Diet and weight loss
During this past year I have made a lot of lifestyle changes. I am eating better. Eating less. And exercising more. Fortunately, this has resulted in significant weight loss, that a lot of people have noticed. Given that obesity is quickly becoming the epidemic of our age, many people are asking “How’d you do it?”
There is not one particular secret…no special new medicine, for example. I have found several online sites that help, however. I want to feature one in this post.
Using this site, you can track what you’re eating in amazing detail. Sure, you can look at a label and see how many calories a food has, and you can see how much is from protein and fat. But look up the same food at this site and you can see so much more depth.
For example, take a simple boneless, skinless chicken breast half grilled with 1/4 teaspoon canola oil. After selecting the ingredients and clicking to create a “recipe,” you will learn your entree contains 5 grams fat and 27 grams protein. But Nutrition Data (ND) goes much deeper. Glance at ND’s nutritional target map to learn that your chicken recipe has a fullness factor of 3.1 and it gets 2 1/2 stars out of five as a weight-loss choice based on the recipe’s total profile for how many nutrients per calorie it contains. You’ll also get other observations, such as the chicken is low in sodium, and exactly which nutrients it has (vitamin B-6 with 1/2 milligram, protein, niacin and selenium). Scroll down a bit further and you can see its glycemic load (0) and its caloric ratio. You can get an amino acid score (136) and learn what that means. And fat? You’ll get 5.3 grams total, including 1 gram saturated and 266 milligrams of healthier omega-3 fatty acids.
In all, a very useful site for anyone with specific nutritional needs, as well as for someone who simply wants to better understand what they’re eating.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:59 am
I started the South Beach Diet on April 1 of this year. On April 1, I weighed 198 pounds. Today, April 23, I weigh 185. I lost ten pounds on the first week of the diet. I read somewhere that the first 10 pounds or so you lose very quickly because it is mostly water weight. The next pounds are more difficult to lose because it is stored fat. Anyway, this diet really works. My goal is to weigh 170. I lost all the weight without doing any exercise whatsoever. The problem with this and any diet is that they don’t work. You can do it for a few months but eventually, you break and go back to your old eating habits and gain all the weight back plus some. You have to make a drastic lifestyle change and stick to it for it to work. Don’t kid yourself.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
You’re absolutely right. In fact, we generally use the word “diet” to mean a temporary change in our eating habits with the goal of losing weight. It’s a lifestyle change.
The reason why people lose weight quickly on the high protein, low carb diets like South Beach and Artkins and The Zone is because these diets still turn out to be low calorie diets. Fewer calories = weight loss. But eating a higher percentage of your calories in the form of protein makes you feel full, and therefore, it is easier to follow the diet than a typical low-calorie, high-carb/low-fat diet.
Good job!
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
I was already struggling with regaining some of my lost weight during my time in Nantucket, but moving has resulted in A LOT less time on the bike, and the resulting time in the car results in odd side trips through fast food drive thru lanes and even more struggles. Got to get the nutrition side of the equation.
Site looks good.