Diet Plans For Women: What Females Need To Know About Weight Loss

What Is A Diet Plan?

The word "diet" is pretty ambiguous — many people associate the word with having to cut foods out and restrict the foods you might enjoy. But the word diet simply refers to the foods you consume on a daily basis, and because the word is so closely linked with "short term fixes" women tend to shy away from eating healthily and resorting to the short fixes. 

Although these types of diets appear to be easy options they are actually training the body to work under starvation or extreme conditions that you cant sustain. Therefore it is much more effective to try and simply eat healthily and try to exercise more if you are trying to lose weight. There are a few common mistakes that a lot of women make when trying to promote weight loss.

Counting Calories

The most obvious method of trying to lose weight is to try and count the amount of calories that you consume on a daily basis. This is a great way to get a more visual indication of how much you eat but how do you know what is the right amount. The biggest mistake people make is to use a general number plucked from an article or website that is considered the "average" but this can be dangerous and lead to under nutrition or even causing weight gain.

You have to calculate the appropriate number of calories your body consumes and using a calorie equation online will actually give you an estimate based on your current weight, age and activity status. The more active you are the more calories you need to sustain normal day to day life and cutting down too much can be more dangerous than over eating.

READ Easy Ways to Reduce Your Portions: Cut Calorie Intake and Lose Weight

Check Your Portion Size

Knowing what foods to eat and how many calories you require to lose weight is the first step towards weight loss but if you are not aware of the correct portion size then this can put all of your hard work at risk. On a diet plan or healthy eating program you should be shown or indicated how much of each part of your dinner you should be serving up.

The carbohydrate section should be the smallest portion of about 20 percent and the protein about 30 percent. Again this can vary depending on the meal but as long as protein is high and you eat plenty of vegetables it is a good meal. Usually carbohydrate portions should be about the size of your fist as a guide.