You’ve tried every diet fad and gimmick out there and you’re ready to give up on losing weight. You haven’t tried the “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet which is a healthy diet to lose weight fast. For a diet to truly work, it needs to have the following:
1. Enough calories
2. Enough nutrition
3. The ability to be used long term with success
4. It allows for occasional consumption of cheat/favorite foods
If a diet has the above, it is much easier to stick to, easier to lose weight fast and it will allow you to drop weight in a healthy manner. The “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet or lifestyle as I like to call it will do that and it will have you looking and feeling great.
6 Good and 1 Bad: Not A Starvation Diet
Sure, any diet that is calorie restricted will have you dropping weight, at least initially. Of course you’ll be starving and your body will be robbed of the valuable nutrition it needs to stay healthy. The first premise of the “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet is to eat enough calories daily to support your caloric and nutrition needs. So the first key to this diet is to:
Eat 5 to 6 moderate sized meals spread throughout the day, six days a week
Let’s say the six days a week are Sunday through Friday. We’ll talk about what you eat on Saturday or the seventh day in a bit. These five or six meals will have a portion of each carbohydrates, fats and protein that is roughly the size of the palm of your hand when closed.
6 Good and 1 Bad: Good Nutrition Via Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats
Another premise of the “6 Good and 1 Bad” Diet is that:
You’ll eat lean sources of protein, good carbohydrates and good dietary fats with each meal during the six days (again we’ll assume Sunday through Friday).
The protein helps build strong lean muscles, a real plus if you exercise and do strength training. The good carbohydrates give you the energy to fuel you through your day and with the proper carbohydrates, you’ll:
- Keep hunger and weight gain at bay
- Reduce mood swings
- Reduce fatigue
- Reduce the risks of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes
- Improve focus and concentration
Good dietary fats, like good carbohydrates, will help reduce the risks associated with cancer, heart disease and diabetes. They are also essential at helping drop weight fast. Oh, and fats are super at helping to protect our brain, nerves and organs and they are used by our body to manage our hormones and even absorb certain ‘fat soluble’ vitamins. Let’s go through a comprehensive list of choices for each; lean protein, good carbohydrates and good dietary fats to choose from on the “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet.
Lean Proteins
- Boneless-skinless chicken
- Lean ground turkey
- Seafood (shrimp, fish, oysters, crab, mussels)
- Eggs
- Low-fat dairy (Milk, cottage cheese and yogurt)
- Lean red meat (beef, buffalo, and venison are examples)
For the eggs, I typically like them boiled. The yolks are fairly high in fat content, so keep consumption of them to one to two yolks a day. Also, lean red meat is probably the highest of the proteins in saturated fat (the bad fats), so keep its consumption to once or twice a week, during the Sunday through Friday stretch. All these proteins are great and should be a regular part of any healthy diet, especially when you want to lose weight fast.
Fish, another one of my favorite protein sources, is also a good source of super-healthy fats because they have Omega-3 fatty acids or essential fatty acids. which are shown to lower bad cholesterol, reduce blood pressure and help protect our brain and central nervous system. They are called “essential” fatty acids because our body can’t manufacture them.
Good Carbohydrate
Any carbohydrate that is as close to how nature created them is likely a good carbohydrate. Some of my favorite good carbohydrates are:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Oatmeal
- Legumes (lentils, peas and beans)
- Whole wheat pasta
- Brown rice
For the six days (assuming Sunday through Friday), you want to pick carbohydrates from the list above. Like I said, a good rule of thumb for good carbohydrates is:
If the food has little to no processing and comes as close to its natural form as possible, it is likely a good carbohydrate
If you run into a food that you know is a carbohydrate but you aren’t sure whether it is a good carbohydrate, then think of the rule above. If you can do that, you’ll the valuable energy you need to get through each day and you’ll put your body on track to lose those excess pounds quickly.
Good Dietary Fat
Fats can either be good or bad. Again, if the food source has a lot of processing, it will have more of the bad fats. But if the food is more in its natural form, it will likely be a source of good dietary fat. My favorites are:
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Natural peanut butter
- Fish (especially cold-water because they have essential fatty acids)
- Oils such as Olive, Flax, Canola and Sesame
- Avocados
- Dark leafy green vegetables
Again, when it comes to good dietary fats, an excellent rule of thumb to follow is:
If the food has little to no processing, meaning the food is close to its natural state, then it is likely a source of good dietary fat.
6 Good and 1 Bad: Some Rules For Days 1 through 6
The meaning of “6 Good and 1 Bad” is that you will eat cleanly or healthy for six days a week and on the seventh day of the week you can more or less eat whatever you want. So for the six clean days, here are some simple rules.
Eat only lean sources of protein, good carbohydrates and good dietary fats
Drink at least eight glasses of water
Avoid fried foods
Avoid high sugar, low nutrition processed foods (cake, candy, ice cream, etc)
If you can manage to eat good on six days, you will easily drop weight, shed fat and improve your overall health. This is even before any exercise program!
6 Good and 1 Bad: The Bad or Cheat Day
This is what makes the “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet so effective and easy to lose weight quickly. You get one day a week to eat your favorite foods, no matter what they are: cake, pie, cookies, buttered popcorn, chocolate, etc. It is your one day a week to eat whatever you want. I find that by having one day each week to “cheat”, you accomplish a few things:
1. You keep your metabolism stoked and hormones set for fat burning
2. You stay motivated, making it easier to maintain the lifestyle
3. You get rewarded for clean eating (something to look forward to)
4. Eating socially is easier versus other diets
While you initially put on a little weight after a cheat day, it is mostly from water retention. After a day or two you will actually feel, look and be leaner because your body gets the signal (via hormones and metabolism) that you are getting plenty of food and it is okay to continue dropping weight. One of the biggest things I’ve discovered with a free or cheat day is that after a while being on the diet, I like to eat more cleanly and rather than take the whole day to eat “cheat” foods, I more or less eat clean and only have a cheat meal. My body craves the clean foods and so do my taste buds. I want to eat clean because that is the norm versus eating junk or cheat foods on a daily basis.
If you’ve been looking for a diet where you can lose weight fast and have your cake and eat it too (so to speak), the look no further than the “6 Good and 1 Bad” diet. This diet is definitely a healthy diet to lose weight fast. I’ve been following it for several years and the diet is now a lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you have lots of fat to shed or just want better health, this diet will work for you.