs, fiber, micro- and macronutrients in total.
Enjoy What You Eat
Food is one of the most accessible pleasures, and depriving yourself of it is unhealthy. When you enjoy your food calmly, habitually, and without greed, it’s easier for your brain to perceive your body’s natural signals of satiety. This is in contrast to the situation when you regularly have to force something unpalatable into your body: this breaks the food-satisfaction connection.
Eat Enough to Cover Your Body’s Basic Needs
Satisfying hunger is a sign of healthy behavior: eating enough food at the right time helps keep your body calm and unstressed. When you eat enough food at regular intervals, it’s easy to avoid intense hunger and overeating.
The diet should be so comfortable that you can stick to it for a lifetime.
