An Ideal Diet is all about how consistent you are at it, and subsequently only enjoying your diet enables you to achieve consistency. The act of expressing love towards what we eat every day takes us much closer to our fitness goals whilst enjoying the process.
With no further adieu, let us take a plunge into the article, and know-how can we incorporate our finger-licking “junk” delicacies into our diet and still reach our macros and fitness goals.
Can we include Junk Food On a Diet?
“Do we enjoy our diet?” has to be the primary question that we should ask before we bombard ourselves with “Do we have to completely avoid junk food on a diet?”
The major concern is not about eating junk food. It should be whether we can burn those extra calories, which makes us fat and unhealthy.
There are 2 realistic ways we can go about our diet – The Strict Diet and The Flexible one.
You can either be super strict by avoiding anything enjoyable and high in calories or go with the flexible one with a brief respite over enjoyable foods. Either way, it is very crucial to procure our daily requirements(macros) right by calculating the nutrients in every meal we consume and fit it accordingly. We can enjoy the foods we like around 20% of the time and adhere to our stringent diet for the rest of the time while ensuring we do not cross the daily overall calorie limit.
There is no pleasure in consuming our meals like medicines. So if we target our diet to be consistent and sustainable, the most efficient way is to diet in a pliable fashion, where we get to achieve our fitness goals as we enjoy the journey of doing so.
Reliable practices for effective dieting:
- THE 80/20 RULE
Have a composition of 80/20, where we eat 80% healthy food that helps us reach our ideal carb, fat, protein intake, and 20% of high caloric junk food. - STICKING TO THE PLAN When we have a specific number of calories to hit per day to achieve our goals, we are ought to ensure that every meal is calculated and planned accordingly. Junk food, as the name suggests, is normally high in calories, so we have to be watchful so we do not end up with a caloric surplus.
- DRINK LOTS OF WATER Drink at least 4 liters of water a day to boost your metabolism and to expedite the process.
Tips and Tricks to snack in between on a diet
Even though caloric intake is the primary quotient of gaining or losing weight. There are some food habits, which when incorporated in your diet, may lead to effective weight loss.
- Snacking the carbohydrates before its late
Consuming carbs before 6 pm or even before may work well, as there will be some scope of physical activities done by your body to burn those carbs. - Lite Breakfast to start with
You should break the fast with some low carb meal, as high carbs will increase the insulin levels. - Calculate the calories you eat and burn
for the 100th time, calculate all your food intake, and the calories you burn to create a master plan for your fitness journey. - Finish your dinner early
Lite dinner or low caloric dinner may stock fewer carbs while you are sleeping, so we may lead to fasting sessions like a pro.
The Zenith:
There is no good or bad food. There are only foods that we are supposed to eat more, and foods that need to be consumed in less amount. Relish the diet so that our habits are in line with our goals while it lasts long, and gains will prove to be a by-product.
Also, read our other articles on foods and health here.