Any Ideas What Diet Plan Should I Have?

Question

i can't really find a website that indicates what food should take each day to lose weight and how many calories each meal have.
i am looking for interesting recipes and i have very bad cravings.

thanks!

Answer 1

Saffron, let me try to give you some tools to help out with this.

Eating healthy and losing fat is actually not nearly as complicated as you would be led to believe by the Diet "gurus" and fad weight-loss plans. Once you understand a few things, it's really just a question of self-awareness and decision-making.

So let's get started.

First, grab a piece of paper and a pen or open Word up in your computer. You'll need to keep track of a few things.

Next, you need to understand your daily calorie requirements. In other words, you need to know how many calories (i.e. how much food) to eat everyday to just keep yourself alive and support your day-to-day activities. This is also called your "Basal Metabolic Rate" or BMR. Go here and plug your information into the calculator:

http://www.hydroxycut.com/WOMEN/CALCULATORS/CALORIE/index.shtml

When it asks you your goal, select "Maintain Weight" for right now. We'll change it in a minute, but I want you to understand your maintenance calorie requirements first, since that will always be your baseline that you work from.

Next, write down the results from the calculator and call it "Maintenance". This is how many calories each day you need to maintain your current weight at the daily activity levels you indicated. You can also write down the recommended carb, protein and fat grams, if you'd like.

Next, simply select "Weight Loss" as your goal and hit recalculate. Now write these calories down in another column and call them "Weight Loss." Again, you can also jot down the carb, protein and fat grams as well.

If you compare the two plans, you'll notice that the weight loss plan is going to be about 500 calories less a day than the maintenance plan. Over a week, this would add up to a 3500 calories which is ... guess what? Exactly how many calories are contained in a gram of fat.

So by cutting out an additional 500 calories from your maintenance levels each day either via food or extra exercise (or ideally, a little of both), you can safely lose around a pound of fat a week. And, because it's not a crash diet, you will also be preserving any lean muscle mass you already have and increasingly the likelihood that you won't gain it back.

Not too bad, huh?

Now that you know your calorie goals, your next step is to get a better feel for what you are actually consuming in calories each day, RIGHT NOW. For the next week, keep track of all of the food you are eating. There is a nice, free tool that let's you do this online:

http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/?gclid=CPbauK_MjYsCFQkjWAodVgI_gA

This is basically an online diet and exercise journal that you can keep, and it also lets you look up the calories in food (include fast food) and track it in your journal. If you are coming in at or around your maintenance level each day, that's good. If you aren't, you'll need to start adjusting your diet over the next couple of weeks until you are consistently eating your maintenance calories (or burning the excess off with exercise.)

Once you've done that, start to reduce your calories each day to get you closer to the weight loss calorie goal. The best way to do this is to cut about 250 calories out of your diet and add in a little extra exercise on top of what you are already doing to take care of the remaining 250 calories. That will take care of the extra 500 calories you are trying to get rid of each day to hit your goal of losing a pound of fat each week. It will also keep your from feeling overly hungry, since you are only reducing your actual food by 250 calories. This is actually not too difficult for most people -- an extra 20 minutes on the treadmill or a long walk each day will get you there. Dropping 250 calories out of your diet is also very manageable.

Again, continue to keep track of your food and exercise in the journal and make any adjustments necessary. This is the really critical “awareness” and choice part. Eventually you may not have to do this as you get a natural feel for how many calories a food has and what are good choices, but for the first two months, I highly recommend it.

A couple of final pointers:

Do not look at the scale for the first two weeks of your weight loss plan. You weight can fluctuate up or down several pounds at any given point during the day, so don't pay attention to that at first. If you are keeping accurate track of your calories and exercise, within two weeks you will have lost a couple pounds. You need to focus on eating right at the beginning, not weight. The numbers and results will follow, trust me.

If you have access to a gym, try to add 2-3 days of resistance training into your workout (weight training) in addition to any cardio you may be doing. This doesn't have to be anything heavy duty -- machines are fine. You just want to include this type of exercise because it boosts your metabolism and helps build lean muscle, which consumes more calories at rest.

Finally, if you need more specific advice on diet and exercise strategies, you can check out some of my other "Best Answers" in this category. I've included a few links below. Most of this advice applies to beginners as well as people who may be more advanced in their fitness goals. Generally, the fundamentals work for everyone.

Feel free to comment with any additional questions (or hey, just post them as questions.)

Best of luck!

Answer 2

Well I love the Abs Diet e-book via David Zinczenko, the editor-in-leader of Men'sHealth (although that is for guys, doesn't suggest you cannot select out the stuff for you). What I discover so much strong is consuming nuts and yogart a few times an afternoon for every week and I have become aware of my belly gotten flatter tremendously. Just keep off vegetable oil and matters top in sugar. By utilising this diet regime, you may also become aware of you could attain a few kilos, however you are going to lose the fats. Btw fats infrequently weighs whatever at the scales, so that you cannot see if you're getting thinner or no longer :). Good good fortune.

Answer 3

i once read that cravings are caused by refined carbohydrates.

the best diet is mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, raw or steamed/lightly cooked. nuts, legumes, herbs, pulses, but avoid eating an excess of starch. exercise is crucial, of course. make sure you are getting enough good fats and protein. some lean meat and dairy is okay, if you tolerate it. healthful diets get easier and more enjoyable over time. stick it out.

Answer 4

Ashtanga or vinyasa yoga styles bur more calories

Answer 5

cdkitchen.com has tons of recipes. There is also an option to adjust the serving size so you don't have to make huge dishes.

There are healthy recipes and Weight Watchers recipes too!

Answer 6

fresh herbs can really zing up a healthy meal try growing some in the kitchen using a strawberry pot preserve the flavor by adding fresh herbs at the end of the cooking process

Answer 7

Go to Chimaenterprises.com, they have great weight loss programs. Good luck

Answer 8

invest in a standing desk like the ergotron workfit s 379 ergotron com or get crafty and raise your monitor and keyboard with books

Answer 9

love the starbucks grande caramel frappuccino skip the whole milk and whipped cream which packs in 410 calories total and order the starbucks grande caramel frappuccino light which is only 140 calories

Answer 10

use a dash of cinnamon to give fruits such as bananas and melons a richer dessert feel without the sugar

Answer 11

edamame soy beans are a great low cost snack look for them in the frozen foods section