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Healthy Low Fat Diet – Ditch the Pudge!

Choosing a healthy low fat diet is a good way to lose weight. Living in a fast pace world surrounded by high fat foods, can make living without fat challenging.

Junk foods especially, contribute huge amounts of fat to your body!

Its far easier to reach for a mid day snack by visiting the vending machine in the office. The problem is that vending machines don’t contain healthy foods. They typically contain candy, chips, crackers, and other high fat foods that only cause weight gain.

healthy low fat diet image

Giving up the fat isn’t going to be easy, but is weight loss supposed to be? It takes a long time to accumulate fat on your body, so getting rid of it isn’t going to be instantaneous. Give yourself plenty of rope on a healthy low fat diet by moderating the amounts of calories you take in. Grabbing an occasional slice of pizza is fine to do. Just make it the exception, not the rule.

Healthy Low Fat Diet

Food is supposed to be medicinal. It is meant to give your body the energy it needs to sustain life, but many people eat for other reasons.

Food comforts us. When you’re having a bad day, your brain tells you to grab a piece of candy to feel better. Sometimes, your emotions control the types of foods you consume. To eat a healthy low fat diet, you will have to learn to turn off those triggers that tell your brain to eat high fat foods. It’s an association that’s not going to be easy to fix, but is doable.

A healthy low fat diet plan is balanced. It includes foods from all food groups in the Food Pyramid. Fats and oils should be eaten sparingly, which means your diet should be low in fat, especially saturated fat. No more than about 30 percent of your calories should be fat.

Learn to Read Labels

Some fats, called omega 3 fatty acids, are essential to any diet so they must be included in your healthy low fat diet plan. However, so called 'low fat' diet foods are sometimes riddled with sugar.

Just because a food is considered low fat, doesn't mean it's healthy or less fattening. It may contain high amounts of sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which is not good for your health or weight. You must learn to read labels to learn the truth. If ingredients are not clearly identified on the foods you select, ditch them.

Low Fat Diet Benefits

Lowers cholesterol

Good for your heart

Helps prevent certain cancers

Reduces weight

Are better for overall health

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is not low in fat. On the contrary it is extremely high in fat. It is estimated that 55% of American adults and around 20% of American children are overweight, which is a significant proportion of people who are seriously overweight or obese. Eating too much fat is one of the major causes.

The average American consumes the equivalent of a whole stick of butter, each day. (Butter is 80% fat).

Mayonnaise has become a universal addition to food. (Mayo is also 80% fat).

American children aged 6 to 14, eat fast foods 157 million times a month.

Nearly 50 cents of every US dollar is spent on fast foods.

Healthy Low Fat Diet Tips

Its no doubt that healthy foods have gotten a bad rap. They have been stigmatized as being boring or tasteless. Once you change your diet to a healthy low fat diet however, your taste buds will change. The associations you’ve had for so long will also change. Another common myth is that when you lose fat, you also lose flavor. This is simply a misconception. You can minimize the amounts of fat you have in your diet, simply and easily. It may be challenging initially but it is well worthwhile to try.

A weight loss study done in 2002, measured the weight behaviors of more than 3,000 American adults who lost an average of 60 pounds. They also were able to keep the weight off for an average of six years. Less then 1% of these successful with their weight loss, ate a low carb diet. The most successful dieters ate low fat, high carbohydrate diets to sustain their weight loss.

Eat salads at least 3 or 4 times a week if not more. Your salad should contain green leaf lettuce and other raw veggies. Do not pile on bacon or salad dressings. Instead, use minimum amounts of low fat vinegar based dressings that contain olive oil.

Another tip for salads is to have your low fat or fat free salad dressing served on the side so you can lightly dip your salad instead of drenching it. Salad dressings are often loaded with fat. Just 2 tablespoons of your favorite ranch dressing has approximately 160 calories and 16 grams of fat.

Do not eat chicken salad, potato salad, or other heavy mayonnaise based salads. These are high in calorie and high in fat and are a big no-no on a healthy low fat diet.

Low fat eating shouldn't be dull and boring. Fat, sugar, and salt taste good but there are healthier ways to make food delicious. Try to experience a new spice or herb every week. Herbs, spices, flavored vinegar, and salsa should be included to add taste without fat.

The more fruits and vegetables you eat the better they start to taste. As you decrease the amount of fat in your diet, you'll experience a growing appreciation for the great natural taste of fruits and vegetables.

Chicken and seafood are lower in fat than red meat. When you do eat beef, choose loin or round cuts and be sure to trim all the visible fat.

Choose lowfat milk, light soy milk, or skim milk. One measured cup of whole milk has 8.5 grams of fat and 150 calories, which means 50% of the calories come from fat. Compare that to one cup of skim milk with 0.4 grams of fat and only 81 calories.

One single tablespoon of mayo adds 10 grams of fat to your sandwich and a pat of butter adds 4 grams. Try mustard instead of mayonnaise. Be aware of the fat content in all condiments. Many times, they are loaded with fat!

Whole milk cheeses like cheddar, feta, American, Swiss, and many others contain 6 to 10 grams of fat per ounce. Look for low fat cheese that has 3 grams of fat or less per ounce. If you simply can't stand low fat cheese, try eating smaller amounts of regular cheese.

Instead of oil, lard, or butter, try cooking sprays, wine, clear broths, and flavored vinegars when cooking. Since it is hard to fry something without fat and oil, try baking, steaming, or poaching.

Some oils, like canola and olive oil, are healthy for you to consume in smaller amounts. They contain Omega 3 fatty acids that are essential to your health. The Mediterranean diet for example, includes olive oil regularly.

When eating at restaurants, ask the staff to hold the high fat extras like potato chips, French fries, and jumbo soft drinks.

When baking muffins and cakes, substitute applesauce for fatty ingredients. For example, try exchanging one part oil, fat, or butter for one part applesauce.

Eat slowly and taste your food. Most people are so used to ‘wolfing’ food down but that’s not how your body functions best. Chewing your food starts digestion and should be your first and foremost consideration. You should also chew each bite until its liquid, to keep from getting digestive problems. Eating slowly also fills you up faster. You'll eat less and be satisfied sooner.

When you are eating a healthy low fat diet, keep in mind that your brain isn’t always going to cooperate. This is especially true in the initial stages. Remember that:

Real Hunger

Grows gradually

You'll eat anything

Can wait

You stop when you're full

You feel good after eating

You gain energy

Emotional Hunger

Hits suddenly

You crave a specific food (usually high in fat)

Needs to be satisfied instantly

You can't stop eating

You feel guilty after eating

You gain weight

With so many people overweight, its also good to have a healthy low fat diet plan. The motivation to lose weight must come from within you. Your doctor, spouse, mother or loved ones may want you to slim down for health reasons, but the buck starts and stops with you. Consider these things when you are on a healthy low fat diet.

Healthy Low Fat Diet Plans

Don’t go into any diet with a dooms day approach. Consider the challenge to be a positive experience and start with small, achievable goals. Sustainable weight loss means losing no more than two pounds a week. If you choose to go on a crash diet, your metabolism will slow down and it will become harder to shed pounds.

Clean out your refrigerator and pantry. Get rid of the foods that are considered high fat! These are the culprits of weight gain and should be considered tabu on your healthy low fat diet. Leftover holiday pies and cookies and any full fat cheeses and other dairy products should be tossed. You can only eat or prepare only the foods you have at hand. You can't polish off a pint of ice cream that isn't there.

Restock your refrigerator with whole grain foods; and stock up with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Try to eat at least nine servings (4 1/2 cups) of these a day.

Monitor portions sizes and serving sizes. Fast food portion sizes have grown larger and larger over time. Its given us the misconception that more is better. Read food labels and nutritional facts to understand what exactly constitutes a serving size. It's usually less than you think. Be aware that a food package often contains more than one serving and that the nutritional analysis label refers to one portion, not the whole package.

Always eat something in the morning hours. You don’t necessarily have to roll out of bed and eat but you do need to ‘start your engine’ with healthy foods sometime during the morning hours. Try a low fat yogurt, fruit, cereal, or high fiber cereal bar. It’s important to stabilize blood-sugar levels and provide you with nutrition.

Drink water, and plenty of it. Water is crucial for digestion and also helps us feel fuller for longer. Sometimes we confuse thirst for hunger, so keep a bottle of water by you at all times and don’t forget to drink it. Water fills you up, not out, and is essential to every function in your body.

Try eating vegetarian meals a few times a week. Low fat dairy foods can replace the proteins found in meat. It will also save you a ton of money! A hearty three bean chili or pasta with roasted vegetables is much healthier and is low cost.

* You can also substitute protein bars and protein shakes for meats, several times a week.

Eat fish at least once and preferably twice a week. Fish like salmon, is naturally low in fat and contains heart healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

You will need to exercise, but don’t make it boring. Walk with a friend of find an exercise DVD that you can do at home. If you have a Nintendo Wii, buy the fitness package. Try and exercise for at least 20 - 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. If you haven’t been exercising up til now, its important to take baby steps. Start out slowly and work up to more rigorous workouts.

It’s one thing to watch your intake of fat and calories, but to complete the transition to a healthy low fat diet, you need to burn calories by doing some regular exercise.

Eat healthy snacks. When you do get a snack attack, make sure you reach for nutritious snacks such as fruit, low-fat yogurt, whole-grain crackers, natural popcorn or raw veggies. An occasional cookie or square or two of dark chocolate are not the end of the world. Keep them as special treats, though. If you have made over your pantry then it shouldn’t be a big issue.

Plan your meals for the best success. You must carefully think out the foods you will consume each week if you want to be successful.

These basic guidelines will help you more naturally eat a low fat diet and lead a healthier lifestyle. You don't need to deprive yourself of everything. Remember, some fat in our diets is actually necessary.

Be realistic about your weight loss plans however. Just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and you’ll succeed in your healthy low fat diet!

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To go to the next Healthy Weight Loss Tips page, here's the link: Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan – An Ideal Way to Lose the Fat

To view the previous Healthy Weight Loss Tips page, here's the link: Low Carb Foods Diet Facts – Sorting Through the Confusion!