Dieting Made Simple
Over 50 percent of American adults are trying to loose weight. Diet books, weight lose programs, celebrates, celebrity doctors, and infomercial gurus claim to have the secret to weight lose. They offer low carbohydrate diets, low fat diets, high protein diets, gluten free diets.
Most diets are nothing more than reduced portion sizes or replacing one food group with another. Other diets replace commonly available foods with exotic, higher cost specialty health foods that promise miraculous results but rarely deliver on that promise. Results, as the fine print sates, are usually not typical.
The bottom line is most overweight people eat too much and exercise too little. Research indicates the amount of food you eat is more important that the types of foods when it comes to weight loss and weight gain. But, the types of foods you eat do have a major influence on your health and your risks for cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Frozen, prepackaged entrees and meals delivered to your door or available at your supermarket are simple, easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive compared to dining out, but they are nothing more than reduce portion, processed foods designed to limit caloric intake. Unless you are on a restricted diet due to food allergies or chronic medical condition, why eat foods manufactured and frozen for weeks or months when you can prepare and enjoy the same foods for a fraction of the cost? Yes, it takes some effort on your part to prepare and cook your own foods, and they do not come in disposable plastic trays made from petroleum and destined for a landfill but it puts you in complete control.
Most prepared diet foods are low in calories, but high and sometimes very high in sodium.
One doctor’s recommendations for losing weight:
Eliminate 2 slices of bread or a bagel per day from your diet.
That’s it. No book, no diet plan, no prepared meals. Simply eliminate 150 to 250 calories per day from your current diet by reducing the amount of bread or bread products from your diet. You can lose 15 to 25 pounds in one year by making this simple change to your diet.
His other recommendation; increase your physical activity. That doesn’t mean joining a fitness center to work out an hour every day. Although, that wouldn’t hurt. You can walk an extra 30 minutes per day. Wash your car instead of taking it to a car wash. Plant a garden. By burning an extra 100 to 200 calories per day, or even every other day, will help you lose another 5 to 20 pounds in one year.
Losing 5 to 20 pounds or even 20 to 40 pounds in a year isn’t as impressive as the claims for miracle diet supplements and diet plans that claim you will lose 20 pounds in one month. But it is enough to eliminate the few extra pounds you gained during the holidays or while on a cruise or vacation.
Another benefit of increased physical activity beyond justing dieting is replacing body fat with muscle which burns more calories allowing you to enjoy more of your favorite foods.
What if you don’t eat a lot of bread? Substitute other foods. Small order of French fried potatoes for a large order, diet soft drink, tea or coffee for sweetened soft drinks, fresh fruit or cottage cheese instead of pancakes or waffles. The list does on and on. Look at your current diet and decide what you can cutback or eliminate.
Clinical studies confirm rapid weight loss usually results in gaining back all the lost weight and more when you go off the diet. Permanently modifying your diet to produce slow but steady weight loss is the simplest, most effective way to lose weight and keep it off. Try it. Your body will thank you for it.