Choose a gradual and safe way to lose weight. We'll tell you all about a smooth diet to lose weight: basics, allowed foods and menus for the week.
How to lose weight safely? Many nutritionists believe that a light diet is a great option for losing weight. Principles, contraindications, benefits and menus for a week at home - all the details are in the material.
There are many different weight loss diets designed for short sprint runs.
An economical diet to lose weight compared to them is a marathon, it can last more than six months, while the caloric restriction of food is quite serious. Before you start losing weight in this way, make sure you get in touch with your doctor and find out if it's really safe for you to go on a gentle weight-loss diet.
Gentle diet for weight loss: basic principles and contraindications
The soft diet is divided into two main phases: an intensive phase and a re-phase.
The intensive phase lasts up to 6 months. During this period, you need to limit your calorie intake to 1, 800 calories per day. As part of your diet, you focus on protein-rich foods. For example, poultry, fish, eggs, low-fat cheese and tofu. Oil and other salad dressings are excluded from the diet menu and carbohydrates are limited to 20 grams per day. Thus, at first, almost all meals will contain some amount of meat, most of them without accompaniment or with side dishes in the form of certain vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and others on the list of allowed foods).
In the second step, you can slowly add fats and carbohydrates and gradually reduce the amount of protein to 70-140 grams per day. The second phase lasts from 6 to 8 weeks. In the first month, up to 45 grams of carbohydrates per day are allowed, and in the second month - up to 90 grams.
Talk to your doctor, you may need to take a multivitamin supplement, extra potassium, calcium, magnesium or sodium during the first phase to protect your body from nutritional deficiencies. You also need to monitor your condition and if it gets worse, for example, performance slows down or dizziness starts - you need to immediately move to the next phase or, respectively, repeat or go off the diet.
Why is a gentle diet good for you?
A mild diet is not just good for weight loss. Additional Benefits of a Soft Diet:
- reducing cholesterol levels by up to 20%;
- normalization of blood sugar levels;
- lowering blood pressure;
- protection against metabolic syndrome.
Unfortunately, even a mild diet is not the ideal recipe for losing weight. Before starting, consult an expert, as the diet has side effects. For example, it can cause nutritional deficiencies in the body.
The diet is not adequate:
- For the elderly;
- for lactating and pregnant women;
- for those with gallbladder problems;
- for people with eating disorders;
- for patients with chronic diseases.
Light weight loss diet: menu for a week
Allowed food and taboo
We've already described some of the foods you can eat on a light weight-loss diet. Detailed list of allowed products:
- poultry: skinless chicken, turkey, goose, duck;
- meat: lean meat, pork, lamb;
- fish: plaice, cod, catfish, sole;
- vegetables: green leaves, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, celery, tomato, onion, cucumber, zucchini;
- low-fat dairy products: cottage cheese, low-fat cheese, low-fat milk;
- eggs and egg whites;
- tofu.
A lot of fats and carbohydrates are excluded from the menu of an economical diet. Complete list of taboo foods:
- fruits: apples, berries, oranges, grapes, melons, pears, peaches;
- starchy vegetables: potatoes, corn, peas;
- grain: wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, millet;
- pulses: black beans, lentils, chickpeas, beans, peanuts;
- processed foods: convenience foods, baked goods, french fries, fast food, sweets;
- sweet drinks: juice, sweet tea, sports drinks, soft drinks;
- sugar and sweeteners: honey, maple syrup, table sugar, molasses, brown sugar;
- fats and oils: olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oils, salad dressings, butter, margarine;
- complete dairy products: yogurt, full-fat cheese, milk.
You need to eat slowly, in small portions, but often. This diet includes three main meals a day and some snacks. Well suited as such:
- Egg;
- A slice of roasted meat or fish;
- Cottage cheese;
- A slice of low-fat cheese;
- Various celery stalks;
- A handful of cooked vegetables from the allowed list;
- A tomato.
Don't forget to drink plenty of water, the daily norm is about one and a half to two liters, it is best to drink at least a glass half an hour or an hour before meals, and also drink unsweetened green or black tea as a snack to drown out the possible feeling of hunger. A good choice is mineral water or rosehip broth, herbal tea, of course, you don't need to add sugar to these drinks and, in principle, you need to abstain from sugar. The best way to cook food is to steam, boil, bake, you can use a microwave oven.
A Gentle Diet for Safe Weight Loss: Menus and Meals You Can Prepare at Home
Monday
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs with spinach and tomatoes.
- Lunch: fried cod with steamed broccoli.
- Dinner: Chicken breast with grilled Brussels sprouts.
third
- Breakfast: tofu with onions, garlic and peppers.
- Lunch: roast chicken with vegetable accompaniment (without sauce).
- Dinner: pork chops with fried asparagus.
Wednesday
- Breakfast: egg omelet with zucchini, tomato and garlic.
- Lunch: roast cod with boiled cabbage.
- Dinner: lean ground beef salad, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and chives.
Thursday
- Breakfast: low-fat cottage cheese.
- Lunch: Low-carb turkey meatballs and zucchini and tomato noodles.
- Dinner: fried chicken with garlic and lemon (no garnish).
Friday
- Breakfast: boiled eggs with salt and pepper.
- Lunch: roasted tofu with steamed green beans.
- Dinner: grilled steak with oven-roasted eggplant.
Repeat any of the days on Saturday and Sunday.
Don't forget the limitations - for the intensive phase, most is composed of proteins, for the second, its quantity decreases due to the increase in the amount of carbohydrates.
Gentle Diet Recipes
Chicken and Vegetable Casserole
Ingredients: chicken fillet, cauliflower, broccoli, eggs, low-fat cream, low-fat cream, cheese for sprinkling, garlic, seasoning to taste.
How to prepare: if the vegetables are frozen - thaw, if not - rinse in salted water, divide into inflorescences. Cut the chicken, mix with vegetables on a baking sheet, fill with heavy cream diluted in warm water, bake for 20 minutes, temperature - 180 degrees. For the second dump, mix the cream with part of the cheese, the eggs, the garlic, chopped or passed through a garlic press, add the seasonings, mix everything well. We take the chicken and vegetables out of the oven, stuff it with the freshly prepared stuffing, we spread the rest of the cheese on top. We return everything to the oven for another 20 minutes.
vegetable salad
Ingredients: low-fat cheese, celery stalks, tomato, cucumber, red onion, herbs, lemon juice.
Preparation: wash vegetables, cut them in a deep bowl, send chopped low-fat cheese, chopped celery stalks, herbs or chop them finely with your hands. Add lemon juice and mix well.
Diet Soup with Meatballs
Ingredients: turkey, chicken or rabbit fillets, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, eggs, herbs, spices to taste.
Preparation: chop the meat with the onion, add the egg, salt, pepper if desired, mix and form the meatballs. Place the finished meat products in boiling water, add broccoli and cauliflower, previously divided into inflorescences (if you bought frozen vegetables, you don't need to defrost in advance), grated carrots on a fine grater - will give a golden color to the broth, spices I like. Cook until cabbage and meatballs are done, garnish with herbs just before serving. You can also add a hard-boiled egg to the soup - half on each plate.
Evaluations of a gentle diet
Anyone who has tried this version of a mild diet to lose weight says that it is quite difficult to follow it - the restrictions are strong, the daily amount of calories may be insufficient for those who are used to physical activities or long walks, fatigue, dizziness may appear - if If this happens, the caloric content of the diet should be gradually increased and reduced, observing the state of health and avoiding fanaticism.
The foods you can eat are tasty enough but not too varied, the hardest thing for people to give up on baked goods and candy and switch to vegetables as a side dish. They also recommend not neglecting nutritional supplements and reporting the feeling of hunger, which may accompany you at first, but later you'll probably get used to the new diet.
The exit from the diet, as those who have already tried it, need to be very smooth, even after the end of the second phase, the foods on the prohibited list must be introduced very carefully, otherwise there is a risk that all efforts in the basis of weight loss will go to waste. The fact is that the metabolism for a long time, that this diet takes, is rebuilt, the body gets used to processing a certain amount of a certain type of food, therefore, the accumulation of excess fat can be a consequence of the excess. It is best to switch from this diet to a diet built according to recommendations for proper nutrition, in which case the probability of weight gain will be minimal and there will be sufficient strength and energy.