I grew up with the "common-sense" belief that starving makes you lose weight. You don't put the calories in your body, thus your body burns the fat you have, and boom! Insta-bikini body, perfect for pre-dates and weddings. Right?
Wrong.
The body is not a machine or a math problem, what you put in does not equal what comes out. The human body is a complex biological system with the sole purpose of surviving. When you stop eating, your body slows down your metabolism, going into a defensive mode of storing as much fat as possible because it is in the belief that you are starving. So once you stop starving your body because being weak and light-headed isn't all that fun, you end up weighing more than you did before.
It gets worse, too. If the fasted diet continues, it actually starts to eat away at your muscles and replaces them with fat. Muscles on their own actually burn calories just to maintain their structure, so its a harsher choice for your body than most people realize.
So how do you lose weight by only changing your diet?
Speed up your metabolism and clear out all the junk.
How to speed up your metabolism
The best way to lose weight is to have a small, almost constant flow of food into your body. This speeds up your metabolism, burning everything you eat and not storing it. If you are eating every 2-3 hours (about 6 small meals a day), than your body knows you aren't starving and just processes it as energy rather than storage. So not only do you lose weight from the lack of need for fat, but you also have more energy. Seems pretty win-win, huh? It kind of is.
Drink loads of water: A gallon a day keeps the body fat away. Drinking water not only helps clean out all the gunk from your body and helps it function as its supposed to, but it also gets rid of acne, makes skin glow, keeps hair full, but it also makes you feel more full. So not only do you eat less, but you also lose weight faster and you feel better.
What is considered "junk"
Its tough to know whats really good for you with all the health fads and the constant changing of "what to eat, what not to eat" from the government. When I was in grade school, there was this famous food pyramid with breads on the bottom to take up to 40% of your diet. That is so wrong it makes my head spin, no wonder there is a weight problem in this country. Surprisingly, it was also wrong about fats, too. Fats, if from the right source, is great for losing weight. Fats from nuts and fruits like Avacado are good for you. (But don't go stuffing cake in your mouth).Why wheat is bad: This isn't a gluten-free run (gluten is just a protein used to keep the bread fibers together and give it the spongy texture, some people are allergic to it and they get bad cramps but it doesn't nothing in the term of health or weight loss), however bread hardly has any nutritional value besides calories. Its cheap and easily made to be delicious, but other than that you can completely cut it from your diet and eat more nutrient-dense food like oatmeal and rice.
Sugar is the real enemy: Sugar is actually an extremely addictive chemical that your body almost instantly stores into fat (I'm still trying to get away from it and my cravings for it months after my diet change). Companies know that its addictive and put it in most of their food products, especially most fast food chains. The best way to try to combat this is read the labels of things, or even make the food you want yourself. I make my own smoothies as I know exactly whats in there, especially after the whole Naked using poisonous chemicals rumor. I don't know if its true as anyone can post on the internet, but I don't want to risk it. Plus, with my own smoothies I can fill it with Kale and get a full meal of vegetables, fruit, and fiber out of it (such as putting chai seeds or oatmeal in the mix).
What to cut or eat less of from your diet
Soda (as in all together)
Most processed sugars
Wheat like bread (cupcakes, scones, noodles)
What to replace it with in your diet
Water
If you need sugar, get Raw sugar or something like Stevia (derived from a plant, not bleached chemicals)
More vegetables
Rather than bread have sweet potatoes, rice, and/or oats
If you still want noodles, there are rice-made noodles available in most grocery stores now
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