Losing Weight by Food Substitution
I had someone ask me about the math involved in losing weight. I realized that I didn't know the formulas for calorie consumption.
I started dieting by cutting back on food, but found I was hungry most of the time, and that made me cranky. After reducing my level of dieting, I found I could lose weight by substituting foods. It's a fairly simple process:
Substitute high volume foods for low volume foods. This means vegetables (and to a lesser degree fruits) should represent the bulk of your diet.
Reduce your intake of meats, especially fatty meats.
Reduce your intake of sweets, especially fatty sweets. (I like chocolate, and will often have a very small piece of good chocolate, and it will satisfy me - Droste makes a little chocolate pastille; a 1-inch circle, packed in a 6-inch long tube. It comes in several varieties, I like the light purple one, though will sometimes get the 70% cocoa version. I get them at Trader Joe's. I tell you this because there should be NO absolutes in your eating plan.)
I've already described how to choose grains, but try to eat 100% whole wheat bread if you eat bread. Better to eat the whole grain itself. There are a lot of good salads that you can make with them. Tabouli is my favorite.
The one piece of math that you should know is that 3500 calories is a pound. You can lose a pound per week if you change by 500 calories per day. That can be running or walking 5 miles each day, or cutting down 300 calories (a can of soda, a pat of butter, and half the dressing on your salad) combined with running or walking 2 miles.
If you change your eating plan to one your enjoy, you'll never want to go off your diet.
I started dieting by cutting back on food, but found I was hungry most of the time, and that made me cranky. After reducing my level of dieting, I found I could lose weight by substituting foods. It's a fairly simple process:
Substitute high volume foods for low volume foods. This means vegetables (and to a lesser degree fruits) should represent the bulk of your diet.
Reduce your intake of meats, especially fatty meats.
Reduce your intake of sweets, especially fatty sweets. (I like chocolate, and will often have a very small piece of good chocolate, and it will satisfy me - Droste makes a little chocolate pastille; a 1-inch circle, packed in a 6-inch long tube. It comes in several varieties, I like the light purple one, though will sometimes get the 70% cocoa version. I get them at Trader Joe's. I tell you this because there should be NO absolutes in your eating plan.)
I've already described how to choose grains, but try to eat 100% whole wheat bread if you eat bread. Better to eat the whole grain itself. There are a lot of good salads that you can make with them. Tabouli is my favorite.
The one piece of math that you should know is that 3500 calories is a pound. You can lose a pound per week if you change by 500 calories per day. That can be running or walking 5 miles each day, or cutting down 300 calories (a can of soda, a pat of butter, and half the dressing on your salad) combined with running or walking 2 miles.
If you change your eating plan to one your enjoy, you'll never want to go off your diet.
posted by Scooter at 12:50 PM
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