In order to facilitate your weight loss, we recommend a diary of your eating and activity habits, recorded on a daily basis, especially in the first few weeks. You will probably need one or two books. The books are to provide you the calories, fat grams, and protein content for various foods. There are many books available which can help provide dietary information about food items. A. Record the day and date, and your daily weight (if desired) if you have a scale at home. For consistency, try weighing when you first wake up, before eating breakfast or drinking coffee or other liquids. WARNING: IF YOU HAD VERY POOR EATING HABITS—SUCH AS SKIPPING MEALS, OR EATING LOW AMOUNTS OF PROTEIN, YOU MIGHT GAIN A FEW POUNDS IN THE BEGINNING. THIS IS OKAY AND MAY BE NECESSARY HEALING PROCESS FOR LOSING FAT AND GAINING MUSCLE. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOUR BODY GAINS 7 LBS. OF MUSCLE AND LOSES 5 LBS. OF FAT, YOU WILL GAIN 2 POUNDS BUT YOUR CLOTHES WILL BE LOOSER AND YOU WILL HAVE LESS BODY FAT!! THIS HEALING PROCESS WILL HELP YOUR BODY TO REGAIN ITS STRENGTH AND METABOLISM, AND IS MANDATORY TO LOSE EXCESS BODY FAT AND WEIGHT, AND WILL ALSO HELP TO STABILIZE YOUR WEIGHT DURING MAINTENANCE. A desirable goal is to lose one to two pounds per week, but in the beginning, you might lose more. Later, as you approach you goal weight, you might lose less than a pound a week.
B. Exercise is important and can be very useful to assist weight loss and help stabilize weight during maintenance. Record your exercise listing the activities, time, duration, and the amounts such as the speed, incline, intensity, etc. According to recent studies, walking or other low energy activity like gardening, cleaning house or even shopping and especially when coupled with weight training can actually cause more fat loss while dieting, compared to vigorous exercise such as aerobic dancing or running. To increase walking, try parking further from stores or work (providing it is safe), or walk while talking on the phone or even while watching tv. If you are adding weight training and have never had proper instruction, you should start with a certified trainer to help avoid injuries that could occur from improper training.
C. For your diet diary, you should record the 1) item, 2) amount of the item, 3) calories, 4) protein, 5) fat grams, 6) and approximate time the item is consumed, for every item you eat or drink. The amount of each item is: the weight or other measure, such as 1/2 cup, 1/3 slice, etc. The container the item comes in usually lists the amount of calories, protein, and fat grams per serving size, in which case you might need to also estimate and record the serving size such as 1/2, 1, or 2 servings, etc. (Everything that is consumed should be weighed, measured, and/or calculated as accurately as possible—at least in the beginning until you a very good at your estimates.)
D. Calculate and record the sum of your calories, protein, and fat grams for each meal and snack and total up for the day, as best you can. We recommend 3 or more balanced meals a day, with optional snacks. You need to decrease your normal caloric intake by about 500 Calories a day to lose one pound of fat per week. Most persons should not decrease their daily Calories by more than 1000 calories per day unless one is very overweight and has been eating excessive amount of Calories. In general, most women should consume 1100 to 1500 Calories per day and men should consume about 1400 to 1800 Calories per day. You may need to go a little lower if you are very short or very sedentary or a little higher if you are very large person or very active. Your Healthcare Provider should be able to help guide you if you are not sure how many Calories per day you should consume. Each meal should usually be at least 300 calories if you are eating 3 meals a day. A person should not consume less than 1000 Calories per day,unless closely monitored by their doctor.
E. For persons eating three meals per day, the protein for each meal should be about 25 grams for women and 35 grams for men. This means most women should consume 75 to 100 grams of protein per day and most men should consume 100 to 150 grams per day. Persons engaged in moderate to intense athletics or body builders will need even more protein, and should check with experts in sports nutrition for the proper amount. Make sure you don’t have a medical condition like gout or kidney failure or some other condition that could be detrimental to your health if you increase your protein. Lean red meat, poultry without skin, most fish, no fat cheese, egg whites (which is low in calories and no fat or cholesterol—not the yolk which is high in cholesterol), and egg substitutes such as EGG BEATERS® will usually provide over 25 grams of protein for 150 calories or less. High protein supplements like shakes, fruit flavored drinks, and soups that we sell on-line here, can be a very useful way to boost your protein when eaten along with regular food. But, you need to make sure you are eating enough regular food to keep your calories in the desired range. Also, make sure you maintain your hydration. High protein drinks are not good for hydration and are not to be used in the place of sports drinks like “Gatorade” that replace lost fluids and electrolytes. You need at least eight 8 oz. glasses of fluids a day such as water, diet sodas or other low caloric drinks. If you have vigorous workouts and/or are in a very hot or humid climate, you may need even more fluids in order to maintain adequate hydration. If you are not sure about your hydration, you may need to check with your trainer, Healthcare Provider, or specialist in Sports Nutrition.
F. Fat Grams should be about 15% to 20% of your daily calories. Women should aim for about 20 to 30 grams per day and men should aim for about 30 to 40 grams per day. You should take a multiple vitamin with minerals e.g., Centrum every day (consult your doctor if any medical problems as to which vitamins and minerals to take). Aim for 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day. You may need to increase your fiber intake slowly to avoid intestinal problems. (Consult your doctor if you have any medical conditions as to how much or type of fiber to take.)
