2 Sample Menus for a 1,200 Calorie Diet

These examples should answer a lot of questions. Every time I write about eating clean, and only eating fresh food, I get email about what foods are you referring to? So today I found this post that gives you ideas about what to eat and the nutritional value in the foods. What I tell my readers is that the quality of the food is more important than the portions. That doesn't mean that it's okay to eat twice the portion because it's not. Do I measure all my portions? No, I might measure something one time to see how much is in the portion but that it, one time.
Something else, I make my meals from a pre-written meal. I wrote all my meals for two weeks all at one time and calculated the calories. And then I shop for 3 days of food. If I buy too much at one time, I tempted to overeat. I don't get exact about measuring because if you're eating fresh foods and your not adding extra salt or sugar, the amount of calories won't be very different.

Example #1

Are you in a hurry to lose some extra pounds? It's possible to lose weight quickly by following a low-calorie diet, as this 1,200 calories per day diet, but you have to do it right to be sure you're getting all of the essential nutrients you need.

Following a low-calorie diet isn't difficult if you include lots of nutrient-dense foods. In fact, it's a necessity because there's no room for foods that aren't totally nutritious.

So what do you do? Choose plenty of low-calorie, high fiber fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat protein sources.  Here are two 1,200 calorie-per-day menus to get you started:

1,215 Calorie Menu With No Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

Breakfast

• One cup oatmeal
• One-half cup non-fat milk
• One tablespoon honey

• One-half cup blueberries
• One cup plain coffee or tea as a beverage

Lunch

• Two slices 100-percent whole grain bread, deli sliced turkey breast, tomato slice, lettuce and one tablespoon mustard
• One-half cup sliced carrots
• Water as a beverage

Dinner

• Three ounces baked salmon
• One cup green beans
• Salad with one cup raw spinach, five cherry tomatoes and one-half cup broccoli florets with lemon juice as a dressing
• Water with a slice of lemon as a beverage

Snacks

• One apple with 12 almonds
• Several glasses of water
• One cup non-fat milk
• One-half cup plain yogurt with one tablespoon honey
• One cup strawberries.

Nutrition Information

• Total Calories - 1,215
• Total Fat - 17.7 percent (25 grams)
• Total Protein - 23 percent (72 grams)

• Total Carbohydrates - 59.3 percent (185 grams)
• Sodium - 1,402 milligrams
• Sugar - 107 grams
• Cholesterol - 94 milligrams
• Saturated Fat - 5.0 grams
• Fiber - 28 grams

Example #2

1,218 Calorie Menu With Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

Breakfast

• One cup whole-grain corn cereal
• One packet Sucralose
• One-half cup non-fat milk
• One cup 100-percent orange juice as a beverage

Lunch

• Salad made with two cups field greens, two ounces albacore tuna (packed in water), one-half cup cherry tomatoes with two tablespoons balsamic vinegar as a dressing.
• Diet soda as a beverage

Dinner

• One three-ounce pork chop
• One baked sweet potato
• One cup steamed asparagus
• One tablespoon olive oil
• One small glass of white wine

Snacks

• One small pita bread with two tablespoons hummus
• One pear
• One serving low-fat, sugar-free fruit-flavored yogurt
• One cup blueberries
• Two-thirds cup baby carrots with one ounce fat-free vegetable dip
• Several glasses of water with slices of lemon or lime

Nutrition Information

• Total Calories - 1,218
• Total Fat - 14.6 percent (20 grams)
• Total Protein - 22.6 percent (70 grams)
• Total Carbohydrates - 56.8 percent (176 grams)
• Sodium - 1,615 milligrams
• Sugar - 86 grams
• Cholesterol - 116 milligrams
• Saturated Fat - 5.0 grams
• Fiber - 24 grams

Portion and serving sizes are key to dieting success, so you'll need a good set of measuring cups and measuring spoons, plus a kitchen scale until you get used to estimating your serving sizes.

I created these menus by using Calorie Count, where you can track your calories, find friendship and support with other dieters and even analyze your own recipes. I also have menus for 1,500 calorie per day and 1,700 calorie per day diets.

Please note: before starting a low-calorie diet, you should see your doctor. 

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.
My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

Running Part 2

After you're comfortable with a two-mile walk and you can do the walk at a pretty fast pace your ready to jog a little. First of all, a pretty fast pace would be two miles in 45 or 50 minutes. The first day I started jogging I was only jogging about 100 yards at one time and then walk again until I catch my breath and then I jogged again another 100 yards and so on.

Today, I can jog about a 1/4 mile then walk a 1/4 mile and so on. My goal would be to jog 10K and eventually to run a 10K race. I have to start with the 5 K which is 3.1 miles and build up. I know it's going to take some time. It doesn't make any difference if I actually run a 5 K or not. All that time I'm working out for the run, I'm losing body fat little by little and becoming a healthier person and that's the real goal, but I have to have the other goal to stay motivated.

I believe that humans don't age by calendar years. What we think of aging is really the result of us gaining weight and slowing down, eating the wrong foods and not taking care of the body we have.
The problems humans have is that we don't really know how to take proper care of our bodies. We don't know what humans are capable of, what our minds are capable of, and how long a human could live. We have no idea, science bases everything they know on past experiences. All they really know is that each generation will probably live a little longer than the present generation because that's the way it's always been.

We need to listen to our bodies and do a better job of staying healthy. It's not something that happens automatically. There 's plenty of free information on good websites that will give you all you need. If you're a young adult, still in school, it will be much easier to get in good shape.

Running to lose weight has been proven to work but don't forget your diet. You won't be starving, you'll be eating clean, fresh food. The Dash Diet is a good example. The Mediterranean Diet is my favorite. You have many more choices. If you don't cheat, if you stick to the running and walking routine and do it every day and stay with a diet of clean, fresh foods you will lose fat and become a healthier person. If you're under doctor's care now you'll want to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise routine.
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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

Running To Lose Weight

I want to tell you about this guy I saw on the news last week. This man about 40 give or take a couple of years weighed over 400 pounds when he decided to lose weight. He found a trainer that put him on a diet and started him on a walking routine to get exercise. After a few weeks the trainer changed the walking to jogging. So this man started slow but was jogging everyday. Because he had a job would only run less than one hour during the week, but on weekend when he had more time he runs 31 miles on this long days. I thought that was incredible for someone that big to be able to run distance.

He lost 200 pounds in 10 months. He now weighs 240 pounds and woulds to lose 40 more pounds. I know he can do it, anyone how runs 31 miles can lose as much as he wants.

I don't want you to get turned off because you think there's no way you could ever do this. I subscribe to many newsletter and I get one from "Runner's World". Yes, I started running again and most people would think I'm just an old man. Even my relatives think I'm crazy for running again after 50 some years of not running. Back in the early 1970's, I was hit by a car and my left leg had severe damage. I had stopped running long before that but after the accident, I never thought I'd run again.

Just recently I read an article on "running for beginners" and how you can use a walk and run routine to interval train and even if you have knee pain, this type of exercise will strengthen the knee and reduce the knee pain. I've had knee pain for years and I even had a repair job on the left knee about 5 years ago, so I was "all in" if this can reduce knee pain and help me control my weight, I'm for it.

I started running a few months ago. I do the walk, run routine I read about and you really can lose fat.  Most of the fat loss will be in the belly, hips, butt, and thighs. But don't think the fat will just falls off,   You have to change the way you eat. That part was pretty easy for me, I already changed my diet and lost most of my body fat, but if you want to "Run To Lose", I suggest you look at the Runner's World website and consider investing in their new book "Run To Lose". It's not expensive, check it out.

Or you could read my blog and over the next few day's, I'll tell you what I did and how it worked for me and reading my blog is free. Or if you like to hold paper in your hand when you read, You can download my ebook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or iBook, it's $3.99 and then you can print it.

Enough about books, I was a real skeptic when I first started to run. But I followed my tried and true methods for any exercise and I started slow. At the Park near my house, there's a 2-mile jogging track; when I jog at night I go to the High School and use the track. I start by walking 1/4 mile or one lap around the track just to warm up, then I start jogging for about 100 yards and then go back to walking slow, after I catch my breath I start jogging again and keep that up for 2 miles. At the High School, that's about 8 laps. I have a personal goal to run a 10K in the city marathon. I'm sure by January I'll be ready.

What you want to realize before you start any exercise program is that the pace I set for myself can be more than you can do and that's understandable. I workout more and I'm in very good physical condition for my age. Depending on your health and you can't be comparing yourself to other overweight, out-of-shape people you might know. Compare yourself to the way you were in High School. The age of your body has very little to do with time. Sure, we calculate age by calendar years, but your real age has very little to do with the calendar.

When you first start a walk, run routine you want to do mostly walking. Your body has to get use to exercise all over again and depending on the amount of weight you gained over the years, this may take you a few weeks. You want to do just plain walking for a few weeks, don't push it. If you're in middle age and are overweight, it's possible to do damage to your heart by intense exercise. If you get out-of-breath easily, talk to your doctor about exercise. There is a safe heart rate to achieve when exercising, and to exercise at a heart rate more than that can be dangerous.  Building up your endurance for a heavier workout is called "conditioning". This is important if you want to achieve your goal. Running is by far the best way to condition your body, lose body fat and become a healthier person.

I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote ebooks that will give you all the info in one read. They are how-to books that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebooks are available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Does Weight Loss Happen?

So you’re finally ready to lose weight. Now the question is: How?

The standard advice -- to eat less and move more -- isn’t so helpful when it comes to the “how.” You probably know you need to cut calories, but how many? Are you better off getting those calories from low-fat or low-carb foods? And what’s going on with your metabolism, your personal energy-burning furnace? Is it programmed to keep you overweight? Is there any way to fan the flames so you can dream of one day eating a piece of pie without gaining a pound?

Even science is still stumped on many of the basic questions of weight loss.

“Amazingly, in this era of obesity, there are still many things that we really don’t know,” says Robin Callister, PhD, professor of human physiology at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Here’s what we do know about some of the most persistent mysteries of weight loss.

There are new calculators, like the Body Weight Planner available from the NIH and the Weight Loss Predictor from Pennington. Give them a few key details, like your sex, age, weight, height, activity level, and the date you want to hit your goal, and they’ll give you a more realistic daily calorie goal to get you there.

Once you know how many calories you need to eat every day, where should they come from? Is it better to cut carbs or cut fat? How much protein do you need each day? Will having a drink torpedo all your hard work?

Let’s start with the alcohol.

“There’s a big debate on whether alcohol calories are even useable, whether you can even turn them into fat. It’s not easy,” says Ken Fujioka, MD, a weight loss expert at Scripps Health in San Diego, CA. “When you look at various studies you actually get mixed results. Some studies say it’s not a problem, don’t worry about it, others say it’s associated with weight gain. So it’s a real open mess.”

Fujioka counsels his patients to pay attention to how alcohol affects their eating.

“Some folks, when they drink alcohol, feel like they have license to eat whatever they want to, and they get into problems.” If a glass of wine weakens your will to resist that plate of cheese and crackers, it’s not doing your waistline any favors.But if booze doesn’t affect your eating, then one or two drinks is probably OK, he says.As for calories from fat, carbohydrates, and protein, this is where one size, or one eating plan, really doesn’t fit all. 

There is good science to show that people who have high blood sugar levels -- associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and fatty liver disease -- benefit from diets that are lower in refined carbohydrates and higher in healthy fats and lean proteins. Examples of this kind of diet are South Beach, the Zone diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the low GI diet.

If insulin levels aren’t a concern, there’s little difference in the amount of weight people lose if they cut their calories from fat or from carbs, says Kevin Hall, PhD, a senior investigator and expert in metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, MD. But he says protein calories are a different story.

In the lab, researchers have shown that higher-protein diets tend to increase the number of calories a person burns, Hall says. “So in that sense, a protein calorie is not equivalent to a carbohydrate or a fat calorie,” he says.

Protein helps you burn more calories during the day and helps preserve muscle. When people lose weight, they don’t just lose fat -- they also lose muscle. The more muscle you lose on a diet, the more your metabolism slows. That can make it tough to keep the weight off down the road. Protein also helps you feel satisfied for longer after your eat.

But people can eat only so much protein without changing their kidney function. U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that adults keep their protein in a range of 10% to 35% of total calories each day. Most diets fall into that range. Atkins, for example, one of the highest protein diets around, supplies 35% of daily calories from protein. 

“The potential to gain weight and become obese is in everybody. But for some people, the potential is clearly genetically much, much higher,” he says.

So far, more than 30 genes have been flagged as being linked to body mass index. The one most strongly tied to obesity is called the FTO gene. Researchers recently reported that people who get a faulty copy of that gene are more likely to store calories as fat instead of burn them for energy. The discovery, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, should pave the way for better weight loss treatments.

Though FTO is the most powerful single gene found to date, it doesn’t explain all obesity. Fujioka says obesity is probably the sum of many genes working together.“The more genetic flaws you get that lead you to obesity, you’re more like a loaded gun. The environment will pull the trigger and you’ll just get heavy.” Whereas people who don’t inherit those risk genes will be protected, to some extent, from weight gain, no matter how badly they eat.

Men vs. Women

If losing weight with your mate has you discouraged, ladies, take heart.

Yes, it’s true -- pound for pound, a man on a diet will drop 10 pounds faster than you can say “please pass the celery.” And researchers think that’s probably more of a size problem than a sex difference. Men are bigger than women and naturally carry more muscle, the tissue that burns the greatest number of calories. So they do have an easier time losing weight.

But here’s the thing about men: They start strong, but they often can’t sustain the effort.

“At 3 months, men are ahead -- definitely ahead on absolute weight loss,” says Callister, who recently conducted a study of studies, or meta-analysis, to look at the big picture of sex differences in weight loss. “But by 6 months, there’s no difference,” she says.

But do men really lose a bigger percent of their overall weight when they diet than women do?

Surprisingly, few studies have looked at that question. Callister says we still don’t know the answer.

One interesting study, though, compared the weight loss between men and women who had gastric bypass weight-loss surgery. The study found that after 24 months, there was no significant difference in the percent of weight lost by men or women after bariatric surgery. On average, men had lost about 66% of their excess weight, while women had lost about 73% of their extra pounds.

And here’s more heartening news: While women may take a little longer to shed the same weight as men, Callister says they seem to do a better job keeping it off, perhaps because they lost it more gradually in the first place.

What’s the Best Exercise for Weight Loss?

When it comes to dropping pounds, there’s no substitute for pushing back from your plate. But what about exercise?

While it’s important for overall health and mental well-being, it’s probably not going to help you dramatically shrink your size.

“It has dozens and dozens of benefits, but when it comes to producing clinically meaningful weight loss -- weight loss of 5% to 10% or more -- you really want to focus on dieting,” Martin says.

Exercising when you’re trying to lose weight is tricky. It does help burn calories, but not nearly as many as not eating those calories in the first place. And exercise increases appetite, so if you’re working out intensely, it’s really easy to eat back all the calories you just burned.

Martin recommends that people who are trying to lose weight focus on moderate-intensity physical activities, like brisk walking or gardening.

The National Weight Control Registry, which tracks people who’ve successfully lost 30 pounds and kept it off for a year or longer, reports that 94% of members have increased their physical activity in some way. The most frequently reported form of exercise is walking.

Where exercise becomes critically important is for weight maintenance. Martin says most people who successfully lose weight and keep it off exercise a lot -- nearly an hour a day.

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information. But the quickest way and cheapest way is to buy an ebook online and get everything you need in one short read. I have two ebooks on Amazon:

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Check out one of them, I think you can find all the info you need and plenty of tips on how I lost my body fat. 

Look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find these e-books. These books give you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my books at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

What's My Blog All About

I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. today I want to talk about food. 

We all know by this time that when you cut calories in your diet, you have to pack all the nutrition you can in everything you eat. You can’t waste calories on food that isn’t giving you something in return. So, in order to give me energy, I try and eat all I can of the super-foods. 

One of the new ones is Quinoa.

What is quinoa?

Well, some consider it a grain and some do not.  Either way, it's definitely in the grain/rice/cereal family, and that's a family I enjoy eating.

Even better news is that quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah) is actually a pretty good source of protein when compared to most grains, packing in 8 grams per cup.

Even better news is that quinoa is the only grain that contains complete protein, each gram containing all 26 amino acids.

Even BETTER news is that quinoa is extremely low glycemic coming in at an extraordinarily low 35 on the scale while offering a generous 5 grams of fiber per cup.

Do you now how AMAZING quinoa is?

It's the grain of all grains.  You can mix it with beans, you can eat it by itself, you can mix it in "salads", serve it alongside steak, chicken, or fish...you can pretty much do whatever you want with it anytime you need a quality, low glycemic, high fiber, protein-packed carb source.

In case, you're not familiar with the “super foods” just do a search on the internet and there’s plenty of websites like “Health.com” that will give you a full list. Just to name a few: Blueberries, tomatoes, oats, avocados, salmon, broccoli, green tea, eggs, and almonds. There’s actually about two dozen more which gives you a big variety of choices. Try to eat some every day. 

Quinoa is a good alternative to rice or potatoes. A 4 oz. piece of meat with a cup of quinoa, vegetable and beans and you have about 40 gm of protein and every few calories.

When you're trying to lose weight and lose fat, it's important to maximize your protein. Try and eat protein at every meal, yes even breakfast. As you lose weight you want to avoid losing muscle mass and that's not easy. But eating lots of protein will help you to maintain your muscles. The challenge is to avoid red meat. Red meat has protein but also has animal fat and too much animal fat will cause you to gain fat, not lose it. Fish and poultry has protein but most of your protein should come from plant protein. If you can get about 80 gms. a day of protein, you won't get hungry. Protein at every meal will keep you feeling full.

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.
My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com,  Scribd and more.

So how many calories do I need every day?

I started this post last week. It's a two-parter because this is a complicated question. Everyone burns a different amount of calories and every day the amount will change. The amount depends on several factors. First and the most important is your size. Your body will burn calories to give you energy for body functions like thinking, pumping blood and breathing. Besides that, it takes more calories to walk, talk, bend over, etc. Also, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body has to burn to maintain those muscles. About 30% of the calories your body burns comes from fat, 20 percent from protein and the other 50% from other foods your eating.

Science claims that we eat too many calories, actually, North American on average eat twice the amount of calories we should. How can that be you might ask? Because we eat mostly processed foods and we drink too many high-calorie drinks. If you eat fresh and cut out the processed foods and high-calorie drinks you will cut your calories in half.

If you track your calories by using a food journal for one week before you start a new meal plan you'll see what I mean. You can lose body fat just by eating real food instead of processed food. Buy your food fresh, and stick to real food. Fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry and lean meat. Only eat red meat once or twice a month. Red meat has animal fat and your body will store it in fat cells.

After you start to eat only fresh foods you won't eat as much and there are fewer calories in real food than processed food. On average,  women should be eating about 1200 to 1500 calories a day. A man about 500 more calories a day. These are averages and it all depends on your activity level. The averages are pulled down because most people spend most of the day sitting.

Even those people who workout every day for one hour will only burn about 300 calories at most which shouldn't make a big difference in your diet. On my heavy workout days, I'll have a protein shake after the workout which does add almost 300 calories but it helps the aching muscles recover.

Two heavy workouts a week or maybe three if you're under 30 and then go easy on the recovery days
swimming or yoga; let your muscles recover and keep the calories under 2000 a day and you'll lose body fat.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Do Portion Sizes Help You Lose Weight?

Portion control is said to be the answer to losing weight. I don't think so. I have tried dozens of ways to lose weight and for most of us my way is not going to work for everyone, but I think it's the easiest plan to stick to and you can eat all you want, just don't cheat.

Portion control for me was a form of starvation like those diet plans that sell you a meal in a box and it looks like a child's portion. Really, how long do you think you can stay on that diet? When I decided I had to lose all this fat I had; I did some research and decided to change all the food I was eating. I gave away almost all the food in my kitchen, including the alcohol, All the alcohol, beer and wine included.

I kept the bottled water, coffee, tea, rice, and seafood I had in the freezer. I read a lot about the Mediterranean diet plan, it's not a weight loss diet, it's the meal plan that Mediterranean people have eaten for generations. I found that I could eat all the food I wanted if I stuck to my plan. I would eat something every three hours, that way I was never hungry. I started with breakfast. I'd fry up some eggs and potatoes with some frozen peas, a glass of water and some black coffee. And whether I was hungry or not I would eat something nutritious like Greek Yogurt or fruit every three hours. Some times I would bring a half of sandwich and eat that around lunch time. I would never go over 300 calories at one time and I would eat 6 times a day. The last meal was around 7 pm and I always had a salad for the last meal. You should only use extra virgin olive oil and use a wine vinegar or lemon juice, nothing with sugar or anything sweet. You're want to keep the calories down.

If you take suggestions from the Mediterranean diet plan and stick to those foods and only drink what they suggest, you will never be hungry and in time, you will lose body fat. Part of the Mediterranean diet is more walking and with any plan you have to increase your activity level every day. When I first started I was skimping on breakfast and that's a big mistake. Whether you eat breakfast or not, that's the time to eat the heaviest foods. I was skimping and then during the day I was getting hungry but I increased the breakfast foods and then I didn't have any trouble getting through the day.

If your not losing fat on this diet plan you must be cheating. You're either eating food you shouldn't or skipping some meals and trying to make it up later. If you follow the plan it will work, but it will take time. Your body always needs a couple of months to adjust to a new diet. Have patients you will lose fat and become a healthier person. I lose most all my body fat. My BMI shows 20%body fat and I'm off the medications, I'm 71 and I jog, ride a bike and do yoga and my knee pain is gone. If you lose body fat and eat nutritious food you'll become a healthier, happier person and you can enjoy life.
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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Many Calories Do I Need?

I think you're going to be surprised, you don't need that many calories. Many people eat less than 1000 calories a day. For instance, Vegans and many vegetarians. What's the difference, you might say? If you do a little research on vegetarians you'll find there are three different kinds. A very strict vegetarian will stick to all the rules, others eat dairy and vegetables, and others will not eat meat or poultry, but eat everything else, like fish. Vegans are very strict and only eat plant food, and rely on protein supplements from soy and rice.

I know for most of us, we think a diet without meat is just crazy, but science has proven that a diet without animal protein will extend your life and you'll be a lot healthier. 

Every diet should start with basic questions about calories. To begin with, you should know how many calories you need each day. It sounds simple, but depending on the method you use to get your number, you might get different answers. So how do you know which number is right? Something  you might not be aware of; Americans and Canadians and part of Northern Europe are the only places in the world where most people  consume about 3500 calories a day.  That's about twice the caloric intake  the average person needs. Most of us consume just as many calories from drinks as we do in food. I would have to workout 8 hours a day to burn all those calories.

There are different ways to determine your caloric needs. You can get a quick estimate online or a more specific (and expensive) test performed in a lab.

There are pros and cons to each method. The best method for you depends on your goals, how much money you want to spend, and your access to various health services.

Look at these five different methods for determining your caloric needs and evaluate the pros and cons for yourself.

One of the simplest ways to determine your caloric needs is to keep a pre-diet food journal. Before you start a weight loss program, take one week to evaluate your current caloric intake. Don't make any changes to your diet, just write down everything you eat and drink and the number of calories in each one. You should do this at a time when your weight is stable and your daily activity is typical.

After a week of recording your food intake, add the total number of calories for each day and divide by seven to get an average daily caloric intake.
This should provide a general guideline for the number of calories your body needs to maintain its current weight. To lose weight, you need to decrease that number by roughly 500-600 calories per day.

Pros: Inexpensive, reinforces good weight loss habits such as food journaling. Online or smartphone apps make this method simple to use.
Cons: Requires tedious recording and may not be accurate if you aren't specific about measuring and recording your food portions.

There are several easy-to-use online caloric needs calculators, like the one at CalorieCount.com. These tools provide a quick and easy estimate of the number of calories you need to eat to lose weight. To get the most accurate number, you need to know your current weight, height and goal weight. You also need to assess your daily activity level.

The number generated from these calculators is usually based on the Harris-Benedict formula for determining basal metabolic rate (BMR).

The formula is widely recognized by experts as a reasonable estimate for daily caloric need. However, it is only as accurate as the information you provide and the answer is based on general guidelines. Daily activity level, for example, varies widely from person to person and there is no way for a single formula to accurately predict the metabolic impact of your specific activity level.

Pros: Provides a fast answer, free to use
Cons: Only based on general guidelines and estimates

Many gyms and other health centers now provide metabolic testing for a fee. Metabolic testing measures the number of calories that your body burns at rest (RMR) and the number of fat and carbohydrate calories your body burns while exercising at various exercise intensities. As part of your metabolic assessment, many trainers will also provide a metabolic training plan that will help you to burn more fat calories during exercise so that you lose weight more effectively. While this seems like the most accurate way to find out how many calories you need, there has been some criticism of this testing process. The accuracy of your test may depend on the quality of equipment used, how often it is calibrated and the skill level of the person doing the testing. The service can be expensive and may require a gym membership.

Pros: Results are personalized and based on your specific performance.
Cons: Expensive and not widely available and some say that results are not as accurate as advertised.

So, back to the question, How many calories a day do I need?

The answer isn't easy, I don't think it's just a number. If a person is eating Pizza, Hamburgers, Carry-out chicken, Chinese carry-out and Sausage sandwiches, just cutting back on the quantity isn't going to help. These are foods that will pack on the pounds. It's not just the calories in these foods but the amount of fat, salt, and other food additives. The average guy on this kind of diet may be eating about 3500 to 4000 calories a day when you add in the drinks and just cutting back on the quantity say to 2500 calories a day isn't going to reduce the amount of body fat. Yes, he might lose a few pounds but most of the loss will be muscle weight.

I don't think counting calories will reduce body fat. People get to engrossed in losing weight and aren't concentrating on losing body fat. That should be your goal. And the only way to lose body fat is for your body to use the fat as fuel. I'll write more about this next time.

Meanwhile, you can go to my website and see more articles about losing weight.     blogonlosingweight.com

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when your trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. Price $3.99

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?

My new ebook is in online bookstores now. You can go to Amazon.com and type the title in the search bar: How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight? The price is $3.99. I think you'll find it interesting. I write about myself and my battle with weight and all the mistakes I made and how you can avoid the mistakes and lose the unwanted body fat.

The ebook is also at http://barnesandnoble.com and they have a special introductory offer right now $2.99. Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, and others worldwide.

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Learn how to get in shape, lose body fat and become a heathier person without spending a lot of time and money by reading my new e-book,

 How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?. This e-book features my extensive research on weight loss, as well as my journey towards fitness. Grab a copy of my e-book now and improve your health, have more energy, and be a happier person with a positive attitute. Available in online book stores now. Amazon, B&N, iBooks for $3.99

Losing weight wasn’t my main goal when I was growing up. Always tipping the scales between being chubby and thin, I never really felt the need to watch my weight. It wasn't until I became a senior that I realized how hard it was for me to carry around that extra, unwanted body fat. I decided to change my lifestyle, and I lost a lot of weight ever since. I'm proud to say that I weighs the same now as I did in high school.

I weighed 220 pounds 30 years ago and today I weigh 158. No expensive equipment, no diet pills, no surgery, and the gym membership I had only gave me temporary weight loss.

I made up my mind after 10 years of yoyoing up and down that I had to find a way to lose the extra fat for good. I read a lot of posts on a lot of websites and decided the only way was to change my diet. A normal guy will burn about 1800 calories a day if he spends his work day on his feet and does 30-minute workouts every day. 

So from research, I found the 30% of the calories are from fat and your body doesn’t care where it gets the fat. That means my body will burn about 550 calories from fat everyday. So if I eat less fat the 500 calories the body will have to get the extra fat from my stored fat. 

I decided I’d have to help the process along so I started an interval training program. It’s easy and it didn’t cost anything. I jog for 10 minutes to increase my heart rate and then walk for a few minutes to cool down and then jog for 5 minutes and walk for 5 minutes and then jog for 5 and walk for 5 and keep going like that as long as I could. If it gets too hard just walk more and jog less, but try to workout at least 30 minutes total.

Changing my diet was much harder. I had to start over. I gave way all the high-calorie food and drinks in the house. I went to the market and bought fresh foods for two days. All I was eating was fruit, whole grain bread and pasta, vegetables, fresh fish some fresh meat, water, tea, and coffee. For snacks, I bought the salted peanuts you had to shell.

The good news was I could eat all I wanted if I stick to the fresh foods and nuts. When I start the diet I stopped drinking alcohol, that’s important. After a few weeks and 10 pounds, I would have one glass of red wine occasionally. It works and I lost the fat. I did add a little variety to my diet after I lost the weight, but I can’t go back to my old way. No more processed foods of bake goods with enriched or processed flour, no high calorie drinks and very little dairy. 

The upside is that I love being 158 pounds again, I jog now, ride my bike, do Yoga, swim laps and lift weights. I have so much energy I can even work out after dinner.  At 71, I’m in good shape and I don’t take prescription drugs. Life could”t be better.

Change Those Bad Eating Habits

There has been thousands of studies done by scientists all over the world on the subject of eating good foods for better health. Everyone seems to agree, the way to good health is to eat fewer calories. In one study all the seniors that were interviewed were eating less than 2000 calories a day and women about 300 less than men. Women don’t metabolize calories the same as men. No one said that they felt like they were on a diet, they felt like they had plenty to eat. So I decided to try it. I was going to change, kick those bad habits of eating empty calories and start eating food that would help my body.

First I had to start keeping a record of my calorie intake. Then I knew I’d have to change some of the things I was eating so I could get more nutrition out of my calories. I could eat just bread and pastries and stay under 2000 calories but I’d run out of energy. I knew I’d have to maximize the nutrition in the calories so I had the energy to work, exercise and maintain my body.

I knew I’d have to give up eating a lot of the foods I liked and start eating the foods my body needed. Today it’s so much easier to get good information than in years past with all the information on the internet and the easy access using your cell phone or your laptop or use the computers at the library if you don’t have internet access at home. Today you can’t turn on a talk show on Television or go to the bookstore without seeing something about diet and nutrition. There’s thousands of websites and hundreds of books dealing the subject.

Keeping a record of the food I was eating really helped me see what I was doing wrong. After a few weeks of keeping records, it’s easy for anyone to see the mistakes. The hardest part for me was giving up alcohol for several months until I reached my goal. After that, I eased back to a moderate one drink a day. Alcohol will mess with your metabolism and keep you from burning calories, and it also is a big source of calories. Yes, a lite beer is only 100 calories or some as little as 65 calories but the alcohol will interfere with your body’s ability to burn calories, so alcohol in general even if you stay below your proper calorie intake will keep you from burning calories. Once you reach your goal one drink a day won’t hurt, but you’re not trying to lose weight only maintain it.

You don’t have to go without food to lose weight, just stop eating the junk and start eating the good stuff. Cut your portions and don’t skip meals. Skipping meals will keep you from losing weight. Everyone thinks I’m lying but eating will spike your metabolism and that’s what burns calories. Eat something as early as possible and try to eat something small about 6 times a day. Just remember small portions all day long.When I was trying to lose I would stick to 300 calories at a meal and 6 meals a day. Others have more luck, with a three meal plan that reverses meal size. You eat the largest meal for breakfast. Smaller at lunch and only a snack size meal for dinner. You might have heard of it. You eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince for lunch and Pulper for dinner. The idea is to consume 80% of your calories early in the day so you have time to burn them. That's the opposite of what people do today. Today we eat too much at night and we don't do any activities to burn the calories. That's the time of day when your metabolism is almost dormant. Which means most of the food you're consuming at night will be turned into fat. Only a small part will be digested. 

The fastest way to start losing weight is to change your eating habits. 

Eat real food for breakfast like Oatmeal or one egg and one piece of Bacon or Canadian Bacon(ham). To jump-start your metabolism you need to eat some protein the first hour your up. Some people who always seem to be pressed for time will make a protein shake and drink it while their driving. You can make those shakes the night before then take it out of the frig in the morning and blend it and pour it. In two minutes you're gone, you have coffee later. That's about 300 calories.

Next, because you packed snacks the night before, around 10 a.m. while you're drinking coffee, you have a Greek Yogurt or half a sandwich with real cheese not processed or peanut butter, just be careful what your buying, read the labels. Personally, I buy the ground peanuts, they're in paste form like peanut butter, but they have no additives. Manufacturers use palm oil in jar peanut butter and I never eat palm oil or those other chemicals. 

Lunch is next about three hours later and if you bagged your lunch then you want to eat a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Try to only have bottled water or tea with no sugar. Your should be drinking about 4 bottled water at work, one every two hours. I can get a little tired of plain water so I flavor it with lemon juice, no calories in that. Sometimes I bring celery or radishes to eat with the sandwich at lunch. Both of them have lots of nutrition. This is another low-calorie meal, but it only has to last you 3 hours and then you can eat again. When you cut your calories, you want every calorie to count for increased energy. And you don't want to get your energy from sugar highs. Lunch is where most of us go off the diet. You're out with a friend and you're in a restaurant looking at the menu and trying to do damage control by not eating anything that will add pounds but you're trying to eat normal so you don't have to explain what you ordered. I always order salads for lunch in a restaurant. I try to order one with seafood, like shrimp and I get the salad plain and then I put olive oil and lemon. It might not be what you like but I had to get use to eating lots of things I never had before and you will get use to it, it's not bad tasting food, it's just not what you're use to. Again, I drink water with lemon or iced tea no sweetener. 

Mid-afternoon, about 3 hours after lunch you want about a 300 calorie snack, so I'd have a greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. I pick greek yogurt because there's less added sugar, Get your sugar from the fruit you eat, not out of a packet or as an additive in your food. Personally, I buy the greek yogurt plain and add my own fruit. I buy the blueberries or strawberries in the frozen food section, there's nothing added. But if you're bringing your snacks from home you have many choices. You want to stay within the daily calorie count and you want something nutritious. Another idea would be a handful of mixed nuts or just almonds.

Dinner is next about three hours later and for dinner, that's when I eat meat and usually a vegetable or a salad with fruit and vegetables. No gravy on the meat. No salad dressing, use olive oil and lemon or vinegar. When eating meat, I try to eat fish as much as possible and white meat chicken or turkey about twice a week. When I was trying to drop pounds I was following the Mediterranean diet and I'll go over that in more detail later in the book.

Finally, the sixth meal was about three hours after dinner. I'd have another greek yogurt. You can substitute with fruit if you like.

That was my whole day and you will lose weight, you'll have lots of energy and you won't be hungry. You might want to skip that last snack if you eat dinner late and go to bed early. Try not to eat the last two hours before bed.

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My new ebook is in online bookstores now. You can go to Amazon.com and type the title in the search bar: How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight? The price is $3.99. I think you'll find it interesting. I write about myself and my battle with weight and all the mistakes I made and how you can avoid the mistakes and lose the unwanted body fat.

The ebook is also at http://barnesandnoble.com and they have a special introductory offer right now $2.99. Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, and others worldwide.

 

The "Don't Get Fat" Plan

Did you ever wonder how people in some European countries manage to stay thin? When I was in Europe I didn't see any low-calorie food. Restaurants had no diet food or low-calorie meals. But no one was what we call obese. I've personally been to more than 15 European countries and normal people are in better shape than American. 

I read a non-diet book last year "The secret of eating" were by the author explains that diets don't work. This is a weight loss book about how this woman had gained 20 pounds while going to school in the States and then losing the weight when returning to France, her home country. She goes on to say that in France women don't get fat. In the States when she was going to school the portions of food were too large and foods were too sweet. 

When returning to Europe she returned home and returned to eating the way she grew up. In Europe, women eat sensibly. Good food of very high quality and eaten in small portions. Good food does not mean good tasting, it means food of good quality. You can eat anything you like but eat food of good quality, high in nutritional value. Small portions that you eat slowly is better for you and is satisfying. In the States, people eat too fast, we're always in a hurry to get somewhere. Eat on the run, I see people eat while driving every day. Woman feeding their children in the car while driving them somewhere. Drive-thru windows are so crowded they should have a gas pump half way to the window. Sometimes I spend 20 minutes in line for coffee, I stopped that. No more drive-thru's, if I can't stop and eat or drink at a table or counter then I don't need to.

You know it wasn't always this way. Families use to eat together. At school, all the kids eat together in the cafeteria. But at home we eat individually when we're hungry. Maybe that's why families eat out more. It might be the only way to get everyone together.

This plan is for anyone who had trouble sticking to a diet plan. "Don't Get Fat" is a 3-month plan meant to reset your body for a lifetime of healthy weight through slow, gradual weight loss. She goes on to say that many people will love the plan because there's no fitness classes but instead plenty of daily activity and lots of walking. Lots of walking is what people do in other countries and Americans don't do.

To jump start your diet you begin with two days of leek soup. It cleanses the system so you can start out on empty. Followed by meat or fish, vegetables and a piece of fruit. Drink water with meals, be careful of bottled drinks or any drinks with sugar or sweeteners, those are empty calories. Not good.

At the beginning, keep a food journal. While you're losing weight you need to evaluate your diet and identify excess calories. You will be able to eat anything after you reach your goal. The big part of reaching that goal is to learn to eat smaller portions. You may want to start by eating 4 or 5 meals a day about 3 hours apart. At night I snack on yogurt, low-fat greek yogurt is filling. You can eat yogurt 2 or 3 times a day, great snack full of calcium and protein. Almonds are a good snack in the afternoon. Change what you eat and how you eat and you'll lose weight.If you change what you eat, start to eat healthy, avoid processed foods (those are pre-made foods that are ready-to-eat), no dairy but you can eat non-fat greek yogurt, no enriched wheat flour, and no sugar or any artificial sweeteners. 

I know what your thinking and yes this is a weight loss diet, but it's a lifestyle change. Your learning a new way to eat, a way that you will stay with from now on. 

If you're going to succeed in losing weight and return to a healthy life, you have to forget everything you're doing now. You have to forget about the foods your eating now, and start over. Whatever you've been doing to lose weight hasn't worked and whatever diets you've tried only gave you temporary weight loss, so if you really want to change your life and become a thinner version of you and a healthier person who will live a longer happier life, you need to start over. 

Anything you've been eating will only put weight on you. You need to find a new diet with food you want to eat and that are healthy. You don't have to starve yourself but anything you eat needs to be beneficial to your body. Your food has to give your body energy, but not the energy spike you get from carbs or sugar but real energy that will stay with you. Processed foods will give you an energy high, but then you'll crash about an hour or two later and you get more food cravings. This is what leads to over-eating. Eating foods with to nutritional value that give you a temporary boost in energy, like a soft drink, and then in a short time, you need more. These foods or drinks actually cause an addiction. Sugar is an example of a food that can cause an addiction and now science believes that enriched wheat is another man-made product that causes an addiction. It may be as bad for you as sugar. 

Things like sugar and wheat have not always caused eating disorders or addictions. We are not eating the same things today that your grandparents did. A few decades ago, manufacturers of raw material foods like wheat, sugar and white flour to name a few decided to change the way these raw materials were processed. So now when you read a food label wheat, for instance, is now enriched wheat and flour you buy says enriched flour. In the process of enriching the grain, they added chemicals to make the grains grow faster, so grains are more resistant to bugs and so they can increase production and increase profits. You wonder why a lot of your food comes from other countries. Yes, labor is cheaper in other countries, but using chemicals to enrich foods is not against the law. They can use chemical in other countries that we have band in the U.S. For instance, some of our best pesticides in this country were band because they're harmful to humans, but most other countries still use those pesticides in food production and then they sell that food to U.S. Retailers and it's sold in your grocery stores. 

But that's not the whole story, food suppliers to restaurants will buy that food to save money. Those french fries you buy in restaurants aren't grown in Idaho. Yes, in the grocery stores they have to label the food so you know what country it comes from, but restaurants don't have to tell you and in most cases they don't know. 

So if you truly want to be a fit, thinner and healthier version of you, you'll have to start over. Do the research and find foods that are good for you and foods you'll stick with. Your next diet is your diet for life. I picked the Mediterranean diet, it's not a weight loss diet but you will lose weight and become a healthier person and you can stay with it for life. You can find it on the web. Remember there's no short-cuts, you have to commit and stay with the plan. After 3 months if the plan doesn't work for you, don't give up, try another plan.

Weight Watchers is not for everyone but it will work if you follow the plan. They teach you how to eat and give you the support you need.

Whatever plan you decide on and there are dozens, you want one that you can follow for life, remember there are no short-cuts.
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My new ebook is in online bookstores now. You can go to Amazon.com and type the title in the search bar: How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight? The price is $3.99. I think you'll find it interesting. I write about myself and my battle with weight and all the mistakes I made and how you can avoid the mistakes and lose the unwanted body fat.

The ebook is also at http://barnesandnoble.com and they have a special introductory offer right now $2.99. Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, and others worldwide.