Diet Related Questions

If you are active on Facebook, search for the group "Be My Diet Buddy". Its a great online support and there are always great tips and help from others going thru the same thing. Good luck!

my suggestion would be quit googling "diet" and just look into living healthier. any "diet" is going to fail because it's not forever. a healthy lifestyle will help with the weight loss and then you won't gain it back because you've made PERMANENT changes. such as portion control, healthier ways to cook meals at home, eating more fruits and veggies, making sure you get at least an hour of exercise a day, etc. these are lifestyle changes. 20 lbs is nothing, i started exercising every day and watched what i ate and lost 20 lbs over a few months last fall. i haven't gained it back.

I lost 15 lbs in 10 weeks starting this past January. I don't count calories. I simply do not eat any junk food (no cake, candy, ice cream, chips or pretzels). I also cut all bread, crackers, pasta and rice out of my diet. I eat lots of berries (all kinds) nuts, chicken, steak and even bacon. I eat as much as I want as long as it is not simple carbs (junk food). Although I did not follow a plan other people have told M. I am following the Paleo Diet plan. I think there are many books out there on this subject. Good luck!

Edit- I also have a protein shake for breakfast every morning. ( I use whey protein that I purchase from the health food store.).

first off, no one diet works for all people except the best one- eat less and move more. but some people have issues with sugar, others with fat, others with not enough protein and so forth. so you will almost certainly have to experiment a little to find what works best for you. i myself find i can have quite a bit of fat so long as it's reasonably good fat, ie olive oil, avocados and raw milk. but i can go totally fat free and still put on weight if i'm not watching sugar. and nothing will help if i'm not running. however, running alone won't do it either.
it's a complex calculation that you will figure out over time. lots of time. like, way more than a month.
do NOT try to avoid 'all the yummy food' for a month. this is almost guaranteed to backfire on you horribly. you can't not eat. depriving yourself will create a ravening treat monster who will emerge the day before your 'diet' is supposed to end and sabotage all of your hard work. go in the opposite direction and take one small step in the right direction and plan to KEEP it, not ditch it on some magical non-existent future day.
i suggest sparkpeople.com to keep track and keep yourself motivated.
good luck!
khairete
S.

A lot of moms on here are gonna suggest a lot of things you are not going to be able to do. Sounds like you are nursing so what I would do if i were your is start making small changes, don't give up when you make small mistakes and continue to make them saying oh its just one ice cream cone another wont hurt the next day or so...
After I had stopped losing weight after diets, gym, and such I went to a diet doctor who told M. that I was insulant resistant, which basically means sugar and bad carbs are not my friend. So for two weeks, no bad carbs, and eat a diet high in fiber, and good carbs. my weakness is ice cream. So no ice cream or thing that are sweet. I can eat sweet things that are i dont know how to say this but "naturally sweet" like bananas, and other fruits, but you have to be careful how much of that you consume also! because too much will have the same effect. I eat much more veggies now, sauteed most the time, no boiling or deep frying anything. i use olive oil, a long time ago when i do fry something i use canola oil. I do drink special K drinks when I am on the go, but be careful they have a good amount of sugar in them. If you can tollerate the atkins ones they are better for you. I will usually eat a piece of fruit or something with it. I eat more salads when I eat out, either at restaurants or fast food chains. I experiment with veggies making different dishes, to M. its all about seasoning them so I can enjoy them. I bake chicken ahead of time and refridgerate it and chop it up for salads or to make veggie stir fry.
I try to avoid:
Bread (very hard to do)
cereal (IKR doctors orders!) I eat eggs in the morning instead.
Sweets
Ice cream, candy
SODAS!
even juice (took M. up till about a week ago to fully let go if this one) lost 2 pounds already doing that!
You have to leave the rice alone! bad carbs! What I now is I take culiflower, boil it for a few minutes, drain, cool it, chopp it up small with food chopper, to the consistancey that it looks like rice and i use it as a substitute. i usually sautee it with olive oil or a slice of butter, (a very small slice or real butter!) season it and its good to go, your can even add soy sauce to it and add it to stir fry as the rice!
So what i would do is decide what good foods there are that you like and can eat regularly and then google healthy recipes to use.
Sorry if there are a lot of typos Im tired and need to be in the bed.
Good luck on your voayage, dont look at this as a diet but a lifestyle change and it won't seem so bad and you will be teaching your kids how to eat well early.

i never did any specific diets, just my own thing.. 2 years ago when i was going to school i was pakin on the pounds.. i started eating small meals more often, instead of starving myself, that never works.. i counted calories- made sure i didnt go over 1200 a day and i ran on my eliptical machine for 45 minutes every other day- oh and the big one for M. was not eating after dinner- that bowl of icecream at 10pm never did M. anygood.. the first 2 weeks i lost 10 lbs .. the bottom line with losing weight (to M. anyway) is that you have to want it .. u cant do it for a week, get pissed off because youre not losing as much as u wanted and say oh screw it im going to eat 3 pieces of pizza for dinner and half a box of oreos.. if you really want to lose the weight youll put in the effort and do it

I have been doing Weight Watchers since January and I LOVE it!! I eat whatever I want, but I watch my portions and eat in moderation. Based on what you posted about loving foods and not wanting to give up things, this would be perfect!! Seriously, what if you went on one of these crash diets and lost the 20 pounds... how would you maintain that weight loss? My WW leader always says 'Lose the weight the way you want to keep it off'... and it's really true. I go to the weekly meetings, but they also have a program you can follow online (if you do that, you cannot attend meetings and you also don't get the literature that people who joined the 'meetings' group receive). I know this because my neighbor saw M. losing weight and decided to do the online program (she said it was cheaper too). The most important thing with making the program work, is I have to track all my food. If it goes in my mouth, I have to write it down. I use a tracking app on my Droid and that makes it much easier. I too have little kids (4 and 1) and my mom comes over (during the summer) and watches them while I attend the meeting (when I have to bring my kids, I find that I can't devote my attention to what is being said because I am trying to keep my kids in one place) and when my son is in preschool, M. and the little one go to the meeting. I just make sure I have a snack and something to keep her occupied. Please.... ditch the diet idea and try weight watchers (I should be getting paid to advertise them like this) but the program is really good and you can have your nutella on toast, and your ice cream, and banana, and rice.... whatever you want BUT some foods have a higher 'points plus' value than others (WW doesn't do calories, they figure food in points) so like, when it was my son's birthday, I had cake (my biggest addiction), BUT, since it was more points, I had to compensate my food choices to make up for my big indulgence (yes, I still lost weight that week too). Read up on the program. You can message M. if you have questions.

I joined Weight Watchers in late Feb of this year and have lost 45 pounds. Its really easy, and fun, and Im enjoying the meetings and the online tools they have now. I agree with someone else who said you lose the weight the way you plan to keep it off later. You cant expect to change your habits and lose the weight, and then go back to how you ate before and stay slim. Eating the way you have been, is what made you over weight to start with. It will again unless you change your ideas about food and how you eat it. I think most people need the support of a group, and need to be accountable to someone. Sometimes its the price of the meetings that make you stick with it and sometimes its friends watching for your success that keeps you going. I joined with a friend and we email eachother every day every meal and discuss what we had and how we are doing. Its great and we are both doing wonderful. You can try it and see how it goes, but I highly suggest you not start some weird diet that isnt going to be possible to live with for the rest of your life.

Sorry - I didn't have time to read everyone's response, but here's how I've lost 17 pounds... For 6 weeks I gave up bread. I did nothing else differently - still ate ice cream, pasta, everything I normally did - just gave up bread. I lost 8 pounds! That was just to kick start myself.

Now I use MyFitnessPal app on my phone (you can do it on the computer, too). It is nothing fancy; it is just a way to very easily record ALL of your calories for the day. This is the ONLY thing that has worked long term for M.. I've been using it since February and it's still working. Obviously, it's slow for M., but I have a BMI of 21, so I'm in my "ideal" or "healthy" weight bracket now, so it slows down.

I eat whatever I want now... Even bread. But it's a lot easier to stay away from double stuff oreos when you know that two of them are almost 200 calories!! It's also easy to stay away from treats because every time I log in it says, "You have 230 calories left in your day." I get to decide how I want to use those calories! I've even got the husband doing it now. :) It also tells you how much protein, fiber, etc. you need to have in your day and you can check in to see how much more you should have or if you're over the daily recommendation. Good luck!

The best diet is one you can stick to. Avoid gimmicks like "just eat bananas" and that sort of thing. If you cut back too much and take in too few calories, your body thinks it's starving and your metabolism slows down and burns fewer calories, thereby inhibiting weight loss. Most people do these things and then gain the weight back because it wasn't sustainable.

You DO need some protein, some carbs and some fats. Protein can come in the form of lean meats, tofu, beans, good quality soy, many vegetables, dairy, eggs. If you eat cheese, make sure it's real cheese and not "cheese food". Complex carbs are the whole grain version rather than "white" versions which are largely stripped of their nutrients, are digested very quickly, and which convert to sugar easily without your body having to work at it too much. You get a quick rush (kind of like a sugar high), your blood sugar level spikes, and then it drops off and you are hungry again. There's a huge different between whole grain and whole wheat. Yes, some people eliminate wheat because they have digestive issues or, frankly, because they eat too much of these things. Our foods are pretty depleted so we are actually craving nutrients, and we keep eating (getting full and gaining weight and having blood sugar issues such as metabolic syndrome) but we aren't getting the nutrients because our food is devoid of them. However, complex carbs in moderation are things like oatmeal instead of junk cereal, whole wheat bread instead of white, etc. - so no white pasta, no white rice (brown is good). Read the label: if it says "enriched flour" (even "enriched wheat flour") don't buy it - it's stripped down flour they threw a few vitamins back into, but it's not even close to the whole thing. Also, no high fructose corn syrup, very little sugar, little salt.

Other carbs include chickpeas (including hummus) which have protein too, and vegetables & fruits. Go for sweet potatoes instead of white - slice them and toss with a little olive oil and pepper, and oven roast for "fries".

Healthy fats include olive oil, canola oil, flax oil (not corn or vegetable), sesame seeds, flax seeds, avocados, peanut butter, almond butter, etc. So, a breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, cinnamon (no sugar), and a tablespoon of flaxseed oil stirred in will hold you. Skip the OJ - too much sugar and no fiber. You're better off eating the whole orange. Try to get peanut butter without added sugar, and hold your intake to 1-2 tablespoons.

So, a PB&J sandwich with whole wheat bread, no-sugar PB, a whole fruit preserve without high fructose corn syrup, and some raw veggies on the side is a huge improvement over a standard PB&J. Whole wheat tortillas with a little lean cooked chicken, and loaded with veggies (onions, some peas, beans,, chopped tomatoes), rolled and sealed with a tooth pick, topped with plain tomato puree or sauce (not jarred sauce with sugar in it) seasoned with some cumin and cilantro, and topped with a little shredded cheese and baked for 15 minutes, and some brown rice cooked with a little more of the puree instead of all water....that makes a much healthier alternative to a burrito full of fat and cheese.

Cut back the sugar, but don't add in Splenda or Equal - there's a lot of research that says your body can't tell the difference and your blood sugar level can still spike, and there's a lot of concern about the chemicals. Stevia is better.

No gatorade or vitamin water or any of that junk - a stray vitamin or two won't help -

You can make some small adjustments to make your food digest more slowly. This gives you more sustained energy, which allows you to exercise longer and have your body use that fuel over time and still use stored fat.

Eat 5 times a day - 3 meals and 2 snacks. Snacks include about 10-15 almonds, some celery andy other raw veggies dipped in a little hummus, a small yogurt, and so on. Not 6 cookies and a bag of chips! HA HA wouldn't that be nice?

Nutella is pretty much sugar. They're kind of in trouble for implying that they are a healthy snack. Don't fry the chicken in the usual way - take some tenderloins and dip them in flour, then beaten egg and then a combination of whole wheat bread crumbs or wheat germ. Quick fry in olive oil just to crisp it up, but then remove it to a baking sheet and finish it in the oven. If you're getting 1500 calories from all white flour, it's not going to help you. For a sweet craving, have a square of 70% or up dark chocolate and a dozen raspberries.

You should also be supplementing with a comprehensive powder that you mix in water - nothing premixed and definitely no pills (not absorbed, waste of money). Look for manufactured in US (not just distributed by a US company) and with a patent on the whole formula (not just one or two ingredients) which proves efficacy and safety. I don't think you can find that in stores but I get mine from a company that gives you support and follow-up. Feeding your body with a highly absorbable fuel makes up the difference in what your food is lacking (see above about cravings) and it cuts the yearning for stuff that's bad for you! It can also help support a more active, injury-free exercise program. I haven't been sick in 5 years (not a cold, not a flu, not an allergy symptom), and I can work out much more than anyone else my age. I'm not a fanatic, but I can work out efficiently.

Oh yeah, and none of those energy drinks - bad bad bad, all caffeine and sugar, overuse can cause heart fibrillation issues. Ask any paramedic - they're taking people in by ambulance who have problems.

And any program that lets you eat real food and manage your portions is a good thing but you have to be smart and not just count calories. But you have to track your food and be sure that you are someone who can stick to that.

Ok I am a thin person. I stay this way by watching what I eat. The best way for M. to do this is just counting my calories. Because then you can still eat whatever you want! As long as you stay in your calorie range the weight will still come off. Then you don't feel deprived. It is better to make healthy choices because they are lower calories and therefore you can eat more through out the day instead of eating all your calories in one meal but still, you can eat what you want. For example yesterday I had cream of wheat for breakfast. i make mine with water and add some splenda to it. So total calorie intake was 100. Then for lunch I took my kids to McDonalds. I had a big mac! yes a big mac! It was 540 calories but I had a diet pop and no fries. So i was only up to 640 calories. Then for dinner I ate this homemade soup with crackers. The total for all that was about 600 calories. Bring M. up to 1240. I try to stay around 1300. So I was done for the day after dinner. But do you see what I mean? counting calories is a great way to diet and still eat what you want. Some low calorie foods that I like and fill M. up are hard boiled eggs about 70 calories in 1 egg. Greek yogurt, Lean Cuisines, Soups, those 100 calorie snack packs, salads with grilled chicken and a vinegar dressing, slimfast shakes, green smoothies.....I could go on and on. haha

I agree with a lot of other posters-- start by counting calories, write down everything you eat and exercise-- walking is a great & easy way to burn calories btw. A few years ago I used the "Lose-It" app on my phone to record what I ate as well as counted calories- the app even recorded how many calories were burned with various exercises (cleaning my house counted!). I dropped 20+ pounds and ate what I wanted to. If I knew that I wanted buttered popcorn in the evening, I would eat wisely during the day to save my calories. Opt for eating whole foods rather than processed foods or "low-cal" foods, you'll feel better and more full because you're eating real food. I think writing down what you eat also helps because it makes you aware of your eating choices and ultimately changes your eating patterns. My advise would be to definately eat your favorite yummy foods- just work around them by eating healthy during the other times of the day and exercise.

Good luck- you can do it!

I think I can help. I just tried the General Motors "cleanse". I will be honest, I saw it in my SIL's Pinterest page and laughed so hard at how ridiculous the cleanse was, then I just had to try it for a lark. I mean, come on! "Today you may have 8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. Today you can have 10 oz beef and 5 tomatoes". Ri-dic-u-lous! That being said, I tried it, today is my last day of it, and I cheated every day. BUT I did increase my water intake by a ton. I had 5-6 large glasses of water per day and it helped M. feel full. I ate lots of fruits and veggies. I mean LOTS. Lunch would be 1 cup broccoli, 2 carrots and 1 cup sliced cucumbers and I wouldn't even be able to eat all of it. Dinner was harder as I am hungrier and more "snack-y" at night but I did have stir fry vegetables with no rice and no sauce...and guess what, it was actually really good. I also tried grating yellow squash and zuchinni with my food processor, cooking it in the microwave 2 minutes and adding spaghetti sauce, and I actually really like it. It was similar enough to spaghetti for M..
So I am down 3 lbs this week. I do not think I would advocate the GM diet but I do think that playing around with it and using it as a guideline for this week did help M. cut down a lot on the coffee and milk (I caved 3 times, I had such bad caffeine withdrawal headaches!), I cut out most of the sugar and white flour, and I did discover that I actually really can be satisfied with fruits and vegetables for a lot of my meals.
I know there is a lot of info out there on the net that can be confusing. Weight loss ultimately comes down to calories in vs calories out. I have had good success in the past with just tracking my calories consumed. There are lots of websites or phone apps for this- livestrong.com, myfitnesspal, dailyburn are all ones I have tried and liked. Or a pad of paper or whiteboard on the fridge (what I am using now, it is faster than typing it into a phone). It is easy(ish) to do this because you just need to read labels and measure out your food. You can look up the calorie count for produce and meat on the 'net and pretty soon you will have most of the foods you eat calorie counts memorized. This is basically what Weight Watchers is, although they basically assign foods a point value based on the amount of fiber, fat and calories. I had good success on Weight Watchers, too. They have an inexpensive online only plan as well. I just hate taking the extra step to figure out the points value, I think basic calorie counting is faster. I have tried avoiding flour and sugar, and I dropped a lot of weight that way as well. I had a hard time sticking with it for more than a month at a time.
As you can see, I have tried a lot of different plans. My personal opinion is to pick something that you can live with forever. Make a lifestyle change so you do not go back up and down. For M., cutting out sugar and flour forever is a no-go. Cutting them out most days and focusing on lots of produce, some meat and eggs, a little dairy and treats occasionally? Sure, I can do that. Good luck!

Your best bet is to just eat healthy foods. Go for whole grains. My friend has had a lot of success with Weight Watchers, and they now have a smartphone app if you have one of those. Take a look at the food pyramid and try to hit everything you should as close to the recommended values as you can and still stay in your caloric intake goal.