With our nation's growing weight problems, there comes a abundance of weight loss plans and fad diets. There is almost a diet out there that covers almost every angle and gimmick from low fat to low carb and liquid to food combination.
In the 1970s, Dr. Nathan Pritikin introduced his low fat focused Pritikin program for diet and exercise. Fat has since been the dietary enemy of in the battle to weight loss. There are a number of clinically proven good reasons to cut fat out of your diet. If you consume too much dietary fats like saturated fats, it can raise your risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.
However, too much reduction or drastic elimination from your diet is not recommended and even dangerous. Most of us need some dietary fat for energy, growth and development and to absorb fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Fats helps to keep our skin and hair healthy.
We also need essential fatty acids found in many fatty cold water fish, some oils and some soy beans. Omega fatty acids found in fatty cold water fish and soy beans are important nutrients for heart health and disease prevention. They are also good for your brain and eye development.
In the end, it is the calories that count. Gram for gram, fat has more calories than both protein and carbohydrates. Lowering the fat intake in your daily diet can indeed aid you in losing weight.
However, that does not means that you should go overboard on low fat and reduced fat food products. Many of such products replaced the fat with added sugar and added calories. Unfortunately, many people perceived the low fat label as a license to overindulge in, thus eating much more than they would be eating if it were a usual version. Trim your excess fat by choosing foods that are basically lower in saturated fats.
While many of such diets out there may be able to help you lose weight. Most are only temporary. Most popular diets lack a very important element for long term success in losing weight, which is balance. When it comes to diet, the best way to ensure that you have the tools and proper guidance to develop healthy eating strategies to last a life time is to get help from professional nutritional counseling from a registered dietician.
Combined with a life style change and help from your family, your weight loss may become permanent and successful.
