Ever tried to diet and lose weight, yet it always ends up with you giving up?

Well, You are not alone.

If you end up frustrated, chances are your diet is either too restrictive, too difficult to execute, or life just gets in the way far too often. You lack a solid diet plan that covers the essential fundamentals for success.

Here are 3 tips that will help you solve this problem and lose weight effectively.

1. You need to structure your meals in advance

Your diet is going to have to consist of high protein, reasonable levels of fat, and usually, allocation of any remaining calories to carbohydrates. In most cases, people will try and search for foods that fit these criteria only after they start feeling hungry; and in most cases, being unable to find a quality meal results in eating the next best option accessible, which is quite often substandard.

By not planning you put yourself in a difficult position to succeed, and being in a hungry state usually leads to making irrational decisions.

Design your environment to success and pre-pack meals or have a list of places in mind of where to grab a bite in advance. An added benefit is a better knowledge of macronutrient intake or at least consistency if you are having foods on repetition.

2. Don’t eliminate entire food groups and make sure to include foods you like into your diet plan.

Going cold-turkey and eliminate entire food groups never work in the long term.

Although fat loss is our goal, that however does not mean your diet has to revolve around the most boring foods that you might absolutely despise.

The most important aspect of dieting is adherence and sustainability, and as a result, it’s important to be able to have meals that you can enjoy while making it fit into your macronutrient budget. Breakfast for example (assuming high protein, moderate fat, low carbs) doesn’t just have to be spinach and hard-boiled eggs. Depending on how you like to allocate meal portions for the day, you can have something you might even look forward to.

3. Be flexible 

Usually, the worst way to deal with a craving is to ignore it as it keeps coming back, and with a greater vengeance every time it gets suppressed. While we aren’t necessarily advocating snacking on junk foods on the daily, if it can help with sticking to the diet in a longer-term sense, it’s definitely something to utilize more as a tool.

Have a calorie/macro budget for a spot-hitting snack, or even plan a meal during the week where you can be more carefree. Dieting shouldn’t mean not having a life and avoiding foods we enjoy, and oftentimes having a bit of flexibility improves overall sustainability!