Meal Planning As Part Of Weight Loss

The secret to weekly meal planning

When your goal is to lose weight, you need to make sure that your weekly meals meet the nutrient needs of your body in as many ways as possible.

A weekly varied, varied diet prevents you from getting bored of always eating the same foods, making it even less likely to fall for unhealthy and high-calorie treats.

To be able to combine different meals in a varied weekly diet, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Versatility : A varied diet prevents you from getting bored quickly. Staying on target and eating healthily is much easier when weekly meals include all the different aspects of the food pyramid in a variety of ways.
• Moderation : Always keep moderation in everything. Whatever the food, always follow reasonable portion sizes to keep your daily energy intake always in balance.
• Regularity : As portion sizes decrease, it is important that meal intervals are also shortened so that hunger does not become too severe.
• Hydration : The last, but not the least, advice is to provide adequate hydration, as thirst can often be confused with hunger. Maintaining fluid balance also helps reduce excess bloating and promotes more efficient metabolism.

Meal planning and weight loss

Meal planning is an important part of steady weight loss. If your goal is to reduce the amount of fat in your body, take that into account when creating your shopping list. So exclude all unhealthy and energetic treats from your shopping cart and favor more of these foods in your diet:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Fish, meat and eggs
• Dried fruits and legumes
• Dairy products

Fruits and vegetables, just like legumes and dried fruits, contain a lot of important nutrients for the body, such as vitamins, minerals and of course energy, which will help you cope more.

It is also recommended to include dairy and meat products in your diet, just remember to check that the foods you eat are low in fat.

Good meat products include chicken, salmon, turkey, lean beef and many fish. Dairy products should also favor lower-fat versions, such as skim milk.

Tips for meal planning

To make it easier to plan your weekly meals for weight loss, here are a few tips for making varied yet healthy meals.

Breakfast

• Breakfast should consist of low-fat dairy products. Good options include natural yoghurt and skim milk, which can be combined with muesli or cereals.
• The best option for breakfast porridge is oats, as it must be filled with cereals that contain slow carbohydrates, which keeps you hungry and thus also reduces the amount of calories consumed during the day.
• You should also enjoy fruit at breakfast. For example, apple or pear are great options because they contain fiber that helps keep hunger under control for longer.
• The herbal extract or tea is also great as part of a varied breakfast and will also help  curb hunger.

Lunch

If the day drags on too long and you don’t have time to have lunch on time, book a small snack that will help you cope better and, most importantly, prevent you from sipping into unhealthy and high-calorie foods at lunchtime. Good morning snacks include, for example, fruit, natural snack bars or a small wholemeal sandwich stuffed with turkey or low-fat chicken and vegetables.

• At lunch, it’s good to enjoy a healthy but satisfying meal. Feel free to try different combinations of lean meat or fish as well as legumes and vegetables.
• As a dessert, you can enjoy fruit or low-fat yogurt. The herbal extract is also great to complement the dessert.

Snack

• The snacks already mentioned are snacks, ie fruit (in this case also dried), low-fat yoghurt or wholemeal bread. Eating small portions throughout the day will help you better control your hunger, and after a snack you are not likely to eat too many calories at dinner.

Dinner

• Soups and vegetable purees, for example, are perfect for dinner. Combine vegetables with chicken, turkey and fish to your liking.

A nutritious and varied diet as well as weekly meal planning will promote permanent and healthy weight loss and these tips mentioned above combined with regular exercise will take you step by step closer to your goal.