Lose Weight Naturally with Cheese

Forget fad diets and fat burning pills. Lose weight naturally by making positive changes in your daily meal plan. Fill the recipes for your weight loss diet with nutrient-rich ingredients like cheese, vegetables and whole grains. To lose weight, eat a balanced diet over the course of the day that allows you to burn more calories than you consume. As a basic rule, reduce the calories you normally eat by 500 calories a day to lose one pound a week according to information provided by MedlinePlus, a U.S. National Institutes of Health website.

Portions: Eat cheese on your diet, but consume proper portions to keep calories from fat to a minimum. The office of student life at The Ohio State University provides three common items whose size resembles 1 oz. portions of cheese. To help determine a 1 oz. portion of cheese for your diet, picture four dice, one match box or a floppy disk. To recognize a 1.5 oz. portion of cheese, compare it to three dominoes.

Substitutions: Find substitutes for the full fat dairy products in your diet to reduce your daily caloric intake as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services. It suggests replacements: cream cheese with Neufchatel; full fat cheese with reduced calorie cheese; whipped cream with low-calorie imitation whipped topping; and whole milk ricotta with the part-skim variety.

Eat More and Lose Weight: Eat certain foods, like cheese and yogurt, and lose weight says Julie Garden-Robinson, a food and nutrition specialist with North Dakota State University Extension Service. She recommends eating more low-fat dairy products to attain your daily requirement of protein. This enables you to eat a larger serving while reducing calories. Consult the MyPyramid.com website from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine how many servings of dairy you should eat daily.

Mid-Afternoon Snack: Eat a variety of mid-afternoon snacks containing cheese to curb cravings and prevent excessive hunger before dinner that leads to overeating, recommends the McKinley Medical Center at the University of Illinois. It suggests preparing the following snacks with cheese: air-popped popcorn with Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese, cinnamon bagel chips and a half-cup of fat-free cottage cheese or a small box of raisins with a stick of low-fat string cheese.

High Protein Diet Dangers: It's a myth that a high protein diet, focusing on eating calories from high protein foods like cheese and meat, presents a healthy way to lose weight long-term, according to information National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. Consuming the majority of your daily protein calories from full-fat cheese may result in overconsumption of fat and cholesterol and under-consumption of carbohydrates. Health symptoms indicating you may be eating an unbalanced diet include nausea, fatigue and weakness.

Sources: McKinley Health Center: Smart Snacks
The Ohio State University: Weight Loss/Healthy Eating
North Dakota State University: Prairie Fare-Eat More and Lose Weight
NIDDK: Weight-loss and Nutritional Myths
Department of Health and Human Services: Tips for Healthy Substitutes
MedlinePlus: Tips for Losing Weight

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