Designs for Healthy Lifestyles - Your Wellness Resource for the New Millenium Article 1: Diets & Weight Loss page 1

DIETS. They promise you the world but do they teach you how to keep the weight off once you lose it? NO!

Anyone can stick with a regimented "diet" because you know it's only temporary. You lose the weight & eventually go back to your "normal way" of eating. But wait - isn't your "normal way" of eating what made you overweight to begin with?

So what's the solution?

After years of experience, I now realize the only way to succeed with weight loss is by making small, gradual changes in your current lifestyle. Let's face it... you didn't gain the weight overnight so you shouldn't expect it to fall off your body that fast either!

The first step is patience. Give yourself at least 6 months to lose 10 pounds. I know this sounds like a long time for such a small reward but if you think about how fast time flies - heck, the summer's gone already & the holidays are just around the corner. If you start now, you should reach your first goal by the spring - just in time for swimsuit season.

So, instead of focusing on the number of pounds you lose per week, focus on developing the behaviors that will allow you to maintain your weight loss once you reach your goal. By doing this, you will have already adopted the behaviors necessary for long term success & be well on your way to a healthful lifestyle.

What exactly are "healthy" behaviors? Well, it is now recognized that the most important factor of eating is not so much how many calories you consume but more so, where those calories come from.

The major health organizations all agree that a healthy diet consists of:

15 to 20% protein

50 - 60% complex carbohydrates

less than 30% fat

To look at this in more practical terms, if you were following a 2000 calorie (kcal) meal plan, you would include

2000 kcal Meal Plan
300 to 400 kcals from protein	(ie: meat, chicken, fish)
1000 to 1200 kcals from complex carbohydrate	(ie: breads, grains & vegetables)
less than 600 kcals from fat	(ie: butter, oil, nuts)

Now this does not mean you can have 600 kcals of added fat, such as butter & mayonnaise. The total fat count includes the innate fats found in meats, grains & dairy products. butter.gif (5681 bytes)

There are many advantages to lowering your fat content. For starters, every tablespoon (Tbls) of fat adds 100 kcals to your menu. Whether you see the fat or not, if it's used in preparing the food, believe me, it's in there. Reduce the fat & you reduce your calories without eliminating actual, chewable food. It's as easy as that.

Reducing the fat you eat also helps reduce your body fat. Our bodies are very efficient when it comes to turning dietary fat in adipose tissue or body fat.

When you eat your excess calories from fat, your body can change it into body fat with very minimal effort - merely 3 kcals worth, leaving 97 to become body fat.

On the other hand, if your excess calories come from complex carbohydrates, you will use approximately 27 of those 100 calories to change the carbohydrate into fat. Here only 73 kcals become fat. Now this may not seem like a big difference but in the long run it really is.

Another advantage to lowering your fat intake, happens when you increase your intake of low calorie complex carbohydrates at the same time. Chances are you will feel more satisfied after eating a meal.

Fruits, vegetables & whole grains all contain fiber, which provides bulk & helps to fill a larger portion of your stomach. Fat, on the other hand, is a more compact source of calories so you'd have to eat more to fill the same void.

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