A Simple Diet for Losing Weight

In my opinion, a simple diet is the best diet.

Some people follow Weight Watchers, some NutriSystem, others prefer the Atkins Diet. Not to mention the Vegan Diet, the DASH Diet, Raw Food diet, etc.

There are so many to chose from. But I say the best diet is the one you can stick to!

These days I follow my own custom diet plan. I'm not a nutritionist or dietician, but my diet works for me. Two years ago I was flabby and 25 pounds overweight.

Today, I'm at a healthy weight for my height, and I can even see my ab muscles. (Sorry, no pictures, I'm shy. )

Here are my stats: I'm 5' 10" (178 cm) tall and weigh 160 lbs (72.5 kg). Before I started my current diet and exercise program, I weighed 185 lbs (84 kg) and felt terrible.

In fact, it was my chronic lower back pain (now gone) that became my main motivation to lose weight.

Below I explain the diet principles that I follow. You may not want to eat exactly this way, but if you do there's a good chance you'll drop unwanted weight.

But most of all, any diet needs to work for your situation. Feel free to start with my program and modify it to suit your own lifestyle.

Choose a Simple Diet Plan

I didn't invent my personal diet plan. I spent a lot of time reading diet books and experimenting. What I discovered is that many diet programs offer similar advice.

For example, all the major diets want you to drink more water and less soda. They all want you to cut sugar and overall calories. They all advocate exercise and eating smaller portions.

Their advice is similar because there are a few core principles (such as those listed below) that affect how your body uses calories and stores fat. Make sure your pattern of eating aligns with these principles, and you should lose weight over time.

But each diet plan has its own spin on things. Some of them sell you prepackaged meals. Some want you to cut out carbs completely. Others want you to cut out meat complete.

And the truth is, most of the diet plans can help you lose weight. Where most people stumble is finding a diet plan that suits their budget, personality, and lifestyle. No diet works if you don't follow it!

So for my own simple diet, I've borrowed from here and there from different diets based on what has been effective for me. All of it is common sense, really.

7 Steps for Losing Weight

I've selected a few diet principles that make sense and that seem to work for me. I like to keep things simple, so I've boiled down my diet plan into these six principles:

1. Eat 5 small meals a day, from foods on the fat-burning power foods list.

2. In each meal, include one portion protein and one portion of low-glycemic carbs.

3. Drink water and unsweet green tea, at least 5 glasses per day.

4. Avoid processed foods, sugar, white flour, and saturated fat. For example, eat brown rice instead of white rice.

5. Eat high-fiber foods. The extra fiber helps you feel full sooner, so you don't overeat. It also helps you stay full longer.

6. Take a multivitamin and a teaspoon of liquid fish oil once daily.

7. Cook a week's worth of meals once a week during a weekly cook day.

There are lots of other "little tricks" that I've added to these 7 basics. Like using smaller portion plates to help control portion sizes. Or, how you can add cinnamon to your food as a natural fat burner.

Tips like those are explained on the other pages of this site. But the point to remember is you can lose weight by following the 7 steps above.

Whatever Diet You Choose, Keep It Simple

I do not count calories. I don't like to spend hours in the kitchen cooking. I rarely weigh myself. It's fine if you do those things, but that's not my personal style.

In my opinion, you'll have the best chance of sticking with your diet if you can merge it seamlessly into your normal lifestyle.

Any plan that takes a lot of your time or becomes annoying or that leaves you feeling deprived isn't going to work.

So pick well-known diet plan like Biggest Loser, Jenny Craig, or Medi-Fast, or develop your own. The main thing is to adopt a simple diet based on healthy eating principles that puts your body in a slight caloric deficit each day.

In other words, eat fewer calories than your body burns, and eat foods that keep your body healthy.

Add an exercise plan to the mix to raise your metabolism (so your body will burn more calories, naturally), and you've got a recipe for weight loss success!

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