The word diet comes from Greek and Latin words diete, diata, and diaita. To the Greeks, diet meant literally a way of living. Over the years we have taken the word diet and added numerous definitions. I prefer Webster’s definition.

DIET: food and drink considered in terms of quality, composition and effects on health.

To diet simply means thinking about and acting on the quality and the effect your food will have on your health. It does not mean losing weight, starving yourself or restricting yourself to ugly foul tasting meals. I have listed numerous diets that are fairly popular right now and given a brief description (along with my unsolicited opinion of course) of each. Almost every diet will work for most people. The simple reason for this is that when we embark on almost any diet, we are watching what we eat probably for the first time in a while.  The problem with restrictive dieting is that eventually we have to eat normally again and we add new weight back on since we have not learned how to eat properly. A well balanced, pure live food source diet is always your best choice unless there is some medical reason for eating otherwise and if that is the case then consult your doctor.   Learn to eat correctly and you will be able to eat almost anywhere without constantly adding inches to your waistline!!!

WHY DO WE GET FAT?

      A normal healthy body gets fat one way and one way only;  We put more food into it than we can digest and utilize over a given period of time.  Let us take your car for example,   would we try to put 30 gallons of fuel into a 20 gallon tank in order to avoid refueling?   I know, that sounds silly, but when you think about it that is exactly what we do to our bodies almost every day.  We eat until we get sick of eating with almost no regard as to why we are eating. 

As if eating too much was not bad enough, we then consume large quantities of saturated fats that require an entirely different  process to be used as fuel than Protein, carbohydrate and non-saturated fats.  This means we are going to be stuck adding those saturated fats onto our waistlines and butts and then trying to exercise them off later on.  I am not going to go into the science of the digestive process on this page since my intention here is simply to help you understand the simplicity of losing fat.

HOW THEN DO WE GO ABOUT DECIDING HOW MUCH TO EAT?

     There are numerous methods and contributing factors to deciding how many calories per day is the correct amount for you.  I am not going to go into all of them here.  I suggest you use a very simple method to test your response to gaining and losing weight.  Multiply your body weight in pounds by 10,12, or 14.  Use the answer to this problem as your basic calorie intake for one day.  Use the result of multiplying by 10 to lose weight and the result of 12 to maintain your weight and lastly, the result of 14 to gain weight.  After using this formula for two weeks, adjust your calorie intake according to the response.  Add calories if you are losing more than 1-2 pounds per week and eat fewer calories if you are gaining more than 1 pound per week.  Under no circumstances should you EVER be on a diet that consists of less than 1100 calories per day without a doctors orders and supervision.  In most cases a diet of less than 1100 per day will actually decrease your lean body mass and maintain or even increase your fat percentage although the scale may in fact read fewer pounds.  I often see Doctors promote the 500 calorie per day diet for months for patients!  This is just plain stupid!  Of course we are going to lose weight on this diet.  We are also losing health and strength and any level of fitness we had attained before a diet such as this. It is simply a nice money maker for the doctor treating you. Your diet should consist of 40-50 percent carbohydrate and about 30 percent of fat and 30 percent protein.  Most of your carbohydrate should come in the form of complex carbohydrate and not plain sugar.   remember;  honey, fruit sugar, and juices are all just sugar.  Do not be fooled into thinking honey is somehow not sugar.  Your body does not know the difference between types of sugars and in fact, honey will reach your blood stream quicker than table sugar.  They all break down just about the same for our purposes in fat loss.

WHEN DO I EAT?

     You should eat a meal every two to three hours but in small quantities.  This might sound challenging but it is much easier than you might think.  In the same manner that you might choose a candy bar or a soda for a snack you can easily make an apple and a banana your meal in between breakfast and lunch and improve your diet by doing so.  Food items like these are sweet and nutritious and can be eaten in a very short period of time if we are at work or on the go.   Even a nutrition bar is a great option when meals are not readily  available.  Eating these small meals in between breakfast lunch and dinner will also leave us less hungry at our next meal and we will be less likely to overeat or "run through" the drive-thru on the way home.  Realize that a trip through a drive thru window or a stop at your local doughnut shop is often more calories at one time than you should have eaten all day long.  Those 2 bagels smothered with cream cheese that you have on your way to work are adding another inch to your waistline every month and they do not carry much nutritional value to keep your factory running smoothly.  NOTE:   A more preferable meal than the fruit would include Protein and Un-saturated fat as well as carbohydrates.  An egg white omelet with vegetables for example.

WHAT DO I EAT?

     Your primary source of calories should come in the form of carbohydrate.  Some great sources of carbs include, pasta, grains, potatoes, yams, rice and fruit.  No more than 10% of you daily calorie intake should consist of simple carbohydrate or "sugar".  Remember, the carbs in fruit are sugar, sugar is sugar, honey is sugar, sweetened teas, beverages and sodas are sugar, and, juices are sugar.   Next comes protein.  Your diet should consist of about .5-1.0 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass.  Understand that a normal sized chicken breast has almost 30 grams of protein so you can easily get the 40-150 grams that most people require.  Protein comes in all forms.  Chicken, tofu, fish, red meat, egg whites (the most perfect source), and legumes just to name a few.  Even a vegetarian should have no problem finding good sources of protein in tasty meals made with tofu or soy beans.  Do not eat more than 40 grams of protein per meal since over eating protein will just convert what is not able to be used to fat.  Last but not least is fat.  Don't think that fat is something we should steer clear of.   On the contrary, your body needs fat to maintain and protect cells and organs.   Some fats have been called "good" fats, while others have been called "bad" fats.  In a nutshell, no pun intended, good fats are unsaturated fats and bad fats are saturated fats.  Saturated fats tend to be found in many of the foods we like to call "junk food".  Fast food, chips, doughnuts, ice cream (Cookies and Cream is my personal favorite), cookies, chocolate, cheese and cream pies all tend to have large amounts of artery clogging, heart wrenching fat grams.  Simply put, saturated fats directly lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and a great big butt!   Unsaturated fats such as; olive oil, flaxseed oil, Canola oil, many nuts and avocados are the "good" fats that we need for proper organ and cell functions.   Be aware that fat has 9 calories per gram and not 4 like carbohydrate and protein so you will add up the calories rapidly while eating fat.  We should have about 20-30% fat in our diet with almost all of this in the form of unsaturated fats.  It would be impossible to completely avoid saturated fat so just be aware of how much of each type you are eating every day.  Remember, every time you eat fast food or junk food, you are just adding inches to your waistline that you will have to work harder to remove later on. 

HOW ABOUT A SAMPLE OF A GOOD DAY OF EATING.

This meal has approximately 1275 calories.  So of course it is a meal plan for a small person weighing around 120-135.  It  is great for someone that should weigh about 125 and wants to lose the weight to get there.  This particular day is very low in fat and moderate in carbohydrate.  This day of eating also has over 100 percent of the US RDA of all the vitamins and almost all of the minerals.  You will also notice that I did not add any bread to this diet.  I do not often warn people away from certain foods but in the case of losing fat, bread is almost always destructive to your plan.  It is very dense and packs a tremendous amount of calories for what it offers us.  It will not hurt you to cut most of the bread out of your diet for a time and add some back in slowly when you reach your goal.  As with any weight loss program, it is more effective and permanent to lose weight while exercising so get off the couch and go for it! 

• 7:00AM   3 Egg white omelet with tomatoes, broccoli and any other veggies you like, A bit of picante sauce. Juice

• 10:00AM 1 banana or 1 cup of grapes

• 1:00PM    Tuna salad with tomatoes, lettuce, mushrooms, and a little vinegar- a side of broccoli or spinach-(no mayo)

• 3:00PM    1/2 cup strawberries and an orange

• 6:00PM     1/2 Chicken breast with 3/4 cup brown rice and carrots and peas-8 ounces skim milk-1 med. cookie

Notice that I started the day with protein and a small amount of carbohydrates.   This will often leave you feeling more satiated than just carb or protein alone in the morning.   I use egg whites because of the fat and cholesterol in the egg yolk although while eating this well, dietary cholesterol is most likely not going to be a concern.  Veggies can be very filling and have very few calories and a bunch of macronutrients that help our system run efficiently all day.

OK that is it! All there is to losing some fat and feeling great.  Seems easy when you see it like this.  It is easy if you do not overwhelm yourself with strict rules and regulations.  Just make small changes every week until your eating habits get better and better.  Rome was not built in a day so do not expect poor eating habits to change overnight.  We do not get fat in a few weeks so do not think you should be able to solve all your weight and eating problems in a few weeks.  Being healthy lasts for a lifetime so as my old high school coach, Raynor Pearce would constantly say: 

"Do what comes naturally if what comes naturally is the right thing to do, If not, then do what is right until it comes naturally"

Happy training and GET BUSY LIVING