my diet program

[wendy]

Ok in getting ready for time in the spa at the fall cave in and also to be in better shape for caving (besides not being happy with how I look), I am again on my diet. It's a diet I created a couple years ago and I lost 38 pounds with no exercise in about 4 or 5 months. But when I moved to where I live now I gained the weight back cuz I got back into bad eating habits with theguys I work with always going for pizza and burgers and fries.

Ok so I never thought I'd be someone to buy fake meat, but I am really into this Boca meatless ground burger. There are 3 packets in a box, 2 packets equals about 1 pound of ground beef. Anyway you just heat it up, its all ready to eat, just frozen, I mixed taco seasoning with it and along with some fat free refried beans and some fat free cheese and sour cream, I've made some tasty mexican dishes. Also put some on pizza today with some turkey pepperoni and lotsof veggies. I have been trying to cook more at home than eating out. But that's more to save money, when I do eat out I still eat low fat stuff. Its nice that most resturants have nutritional guides on their websites, doing things like ordering your bun with no butter takes off about 4 grams of fat, and places like Tijuana Flats (mexican place) have powerlite options with fat free cheese and sour cream.

Ok so here is my diet in case ayone is interested. Also make sure you take vitamins too.

Step one: Multiply your desired weight by the appropriate number of calories for your activity level to determine the Total Calories you should eat each day. This ranges from 11 to 18 calories per pound of body weight (11 calories for people who are sedentary; 13 for generally active people; 15 for regular moderate exercisers; 18 for regular heavy exercisers).

* Weight _____ X _____ (11,13,15, or 18) = ______Total Calories

Step two: Multiply the Total Calories by 30% to determine your Fat Calories. As you probably know, 30% or less of all the calories you eat each day should come from fat.

* Total Calories _____ X .30 = ______Fat Calories

Step three: Divide the number of Fat Calories by 9, the number of calories in one gram of fat, to determine the number of grams of fat you can eat each day.

* Fat Calories _____ / 9 = ______TOTAL FAT GRAMS PER DAY

(formula taken from http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/faculty/pbird/ke ... ilyfat.htm)

I don't look at how many calories I take in, cuz I can burn calories and I can burn carbs, but fat, in my mind, just sticks to your butt. So I figured from this formula if I need 50 fat grams a day to maintain my target weight, then if I get, say, 36 grams of fat a day, then I would loose weight.

I eat 6 times a day:

4 snacks and 2 meals (lunch and dinner)

snacks are anything 3 grams of fat or less and meals are 12 grams of fat of less, so I don't get more than 36 grams of fat a day, and sometimes less.

So I have morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, after work snack, dinner, and late night snack.


People tend to think that low fat or fat free meal options means no taste, but I make tasty food, but just use low in fat foods. I made low fat chocolate cupcakes for work with a cream cheese center. They loved them, but didn't beleive they could be low fat (maybe 3 grams of fat rather than 15 grams of fat each). I used applesauce instead of oil (you can do this in baking), used egg beaters instead of real eggs, and fat free cream cheese.

If you try my diet, just make sure you have snacks handy, as your body will get used to needing to eat a lot more smaller meals (snacks). I like those crunch packs of pre-sliced apples, any fruit, etc.

Being fairly active on the weekends anyway, exercise was not a big priority, but some cardio workouts is always good for the body. So I try to get on the treamill at work when I can and this time of year is a good time for swimming too.

Here are a couple links to websites I like to use to find the nutritional info for some restaurants and food brands:

http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html

http://www.dietfacts.com/fastfood.asp

http://www.dietfacts.com/list.asp

[bigalpha]

Cool Wendy, nice guide. My biggest problem is my diet, I don't eat all the great. If I may throw something in? There are foods that you can eat called "Negative Calorie" foods that use more calories to burn than they give you. i.e. rice, pineapple, there's a whole list. That's why people who eat lots of Chinese food don't get as big....rice. mmmm

[wendy]

yep, I eat a lot of steamed rice. Don't get the fried rice when you get chinese food, although it tastes good, its not good for you, and I actually prefer the steamed (white) rice better now.

[bigalpha]

I've always like steamed rice better than fried rice.
Remember: fat on food, is fat on you! I read that in a book once. heh.

[Scott McCrea]

I saw somewhere once, maybe Oprah (?), that food is made up of 3 basic building blocks--protien, carbs and fat. Any percentage of those must add up to 100 percent. So, if you take away or reduce one, like fat, you have add more of the others. If you have a quarter pound burger and take the fat out and replace it with soy, you still have a quarter pound burger. You are still putting a quarter pound of food in your mouth. Thanks Oprah!

Good luck Wendy. And get some excersize too! Caving is good excersize.

[wendy]

I was told one that when at the store to stay in the outside isles and not go into the rows. The outside isles have your veggies and fruits, meats, and dairy, all that you should ever by from the rows in between is toliet paper.

[Evan G]

Wendy good luck!

I found something interesting, take a look:

Title: Foods That Fool!

Intro:When it comes to losing weight, we all know that cutting back on calories is critical. It takes great effort to make healthy food choices, thus it's infuriating when you're fooled by a food that sounds diet friendly but is actually loaded with calories, sugar, and fat! Here's a rundown on some of the popular offenders. I call them foods that fool.

Url:http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/1169/foods-that-fool

I was rather surprised on some of them

[wendy]

I've already lost about 10 pounds now. The weight goes quick at first, but then a steady 3 or 4 pounds every two weeks after the first month. Hey but every pound counts.

[cob]

Personally, I am on the 16,000 calorie a day diet, of course I burn 16,001 calories/day (I am a union carpenter).

On the more serious side, I feel it is real simple: burn as much as you eat. Now if you want to avoid Alzheimers, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and osteoperosis... well, eat lots of fish and fresh veggies and plenty of dairy... oh wait a minute... fish is no good for you due to the accumulation of heavy metals, and veggies, well then you have to deal with pesticides, of course you could go organic but then the food rots in 3 days and you take the risk of salmonella, and well DAIRY... with all the antibiotics we pump our cows with...

Oh, HELL... As Mark Twain said, "I feel sorry for all these health nuts, reaching old age, and dying of nothing." I, at least, am going to die of something.

tom

tom

ps: some of us like big b*tts... remember, beauty (as well as "bigness") is in the eye of the beholder.

[Evan G]

I've already lost about 10 pounds now. The weight goes quick at first, but then a steady 3 or 4 pounds every two weeks after the first month. Hey but every pound counts.

Good for you!!!!

[Sean Ryan]

I've got one of those metabolisms that keeps me thin without much work, but there is a tiny amount of work. I try not to buy much soda. In restaurants I'll order it, but when I take lunch to work, I bring a thermos of iced tea (zero calories) rather than a can of something (150 calories). Just doing that knocks upwards of 1000 calories a week out of your diet.

[cob]

I've got one of those metabolisms that keeps me thin without much work, but there is a tiny amount of work. I try not to buy much soda. In restaurants I'll order it, but when I take lunch to work, I bring a thermos of iced tea (zero calories) rather than a can of something (150 calories). Just doing that knocks upwards of 1000 calories a week out of your diet.

My oldest son controls his weight JUST thru cutting out soda. Amazing how much sugar they can cram into one of those little cans.

[bigalpha]

sometimes it is not the calories, but the sugar. High fructose corn syrup gets stored in your body, but does not release insulin or other hormones to break it down... so it makes you hungrier. I'm sure you've all heard of the fake sugar stuff -- i think it's aspartame; that it breaks down into formaldahyde? mmmmm, preservation.

[Nico]

My oldest son controls his weight JUST thru cutting out soda. Amazing how much sugar they can cram into one of those little cans.

I used to do just the same when I was racing mountain bikes XC, but of course my metabolism was pretty damn fast back then, I ate 6 or 7 times a day every day and I'm not talking about calorie conscious food, I ate whatever was in the fridge specially fatty meats and real mexican food, my average daily tortilla consumption was about 1 lb. and still I was a skinny @$$ed guy, I miss those days.

[wendy]

My oldest son controls his weight JUST thru cutting out soda. Amazing how much sugar they can cram into one of those little cans.

I used to do just the same when I was racing mountain bikes XC, but of course my metabolism was pretty damn fast back then, I ate 6 or 7 times a day every day and I'm not talking about calorie conscious food, I ate whatever was in the fridge specially fatty meats and real mexican food, my average daily tortilla consumption was about 1 lb. and still I was a skinny @$$ed guy, I miss those days.

geez its not like you are ancient now