What a thread!!!
Hi all! So many eating plans (I just can't use the word diet). Ok, just had to throw in my two cents, and it may not even be worth that. I guess there's no one way of eating that'll work for everyone, otherwise we'd have figured it out by now, right? I have adopted the following plan at three different times over the past year with successful results everytime. The first time was because my workout room was being finished and I knew I wouldn't be able to workout for at least 2 months (turned out to be almost 3), the second was 2 months before I went to Hawaii last winter, and the last and most recent time was to drop a few pounds before I went to Utah last month. Let me say first that my ultimate goal is to never go off of this plan again. Besides the wonderful effect of losing weight, I also have much more energy and just feel much better in general. I am NOT a nutritionist, but I feel I have a pretty good basic understanding of the concept of nutrition. This eating plan does resemble the Body for Life program in that you eat smaller meals more frequently. When I first planned on giving this a try, I had heard several things about eating less more frequently having postiive effects both in the weight loss area and in general health. The thing that made the most sense to me was a discussion about the effects of eating too much at one sitting and the resulting release of insulin into the bloodstream it causes. (Can't remember just where I heard this, but I'm a big Prevention reader, so it most likely came from there) In any case, there was speculation (don't know if it's been confirmed or not) that large insulin spikes can have an adverse effect on one's metabolism and an arbitrary figure of 500 calories being the upper limit to avoid this spiking was set. So, I set up a little plan for myself. I tried to eat about every 2 hours, at around 200-300 calories per meal. Sometimes, especially in the morning when all I wanted was a piece of fruit it would be more like 100, and I would allow myself a larger, 500 calorie dinner. Now, at the beginning, I would eat 4 double stuff oreos for my 200 calories if that's what I wanted. However, as time went by, I began to realize that these tuly were "empty" calories, 'cause they sure didn't hold you for very long! I gradually began to make better food choices and found that I stayed fuller for longer periods of time. Make no mistake though, at the end of the two hours, I was ready to eat! I allowed myself a range of 1800 to 2000 calories daily and except for the first attempt at this plan, I saw immediate results. The first time I wasn't exercising and the weight loss took about a week and a half to start up. I consistently lost about 2 pounds a week each time. Yeah, I gained a few pounds back when I went off it, but overall I am a good 10 pounds lighter than when I first started out. My biggest downfall in the quest to eat well is that I have no portion control and this plan certainly addresses it. Although I chose to eat every two hours at on average 200 cals per meal, I'm certain one could adapt this philosophy and up the calories (still within the 500 calorie range) and lengthen the time between meals, still striving to eat smaller and more frequently than just three meals a day. I found it handy to keep some of those bars (Balance and Luna are my favorites) in my car for those times when I was out on the road (kiddies have a ton of extra curriculars, don't ya know), but I tried not to depend on these if I had other options. Ok, enough preaching, I'll shut up now!
Elizabeth Kelly
That is, 5 smaller meals with a mixture of protein and carbhydrate. I usually train 6 times a week breaking down into groups like back and shoulder, chest and arms, then legs with everything being hit twice per week. Next week I am trying a body part per day just to mix it up. Today I have had cereal and yogurt at breakfast followed by egg whites and toast, then tuna, whole wheat crackers and lettuce. I am going to have a luna for a snack then a lean hamburger on an onion bun and a salad for dinner. This is way more protein than usual for me but I'll give it a shot. I used the website to figure out my total calorie needs taking into account my activity level, then it said to subtract 500 cals for each pound you wish to lose per week so I subtracted 500 and got 1700 ! I can definitely live with that and if I end up losing the old slab of flab, I'll be very happy. Keep posting and we'll compare notes!
