Weight loss
Diet Plans Versus Diet Reality
The first is the world of planning. In the world of planning you can plan out every meal for the next week or month or for however long you want to plan. If you are detail-oriented, write down how many croutons will be in your salads, or specify the appropriate length for the banana you want to eat. The more specific you are in your plan, the easier it will be to follow, right? Let’s talk now about the other world: the world of reality. In the world of reality, you change your mind about what you want to eat, often. You go out with your friends for dinner on a few nights that you hadn’t planned for, and on two of those nights you eat pizza, lots of pizza. On three occasions you buy and eat three candy bars within 20 minutes for no apparent reason. Nothing ever goes as planned. Circumstances will usually change and you will be forced to modify your original plan. You will probably take in more calories at the barbeque than your original dinner, but maybe you can adjust your week’s meal plan. Making adjustments to your eating behavior is an art form that requires a little bit of practice. Try to eat slowly at the barbeque, because they will throw meat at you if you are empty-handed. I’ve done that too many times. You will count up the correct number of calories per day, hit all the different food groups, and still be able to eat one piece of a candy bar every single day. That’s great—until the diet starts. The rules now seem unfair. “Why do I have to eat this crap every single day?” “I have desires (pizza, enchiladas, chow fun).” We often forget that we volunteered for this diet. And we can get so emotional that the execution of our diet, just following the plan, becomes completely impossible.
The types of food and the quantity we eat became too important to us. It is part of us now, unless we can change.
I have a friend named Jeff. When your emotions are locked on a bear claw, think how much better you’d look if you lost an inch anywhere. If you want to stop eating certain types of food (like cookies or pies) the best place to start is in your own home. I generally have to keep all types of fatty foods and desserts completely out of my house, because if I know they are there, they will eventually crawl right into my mouth. Hopefully, your spouse or roommate is someone with whom you can feel comfortable sharing the details of your diet. It is usually easy to tell if someone is taking a diet seriously. If your roommate starts declaring Wednesday as “All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Night,” or if he or she feels that two “Big Macs” is the perfect meal, you are on your own.
A Simple Plan For Weight Loss
The math is pretty simple. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to consume 3500 calories less per week than you use. That’s about 500 calories a day. By cutting out 500 calories a day from your normal daily diet, while keeping your activity level the same, you can lose approximately one pound a week.
All right – that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you’re more than 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually – at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.
So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you’re going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here’s how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:
* Use milk instead of cream in your coffee. Savings? 50 calories per cup.
* Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories
* Drink fruit-flavored water instead of a 16 ounce soda. Savings? 200 calories
* Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories
* Pass by the bag of potato chips. An average snack size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories
* Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear of corn has 85. Savings? 80 calories.
* Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.
* Love those fries and can’t give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. Thin French fries absorb more oil than the thicker, meatier ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving
If you’d rather look at losing weight from an exercise perspective, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day. How easy is that to do? Take a look:
* Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that’s a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.
* Get out your bike and take a ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories
* Go dancing – and really DANCE. The longer you’re out on the floor instead of at the table drinking up high-calorie drinks, the more you’ll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories for one hour
* Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl – if you can get up to an hour you’ll be doing great! Burn: 510 calories
* Get out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.
* Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you’ll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn: 800 calories
It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you’ll burn more. Want an added bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories – even when you’re not exercising. You got it – your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.
For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it’s starving and slow your metabolism. Keep calorie ranges reasonable, and consult a doctor if you want a quicker, more drastic weight loss.
Dieting Tips For Weight Loss
Keep A Diary Of What You Eat
I think you will be very surprised if before you start your diet you keep a journal of what you eat and at what times. Do this for about a week. Then study your journal and see where you can cut back and find out at what times are you eating that could cause problems. If you find you are having a snack at 10 pm at night. Try bringing the time time in. You never what to eat to soon before you go to bed.
Buy Diet Food Prepared
What can make dieting hard to stick to is the preparation? Having the diet food available to you also means having to go shopping then come home and prepare your healthy meal. Now a days it seems everyone is so rushed with no time to spare. Would it not be easier to have your diet meal already prepared for you? There are a few diet nutrition food programs that will actually ship the food right to your door. Talk about convenience. I know of a few diets that deliver food, Atkins At Home, Diet To Your Door, Diet To Go, eDiets – Fresh Cuisine, Jenny Direct, Nutrisystem, Sunfare and Zone Chefs.
Smaller Plates To Help Lose Weight
Use smaller plates to help you lose weight. This will give you smaller portions but may fool the eyes. Never feel you have to finish everything on your plate. This does not mean you have to throw food out. You can store diet food for later. If you feel full, stop.
Snacks Ready To Eat
Have healthy snacks ready to eat. Instead of grabbing for the chips have carrot slices ready to grab. You will still get that sensation of crunchy with a more healthy nutritious choice.
Water, Water, Water
If you do some research regarding dieting one thing you will hear over and over is to drink plenty of water. Not only will water help to fill you up so you do not eat to much, but it is also great for your appearance. Water is the best beauty treatment. It flushes out the impurities and gives you great looking skin.
Drinking water can also improve muscle tone. Muscles having all the water they need contract easier. Drinking water can give you a more effective workout when you exercise.
You should drink at least 8 8 oz glasses of water a day and more if you are more than 25 pounds over weight. For every 25 lbs I would drink another 8 oz glass of water.
Keep water by you. Use a straw if that will help you drink more.
Good luck and stick with it. Take it day by day. I also recommend only weighing your self once a week. As always before you start any diet or exercise program check with your doctor first.
Alcohol And Weight Loss
When trying to lose weight, it is highly recommended that you refrain from drinking alcohol. This reasoning is based both in the fact that alcohol has a high concentration of unhealthy sugars and empty calories as well as the knowledge that alcohol generally drives you compromise your habits, which might make you eat the wrong foods if they are available.
However, if you do wish to have a night cap, it is recommended that you drink alcohol in moderation and opt for a low-sugar red wine as opposed to a carbohydrate-dense beer.
Alcohol is generally consumed in social situations, such as at a meal or party. Generally, when drinking one glass, an additional glass or two are offered. If you do have a weight loss partner and are in a situation involving alcohol together, you two can share the responsibility of helping each other avoid unwanted glasses. Each additional alcoholic beverage boosts the number of calories you consume per day as well as the amount of sugar running through your blood stream.
Many people feel uncomfortable rejecting a drink in a social situation. If you find yourself in a situation where it is tough to avoid consuming a beverage, then consider ordering a diet coke on ice. If you must consume wine, then opt for a deep red wine. Red wines are wines that are generally lower in sugar than a white wine or a beer. Red wines are made keeping the skin of the grapes on, which also makes the wine more rich in minerals than the white wine counterpart, which is made from only the core of the grape.
Also keep in minds that beverages such as beer have yeast, fat and sugar. There is a reason that frequent beer drinkers develop a beer belly – they consume vast amounts of beer but do not work it off right away.
The meal will help to regulate the spike in your blood sugar level so that your body is not shocked by the addition of new alcohol calories or sugars.
Keep in mind that while alcohol consumption might not be avoidable for you, the munchies and desire to consume high-fat and high-grease foods needs to be controlled. If you do find yourself in a situation where you have consumed too much wine, it is important for you to avoid tacking on additional calories from food.