The 1000 Calories Diet: What Can You Eat And Is It Healthy?

There are mixed views on whether a 1000 calories diet is good for you or not, but it really depend how long you plan to maintain it and what you actually eat while you are on the diet. 1000 calories of junk is going to be bad for you, but 1000 calories of healthy, nutrition packed food is going to be far better for you than eating 4000 calories of junk and processed food.

Knowledge of nutrition has moved on a lot, so it is quite easy for you to base your 1000 calories diet on eating foods that are going to be nutritious and promote weight loss. In fact you can go well over 1000 calories and still lose plenty of weight if you are eating really nutritious foods. I am going to give you some tips on how to reduce your calories without getting obsessed with weights and measures.

1. Cut out processed foods

The first tip is to cut out processed and junk foods. Believe it or not processes foods will make you hungrier because you are not getting the vitamins you need. They cause fat to build up because your system cannot deal with the junk so it gets stored as fat.

2. Eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as you want to

If you eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables you will feel fuller and get lots of nutrition. Recent research has demonstrated that fruits and vegetables are among the most nutritious foods you can eat. They have strong health promoting properties. So long as you don’t eat too many avocados which are one of the more fattening raw foods you can indulge in raw energy with out too much worry, but don’t load on the salad dressing or sugar. Use light olive oil and vinegar dressings and add low calorie yogurt to fruit salads if just the fruit alone does not appeal to you.

3. Stick to whole foods and include nuts and seeds

Brown bread and brown rice is simply much better for you than processed white rice and flours. They may be slightly less attractive but stick with it and you should find you start to enjoy them. As well as eating whole grains and flours add nuts and seeds to your meals to improve the nutrient content of what you eat.

4. Alternate between fish, meat and vegan meals

Assuming that you are not vegan, alternating what you eat each day so that one day you eat vegan, the next you eat fish and the next you eat red or white meat will do wonders for your diet. It will provide more variety and give your digestive system a break from dealing with red meat which is not very easily digested and therefore contributes to a sluggish digestive system which in turn contributes to weight gain.

5. Manage your portions

Eat smaller portions of starchy foods such as bread, pasta, potatoes and rice. Also eat smaller portions of proteins such as eggs, cheese and meat and replace these with beans, pulses and nuts on your vegan days.  Eat larger portions of raw and cooked fruits and non starchy vegetables.

6. Use the best cooking methods

A lot of calories are loaded on by eating deep fried foods and fast foods such as cheese and fat laden pizzas and burgers. If you want to keep your calories down you must cut out deep fried foods like French fries. Eat grilled meats and fish and avoid the fat on meat and the skin on white meat such as chicken. To maintain nutrients steam vegetables rather than boiling them.

7. Cut out sweet and fizzy drinks and minimise coffee drinking

It is best to drink lots of water as that will help to raise your metabolism, which is the speed you burn calories. Fizzy drinks and coffee tend to add empty calories to your diet. While caffeine is a stimulant it also dehydrates you, which works against effective digestive processes needed to burn calories.

If you follow the above tips you should find you start to lose weight even if you do not stick to a 1000 calorie diet.