Step 3 - Eat Clean, Eat Lean

If you are trying to lose weight, making a conscious effort to improve the way you eat is a MUST.  Sure, you would probably lose weight if you exercised like crazy every day and still ate pizza and french fries, assuming you burned more calories exercising than the calories your pizza and french fries totaled.  But in order for you to take the weight off quickly and keep it off, you need to adopt a cleaner way of eating.  Eating clean means eating those things that your body needs to stay healthy and eating them in balanced proportions.  You’ll need to educate yourself on how to make the right food choices.  Some people choose diet meal delivery services to take the guess work out of selecting the right foods and preparing their own meals.  This is a great option.  But if you do not have the money to spare, start becoming an expert in food nutrition NOW.

Fruits and Vegetables
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of some types of cancer and other chronic diseases. Fruits and vegetables also provide essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and other substances that are important for good health.  To get a healthy variety, think color. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C.  Some examples include green spinach, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, yellow corn, purple plums, red watermelon, and white onions.

The amount of fruits and vegetables you need is dependent upon your age, sex, and level of physical activity. Women need about 2.5 cups of vegetables and about 1.5 cups of fruit per day and men need about 3 cups of vegetables and about 2 cups of fruit. As your activity level goes up, you may need to add an additional half cup.

Lean Proteins
Protein increases your sense of feeling satisfied and keeps you from feeling hungry for a longer period of time.  Another benefit from protein is that it increases the fat burning capacity within the body because it takes twice as much effort to convert protein into energy than it does to convert carbohydrates into energy.   The bottom line, eating the right amount of protein will having you eating less food and losing more fat.
Most nutritional experts recommend getting protein from a number of lean sources such as, fish poultry, beans, nuts, and whole grains. There are a number of plant-based foods, such as soy and legumes, that can provide you with the same levels of protein as meats.

• Fish: Fish provides heart and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
• Poultry: Boneless skinless chicken breasts and turkey cutlets are the leanest poultry choices.
• Beans: Beans have a very hight protein content, containing more protein than any other vegetable protein.
• Nuts: Eating one ounce of almonds gives you 6 grams of protein.
• Whole grains: One slice of whole wheat bread gives you 3 grams of protein, plus fiber.

If you must have beef or pork, stick to the leanest beef cuts including round steaks and roasts (round eye, top round, bottom round, round tip), top loin, top sirloin, and chuck shoulder and arm roasts.  The leanest pork choices include pork loin, tenderloin, center loin, and ham.

Healthy Fats
Fats are necessary for a number of our vital organs to function, such as our brain and heart. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommend that your fat intake not exceed 35 percent of your daily calories. What this means is if you consume 1,600 calories a day, you should eat no more than 560 calories (35% of 1600) of fat each day. One gram of fat is actually equal to approx. 9 calories.  So your limit would be 62 grams (560 divided by 9) of fat per day.
In order to meet your daily requirements of fat, choose healthy fats.

Avoid These Fats

• Dietary cholesterol:  meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, lard, and butter
• Saturated fat:  meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, lard, butter, coconut, palm and other tropical oils
• Trans fat: partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, commercial baked goods - crackers, cookies and cakes, pizza dough, fried foods - , shortening and margarine

Enjoy These Fats

• Monounsaturated fat: Olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds
• Polyunsaturated fat: safflower, sunflower, corn, soy and cottonseed oils, nuts and seeds
• Omega-3 fatty acids: anchovies, or sardines, salmon, mackerel, herring, tuna, flaxseeds, flax oil and walnuts

Fat Blast Tip:

1. Many nutritional experts suggest eating a diet comprised of 25-30% Fat, 40-45% carbs, and 30-35% protein.  They also recommend eating six meals a day -  divide your daily calories by six.
2. Eat .8 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight daily (the lower end is for women and those with a higher body fat percentage).
3. 20% of your calories should come from essential fatty acids, like olive or flaxseed oils, almonds or walnuts, avocado, or salmon.
4. The rest should be carbohydrates of the low-glycemic variety, which will primarily be green vegetables.  Sugary, starchy foods and most fruit are high-glycemic, meaning they convert to sugar and hit the bloodstream quickly.  The body will only use some of this fuel and save the bulk of it as fat stores for later. Low-glycemic foods stimulate the body to metabolize fat.

Popular Diet Meal Delivery Services - Diet-to-go, eDiets, Bistro MD, Dinewise, Nutrisystem, Jillian Michaels

Additional Resources -  Fruit and Vegetables: core nutrients , Index of HealthyLow Calorie Recipes

More Fat Blasting Steps:

Step 1 - Establish a Goal
Before starting any new programs you must create a target that you can track and measure. Establishing a goal gives you something specific to work towards …

Step 2 - Know Your Burn
In order to lose fat, you must burn more calories than you consume. This is called a calorie deficit …

Step 4 - Attack the Fat
The fastest and most effective way to lose body fat is through high intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with strength training (also known as resistance training). This combination will melt away …

Step 5 - Break Any Stalls
If after a few months of consistently working out and reducing your calorie intake you notice that the scale no longer moves and your measurements show no reduction in body size, you have probably stalled …