Down & Dirty Way To Start Your Diet

Hambone23

Disclaimer: I'm not saying this is the best way to continue to diet, but for those who find it overwhelming or don't know how to start a diet while still learning the ins and outs of diet speak, here's some down and dirty guidelines from a diabetes diet that helped me lose 80 lbs. that I gained from being on meds. (I know; you'd never know I lost and have maintained that given my picture. Anyway...)

To give this credibility, these numbers were developed in collaboration with the Diabetes Care and Education Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. (Say that 3x faster.)

Breakfast: About 450 cals -- About 60 carbs
Lunch: About 550 cals -- About 75 carbs
Dinner: About 650 cals -- About 75 carbs

This gives you a total of 1,650 cals and 210 carbs per day.

I found there were a lot more things that I could eat given these guidelines than I had originally expected. It made me feel less deprived. For example, some personal-sized frozen pizzas fall into this range. A lot of ready-made microwave dinners for those on the go. There's even quite a few things you can get from fast food places that fall into these ranges. (If anyone's interested in that, I can list the examples for the fast food restaurants they mention in the booklet.)

Obviously, there are other factors you need to think about, such as fats and protein and what not. And you don't want to use this as an excuse to get fast food all the time, but this got me started. This time around, I do want to learn to cook homemade meals that fit into all the right categories. Still, I'll probably use this to start while I'm learning what to cook and how much and what not. I know some people on these forums will be horrified at the carbs, though.

quietpotato

I love this. Weight loss really is about calories in vs. calories out. If you ate just 1000 calories a day of butter you'd lose weight. You may still have a heart attack, though. Enjoy things like fast food and candy, as long as you fit them into your calorie count.

savlyon

I like that you say this is a starting point. Many times people get SO overwhelmed with the code words in nutrition and fitness that they just give up. Master the calories in/calories out concept...then you can quickly pick up new and better concepts to maximize those calories for your health. It's a process. You can't go from a Super Size Queen to a Clean Eater overnight. (unless of course you put yourself in a locked room for the rest of your life and paid someone to only bring you the foods that you specified and no others.)

shrinkinginQualicum

I think that's a great start! It's totally overwhelming when you start out -- the amount of info out there is crazy. And as with anything we do, the more we do it, the more we learn, so the main thing is to start, the rest will come. It took me 3 years from starting to do some sporadic exercise to get my muscles back after surgery to really exercising, and another year after that to start being more concious of what I was eating. Each step comes when you're ready, and as long as you keep thinking about it, it WILL come.

Veganniee

Really good advice for someone who is just getting to grips with dieting. I like the carb guideline too.

Hambone23

For those looking for fast food choices from the book I mentioned above, I've written them down as threads in this group:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1772-type-2-diabetes-support-group