When it comes to losing weight, eating a healthy diet needs to be your first priority. Exercise is important but when it comes to weight loss, no matter how hard you workout, you can not “work off” a bad diet, period! So, keep in mind, diet is key when it comes to lifelong weight management.  I hope this article gives you some simple, yet effective tips for you to make healthy changes in the way you eat on a daily basis.

1.  It is important to eat some healthy fats in most of your meals. Even though most people are conditioned to stay away from fats, they are very important for maintaining proper fat burning and muscle building hormone levels in your body.  Adequate healthy fats in your diet also aid in keeping your appetite in check.

The healthiest sources of dietary fats are raw nuts, seeds, egg yolks (from organic free range eggs), avocados, extra virgin olive oil (highest antioxidant content of olive oils), and grass-fed meats (a great source of the healthy fat, conjugated linoleic acid, which can help burn body fat and build muscle). Try to get some of these into your diet each day.

A great tip that I often do is — eat a handful of raw nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds are great healthy choices) a couple times a day, about 30 minutes prior to meals.  This definitely helps suppress your appetite so you’re not starving by the time you eat. It gives your body some protein, fiber, and healthy fats so that you eat less calories overall at your meals and get more nutrition at the same time, due to the high nutrient density of most nuts.

2.  Try to eat a high quality protein source with every meal, as well as with any snacks you eat.  Quality proteins such as lean meats, egg whites, fat-free or low-fat dairy and even plant sources, such as nuts and beans provides good appetite suppression so you can control your calorie intake easier throughout the day.

Getting sufficient quality proteins also helps you to build lean muscle (if you’re working out hard regularly), which in turn increases your metabolism rate. Remember, the more lean muscle you have on your body, the faster your metabolism works, all day, even when you’re sleeping.

Eating sufficient protein at most of your meals also aids your body in controlling blood sugar and insulin levels by helping to slow the breakdown of ingested carbohydrates.

3. I am not a believer in “no-carb” diets. You need carbs to lose weight, as well as for energy and many other important reasons. The reason people struggle with weight loss is not because they eat carbs, it’s the carbs they choose to eat. The main weight loss struggle stems from eating excessive “processed” carbohydrates such as refined grain-based starches and refined sugars on a daily basis.

The natural sugars in whole fruits and berries are ok and encouraged, because the fiber in fruits helps to slow the blood sugar response in your body.  Just make sure to avoid fruit juices, which are mostly sugar and have the fiber removed in processing the juice.

In my experience, when people start to minimize their grain consumption (from cereals, bagels, breads, pasta, etc), they start to lose body fat much easier.  What I usually recommend is for people to minimize eating grains and focus on getting their carbohydrates through intake of solely fruits and vegetables.  This simple step alone usually helps people to start managing their weight more easily.

Try to implement these 3 tips for eating a smarter, healthier diet and I guarantee you will start to see a leaner body and have more energy in no time.