4 Tips on Nutrition to Help with Your Weight Loss Routine
by Bruce A. Tucker

Nutrition is a major part of all weight loss routines.  Exercise alone will only take you so far, but if you do not give your body the building blocks it needs to recuperate, regenerate, and rebuild, you will see absolutely no progress.  When people do not see results from their hard work studies have shown that the rate people that stop exercising reaches over ninety percent.

So do yourself a favor and heed the advice of these tips that I am about to give you so you do not fall into that ninety percentile failure rate.  Failing is never a bad thing in itself.  What makes failing bad is not learning from what caused you to fail in the first place.  You need to take that knowledge and use it to head in the right direction.

Eat More Often
The first tip that is essential to any nutrition program is to eat often.  Now that may seem like the complete opposite of everything you have ever learned but it is absolutely true.  When I say you need to eat more often what I mean is you should spread your meals out over the course of the entire day.  Gone are the days of eating three large meals.  Instead replace that old routine with eating six meals throughout the day about one every two and a half to three hours.  These six meals will be smaller in size that the three you are accustomed to.  I will get to that in a little bit.

Plate the Right Ingredients
The next tip when it comes to your nutrition plan is to make sure that every plate or bowl of food that you prepare has protein, carbohydrates and green vegetables on it.  They should all be equal in size, and I will get to portion size in a moment, although you can eat more of the green vegetables if you still feel like you need some extra food on your plate.

Portion the Right Size
One of the many questions that comes up in any diet or nutrition program is, how much food can you actually eat?  The answer is simpler than you probably would think.  Now I know many weight loss places have you weigh this and measure that and that will give you a more definitive account of what you are taking in, but for simplicity reasons and for the reason in most people cases, that way is really impractical. 

Most people just do not have the time to play scientist in the morning when they are preparing breakfast.  So here is what you can do to ensure you are getting the proper amount of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables.  Go ahead and make a fist.  It does not matter which hand you use, they should be the same size, at least my hands are.  Now squeeze tightly.  Do you see your clenched fist?  That is the serving size for each ingredient on your plate.  It really is that simple.  You can have more green vegetables than your clenched fist if you feel like you need more food, but the rule of thumb is portion sizes are the same size as your clenched fist.

Cheat for Sanity Sake
So when do I get to eat chocolate or ice cream?  How about that greasy burger or pizza?  Do not panic you will get to eat all of that more.  Sort of.  What I recommend is that you pick one day out of your week, I call it the “cheat” day, and eat whatever you want.  If you want pizza, go ahead and eat pizza.  If you need to hit the fast food restaurant for some deep fried chicken tenders and french fries that is ok also.  On your cheat day, eat whatever you want, whenever you want.  This day allows you to get it out of your system.  Denying your body something you crave for a long period, in my opinion is what leads people to get off their diets in the first place.  Knowing that you will have one day each week where you can just let yourself go will make the world of a difference.

Follow these four tips for your nutrition plan, combined with a solid exercise program, drink plenty of water, and you will be on your way to successful weight loss.

Just remember as with any exercise or nutrition program, get a complete physical from your doctor prior to starting.


About the Author: Mr. Tucker is the senior editor for Weight Loss Nation, an online resource where you can learn about various weight loss, exercise, fitness and nutrition tips.