I am loathe to call any weight-loss plan of mine a "diet", I promised myself I would never go on one again...so I'm going with "reductionist theory"!
Here is the plan that I have been on for a week now. I have experimented with all the different elements of it at various times, I have picked up things about it from many different diets, I just kind of put them together into something that seems to work for me.
After I kept my food diary and figured out my basal metabolism, I decided to cut back my calories between 25%-33%. Anymore and I think my body would go into a "starvation" type mode, greedily hoarding my fat and burning too much of what is left of my muscle (for more on this read this article at About.com How Low Can You Go?) My caloric needs at 220 lbs was 2400 calories, I cut that down to 1500 or 5 meals of 300 each. I will have more about the actual meals in another post.
I decided to incorporate as much of the 14 "Super Foods" as I could. To read more about just what Super Foods are click here to read the transcript of an interview with Dr. Pratt, the guy who wrote the book on them...Super Foods! Most of these foods, like the beans, really fill you up with allot of fiber which help to make it easy to reduce your calories, but the best thing about these foods is, if you eat too much, who cares, they may save your life!
For exercise, like I said in an earlier post, I have been experimenting. What I love to do, jog, yoga, I am kinda limited at right now, so I have been mostly doing fat burning or aerobic stuff like walking, biking, some light weights. Typically I try to do 10 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes treadmill one day, 20 minutes bike and 10 minutes weights the next and of course walk the dog for a 1/2 hour every night! I wanted to factor in how many extra calories I was burning by exercising, so I used these sites, The Activity Calculator and The Calorie Calculator which can do that for you by putting in your current weight. Eventually I would like to expand the yoga to 40 minutes or so and go jogging when I lose about 25 or so pounds (to reduce the stress on my knees).
I keep a small notebook, where I jot down what I eat each day, the exercise, any other notes I might think are useful later. At the end of the night, or the beginning of the next day, I subtract the calories I ate minus my current basal metabolism, then add in the calories for exercise, to get my total burned for the day. I am aiming for an average of 1,000 per day to lose 2 pounds of fat per week. If I have burned over that amount, like today where I burned off 1285, I take the "extra" 285 and put it into the "bank", a special ledger type balance where I can collect extra calories that I can use for a special occasion or just to splurge a little. So far this has worked really well and allows me to "cheat" a little on the weekends and still stay on track.
Basically my plan is to cut back just enough to lose 2 pounds of fat a week, gradually increase my time and intensity in a variety of activities that I enjoy, eat as many healthy foods as I can incorporate into my day, leave myself an "out" to escape the boredom or routine once in awhile by banking extra burned calories.
Anyway, that's about it right now. I did not get into the meals too much or much detail about the exercise, but that is something that can be (and should be) tailored to your individual needs. At another post I will go over some good low calorie meals and just why I like yoga and jogging so much!
My family and I are hitting the road this weekend, going to San Antonio, so I won't be blogging until maybe Sunday night. We are going with another couple and it will be interesting to see if I can maintain some kind of restraint in a place where there are 50 restaurants and bars within 2 miles! It will also be interesting to see if i do not, can I get back on track the following Monday morning. This is going to be a really good challenge for me, I hope I am up to the task. Monday morning will reveal the answer...
Good luck on your weight loss venture! I, too, am trying to lose (17 pounds so far - 40 more to go). I have two words for you that will make all of your planning easier : Weight Watchers. (www.weightwatchers.com)
Use the online tool - it's easy and you don't have to go to those stupid meetings.
GOOD LUCK!! Happy losing!
Posted by: Big Bunny | May 05, 2005 at 23:24