Diets kinda suck. Many of them require you to restrict or eliminate certain foods or foods groups. These plans are designed to jump start weight loss, but are not necessarily sustainable or even healthy over the long term.
A better strategy for not only shedding pounds but also keeping your body healthy and strong is a balanced diet.
With the exception of nutritionally void junk food, there is little you need to avoid entirely in order to lose weight. Certain foods can help get you there faster, of course, but they aren’t necessarily the foods you immediately think of. In fact, some fantastic weight loss foods might be the very ones you think you have to scratch from your diet.
Stay with us – there is a lot of good news ahead about the tasty foods that actually promote weight loss.
7. Whole Eggs
For the longest time, we’ve been counselled to avoid eggs entirely or at least stick to the flavorless white. And it is true that eggs are high in cholesterol. However, recent studies have proven that there is no connection between eating eggs and unhealthy cholesterol levels, nor between eggs and heart disease.
In fact, eggs actually promote weight loss because they are high in protein, nutritionally dense, and have enough healthy fats to keep you feeling satisfied, all for a relatively low number of calories. The ability of eggs to promote satiety is very beneficial to a weight loss diet in which you are probably limiting overall caloric intake. Eat eggs over refined grain products like bagels in order to get the nutrition you need and feel full longer
6. Meat
Meat has been seriously demonized in the press, and blamed for all sorts of health problems, especially cancer. The problem is that there needs to be a better distinction drawn between meat in general and processed meat. Products like hot dogs, bacon, lunch meat, and sausage are all preserved with carcinogenic nitrates and nitrites (even naturally smoked foods).
But studies show that consumption of unprocessed meat does not significantly raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. In fact, unprocessed meat is a diet-friendly food because of its high protein content. High protein diets can increase your calorie-burning potential by 80-100 calories per day. Maintaining a diet with 25% of daily calories coming from protein is thought to lead to weight loss of about a pound per week, as well as cut snack cravings by 60%.
