The Basics of Nutrition: What You Need to Know for Weight Loss Management

Whether you’ve had weight loss surgery, plan to in the future, or are doing things on your own, the more you know about proper nutrition and how to maintain a healthy weight the easier it will be for you to lose weight and keep it off once it’s gone.

It’s not always easy to maintain a healthy weight, especially if you have cravings or there’s a lot of stress in your life, but you can get to and keep a healthy weight if you’re committed to doing so. Here are some very important basics you should consider for weight loss management.

1. Watch Your Calories

There are many arguments about nutrition, but there is one important item to remember above all else: if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. It’s a law of mathematics and physics, and one that’s hard to dispute. Your body needs a certain number of calories every day just to survive.

Even if you did nothing but lay in bed all day and breathe, your body would use calories. Everything you do beyond breathing uses additional calories. By choosing to consumer fewer calories than your body requires, weight loss becomes the logical result. Too few calories, though, can be harmful in some instances.

2. Stay Away From Too Much Sugar

While there’s nothing really wrong with some sugar in your diet, most people get much more than they should. There’s also a difference between naturally occurring sugar like you might get in a strawberry, and the added sugar you’re going to get if you eat ice cream, cake, or pie.

Some natural sugar is generally not a problem, because fruit has sugar and fruit is considered healthy. However, keeping track of the sugar you’re eating and avoiding as much added sugar as possible can speed weight loss and help you keep off pounds you’ve already lost.

3. Don’t Load Up On Carbohydrates

Another way to help maintain your weight loss is to keep your carbohydrates down to lower levels. Some carbs are fine, and even necessary. They’re what gives people energy.

But, when you get too many carbs and you aren’t active, those carbs can get stored as fat. Plus, they can make you feel tired and sluggish so you really don’t want to be active, which can lead to weight gain if you’re not very careful with your diet.

Staying on a low carb diet can help you keep your weight down and let you have room in your diet for protein and other things that add up to good nutrition.

4. Even “Healthy” Foods Can Sometimes Be a Poor Choice

Most people see fruits and veggies as healthy, some meats as healthy, and processed foods and sweets as unhealthy. That’s basically true, but it’s still possible for a healthy food to be a bad choice. Some fruits, for example, have a lot of sugar in them.

While it’s naturally occurring, it can still be overwhelming to the body, especially for a diabetic. A good balance of healthy, low-sugar foods, with high-sugar foods only in small portions, is a better choice for weight loss management.