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One of the things that disturbs me the most about low-fat, no-fat, low-carb, no-carb diets is that they focus on what you shouldn’t eat. There are some “high protein” diets out there, but they also focus a great deal of energy on what you shouldn’t eat.

I’d like to discuss fiber, something you SHOULD eat, in high quantity. The low-carb community often glosses over how vitally important fiber is, because fiber is - you guessed it - a carbohydrate. And that was one of my biggest issues with the low-carb craze (which has, thankfully, fallen out of favor), is that it focused on cutting out the very foods you need the most, such as fruits and vegetables!

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Can’t see the forest for the trees? Spent countless hours looking for a simple and free weight loss plan? Here is a brief summary of a sensible plan that will ensure weight loss if you follow it, and still provide enough nutrition and calories to keep you satisfied and energetic.

How much to eat
Find out how many calories you need in a day. Unfortunately this is different for everyone, so it will take some time for you to discover the actual number. Use my chart as a starting guide, but eventually you’ll have to tweak the numbers to fit you. It’s OK to take an educated guess and go with it for a week or two, then re-evaluate. After you’ve determined how many calories you need in a day to maintain your weight, you then need to keep that number higher than the amount of calories you consume minus the calories you burn every day. I suggest a moderate decrease in food and a moderate increase in exercise to make up the difference. Let’s say you need 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight. If you want to lose a pound a week (which is optimal and healthy), you need to burn off 500 calories a day. This 500 deficiency would be best achieved by exercising off 250 calories via exercise and also eating 250 calories less than you need.

You can certainly set loftier goals than that, but remember that the more you exercise, the more you will need to eat.

How often to eat
Once you have determined how many calories you will be taking in every day, you will then divide that number by how many meals you plan to eat per day, between 4 and 6 meals a day. The answer you get will be the amount of calories you will try to consume per meal. Eating more meals throughout the day keeps your body burning fuel on a regular basis. This helps increase your metabolism as well. I’ve known people to lose weight merely by making this change in habit.

What to eat
Try to eat a well-balanced meal when possible. No matter what you eat, be sure to eat lots of fruits and vegetables (especially raw, uncooked ones), and if possible try replacing or supplementing occasional meals with juice fresh from a juicer. Adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet will make you feel better, help you lose weight, have more energy, and even help you look better. Avoid “hidden” calories such as soft drinks, mayonnaise, breaded foods, etc. Stay away from greasy foods, breaded foods, and non-lean meats.

Exercise
Exercise as many days as you can, and as many ways as you can. Lift weights, walk, play sports, jump rope, go bowling, play with your kids or grandkids, take a stroll through the mall - do whatever it takes to keep yourself moving. A little bit every day can add up to huge gains over time. Fitness and weight loss aren’t sprints, they’re marathons. Just stick to it and over time you’ll see results. Don’t forget to eat a high-protein meal immediately after exercising.

Additional Tips

• Choose a larger quantity of low-calorie foods and you will never be hungry.
• Only cut carbs when it’s refined sugar (not the natural sugar in fruit!) and only cut fat when it’s saturated or transfat.
• Planning is the key. If you can plan out your meals for a week, you will probably succeed!
• Keep your mind focused on weight loss throughout the day.
• Tell others about your weight loss goals, and ask them for their support! You won’t feel alone in your quest.
• Rid your cabinets of almost all junk food, except for one or two small treats as a reward to yourself.
• Remember you are not eliminating anything. You are simply making smarter choices.

Below is a chart to show how many calories the average, low-activity person should need per day to maintain their weight. To reduce your weight, you will need to reduce your calories.

Everyone is different and these numbers should only be used as a guide. If you are a more active or muscular person, you will need to increase your calories.

Eating a low-fat diet is a no-brainer if you are keeping your calories in check. A filling 300-calorie meal will almost certainly be low in fat. And let’s not forget that fat is not always a bad thing. Diets rich in monounsaturated fats have produced weight loss. My first diet consisted of a peanut butter sandwich almost every day (who says they’re just for kids?). Peanuts are high in monounsaturated fat, which is part of a healthy diet. Saturated fats are the ones to avoid, and if you notice a food is very high in saturated fat, you should probably limit your intake of that particular food. Oh, and if you want one of those peanut butter sandwiches, hold the jelly and be sure to use whole wheat bread.
Dietary fat can be a tightrope walk. Studies have suggested that as much as 90% of bodyfat comes from dietary fat intake. On the other hand, dietary fat is needed to carry certain vitamins to your body, and helps the to absorb into your system. Dietary fat also supplies you with essential fatty acids, which is not manufactured in your body.

I can hear the complaints… “So now what?” Well carbohydrates are your body’s fuel and protein helps build and maintain lean muscle as well as provides amino acids. Fat has its positive uses, too, but most Western diets consist of far too much dietary fat and calories.

Determine how many calories you need in a day to maintain your weight. The only true way to do this is through trial and error. Divide your daily calories by the number of meals you eat per day, which should be 4 to 6 per day. Then choose your foods wisely. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, along with lean meat, poultry, and pork. These simple foods are the foundation of a successful diet, and it’s almost impossible to fail if you stick with them. They are low in calories and high in nutrients. You’ll feel full without eating more calories than you need. Forget about watching your carbs, as long as you’re not taking in a lot of simple carbs such as sugar.

I’ve always said that if you eat a sensible meal that can fill you without being high in calories, you really don’t have to concern yourself with fat or carbs.  Junk food is usually to high in calories (think fast food burgers that reach 1000 calories) or not filling at all (like candy). If you stick with fruit, vegetables, and lean meat, you really only need to focus on portions rather than fat and carbs.

If you’ve been following a particular weight loss system, but you’re still having problems, here are a few suggestions to fine-tune your program and give you a better chance at success. Let’s take a look at some simple solutions to those problems, so that if you want to stick with one of those programs, you still can.

Have a free day or free hour.
Several systems want you to be rigid except for a “free” time, hour, day, etc. Bad idea. People will often cram as many calories into their bodies as they can during this time, destroying the progress they achieved since their last “free” time. Have a couple of free meals a week instead. Go to a buffet, restaurant, or even fast food location. Have your meal, enjoy a soda or beer, even add a desert, and then stop. You’ll feel good about your meal, and then later you will feel good that you didn’t continue eating. Don’t feel guilty about what you ate. It also allows you the flexibility to go out on a whim, or along with friends. Just make sure you aren’t doing it more than a couple times a week. You will be able to enjoy your meal without guilt, knowing you have stuck to your guns all week.

You should only drink water
Time for a reality check. If you find water pleasant enough to drink, that’s great. In fact, I recommend trying various brands of water for the one you find the best tasting, then stocking your fridge with bottles of that brand. When you’re thirsty and open the fridge, a nice cold bottle of water might just sound great. Many people don’t find water palatable enough to drink 24/7, or at least need to adjust to drinking only water. There are options. Diet sodas are OK, but because of some lingering health questions about their sweeteners, try not to go overboard. In fact, I like to rotate between different artificial sweeteners so that I don’t get too much of any one of them. Diet Rite and Propel use Splenda (sucralose), while most other diet drinks use Aspartame. I don’t endorse drinking these in large quantities, but they are fine in moderation. I suggest allowing yourself one treat a day in the drink department, such as a diet soda. You’ll enjoy it far more than if you were to drink them all day long. Try to find ways to make water more palatable, too. Ice-cold water seems to “taste” better than room temperature water. Try adding a twist of lemon. Tea is also a great no-calorie drink. If you can drink it unsweetened, you are ahead of the game. If not, try adding small quantities of sugar or a sugar substitute, but don’t go overboard. Remember that sugar is a form of carbohydrate, which will turn into fat if you consume too much. Be careful.

Daily Exercise
If you’re really gung-ho, go ahead and exercise 6 days a week, but don’t feel guilty if you tire of this schedule and scale back to a few days a week. And make sure to rotate through various body parts, giving ample rest to each one throughout the week. If you’re not excited about exercising, start exercising moderately 3 days a week. If you’re willing and able, move up from there to 4 days a week. Then up to 5 or 6 if you want. But if 3 days is as much as you can put into it, be happy with that. Even 2 days a week would benefit you. Don’t feel that exercise is an all-or-nothing undertaking. Do what you can, when you can. Any exercise is better than none. If you’re looking to get a ripped physique, you’ll have to live in the gym. If you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll just need to get there a couple of times a week. Combined with the diet, the pounds will come off easily. Under the other systems you are a failure for “only” putting in 3 days a week. I absolutely disagree with that thinking. It is also not a good idea to begin with a rigorous exercise regimen. Start off slowly. Honestly, even if you’re young, you should run your exercise plan by your doctor. It sounds cliché, but if your health is the main priority, why not?

If you find yourself doing a 2-day or 3-day program, don’t worry. It just adds a little more importance to your diet program, as you are burning less calories per week. You can definitely lose weight without daily exercise, to the chagrin of most fitness experts.

You can transform your body in a few weeks
The idea is to get in shape, to lose weight, and to hopefully add some muscle. If you start off with those six-pack abs in mind, you are setting yourself up to fail. Progress will come in small steps. You might lose as much as 2 pounds a week, but aim for a pound a week. Your first week you might lose a lot of weight, which is to be expected, typically in the form of retained water. Don’t ever think that losing a pound a week is a failure. This isn’t The Biggest Loser TV show, where people under grueling regimens lose 8 pounds a week. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You are making life-long changes. Two pounds is the upper limits of what you should lose in a week. That means your body is experiencing a net loss of 1000 calories a day, and that’s a lot, especially if you only need around 2000 calories to survive. Eat six small meals a day and I guarantee you won’t be hungry. In fact, you will most likely find yourself eating some of those meals when you’re not even hungry.
Keep your carbs low, protein high, fat low
That’s a lot to think about. It’s also largely unnecessary in many cases. As I’ll explain later, carbs, fat, and protein are all forms of calories. It seems absurd to only watch one form of calorie or worse, to consume too much of one type while cutting back too much on another. By looking at the big picture, we’ll keep all of them in check without having to look at each one individually. You have to realize that the low carb craze was a fad that thankfully died out, yet a few hangers-on remain out there. While there is some evidence that cutting carbs short-term results in more weight loss, long term there is probably no weight loss benefit, and perhaps even some damage if you cut them too much. See my blog about watching fat, or actually not watching it, for more info.

In short, if you’re following a weight loss system and you’re struggling with success, take a look at ways such as the ones above in which you can tweak it to fine tune it to your own needs. The authors of those systems want you to stick to them by the letter, but in the real world only you know what you’re capable of achieving.

I started off with Body For Life, but found several features of it simply didn’t mesh with the fiber of who I am. I tried, but ended up reading several systems and creating a sort of “weight loss system salad” in which I picked out the elements which were best suited for me. I lost 60 pounds in all, and in fact lost too much weight and had to gain some back!