No matter how much exercise you get in, diet plays a massive role in shedding fat, building muscle, and creating the physique you want. You might be having a difficult time lowering your calorie intake due to your activity levels, but that doesn’t have to be the sole step to having an effective diet that helps you lose unwanted weight.
Here are some simple things you can add to your eating regimen that can help you feel fuller, work out better, and shred fat effectively.
Eat more fiber
Studies have shown that eating more fiber can help you lose weight and fight against fat accumulation, as soluble fiber absorbs water and moves through the digestive tract slowly, helping you feel fuller longer.
One study shows that increasing your intake of fiber promotes feelings of fullness and decreased hunger, with an increase of 14 grams of fiber a day being associated with a 10% decrease in calorie intake. Consuming more fiber can help you feel much more satisfied with your meals and will help you eat less throughout the day.
Add vinegar to your meals
Vinegar holds a lot of health benefits, from promoting heart health to controlling blood sugar. Including more vinegar in your diet has also been shown to promote fat burning, enhance feelings of fullness, and reduce appetite.
Aside from adding vinegar to your daily meals, one popular way to consume vinegar daily is by diluting apple cider vinegar with water. You can also get all of its benefits in supplement form for a quicker and tastier treat.
Decrease refined carbs
While working out more might require a couple more calories in your diet to help you retain energy throughout the day, it’s best to find those calories outside of refined and processed foods.
Refined and processed foods go through a manufacturing process that strips their most important fibers and nutrients, resulting in food with little to no nutritional value. Studies have shown that a diet full of these foods causes spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels, resulting in increased hunger, and is associated with increased belly fat.
On the other hand, people who follow a diet rich in whole grains are more likely to have a lower body mass index and body weight and smaller waist circumference.
Final Note
Diet is such an important factor in weight loss, and it’s crucial that we take a look at the foods we eat to make sure we’re getting the most out of them. As much as a calorie deficit can do for us when it comes to shedding pounds, that’s not all we need for a healthy weight loss regimen that we can also stick to for a long time.
