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Of all diets studied, the Mediterranean Diet is the most healthy diet, and is a good way to gradually reduce your weight to your target. The key principles of the Mediterranean Diet include heavy on vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, some fruit, lower on salt, lower on protein - and in particular, rarely eat meat or poultry. Learn to love hummus.
Yeah. Salads, too.
Hang around at the salad bar and watch. Salads are killing us, I believe. They contain almost nothing we need, have little taste so we shower them with flavored machine oil that should never be consumed by anyone.
Most fruits convert to glucose almost immediately. About the same as a Snickers bar.
Salads are killing us
Salads, made of leafy green vegetables (I use a lot of spinach), contain a lot of things that we need. Of course, you can survive on a carnivore diet just as you can survive as a vegan. The key is, will you thrive?
The calorie dense things in salads that can cause weight gain are the dressings (don't use them), nuts (healthy, but calorie dense, so easy to over do), and various other additions you don't need like croutons or god knows what else. I eat a salad with a source of meat every day for dinner. If I add dressing it's balsamic vinegar, and I will add some fruit (pears) to the salad, and occasionally nuts (but I weigh them).
Fruits have sugar, but also fiber, which slows down the digestion of the sugar. Think of it this way, on a empty stomach, a glass of orange juice will spike your glucose quicker than a snickers bar which spike your glucose quicker than a whole orange. But oranges are some of the sweetest fruit, I only eat an orange as a dessert with some heavy cream. You can eat berries, cantaloupes, watermelon, all of which have far less sugar.
Again, it's all calories in and calories out. You can lose weight eating snickers bars and pizza, but such a diet will be hard on you mentally (not to mention you will be missing a lot of key nutrients).
waikiki thank you for the thoughtful replies, I appreciate it.
I'm more active than I let on - I often get my "10,000" steps in, I travel a ton, and am not totally an office bound couch potato. Having said that - you're right, I could do more. And I agree, I'm eating more than I burn off.
Re: salads - I never get "take-out" salad. I make them. I buy a head of lettuce, some cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, sunflower seeds, maybe feta? dressing is oil and vinegar - which I make myself, never more than 1/2 tablespoon of oil for the entire salad, sometimes none - the balsamic is fine for me. If out to dinner (only occasionally) I may splurge on ranch or something, but I do not eat the croutons.
I think the first step is to establish just how much you're eating. Do you know the calories per day? If not, keep a log book for one week, eat like normal, just record everything, and figure out how many calories you're truly eating. It might be time to invest in a food scale: https://www.target.com/c/food-scales...ning/-/N-9fasw
Once you know how many calories you're eating, you will have a better picture of where you need to go. If you estimate your weight is stable right now (not going up or losing), then to lose 5lbs of fat a month, you will need to introduce a deficit of 600 calories a day.
Probably hard to do that through diet alone, so I would split half-half, 300 calories off your diet, and in you increase your physical activity by 2100 calories per week (300 * 7).
But let's establish how much you're eating. The low hanging fruit to cut out of your diet would be any liquid calories you drink (including alcohol).
Don't believe this "you're not eating enough" BS. The LAST thing you need to do is eat more calories in order to lose weight.
Bananas are twice as calorically dense as an apple. In my experience as a primary care MD, overweight people tend to instinctively choose calorically dense foods even when eating fruits and veggies; such as a banana over an apple for fruit, corn over spinach for a vegetable.
Drink black coffee on your way to work. Don't eat breakfast if you're not hungry. If you really are, despite the coffee, then eat hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit, or cut up veggies for breakfast. Pack your lunch with you. An apple or an orange or strawberries or grapes or a peach/nectarine (NOT a banana). Some leftover grilled meat from the night before or a couple of hard boiled eggs. Some low cal non-starchy vegetable, like green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots, cut up peppers, etc. No bread, rice, potatoes, etc. Wait to eat until you get hungry. Only take a salad if you can eat it without dressing and without croutons - the dressings are usually very high in calories. If you must have carbs, very small portions of low glycemic index carbs, such as garbanzos, beans.
At home, for dinner, grilled meat and non-starchy veggies (roasted squashes are nice - they caramelize in the oven), a piece of fruit for dessert. No carbs, but again, if you must, a small portion of low glycemic index legumes.
You will only be eating from about 11 am until 7 pm this way.
Drink only water, with only one serving of coffee in the am. No diet drinks. No juice. No soda. No alcohol. No artificially sweetened drinks at all. No drinks with calories.
When you go out for a meal with friends, once in a while, maybe once or at most twice a week, if you must have alcohol, just one beer, or one glass of wine, rest of time water, and restaurant food - try to order grilled meat/fish/poultry with non-starchy veggies.
In addition to walking the dogs, try to get out without them for a very brisk walk, 30-60 minutes daily, walking as fast as you possibly can. Walking the dogs is great, but it's much slower walking. Shoot for a total of 15,000 steps/day or more - your phone in your pocket is probably a step counter. If you can add in other active social sports, great.
Obviously no candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, soda, juice, etc. Only once in a very long while, like a small serving at a b-day party or Xmas party, and if it makes you fall off the wagon, then not at all.
Guaranteed that you will lose the weight this way, and keep it off, as long as you can stick to this healthier lifestyle of healthy diet and brisk walking. It's not a diet. It's a new way of eating, and living. If you go back to the carbs and the alcohol, you will regain the weight.
If you cannot manage this on your own, weight watchers online can help you. I've also seen people have great success with Noom, but I hear it's expensive. In my experience, the people who eat the simple carbs that you're allowed to have on weight watchers have more trouble losing the weight and keeping it off.
All of these are good suggestions, but at the end of the day it's calories in and calories out. If he swaps his meals for lower calorie foods but just eats more of them, then he won't lose weight.
I think the first step is for him to measure his calories. He probably eats way more than he thinks he does.
1 tbsp of olive oil has 120 calories. How much oil is being used when cooking? Does he drizzle oil on his salads as a 'healthy' option over the ranch dressing? These are just examples.
One thing he can do is buy low calorie salad dressings. Full of chemicals, but right now it's about weight loss.
Instead of sandwiches, buy low calorie protein wraps, use a lot of leafy greens and onions, with some chicken breast and low calorie dressing. One of those can be sub 500 calories, but incredibly filling.
What he needs to do is get 3 meals at around 600 calories, or 2 meals at 900 calories. And the rest he can get from more exercise, simply jumping on a elliptical for 45 minutes to an hour every day or even every other day will do wonders.
Instead of potatoes as a side starch, popcorn can be good as it's relatively low in calories and filling. Just don't get it with butter, some brands are better than others for losing weight.
Salads, made of leafy green vegetables (I use a lot of spinach), contain a lot of things that we need. Of course, you can survive on a carnivore diet just as you can survive as a vegan. The key is, will you thrive? ............
Assuming your question is not rhetorical I think you can. Many people seem to. Louis and Clarke Expedition did for about 2 years. They consumed 20 pounds of meat per man per day!
I gave up eating salads. When it comes down to it, I don't really like all that stuff, and it adds needless bulk to the meal. There is nothing in green leafy stuff that I do not get from beef-pork-fish-chicken-eggs- cheese. If there were it would have shown up in my lipid or metabolic blood panels. And nothing does. It's perfect.
..........Don't eat breakfast if you're not hungry......
Definitely!! For that matter, dont eat at all if you're not hungary. I think a lot of people eat because they think it's time to eat. I't 6:00pm so I must eat because it's dinner time. Wrong!!!! Eat when your stomach tells you to eat.
I think we're all different, and what works for some may not work for all.
Read up on different eating plans; Mediterranean diet, keto, calorie counting, Intermittent fasting, etc. Try one that appeals to you. If you lose weight and can stick with it, keep it up; otherwise, try something else until you find the way of eating that works for you.
Don't just try to lose X pounds, then go back to your old way of eating; that leads to yoyo dieting. Plan to keep following your ideal eating plan forever. You'll adjust it over time to suit your changing needs.
If you cheat, don't make that a reason to give up. Forgive yourself and get back to healthy eating.
Personally, I mostly avoid obvious carbs; grains, potatoes, sugar. I don't count calories or carbs or weigh my food (though I've done all that in the past).
I eat mostly protein, fat, some veggies and fruit. Sometimes I engage in intermittent fasting.
I'm not trying for clean keto, but I've been so abnormally good lately that my pee smelled odd this morning, and I realized I was in ketosis.
My husband's birthday is in a week. I plan to make him cupcakes for an event he's attending, AND I'm going to eat one, maybe with ice cream. Then I'll go back to low carbs.
Thanks, all, again for the detailed response and excellent ideas. The reason I switched to bananas is that I tend to have low blood sugar. Yes, I've been tested, no, I'm not diabetic. I just get the shakes if I don't keep a steady level. These leads to binging on a candy bar or something, which I assume is a bit worse than a banana, so it helps keep me "even" all day. My snacks are already tangerines, nuts, celery, carrots, etc. I never drink diet drinks (yuk) - just water, or, when the time is right, booze
Re salads - I don't eat any dressing, restaurant or at home, unless it's just a once a month thing, or it's rude to turn down the host's offerings. My own dressing is light balsamic with sea salt, and possibly some olive oil, though never a table spoon. I also use avocado oil, don't know if that's better.
I already nearly never eat pasta or bread. Small portions of brown rice if I'm eating fish or chicken. Potatoes - never fried, mashed with a stick of butter, or twice baked or whatever - I just grill the tiny mini potatoes, and eat them whole, maybe 3 at a time (they're maybe the size of a ping pong ball).
So we're down to waikiki's main suggestion - GET MOVING. I did cardio 45 minutes per day (outside run/walk, or inside treadmill, plus biking) for 90 days consecutively last year. Lost zero pounds. Used the calorie counter, tried to burn at least 200 per exercise session, sometimes requires two sessions. BUT - before you suggest something's wrong - I see now my DIET was wrong - I would do the work - then binge on a gallon of orange juice or 3 beers or whatever sugary thing I cast my eyes upon first. Since then, I've learned to better temper my sugar throughout the day - so I think if I did that cardio now, I'd have better results. Point is - I'm able to do the exercise, both mentally and physically. It just didn't help much, so I gave up.
Again, thanks all, I shall try to make a 300 cal/day difference, we'll see what happens! THANK YOU.
You will lose the weight if you eat Nutrisystem as directed. Once you have reached your goal, you will hopefully be aware of the portion size that you need to stay that way. You will also be weaned off sugar.
Thanks, all, again for the detailed response and excellent ideas. The reason I switched to bananas is that I tend to have low blood sugar. Yes, I've been tested, no, I'm not diabetic. I just get the shakes if I don't keep a steady level. These leads to binging on a candy bar or something, which I assume is a bit worse than a banana, so it helps keep me "even" all day. My snacks are already tangerines, nuts, celery, carrots, etc. I never drink diet drinks (yuk) - just water, or, when the time is right, booze
Re salads - I don't eat any dressing, restaurant or at home, unless it's just a once a month thing, or it's rude to turn down the host's offerings. My own dressing is light balsamic with sea salt, and possibly some olive oil, though never a table spoon. I also use avocado oil, don't know if that's better.
I already nearly never eat pasta or bread. Small portions of brown rice if I'm eating fish or chicken. Potatoes - never fried, mashed with a stick of butter, or twice baked or whatever - I just grill the tiny mini potatoes, and eat them whole, maybe 3 at a time (they're maybe the size of a ping pong ball).
So we're down to waikiki's main suggestion - GET MOVING. I did cardio 45 minutes per day (outside run/walk, or inside treadmill, plus biking) for 90 days consecutively last year. Lost zero pounds. Used the calorie counter, tried to burn at least 200 per exercise session, sometimes requires two sessions. BUT - before you suggest something's wrong - I see now my DIET was wrong - I would do the work - then binge on a gallon of orange juice or 3 beers or whatever sugary thing I cast my eyes upon first. Since then, I've learned to better temper my sugar throughout the day - so I think if I did that cardio now, I'd have better results. Point is - I'm able to do the exercise, both mentally and physically. It just didn't help much, so I gave up.
Again, thanks all, I shall try to make a 300 cal/day difference, we'll see what happens! THANK YOU.
It's a known consequence. People go to the gym to lose weight, do some cardio and then end up rewarding themselves with that extra slice of pizza or candybar, effectively nullifying their contribution to the gym. Or they just move less throughout the rest of the day, and their NEAT falls to compensate what they burned during their exercise session.
This is why you should not eat more when you exercise. It's really hard to "out run" a bad diet. However, exercise does lower your "genetic set point" for weight over time.
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