Gaining Weight, Losing Weight, and Having a Stable Weight - Essay Example

Divisions of Diet Proper diet is critical to good health. This helps in disease prevention, healthy growth and development of children and adolescents. It is therefore, important that an individual identifies the foods that make up a good and healthy diet. The type of diet that an individual feeds impacts an individual in different ways. Most importantly, this will have a great effect on the weight of an individual. This essay focuses on three major aspects of gaining weight, losing weight, and having a stable weight. People gain weight for different reasons. While for some it is voluntary, for others, weight gain happens though they had not anticipated it. For underweight people, gaining weight is recommended. However, for those people that are already overweight, gaining more weight increases their risk to various diseases. When gaining weight, it is important that an individual sticks to healthy diet. Gaining weight should also be gradual until an individual achieves their ideal weight (Gabler 20). There are different types of food that might help an individual to gain weight in a healthy way. Foods such as chips, sweets, cakes, and other high calorie junk foods full of saturated fat and sugar only leads to the increase of body fat and not lean body mass. Instead of these, individuals should consume healthy foods that are highest in calories and nutrients (Gabler 22). Fats from plants are healthy and can help one to gain weight in a healthy way. These include nuts, peanuts, seeds, almond butter, hummus, seeds, peanut butter, and oils. On the other hand, animal fats equally contain fats, though these are high in cholesterol. Individuals wishing to gain weight should also drink more high-calorie juices. High calorie foods play an important role in weight gain. For instance, an individual can eat breads, including mainly dense breads, as opposed to white breads. Dense cold cereals such as granola and grape nuts, instead of flaked or puffed cereals are also a good source of high calories. Vegetables are also a good source of calories. However, one must choose starchy vegetables such as carrots, peas, potatoes, and winter squash, as opposed to watery vegetables such as zucchini, cucumbers, and green beans (UCCS Web). Gaining weight is also made possible by consuming fruits, which are high in calories. Such fruits include bananas, pineapples, apples, and pears, as well as all other dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots, and dates. These have more calories as opposed to watery fruits such as oranges, plums, peaches, watermelons, and berries. Apart from fruits, soups also make a major contribution to weight gain. As opposed to brothy chicken, vegetable and beef soups, black bean, lentil, barley and bean soups have more calories and carbohydrates, hence good for weight gain. Finally, beverages that are high in calories are equally important in gaining weight. These include fruit smoothies, low fat milk, nectars, and fruit juices (UCCS Web). Just as in gaining weight, diet also plays an important role in losing weight (CDC Web). A person that desires to lose weight will find it important to watch their diet. Similarly, unplanned change in diet might also cause a person to lose weight although they did not anticipate it. Nonetheless, it is good for the overweight people to consider losing weight in order to attain their ideal weight with proper BMI. On the other hand, people that are already underweight are not encouraged to lose more weight, as this puts their health at risk. In losing weight, an individual must develop eating habits that are healthier, and may consider increasing their level of physical activity. If people are overweight or gain weight, it is because they eat and drink more calories than their bodies need. Therefore, in order to lose weight, an individual should consume fewer calories (CDC Web). There are different types of food that have low calories, and these are the most ideal for individuals that want to lose weight. On the other hand, an individual must embrace good and healthy eating habits to ensure that weight loss is successful. In losing weight, a person should fill up with fibre. In this case, one ought to consider eating food that has lots of fibre. Such food will help an individual to feel full for longer, hence making them stick to their calorie limits. For instance, one should ensure that their breakfast consists of wholemeal varieties and not white bread. This may also include high fibre cereals such as porridge oats, wholegrain wheat, and unsweetened muesli. One should also eat more vegetables for lunch and dinner instead of white rice. In addition, one can incorporate pulses such as beans, peas, and lentils in their lunches. When it comes to snacking, one ought to choose healthy snacks such as fruit (fresh, dried, canned or frozen), veg sticks such as carrot, celery or cucumber sticks; reduced-fat hummus, and air-popped plain popcorn (NHS Web). Water also plays an important role in weight loss. A person wishing to lose weight should drink water on a more regular basis. This is important, as it keeps the hunger pangs in check. One should drink at least eight glasses or the equivalent of 1.2 litres of water every day. Low-calorie vegetable soups also serve to keep hunger pangs in check, as they fill one up. In addition, when it comes to meat, it is advisable that a person wanting to lose weight goes lean. Instead of fatty fillings such as bacon and sausage, one is advised to go for lean meats such as chicken, tuna, salmon, turkey, or a hard-boiled egg. Mayonnaise contains a lot of fats, therefore, it is advisable that one avoids or goes easy on mayo (NHS Web). Apart from losing weight and gaining weight, there is the aspect of stable weight. A stable weight means that the weight of the individual does not fluctuate. In this case, individuals that are underweight, overweight, obese, and those that have ideal weight can experience a stable weight. This means that their weight is stable; it does not fall or increase. There are different benefits that are associated with a stable weight, even for obese people. These include reduction of the risk of heart attack (Northwestern University Web) and reduction of earlier deaths in adults (Nauert Web). Nonetheless, not all people get to experience a stable weight. While the weight of some people reduces, for others, it rises. Like in gaining and losing weight, having a stable weight requires one to consider their diet. This is because the diet that one consumes can lead to weight gain, weight loss, or stable weight. For stable weight, an individual is still required to eat healthy diet. However, there must be a high level of consistency in the amount of calories that the person consumes (Northwestern University Web). If the person increases the amount of calories they take, this results in weight gain. If they also decrease the calories they intake, it leads to weight loss, hence the stable weight is lost. Stable weigh can also be achieved or experienced by individuals in weight management programmes or training for sports. In this case, an individual loses their capacity to lose or gain more weight. Equally consistency in training and diet is required for an individual to remain at his plateau stage. In conclusion, the issue of weight continues to be a major concern for individuals, health practitioners, as well as governments. This is mainly because of the high influence that weight has on the health of individuals. Many people today are gaining weight, and the levels of obesity in different countries are on the rise, resulting in deaths from lifestyle diseases. On the other hand, some of the people with more weight and high BMI are equally concerned and embarked on a journey of healthy eating and weight loss for an ideal weight. With regard to stable weight, there is still need for more efforts to ensure weight stabilization in people, as more people only experience weight gain. Overall, diet is the base of all the three aspects of weight gain, loss, and stable weight. Therefore, it is important that more people receive dietary sufficient knowledge in order for them to make the right health choices. Works Cited Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Healthy Weight - its not a diet, its a lifestyle!” n.d. Web. Gabler Lena. “Gaining Weight the Healthy Way: How to Gain Weight Safely and Effectively!” New York: Arcana Books. 2012. Nauert Rick. “Stable Weight, Not Net Pounds, May Be More Important to Health.” PsychCentral, 20 September, 2013. Web. NHS. “Losing Weight.” N.d. PDF. Northwestern University. "Maintaining Stable Weight, Even In The Obese, Reduces Heart Risks." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 November 2004. Web. University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS). “Eating Strategies to Gain Weight.” N.d. Web. Read More