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Starting a Low Calorie Diet
To begin a low calorie diet plan, follow these steps:
- Begin by working out how many calories you need in a day:
Typically, a woman with a sedentary lifestyle needs between 1500-1800 calories
a day; a man with a sedentary lifestyle needs between 2000-2200. However, anyone
who is extremely active would need to increase his or her calorie intake by
600-800 calories a day to make up for the calories to be lost.
- Start reading food labels for calorie content:
Keep track of how many calories you are consuming. Remember to see if the calorie
content refers to the whole package of food, or just to a single serving. You
may need to do a few calculations to work out exactly how many calories you’re
getting.
- Invest in a calorie counter:
Work out which foods, and how much of them, you can eat on your low calorie
diet while remaining within your calorie limits. Many low calorie dieters opt
for working out a low calorie menu for the first couple of weeks on their low
calorie diet. This will help them learn to gauge calorie content so that eventually,
calorie counting becomes a more automatic process.
This way, all your successes and slipups will be recorded. Your successes will
motivate you; your slipups will help you understand when and why you “cheat”
on your diet. (This means that you shouldn’t just write down when you slip up,
but also why; for example, instead of “ice cream” write down “ate x number of
calories of ice cream because I was stressed after a bad day at work.”) Keeping
track will help you monitor your own food intake patterns and, if necessary,
make changes. A food diary is an especially useful tool the first couple of
weeks on your low calorie diet, when you’re still in the process of readjusting
your eating patterns.
A smaller plate will help you cut down on your portions while still giving
you the psychological satisfaction of having “cleaned your plate.”
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