Doug's Diet - Phase II

Oh my. Eggs are such a wonderful food. As a low carb nut, I would have you
go from three eggs to two eggs, rather than eat *oatmeal.*


"doug lerner" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 11, 10:06 pm, "Laura" wrote:
"doug lerner" wrote in message

ups.com...



After 700 days I have decided, this Friday morning, to make the first
actual tweaks to my diet!

After all, being on a plateau (or weight creeping up) for about 6
months now should be an indication to anybody (except maybe George
Bush) that the current strategy isn't working anymore.

I've got to get rid of these last 10-20 lbs!

After 700 days of not of not going off my diet even one time I have
been hesitant about making adjustments. But I have given this a great
deal of thought and think I found an adjustment I can be confident of
sticking with. And I really should be more confident of my ability to
deal with minor changes at this point!

Here is what I decided to do starting today - the usual "weigh-in" day
of my diet week:

Daily Net Calorie Limit (after exercise calories are deducted)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Old Daily Limit: 1700 calories
New Daily Limit: 1500 calories

Reasoning: My current daily limit was fine when I first started my
diet. But when I first started it didn't matter if I was a bit off
when calculating my BMR because I had so much to lose. It is clear
that I am now eating too much to lose any more so I must reduce my
daily net calorie limit. Duh.

Note: This happens to also be closer to what Weight Watchers
recommends I set as my daily target caloric limit: 28 points x 50
calories/point = 1400 calories.

Weekly Bonus Calories
---------------------
Old Bonus: 1000 calories
New Bonus: 1700 calories

Reasoning: Instead of reducing my daily calories by just 100 calories
I reduced it by 200 calories. But I'm really only losing 100 calories
(a very minor tweak!) because I'm taking the other 7 x 100 = 700
calories and adding it to the bonus. So I'm just spreading it around
differently. There are two reasons for this: (1) Having the slightly
lower daily limit is more of a reasonable target and should result in
generally lower weekly caloric averages because I tend not go so much
into bonus and (2) having the higher bonus there is very reassuring.
Like "Mamas Bank Account".

As with all these strategies, good dieting rules are a bag of
psychological tricks designed to make it easy to stick with. Starting
the week with a higher bonus will help a lot counter-balancing the
lower daily target limit.

Note: This also happens to be almost the same as the Weight Watchers
free points for the week, which comes to 35 points x 50 calories/point
= 1750 points.

Exercise Calories
-----------------
Old Way: 100% credit for all countable exercise calories expended
(walking, cycling, etc.)
New Way: 50% credit for all countable exercise calories expended

Reasoning: This one I gave a LOT of thought to. By deducting just 50%
of my exercise calories from what I've eaten each day (instead of
100%) I accomplish various positive things: (1) The obvious one is
that exercise will tend to drive weight LOSS more, rather than just
being a counter-balance to what I've eaten. The more I exercise, the
more POSITIVE weight loss effect there should be. (2) Because I'm
getting less "credit" for exercise there should be positive incentive
to exercise MORE - so I can eat more. and (3) Doing it this
provides a "margin of error" for calorie (eating and exercise)
calculation/estimation errors that might creep into the diet.

Note: This too is closer to the way that Weight Watchers calculates
"activity points".

It is interesting to note that my own independent conclusions about
daily caloric intake, weekly bonus calories and exercise calories all
result in my personal diet moving closer to the Weight Watcher's plan.

Anyway, I've begun my "Diet Phase II" as of today. I'll let you know
how it goes!

It is interesting that you arrived at roughly the WW flex plan. It should
work as you planned.

How are you going to reduce your calories at this stage of the game?

What's your current weight that you came up with 28 daily points? The old
WW
charthttp://www.lesslisa.com/wwchart.htmsays 28 points is for someone
225-249 pounds. I thought you were lighter than that. If you weigh a lot
less than 225, then eating 28 points a day would also explain why you
were
not losing. This is why WW has us drop daily points with each 25 pounds
lost.

Keep us posted. You are doing great.

I weigh about 84 kg right now, which is about 185 lb. When I did my
free one week WW Online trial a couple of months ago that's what their
online calculation came up with for my points, at my age, sex, etc.

To reduce calories, I'm going to:

1. Make my dinner protein portions smaller and add more vegies
instead.
2. Eat lower-calorie more filling vegie/fruit snacks and less pre-
packaged snacks.
3. Have a lower calorie breakfast more often (oatmeal instead of
cottage cheese and eggs - thats a 200 calorie saving right there!)

doug

Or switch to egg beaters.

"Cubit" wrote in message
...
Oh my. Eggs are such a wonderful food. As a low carb nut, I would have
you go from three eggs to two eggs, rather than eat *oatmeal.*


"doug lerner" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 11, 10:06 pm, "Laura" wrote:
"doug lerner" wrote in message

ups.com...



After 700 days I have decided, this Friday morning, to make the first
actual tweaks to my diet!

After all, being on a plateau (or weight creeping up) for about 6
months now should be an indication to anybody (except maybe George
Bush) that the current strategy isn't working anymore.

I've got to get rid of these last 10-20 lbs!

After 700 days of not of not going off my diet even one time I have
been hesitant about making adjustments. But I have given this a great
deal of thought and think I found an adjustment I can be confident of
sticking with. And I really should be more confident of my ability to
deal with minor changes at this point!

Here is what I decided to do starting today - the usual "weigh-in" day
of my diet week:

Daily Net Calorie Limit (after exercise calories are deducted)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Old Daily Limit: 1700 calories
New Daily Limit: 1500 calories

Reasoning: My current daily limit was fine when I first started my
diet. But when I first started it didn't matter if I was a bit off
when calculating my BMR because I had so much to lose. It is clear
that I am now eating too much to lose any more so I must reduce my
daily net calorie limit. Duh.

Note: This happens to also be closer to what Weight Watchers
recommends I set as my daily target caloric limit: 28 points x 50
calories/point = 1400 calories.

Weekly Bonus Calories
---------------------
Old Bonus: 1000 calories
New Bonus: 1700 calories

Reasoning: Instead of reducing my daily calories by just 100 calories
I reduced it by 200 calories. But I'm really only losing 100 calories
(a very minor tweak!) because I'm taking the other 7 x 100 = 700
calories and adding it to the bonus. So I'm just spreading it around
differently. There are two reasons for this: (1) Having the slightly
lower daily limit is more of a reasonable target and should result in
generally lower weekly caloric averages because I tend not go so much
into bonus and (2) having the higher bonus there is very reassuring.
Like "Mamas Bank Account".

As with all these strategies, good dieting rules are a bag of
psychological tricks designed to make it easy to stick with. Starting
the week with a higher bonus will help a lot counter-balancing the
lower daily target limit.

Note: This also happens to be almost the same as the Weight Watchers
free points for the week, which comes to 35 points x 50 calories/point
= 1750 points.

Exercise Calories
-----------------
Old Way: 100% credit for all countable exercise calories expended
(walking, cycling, etc.)
New Way: 50% credit for all countable exercise calories expended

Reasoning: This one I gave a LOT of thought to. By deducting just 50%
of my exercise calories from what I've eaten each day (instead of
100%) I accomplish various positive things: (1) The obvious one is
that exercise will tend to drive weight LOSS more, rather than just
being a counter-balance to what I've eaten. The more I exercise, the
more POSITIVE weight loss effect there should be. (2) Because I'm
getting less "credit" for exercise there should be positive incentive
to exercise MORE - so I can eat more. and (3) Doing it this
provides a "margin of error" for calorie (eating and exercise)
calculation/estimation errors that might creep into the diet.

Note: This too is closer to the way that Weight Watchers calculates
"activity points".

It is interesting to note that my own independent conclusions about
daily caloric intake, weekly bonus calories and exercise calories all
result in my personal diet moving closer to the Weight Watcher's plan.

Anyway, I've begun my "Diet Phase II" as of today. I'll let you know
how it goes!

It is interesting that you arrived at roughly the WW flex plan. It
should
work as you planned.

How are you going to reduce your calories at this stage of the game?

What's your current weight that you came up with 28 daily points? The
old WW
charthttp://www.lesslisa.com/wwchart.htmsays 28 points is for someone
225-249 pounds. I thought you were lighter than that. If you weigh a lot
less than 225, then eating 28 points a day would also explain why you
were
not losing. This is why WW has us drop daily points with each 25 pounds
lost.

Keep us posted. You are doing great.

I weigh about 84 kg right now, which is about 185 lb. When I did my
free one week WW Online trial a couple of months ago that's what their
online calculation came up with for my points, at my age, sex, etc.

To reduce calories, I'm going to:

1. Make my dinner protein portions smaller and add more vegies
instead.
2. Eat lower-calorie more filling vegie/fruit snacks and less pre-
packaged snacks.
3. Have a lower calorie breakfast more often (oatmeal instead of
cottage cheese and eggs - thats a 200 calorie saving right there!)

doug

Well, so far so good after just one new day. Down 0.6 kg since
yesterday, but I know these one day fluctuations don't mean much.

Some responses to various messages:

1. Yes, the 28 points was apparently the new numbers.

2. I did find that I had incentive to do more exercise because I was
only getting half-credit for exercise calories. And I appreciated the
exercise calories more.

3. About eggs - they are good diet foods. I had been eating 2 each
morning, not 3. The big calorie chunk came from the cottage cheese
because I have not been able to find low-fat or non-fat cottage cheese
here. So my usual cottage cheese for breakfast has been a 200 gm
container totaling 228 calories. That with 2 eggs made my usual
morning breakfast 388 calories. On the other hand, 50 gm of oatmeal
only comes to 188 calories, so that is a quick 200 calories savings
right there.

4. About the mirror vs scale - I can still see some "profile
protrudes" that would be nice to see go away at some point.

5. About carbs - bah humbug.

Did I leave anything out?

doug

doug lerner wrote:
Well, so far so good after just one new day. Down 0.6 kg since
yesterday, but I know these one day fluctuations don't mean much.

Some responses to various messages:

4. About the mirror vs scale - I can still see some "profile
protrudes" that would be nice to see go away at some point.

doug


That sure sounds like "spot reduction" and you've been at this long
enough to know that isn't possible with diet. Diet will strip muscle
and fat so you'll likely lose more off the chest, arms and legs than
you'd like just to tighten up the midsection.
--

Cheese

http://cheesensweets.com/contacts/cheese.php

On May 14, 5:59 am, Cheese wrote:
That sure sounds like "spot reduction" and you've been at this long
enough to know that isn't possible with diet. Diet will strip muscle
and fat so you'll likely lose more off the chest, arms and legs than
you'd like just to tighten up the midsection.


I would second that. He could easily stay at his current weight while
losing bodyfat and trim his midsection down a beltnotch or two while
eating the same or even more calories if he only lifted weights and
generally exercised more.
Gaining a bit of muscle would reshape his physique (tighter/defined)
and wake up his metabolism.
Just recently I was reading an article about comparisons of people who
may appear slim but are actually not healthy because they have more
internal (visceral) bodyfat than those who exercise & diet:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070510/...hin_fat_people
An example of how you can eat more when you train mo
http://skwigg.tripod.com/id3.html


And btw, daily oatmeal would serve you much better than the eggs.
Oatmeal is proven to help lower cholesterol and the fiber it has in it
will also benefit you greatly.



joanne