Choose To Lose Diet: The Premise

Nancy and Ronald Goor have been writing and rewriting their Choose to Lose series for the past 15 years. Billed as a “food lover’s guide to permanent weight loss,” this 500+ page volume tells you everything you need to know, and more, about eating healthy and losing weight. Taking the opposite tact of many diet books, Choose to Lose encourages carbohydrate consumption, as long as most of it comes from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. The focus of the diet is fat: finding it, counting it, and budgeting it. It explains how to plan your own personal fat budget, read food labels, ferret out the fat in the foods you eat, fat-proof your home, eat out healthfully, and switch to healthy fats.

They encourage dieters to keep a food diary, at least in the beginning, to learn about their own food habits and to reveal their weaknesses. One of the reasons the book is so long is that it provides a comprehensive food table with the nutrient content of each food, plus discussions of everything, literally, from soup to nuts. The information tells dieters what’s good (low-fat, high-fiber, and most nutritious), what’s bad (high-fat, low-fiber, empty calories) and how you can plan your new diet to keep some of your favorite foods on your weight-loss menus.

The Rationale

While some diets focus on limiting carbohydrate intake, the Goors’ plan focuses on limiting fat intake, especially saturated fat, since fat is the most concentrated source of calories in the diet and saturated fat is linked to heart disease. The diet plan has no gimmicks or hooks; it’s a no-nonsense approach to good nutrition that has withstood the test of time. Fat intake is limited but not excessively restricted, and the diet even allows for an occasional high-fat splurge.

The goal, say the Goors, is not to think of Choose to Lose as a diet but as an eating plan for life. Foods are clearly divided into groups according to how much of them you can eat. The diet also provides examples of “before” menus and then shows better “after” alternatives. Follow the guidelines of their plan, say the Goors, and over time you will adjust your taste buds to a lower-fat diet without having to greatly restrict your food choices.

What’s for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner?

The Goors’ diet provides more information about specific foods than most other diets, and it gives a week’s worth of sample menus and recipes. More than 250 of the book’s pages are devoted to food tables that give the calorie, fat, and saturated fat content of foods. You’ll find brief, informative sections on such foods as bread, potatoes, cereals, chicken, seafood, popcorn, and pretzels, just to name a few. A typical day’s menus might include oatmeal and whole-wheat toast with jelly, cottage cheese, strawberries, and skim milk for breakfast; chickpeas, whole-wheat pita, tangerine, carrot sticks, and orange juice for lunch; tortilla soup, chicken, green beans, rice, squash, cauliflower, nonfat yogurt, and blueberries for dinner; and nonfat yogurt and popcorn for snacks during the day. Total calories: 2,300. Guidelines are provided for cutting calories to 1,500 to 1,600 — the minimum they recommend. Supplements are not recommended. Follow a balanced diet, they say, and supplements shouldn’t be necessary.

Fact or Fiction: What the Experts Say

Information is power, and the Goors’ plan provides dieters with power over their diets and, ultimately, their health. The diet plan goes hand-in-hand with what most experts currently recommend, and it meets the needs of seniors as well. It’s a diet high in complex carbohydrate — mostly from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes — with limited fat intake, most of it from healthy fats such as olive oil. Though it’s not billed as such, the diet is in line with dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.

Gains and Losses/What’s the Damage?

If you follow the Goors’ plan, using the recommended calorie adjustments, it should allow you to lose weight successfully. You get a lot of variety and choices on this diet, which also offers much-needed guidance for keeping the diet balanced and realistic. One chapter is devoted to exercise, which they sum up as “Eating Right + Exercise = Perfection.”

Now let’s consider another low-fat diet, the Eat More, Weigh Less program. Click to the next section to find out more.

Eat More, Weigh Less

The Eat More, Weigh Less diet is a program based on a very low intake of fat.

Eat More, Weigh Less: The Premise

Dr. Dean Ornish is famous for his strict low-fat diet program that reduces heart disease risk and even reverses arterial damage. The findings from his now-famous “Lifestyle Heart Trial” research, which show that major lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the risk of developing atherosclerosis and heart disease, are so well accepted that participation in one of the lifestyle program’s hospital sites is even covered by some health insurance companies. His program restricts fat intake to 10 percent or less of daily calories and prohibits animal products, oils, and sugar.

The Ornish plan calls for eating a very low-fat vegetarian diet, relaxation, and exercise. A side benefit of the program, he discovered, is weight loss. How much the diet benefits you is not a matter of age but how well you follow the program. This book is already a classic; it was one of the first to advocate such a major cutback in fat while increasing the intake of complex carbohydrate foods. Here Ornish translates the Lifestyle Heart Trial program for people focusing on weight loss.

The Rationale

Ornish believes that it’s better to make broad, comprehensive changes in your diet all at once rather than to make small, moderate changes. Thus, he advocates dropping your fat intake from the typical 30 to 40 percent of calories to 10 percent and switching from a diet high in sugar to one that contains virtually none. The rationale for the drastic reduction in fat, Ornish says, is that fat calories are more easily converted to fat in the body.

A diet high in complex carbohydrate, on the other hand, is inefficient at converting the calories to fat. In fact, some calories are wasted during the conversion, allowing you to eat more calories than you could on a higher-fat diet. Moreover, a diet low in fat is by default low in calories and reduces the body’s production of free radicals, which are destructive compounds that are believed to contribute to the aging process.

What’s for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner?

Eat More, Weigh Less provides more recipes than most diet books — and with good reason. It’s tough to buy and prepare foods with such a low fat content. In fact, more than half the book’s pages are devoted to recipes. A typical day’s menu might include Scrambled Mexican Tofu, salsa, whole-wheat toast, and orange juice for breakfast; Black Pepper Polenta with Bell Pepper Sauce and Shiitake Mushrooms, Italian Bean Salad, tossed green salad, and Melon Sorbet for lunch; Roasted Tomato Sandwiches, Anasazi Bean Soup with Corn and Chili, Oven-Roasted Potatoes with Fresh Herbs, green salad, fresh fruit, and Apples and Raspberries in Apple-Ginger Consommé for dinner. A table of some common foods and their nutrient content is also provided at the end of the book.

Fact or Fiction: What the Experts Say

Most experts acknowledge Ornish’s body of research showing the dramatic opening of clogged arteries experienced by most people following his program. However, the biggest problem most experts have with Ornish’s diet is that it’s just not realistic for most people. The real test of any diet program is how easy it is to stick with over the long haul. Regardless of how healthful a diet may be, it’s useless if you can’t stay on it. That lack of stick-to-it-ability may be the downfall of Ornish’s plan for most people.

Gains and Losses/What’s the Damage?

There’s no doubt that if you’re able to stick with it, Ornish’s diet works. The question is whether you’re willing to go that far with your dietary changes — and maintain those changes. Though exercise is encouraged, especially walking, few specifics are provided about how to get started and keep going. And because the diet is so low in fat, you’ll need to do some special food preparation every day if you want to avoid meal monotony. While the diet should help lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, it could be low in some fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins D and E, if you don’t supplement them. The same is true of calcium. While calcium-rich, fat-free dairy products are allowed on the diet, the sample menus provide only about one serving a day — not enough to meet your calcium needs.

The world has given a network of high technology. We sit before computers for hours and we become more sedentary. Both these intake of over calorie food and sedentary life-style ended in the epidemic of overweight people. So now it is up to you to make up your mind to burn more calories than you consume and this guide is going to give you some tips to make this possible.

The first thing is the modifications in eating habits:

1. To boost your metabolism to burn the fat, take 3 regular meals and 3 small snacks in between.

2. Eat lean meats, skinless chicken and fish.

3. Eat smaller portions.

4. Eat slower.

5. Eat more fruits and vegetables.

6. Avoid cookies and chips.

7. Drinking 1 glass of water before taking every food will help you eat less.

Increasing the activity is the second important thing:

Exercising for at least 30 minutes a day is a must and failing which you may try to do the following simple things.

1. Park your car farther away from the spot where you have lot of work.

2. Use staircase than going in elevator.

3. Keep away the TV remote and get up to change the channels.

4. Do dancing simply.

5. Join water exercise instead of walking who do have trouble in their joints with stress while walking.

6. For your heart health and reduce weight, you may ride in a stationary bike for a while.

7. Get a good partner, who will keep you to give support.

8. Always do warm up and cool down your body before and after doing physical exercise to protect your heart and muscles. Better to have contact and guidance always with your doctor to do any change in your lifestyle which reduces your body weight.

9. Losing weight is not because of dieting or starvation. But all because of the changes in the lifestyle you make.

10. Commit your self to eating better and exercising more.

Tip 1 – Eat more fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants that are good for your body. Those who try to lose weight should replace snacks, cookies and chips with fruits and vegetables.

Tip 2 – Though everybody knows about taking lot of water is good for health, only few are doing it practically. Drink at least 8 cups of water daily. If you do not like to take much water up to 8 cups, you may replace it with low –calorie flavored drinks.

Tip 3 – Exercise is the best thing to lose weight of your body and many people think and fear about doing exercises. But it is not the thing to get afraid of. Doing simple exercise for about 30 minutes in a day but 5 to 6 days of the week is enough for you to reduce your weight. Something like walking for at least 30 minutes is enough for anyone.

Tip 4 – Alcohol is always not good to reduce your body weight and many alcoholic beverages are very high in calories, especially the beer is the one alcohol which has more calorific value and will not help you in any way to lose weight. Hence stop drinking alcoholic beverages at once. Give up the habit of taking it routinely and occasional habit of taking it will not harm you and does not bother about it.

Tip 5 – Have smaller meals daily as opposed to fewer big ones. If you usually eat three big meals every day, try to change your eating patterns to include 5 to 6 smaller meals. This has been a pretty well proven method to losing weight gradually. Having more small meals daily will help to decrease calories that are taken in. If your schedule can accommodate this kind of change, it is a good way to help lose weight.

These weight loss tips are by no means complex, but they are very likely to work if followed.

Truth is, weight loss is actually easy if you know that by eating smaller portions more often, you can achieve weight loss successfully. Simply by changing your eating habits and make amend to your loss fat diet can make a huge difference.

When eating large meals, you overload your body with excess calories that it does not need at that point of time. As a result, your body stores the excess calories as fat for future usage. Hence, you gain weight over time.

People who eat large meals tend to snack by eating junk foods in between meals as they feel hungry after several hours of not eating after their meal. These junk foods lead to obesity.

When you eat smaller portions but more frequently, you are actually supplying your body with calories in installments. This way, you provide your body with just the right amount of calories that it needs at that point of time. As a result, no excess calorie is being stored as fat in your body.

Let’s say you used to eat 3 meals a day. Change to eating 5-6 meals a day, but reduce the portion of each serving. As such, you not only feel full throughout the day, you also increase your metabolism rate. The higher your body’s metabolism rate, the easier it is for you to lose weight.

Your loss fat diet plays a very important role in helping you lose weight. Ensure that you eat lots of vegetables and fruits. Avoid eating junk and fatty foods and you are on your way to losing weight.

Although the Food and Drug Administration has successfully banned illegal marketers, some products are still available. Consumers can be deceived of the labels which claims caffeine or ephedra fee not knowing that these supplements composes of other ingredients that may pose the same health risks. These include heart and digestive problems, headaches, insomnia, and even psychological side effects.

Other supplement manufacturers say that their products contains EGCG which is a phytochemical ingredient found in green tea. This so-called component claims to speed up metabolism but in reality poses to reduce the risk of cancer. Some studies denote that it could slightly increase the potential to burn calories and now can be found in many weight loss supplements. It has good points on the other hand since the body might conform to EGCG after a period of time. Eve the weight loss benefit could sum up to 60 to 70 calories a day. This helps prevent excessive weight gain.

A few other significant effects of weight loss supplements is that it may contain ingredients that makers claim will prevent the absorption of carbohydrates. One good example is Chitosan, which appears most promising, which in fact shows no positive result in fat absorption. It could even take up to seven months for men to lose just a pound of body fat and for women, there is no fat loss at all. Thyroid supplements act as thyroid replacements help regulate and optimize the thyroid at a higher level. This they say makes the body feel like a couch potato and won’t perform the job it has to.

Since the number one reason why people eat is because they feel hungry, there is another type of ingredient that manufacturers made which increases the feeling of being full and decreases appetite, Guar Gum. However, recent studies show that it has no meaningful benefit at all to weight loss. It is ironic that manufacturers mix Psyllium that has the reputation of reducing eating and aiding weight loss for initial studies so far do not support this claim although it helps control blood cholesterol and sugar.

One of the latest innovations in the fat loss industry is by way of skin absorption. There’s a Cutting Gel, which is an epidril product by far the best selling in fat loss creams technology. Rub it where you want the fats cut. For now, it will seem safer to advise the age old remedies to excessive weight gain and that is to invest on walking shoes instead of diet supplements, go to the park and do brisk walking, go to the gym, and have a well balanced diet instead.

If you believe the testimonies of hundreds of former fatties across the States then, yes, this really is the Holy Grail that millions of desperate dieters have been seeking.

Meet Sensa, a dramatic new diet-free approach to fat-busting that launched in the U.S. last summer and could be hitting UK shores before the end of the year.

With staggering claims from those who have tried it (’Dolly lost 53lb  -  “I didn’t have to think about it, and I lost weight!”; Joey lost 120lb  -  “I didn’t have to change my diet!” ‘) you can understand why this revolutionary system has got weight-loss chatrooms across the internet buzzing.

The appeal of Sensa is that it’s not actually a diet. You don’t have to cut out foods, count calories or put in hours at the gym. According to its manufacturers, all you have to do is lace your usual meals with calorie-free Sensa sprinkles  -  chemical compounds that enhance the smell and taste of what you’re eating.

Sensa wasn’t developed by a dietician, but by a neurologist, Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.

He identified that patients with head injuries who had lost their sense of smell and taste, gained weight. He theorised that if a lack of smell and taste could lead to weight gain, conversely, a surfeit of both might lead to weight loss.

What he came up with was Sensa Tastants, the sprinkles that you shake over the surface of everything you consume.

They enhance the smell and taste of what you’re eating, stimulating the area of the brain responsible for identifying when you’re full. Ultimately, you’ll feel full, even though you’ve eaten less than usual.

There are two variants of the sprinkles  -  a salty one that you add to savoury food, and a sweet one for sweet food.

According to Dr Hirsch’s data, 1,436 men and women used Sensa over a six-month period and, on average, lost an average of 30.5lb  – about 2st 2lb.

This sounds impressive, but Heather Caswell of the British Nutrition Foundation has some concerns. ‘For a start, they only looked at the subjects over six months,’ she says. ‘That’s a very short period of time to assess weight change.

‘There’s no information about whether or not the subjects maintained that level of weight loss after they stopped using the product.

‘I find it odd that they used a control group of only 100 people  -  that’s small for a study of this size. There’s also no information about whether the control group were asked to sprinkle anything over their food.

‘Without that sort of information, it’s hard to know if the weight loss was entirely down to the product, or whether it was due to the fact that people knew their eating habits were being observed.’

Sensa is sold as a six-month programme: you hand over $235 (about £142) and they send you ‘12 [six salty, six sweet] different patent-pending scent/flavour combinations that are proven to help trigger the brain mechanism that signals when you are full’.

Apparently, it’s important to have new Tastants every month as your body ‘can become accustomed to the Tastants and they will not be as effective if you use them for longer than 30 days’.

The manufacturers claim that over time, you will ‘intuitively understand portion control’ and not have to rely on Tastants. But Heather Caswell is sceptical.

Moreover, if Sensa isn’t intended for continuous use, why do the manufacturers offer a purchase programme that automatically debits your account and sends you a six-monthly supply twice a year?

And, if you are going to sprinkle Tastants on every meal for the next 30 years or more, shouldn’t there be some long-term studies into their effects?

Come to think of it, what is actually in these Tastants? They sound slightly reminiscent of the food additive MSG, with the claims that they enhance the taste and flavour experience. But the company insists that Tastants don’t contain any MSG, drugs or stimulants and are free of sodium, sugar and gluten.

The ingredients listed are maltodextrin (derived from corn from the U.S.), tricalcium phosphate, silica, natural and artificial flavours, FD&C yellow 5 and carmine (types of food dyes), as well as soy and milk.

Quite how a product whose first ingredient is a form of carbohydrate can be ‘calorie-free’ is not exactly clear, and those ‘flavours’ could hide a multitude of sins. But issues like this aside, if Sensa really can help a nation of fatties fight the flab, is it such a bad thing?

Yes, according to Heather Caswell. ‘This isn’t healthy weight loss,’ she says.

‘This programme lets you carry on eating rubbish, just maybe less rubbish than you did before. There’s nothing about exercise or making healthy, balanced choices.

‘Staying lean is just one reason why diet is important, but losing weight in itself is not enough. People need to ensure they’re getting enough nutrients, and that they’re not fuelling their bodies with foods that can cause problems in the long-term. This doesn’t address any of those issues. It’s not really getting people to take responsibility for what they eat and why.’

So while at first glance Sensa might look like a Holy Grail, it could well leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

“It’s like flying, flowing along in the breeze,” said one of our trainees recently, after we’d taught her to ride a bike for the first time in her life.

Everyone knows cycling is good for the body, but don’t forget the mind and spirit too. The guidance from the government’s chief medical officer says “Physical activity is effective in the treatment of clinical depression, and can be as successful as psychotherapy or medication, particularly in the long term.”

It can actually be more successful, say the mental health professionals who work with us, as cycling has almost no negative side effects. And apart from being arguably more fun than psychotherapy, riding a bike happens to help treat many of the conditions that may go along with mental health problems, like high blood pressure and being overweight.

It’s no surprise then that cycle training organisations are setting up “cycle for health” projects around the country, but the genius of the scheme here in Sheffield – started by Steve Marsden, the development officer at CTC – the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation – is that it’s designed to help a diverse variety of people on just one course. We have retired people back on their bikes after a 40-year break, people who have recently moved to the UK, students, people referred to exercise by their doctors, and people with depression and anxiety, along with their occupational therapists: all getting the confidence to start cycling again, together.

The results can be inspiring. One of our earliest trainees was anxious, not particularly fit, and hadn’t been on a bike after being hit by a van more than 20 years ago. His aim was to build up the courage to start cycling again to his voluntary work near the city centre, a journey he could make along the local canal towpath. “If you’re feeling a little low, riding a bike lifts your mood,” he said. “You can get out and find all these places on your doorstep you didn’t know were there.”

After a typical morning learning elementary downhill skills in a park – “you need to stick your bums out a bit more,” our instructor said to three pensioner sisters picking their way down a root-covered slope – everyone retires to the park ranger’s cabin for tea and biscuits and a nice chat about cogs and avoiding trucks.

As well as building trainees’ confidence, the tea and chat is as important as the cycling for many. It’s when people open up, remembering what they felt about riding a bike when they were young. After cycling a couple of miles, you can often see these grown adults glowing – and it’s not just because of the exertion from riding up Sheffield’s hills.

• David Bocking is the development coordinator for Pedal Ready, which is based in Sheffield. It runs courses in partnership with the local council and NHS and social care trusts.

Leafy Greens: Spinach, spring mix, mustard greens, and other dark leafy greens are good sources of fibre and powerhouses of nutrition. Research demonstrates that their high concentration of vitamins and antioxidants helps prevent hunger while protecting you from heart disease, cancer, cataracts, and memory loss.

Beans and Legumes: Legumes are the best source of fiber of any foods. They help to stabilize blood sugar while keeping you regular. They are also high in potassium, a critical mineral that reduces dehydration and the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Garlic and Onions: This dynamic duo of foods contains phytochemicals that break down fatty deposits in the body, while also breaking down cholesterol; killing viruses, bacteria, and fungi; and protecting against heart disease. With a little help from garlic and onions, you can burn fat while warding off illness.

Cayenne: This hot spice lessens the risk of excess insulin in the body by speeding metabolism and lowering blood glucose (sugar) levels, before the excess insulin can result in fat stores. Spice up your next meal with cayenne and lessen those love handles.

Turmeric: The popular spice used primarily in Indian cooking is one of the highest known sources of beta carotene, the antioxidant that helps protect the liver from free radical damage. Turmeric also helps strengthen your liver while helping your body metabolize fats by decreasing the fat storage rate in liver cells. Add a teaspoon of turmeric into your next curry dish to help your body fight fat.

Cinnamon: Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture showed that a quarter to one teaspoon of cinnamon with food helps metabolize sugar up to twenty times better than food not eaten with cinnamon. Excess sugar in the blood can lead to fat storage. Before you sip that chai tea latte or eat your oatmeal, sprinkle on the cinnamon.

Flax Seeds and Flax Seed Oil: These seeds and oil attract oil-soluble toxins that become lodged in the fatty tissues of the body. Once attracted, they help to escort fat-soluble toxins out. That spells fewer fat stores and a trimmer you.

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