2016 Diet Guide

Inspired by FourWalls

After reading FourWalls ' article on Annoying Diet Books , I decided to write a quick resume of what I know about dieting. When you read FourWalls ' post take the time also to read Gossamer 's responses on that article which are really funny and oh, so true!

Low Calorie or Low Carb?

There seem to me to be two basic kinds of diet, the low calorie diet, where you restrict the amount of food you eat and the low carb diet where you restrict or remove certain carbohydrates from your diet. NOTE: none of this applies to medical diets. If you are on a medical diet, consult your dietician, nutritionist or medical adviser. This applies to people like diabetics, etc.

Low Calorie

A calorie is a measure of energy. Our bodies need energy to operate. If we take in more calories than our body can use, we store the excess as fat. If we use more calories, we lose weight. Some foods contain a LOT more calories than others and some of those "foods" are not necessary to life. You can cut calories in several ways. You can go on a low calorie diet, you can use the 5:2 fasting plan or you can cut high calorie foods from your diet. High calorie foods generally contain sugar and flour. Cut out biscuits, cakes, candy, confectionery, soda drinks and alcohol. Many low calorie diets also reduce the amount of food you are allowed. People's portion sizes have increased over the years, so we are all (most of us) eating more than we need, even of the good stuff. If you want to go on a low calorie diet with support, you can join a club, such as weight watchers, slimming world and I am sure there are many others. You can find plenty of low calorie recipes on line, just search for Free Low Calorie Recipes in any search engine. many doctors' surgeries will provide recipes based on low calorie meals. DO NOT buy meals marked "low calorie" in your local supermarket. The 5:2 fasting plan gets you to take only 500 (women) or 600 (men) calories on two days of the week (often Monday and Thursday) and you eat normally the rest of the time. There is an active Facebook club for support and many recipes on line for meals including 100, 200, 300 calories, etc, allowing you to spread your meals throughout the day as convenient. For instance, you might take a 100 calories lunch and a 400 or 500 calorie tea or vice versa.

Low Carb

Carb stands for carbohydrate. There are two kinds of carbohydrate, digestible, like sugar and flour and indigestible (but vital) like fibre (fiber) which is needed to make sure your bowels move regularly. The sugar and flour type of carbohydrate is what you give up here. The whole idea of low carb diets is to change your body metabolism from using glucose (sugar) to use fat instead. This means moving into what is called nutritional ketosis (NOTHING to do with the dangerous diabetic keto acidosis). You need to cut out bread, cakes pastry, confectionery, pasta, rice, icecream, etc. You can eat protein such as meat, fish, and eggs; and fats, like oil, lard and butter (NOT margarine). Diets that fall into this category include Atkins, Dukan, Paleo, LCHF (low carb high fat) Banting, etc. You can find Facebook groups for many of these as support and information. You can get free recipes on line by searching for Free Low Carb Recipes in a search engine. You can also get low carb recipes by searching on the names of any of these diet names.

Do you want any more info? I could probably write a booklet on it but it would probably be entitled 2017, because i don't have time at present.

FOPP diet2016 lowcarb lowcalorie

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