don’t eat to much

Do you eat healthy? Healthy nutrition has become easier for many women. We know more about what is healthy and what is not. Yet, too much of a good thing is also not good. If you want to lose weight, it is even more important that you don’t eat too much.

The exact amounts differ per person. This is because the basal metabolism is not the same for everyone. Some women have a high basal metabolism (burning process). After the menopause our basal metabolism drops, sometimes with as much as 500 calories.

Eat healthy and not too much

Exercise increases our burning process. The amount of muscle mass that we have also has a huge effect on what we burn. Exercise is, thus, always a good idea if you want to lose weight. Losing weight, however, through only exercising is very difficult. If you want to lose weight you must watch what you eat. Eat healthy and not too much! But what, exactly, is ‘not too much’?

Daily guidelines

If you want to lose weight you can use these daily amounts as a guideline:

• A minimum of 250 grams of vegetables You may eat more, you can never eat too many vegetables.
• Maximum two portions of fruit.
• Maximum 25 grams of raw and unsalted nuts.
• Maximum two to three slices of bread.
• Maximum four serving spoons of grain products.
• Maximum four tablespoons of breakfast cereal.
• Maximum 30 grams of preparation fats.
• One and a half to two litres of water or tea.

Other guidelines

• Eat mindful, take the time to eat, preferably at the table and chew well.
• Avoid softdrinks and juices completely (except vegetable juices).
• Try to eat as much seasonal vegetables and fruit as possible.
• Try to eat mainly pure and unprocessed foods.
• Choose twice a week (max) something delicious but stay aware and choose healthy.
• Completely avoid products rich in saturated fats and trans fat (cookies, cakes, snacks, fried products, meat, cheese, sausage, hard margarines or baking fat).
• Organic and gluten free bread is mostly baked with uniodised salt. So cook with iodised kitchen and table salt (careful of the amounts).
• If you don’t eat fish, regularly use cold pressed linseed, sesame or walnut oil and not heated, for example in a salad. You can also supplement with omega 3.
• Choose plant based dairy, for example coconut, rice, almond or oatmilk.
• Always choose whole grain breads (the whole grain from wheat/spelt/rogge and even desem), these contain the most nutritional fibres, vitamins and minerals.
• Drink no more that two cups of coffee a day (more may disrupt your metabolism).
• Don’t drink alcohol, and definetely no more than three glasses a week. Have at least three alcohol free days.
• Be careful with avocado, banana, mango and grapes.