Diet programs and results vary from one meal plan to another. Every individual reacts to a certain meal plan differently which is why the abundance of choices is growing by the number as we speak. Although you can incorporate a number of diet plans, it is best to stick to one program since your body needs to adjust to a certain plan throughout your weight loss timeline. Once your body adjusts to a particular plan, it is harder to coalesce another so stick to what works best for you and let your body stabilize into the plan. Losing weight will be much safer and effective if you do so. With that said, there has been another addition to the abundant choices when it comes to diet plans and that is the Dash Diet.
Dash Diet or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension is a new age diet program that is promoted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute that promises to help you lose weight while keeping the promise of a hypertension risk free lifestyle. Though it doesn’t 100% guarantee that you wouldn’t suffer from hypertension, it does prevent and lowers the risk of it by keeping your blood pressure as normal as it can possibly be.
What is blood pressure? Blood pressure is the pumping or pushing of blood in your arteries as your heart pumps. This level differs daily and throughout the day. It doesn’t remain constant. What Dash Diet wants to do is stabilize your blood pressure to normal to prevent the cause of hypertension and other harmful conditions.
In summary, the Dash Diet is a low cholesterol diet that focuses on fusing a healthy serving of fruits, vegetables and dairy products in your diet without the sodium rich products or salty foods. A Dash Diet also contains a lot of wheat, grains, nuts and you will be limiting sugary produce. With this to be effective, you need to follow a vigorous meal plan as well as exercise routine to keep your body energized and active. What is best about doing the Dash Diet is you don’t need to do it immediately. You can ease yourself into the diet by taking less of what you usually eat and taking what is included in the diet or substitute bit by bit. By doing so, you’ll notice that you will be less hungry than you used to and the Dash Diet also encourages you to use those herbs to substitute for salt.
Who can take the Dash Diet plan?
The Dash Diet would work best for people who are currently experiencing hypertension since the goal primarily is to lessen the chances or lower the blood pressure to eliminate hypertension altogether. African Americans are the most common target market with age ranging from 30s-50s.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute a typical Dash Diet needs to have 2,000 calories per day with a nutritional goal of:
Fiber 30g
Sodium 2,3000 mg
Cholesterol 150 mg
Total Fat 27% of calories (2000 calories = 540)
Saturated Fat 6% of calories (2000 calories = 120)
Protein 18% of calories (2000 calories = 360)
Carbohydrate 55% of calories (2000 = 1100)
Potassium 4,700 mg
Calcium 1,250 mg
A Dash Menu is provided for you to follow. You need to stick to this meal plan to make sure that it will be effective at the end of the period. A Dash Diet basically requires you to consume 2,000 calories per day and the products that you can use can easily be bought in the supermarket of your choice so no need to fret about ingredients.
With that said, what are the activities that you need to do together with the Dash Diet? First of all this will differ with age range of a person, stress and strain that you body can accommodate or how active you are throughout the day and your current weight. Let’s give you a rundown basing on your “active” level.
Light – these are the people who don’t do anything “active” asides doing their day to day chores/schedule.
Moderately active – people fall under this category if they walk, jog or do light workouts.
Really active – people who are active in sports, walk more than 3 miles per day or job more than 3-4 miles/hour + a combination of light activity.
Determine where you fall under and base you calorie needs on the chart below:
Light Moderately active Really active
Female (19-30) 2,000 2,000-2,200 2,400
Female (31-50) 1,800 2,000 2,200
Female (+51) 1,600 1,800 2,000
Male (19-30) 2,400 2,600 – 2,800 3,000
Male (31-50) 2,200 2,400 – 2,600 2,800 – 3,000
Male (+51) 2,000 2,200 – 2,400 2,400 – 2,800
With that provided, now you can incorporate the meal plan suited for you provided by National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
In addition to lowering your blood pressure, you are also on the road to losing those extra pounds that you wish to shed. Combining Dash Diet wishes a variation off activities throughout your day or with your exercise program, you are sure to lose a couple of inches in your waist line in no time.