Diet tips | 6 important recommendations for everyone on how to lose weight healthily

January has slowly swung into its second half and we believe that if you have set a goal to lose excess weight in 2023 or decided to change your eating habits, your ambitions have not yet left you! In today's article, we're going to give you another batch of important recommendations that you can apply to your goals and make any changes more enjoyable and most importantly - more sustainable in the long run.

Eat complex meals and don't skip any macronutrients

The first recommendation is that you don't skip any of the essential macronutrients and eat balanced, nutritionally rich and complex meals. While there are rumours on the internet that it is advisable to limit or even completely eliminate carbohydrates or fats in a reduction diet, this is really not necessary. It's never just one particular food or food group that is to blame for our fat stores, but simply eating too much, not moving enough or both at the same time. Moreover, each macronutrient has its own specific role in the body, and the moment we don't provide one or the other macronutrient to our body, we can really mess things up.

Moreover, there is no such thing as a carbohydrate. We cannot equate complex carbohydrates from, for example, whole grain side dishes, which provide us with quality fuel for our performance and are a source of important fibre and various micronutrients, with sweetened sodas, which only provide the body with sugar. In short, it is important to be able to distinguish which foods are nutritionally valuable and which are less so, and to try to make sure that the more nutritious ones dominate our diet. Of course, we're not saying that you can't have a sweet vice once in a while, we're just trying to explain that we can't lump all foods into the same bag.

Fats are similar. It really isn't true that eating fat means being fat. Fats play a very important role in our bodies and cutting them out completely or cutting back too radically may not end well. Fats really do belong in the diet - if only because they are important for the absorption of a number of micronutrients that our bodies need for their health, to ensure the proper functioning of a number of important bodily processes and, last but not least, for hormonal balance. Here again, though, it's good to think a bit about where we get our fats from. Again, it's a good idea to choose more nutritionally valuable foods, such as avocados, oily fish, nuts or eggs, in preference to sources of solidified fats, fast food and ultra-processed foods.

It is also true that the moment we make such a radical restriction, such as just eliminating this or that macronutrient, we often find that the diet is too monotonous, boring, insufficiently nutritious and ultimately unsustainable in the long run, so we give up. Yet it really only takes so little - thinking about the concept of your diet, choosing the right foods and not taking any extreme steps. Each of our meals should contain a sufficient amount of protein, an adequate proportion of carbohydrates, fibre and at least a small amount of fat. This way, you will be sufficiently satisfied and provide your body with the necessary energy, which is the first prerequisite for not having a rumbling tummy and being able to concentrate on your duties after a few minutes. At the same time, this strategy keeps you from raiding the fridge in the evening and is a good basis for long-term sustainable eating.

Don't divide your meals into those you can eat and those you can't

A big phenomenon among people trying to lose weight is the division of foods into good and bad, or "I can eat this" and "I can't eat that". But the truth is that this division makes no deeper sense. The moment you move the foods you like best into the "I can't eat this" box and strictly forbid them, you're likely to soon miss them and have an irrepressible urge to eat them, which sooner or later you'll end up doing. And then comes the feeling of failure, which is often why we give up on healthy eating.

But in doing so, such steps are really unnecessary. There's no need to box foods up and allow yourself to eat only some of them. Again, it's important to remember that if the more nutritionally valuable foods are predominant in your diet, there's no reason to worry about eating some of the less nutritionally valuable ones every now and then. However, the "I can't eat this" category of foods does have its place in our diet. But its content would take a very different form than it actually does in most cases. It should include foods that we are allergic to, that do not make us feel well, or that we simply do not like. Otherwise, this box is useless and is just a basis for making healthy eating unnecessarily unpleasant or completely unpalatable.

Eating healthy does not equal eating too little

Even this point in today's list cannot be forgiven. After all, the notion that if we want to lose weight we need to eat less will probably never die out. Yet that's not entirely true. In fact, the key to fat reduction is not "eating little" but "eating right". Our body needs adequate amounts of good quality fuel to have enough energy for sport, work but also to ensure that basic bodily processes run properly.

By drastically limiting our intake, we may achieve the goal of losing weight quickly, but I dare say it won't be for long. The body is an incredibly clever "machine", and if we don't give it enough of the energy it needs to function, it will soon claim it. In addition to being plagued by hunger or uncontrollable cravings for sweets, frequent fatigue, lack of focus, bad mood, irritability, lack of motivation and desire for sports, and poor sleep, we can also set ourselves up for really serious health problems. And that's not worth it in the slightest.

So please: eat well, eat varied, without extremes and above all - eat enough. In spring, in summer, on Mondays and Sundays, when it's raining, when the sun is shining, and even when you're trying to lose weight. Eat in a way that is very unlikely to achieve a quick result or top swimsuit shape in two weeks, but in return you will build long term sustainable habits that will lead to a HEALTHY and in every way functional body that you feel good in. And believe it or not, that's the best goal you can give yourself.

Don't drink your calories

It's not just food that contains calories. The beverages we drink during the day are also a source that people often completely miss out on, but can be very significant. Because the moment our drinking regime consists of sugary sodas or juices, or drinking several giant lattes with three sugar cubes a day, it can really affect our calorie intake significantly. The extra problem is that in sweetened sodas or juices, we don't find any nutrients other than sugar, and of course that's not entirely good. Alcohol intake can also be problematic, especially if we consume it regularly. It doesn't seem like it, but if you have a decilitre or two of wine or a beer every night to get a good night's sleep, you're not giving your body much nutrition, but rather putting a strain on it, which can result in poor sleep quality, impaired recovery processes and even blocking your efforts to lose weight.

If you are trying to change your lifestyle and want to lose some pounds or even just sculpt your figure, you need to think about adequate sources of fluids. Of course, pure water should be the basis, unsweetened teas and there is also nothing wrong with coffee with a little milk. If you don't like plain water, you can throw in some chopped fruit, herbs or even cucumber slices. During activity, you can flavour plain water with soluble bcaa.

Find a more relevant indicator to assess your success than your weight

When trying to lose weight, we often have one goal in front of us - a lower number on the scale. But this particular number has so little telling value that it's much better not to actually give it any significant weight in evaluating your success and progress, perhaps. Weight is biased... not only does it fluctuate throughout the day, but it also depends on your diet in the previous days, your physical activity in the previous days, it may reflect your upcoming menstrual cycle or maybe it reflects the fact that you are sleeping a little less.... Boom and a higher number is in the world. Now what? All wrong, my efforts aren't working, I quit.

Precisely because of how incredibly unstable and biased a number the scale is, we should focus on completely different parameters when evaluating progression. The most important one should be overall health and how we feel in our bodies. Do we have enough energy? Are we suffering from bloating or some other health problem? Are we sleeping well? For women, of course, an equally important question is whether they have a regular cycle. It is only when the answers to all such questions make sense that we can begin to crunch the numbers. Still, we would recommend looking at measurements rather than weights. So if numbers are important to you, get a tailor's tape measure for your home and measure yourself regularly. Remember, though, that changes don't happen overnight and that it doesn't make sense to measure yourself every day, or even every week - if you want to track progress even on numbers, then set some reasonable intervals - like once a month.

Movement is a joy, not a necessary evil, it needs to be done in order to eat

One final point on movement. The human body is naturally designed to move. Nowadays we have less and less time for movement, so it is important to remind ourselves of its importance and role in overall health from time to time. We should ideally engage in some form of movement every day. Of course, we don't mean that you have to go to the gym every day. It's great to incorporate more natural movement - walking - into your daily routine. Apart from the fact that it costs nothing and you can do it pretty much anytime and anywhere, it will also give you a nice headspace, improve your mood, promote the quality of your sleep... in short, you combine a lot of pleasant things with useful things.

We also want to add that movement, whatever it may be, should primarily bring us joy. It shouldn't just be a way to burn calories, compensate for a poor lifestyle or impress those around you. It should not be a punishment, a stress, an annoyance or an obligation. The primary goal for doing it shouldn't be the green rings on your watch, but that it makes you feel good. So please keep in mind that it doesn't matter at all if you're doing a sport that isn't exactly trending on social media, isn't the most effective for burning fat according to studies, or isn't typical for your gender. What's more important is that you're doing something that brings you joy, is a form of relaxation, a source of energy and helps you feel good mentally and physically. What matters is that you move with love, enthusiasm and the utmost respect for your health.

What to take away from the article?

In today's article, we have made some important recommendations that you can use (not only) in your New Year's resolutions regarding weight loss. We explained that eating healthy is not the same as not eating enough, justified why it makes no sense to divide food into good and bad, why we should not exclude any macronutrient from our diet, outlined what our drinking regime should look like and reminded ourselves of the importance of exercise. In addition, we also said that when evaluating progress and success, there are much more important indicators than our body weight.