Warning: Be sure to check with your doctor before going on any weight loss program, including the one being discussed. This is especially important for children and teens. If you have any health problems, you should not be on this diet.
Today I'm going to give some tips on losing weight. Most diets just don't work. You can try eating certain foods for a while and probably lose weight if you watch your calories, but almost everyone puts all the weight back later and you are miserable while on the diet. It is natural to want to eat "normal" food. Staying on a lifetime diet is not really a solution.
Okay, so we all know that the reason diets fail is because we break the diet. The way to lose weight permanently is to capitalize on how we all break diets sooner or later.
I call my diet the "3-2-2 diet". It is based on the "5-2 diet" (The Fast Diet by Michael Mosley ), but with improvements in my opinion.
I have been personally following it for a while with a lot of success and feel very healthy from it. Other people I know are doing well with it too. I don't feel like I'm on a diet with it.
Here is the basic plan
1.) On Saturday and Sunday you can eat anything you like to eat within reason. Nothing is limited. Go out to eat if you want. Enjoy yourself. These are your maximum cheat days. However, you can't eat an extreme amount or the diet won't work. You need to stay around 2000-2500 calories per day. Here is a calculator to determine the most calories you should be eating on these days. Your age, weight and activity level play a big part in how much you can eat to not increase your weight.
2.) On Monday you just eat about 500-600 calories. You should be so full from the weekend that it is not a big problem. Stick mostly with low-carb options, like eggs, veggies, fish and lean meats. Soups are good. Beans and legumes are important too because they help keep you full, are low calorie, and have a lot of healthy fiber. Otherwise, you will get hungry. Be sure to drink plenty of water that you might be missing because of the lower amount of food. Aim for 7 glasses a day. In order to get what feels like a full meal, you might only be able to eat one main meal per day (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) plus some small snacks at different times.
3.) On Tues/Wed, eat moderately. Try to get lots of veggies, whole grains, and protein. You will eat like a "normal person" and not feel at all deprived. Staying around 1500-2000 calories is a good idea, but you can go over if needed, but try not to overdo it. Best to avoid all sodas and low nutrition food these days, including diet drinks. You want to eat healthy. A few desserts or snacks are fine, but don't go too wild. Wild days are for Sat/Sun.
4.) On Thursday go back to the 500-600 calorie day. This will be more difficult than Monday, but you have the weekend coming soon to eat all you want. Remember to drink a lot of water.
5.) On Friday eat moderately focused on nutrition like you did on Tues/Wed.
You should lose about 1 to 2 pounds a week with it and won't feel like you are on a diet. You should also exercise, but more to stay fit, since exercising hardly burns calories. For example, you need to walk just about an hour to burn off the calories of one can of soda! Keeping muscle tone, like with moderate weight lifting, push-ups, etc., will increase how many calories your body burns per hour, even when you sleep, so that can definitely help speed up the weight loss process. In addition, you will feel better from it.
You can move the days around, but make sure to skip 2 days between low calorie days. Also, be sure to keep the same number of each type of eating day per week (2 anything goes days, 3 moderate, 2 low calorie).
This diet has a lot of evidence that it can make you more healthy too. While it is still early, there is research on lab animals that show eating very low calories a few times a week can significantly extend lifespans and prevent disease. You should get sick less often. We don't really understand all the reasons, but it is being actively studied. One theory is that when the body needs more food and is not getting it, you become healthier because it sees a need to make you more healthy so you have the mental and physical capacity to find enough food to survive.
Once you reach your target weight, you can just limit your 500-600 calorie days to once per week. That should keep you at a healthy weight. Go back on the program if you start increasing your weight. Counting calories is key for it to work. Keep a journal and write down all the calories you eat each day. However, over time you will probably know what to eat based on portion size and eating the same items, which makes things easier to follow. Be careful around restaurants that don't list calories. You might want to just eat half your plate and save the rest for another meal when you go out, or stick with places that give you calories on the menu.
Again, please check with your doctor before doing any weight loss program. You can seriously harm yourself if your body cannot handle it.
