Try the lifestyle diet, I've heard it's the best. I maintain a good weight by eating a bunch of greens, whole grains, meat and the occasionally fatty desert. Don't become a robot to your diet. Just exercise, stretch and breath deeply a few times a day. Do yoga to relieve stress and strengthen muscles. When planning on loosing weight the best way is to do it with your mind, body and spirit.
mmmm, hazelnut sounds good. It took me a bit of shopping around to find a yogurt I liked. And it has to have granola in it. Its a texture thing.
Another diet thing is that when you feel happy you loose more weight, so feeling depressed and down is negative on the weight loss. So do those social events, be merry, go around, talk to people, go jogging, be active in life. Active as in participate in as much as you can.
The fundamental assumptions of "low-fat" diet are that eating fat makes you fat and/or we eat too much fat. Fat is an easy target to blame for becoming fat for two reasons. The first is that fat has a little over two times the calories per gram as carbohydrates and protein. The second is that when people gain weight and it's not muscle, it's fat... so the rational is "eating more fat won't give my body any reason to get rid of the fat I am hanging on to right now." Fat is a MUST during weight loss, and sometimes it is needed even more. We need it to produce hormones, build connections in the brain, fuel organs, etc.. Congratulations on your weight loss. However, I have one concern... if you were eating the proper amount of fat that you needed before and then cut fat to lose weight, I fear that your "weight loss" was merely lean tissue loss (muscles, bones, water, etc) and not fat loss. There is a term called "skinny fat" which refers to those that have a perfect BMI (which your doctor based his opinion on) but are actually fat. http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/spas-sport/22280/skinny-yet-fat-slim-shady All the women pictured on that page are unhealthy as far as fat goes. They have the exact same health risks as a female with a higher BMI but the same bodyfat percentages. Now, on the assumption that your weight-loss was, in fact, FAT-loss, I have some suggestions. First, you need to determine your calories needs. It will take some time to figure it out but you can probably start around 2,500 calories per day and adjust because on your changes in weight. If you eat that exact amount everyday and you find that over the course of two weeks you lost and average of 1 pound a week, cuts calories by about 250-500 calories a day. If you gained, adjust in the opposite direction. How many carbs do you need? Protein? Fat? The general rule is somewhere around 40/40/20 to 50/20/30 (carbs/protein/fats). These are percentages of your total calorie intake. So if you need 2,500 calories per day and follow a 40/30/30 plan, then 1,000 calories are carbs, 750 calories come from protein, and 750 come from fat. There are 4 calories per gram for carbs and protein and 9 for fat, so in total you need: 250 grams of carbs 188 grams of protein 83 grams of fat If you are working out 3 times a week or more, then this example is perfect for gaining more lean muscle (but again, everyone is different and adjustments aren't out of the question). Eat a variety of vegetables a day and eat as many as you want (so long as they are fibrous). The cool thing about fibrous veggies is that they contain such a high percentage of fiber compared to carbs that the energy it takes to process the food is more than the energy provided by the food, so it's almost like a negative calorie food. Also, veggies will make your skin look younger in only a few days. Eat meat everyday. I eat turkey and sirloin steak everyday. When eating meat, make sure to cut off the excess fat on the outer edges. It's pure saturated fat. Now, saturated fat is not bad and we NEED it, but we get plenty of it. What we tend to not get enough of is monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Drink plenty of water. I cannot remember the exact study but a tube was placed inside of an animal and animal cells began to grow in it. A scientist flushed out the tube with water everyday to rid the animal cells inside this tube of all toxins and waste products. Over time it was found that while all the cells outside of this tube were aging and slowly dying, the cells inside of this tube still looked young and any new cells replacing the ones inside this tube were not very distinguishable from those of a newborn animal. Avoid drinking alcohol on a regular basis. It's a poison and your body views it this way. People don't like washing their face with alcohol-based products because it drys out the skin but they are more than willing to put it in their body's, piss a storm all night, and spend the next day recovering. Here is what I might have in a typical day: Breakfast: 4 whole large eggs, packet of oatmeal, 1/2 avocado. snack: 6 ounces yogurt, banana, 1 ounce mixed nuts or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter lunch: turkey breast with two slices of whole-wheat bread (should be about 25 grams of protein or so), 1/2 avocado snack: protein shake dinner: 6-8 ounces steak, veggies (as much as I can stomach), rice or bread bedtime: peanut butter, protein shake, or if I can stomach it, cottage cheese. I actually started eating like this almost two weeks ago and I am feeling much better. I also take a multi-vitamin called Animal-Pak. Basically it's a palm-sized package of a lot of pills that gives me a million percent of everything I might need. In addition, I take 6 fish-oil capsules a day (making 6 to 7.2 grams of fish oil a day).
