Ten Secrets of Weigh Loss

Now that I’ve lost over thirty pounds, friends, coworkers, and even casual acquaintances are starting to notice and ask questions. Suddenly I am an expert on weight loss and blood pressure reduction without medication because I’ve been there, and I am doing it. Generally they start by saying they would like to lose some weight. I generally say, “OK, so lose it”. They then frequently tell me what their physician said. [Motive] I nod.

Then, they ask me what I’ve been doing. I tell them that I’ve been on a diet of less than 1400 calories per day, less than 20% of my calories from fat, and less than 1500 mg of sodium. I also tell them that I work out at the fitness center 4 days a week for about an hour and ten minutes. They then usually tell me that they: should, used to, haven’t been in a while, were thinking about starting, knew people who did, and so on. [Opportunity]

They usually ask me what I eat, and I tell them that I eat food that I like and make decisions so that I don’t exceed my daily goals. When they ask me exactly what I eat, I give them examples and the URL to my blog. It’s when I tell them about the spreadsheet that they either glaze over or ask me to email it to them. They usually conclude with, “I need somebody to tell me exactly what to eat; I can do that”, as they walk away.

I decided that I need to share my “diet secrets”, and some sample daily menus (I have everything I’ve eaten since January 3, 2997 logged). I’ll start with a preview of the ten things I’ve learned to this point. I'll elaborate on them, and toss in a few sample daily menus later.

The Ten Secrets of My Weight Loss

1. Knowledge is power-the power to make choices
2. Non-fat sour cream is my friend
3. Non-fat cream cheese is my friend
4. Fiber is filling
5. My palate took about three days to retrain to a low sodium diet
6. My dinner plate is a riot of color compared with what it used to be
7. Almost any recipe can be remodeled to accommodate my diet
8. Exercise accelerates the weight loss and blood pressure lowering process
9. Vinegar wakes up the flavors of food
10. A playful attitude about food and a willingness to experiment have been strong allies

That’s it to this point. I’m sure more truths will come along later.

Here’s my recap from yesterday.

Daily Dietary Recap-3/30/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1121	73.56 g	186.72 g	759 mg	15.6 g	12.52%

Diet Spreadsheets and Food Logging

Logging what I eat each day has helped me to keep track of where I am in the day and to make informed decisions about dietary choices. I can also see what effect a prospective choice will have on my daily goals, It lets me know whether that treat I am considering will throw me off track or not. I use a spreadsheet that I created using Microsoft Excel.

When I started, I just kept track of Calories, fat, sodium, fiber, and protein using the “Food Facts” listed on most food products. As I learned more, I added sugars, fiber, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and had the spreadsheet calculate calories from each. It also calculates the percentage of calories from each, and lets me know how far I have to go before I reach my goal maximums. My daily goals are: no more than 1400 Calories, no more than 1500 mg sodium, less than 300 mg cholesterol, less than 20% of calories from fat and less than 10% from saturated fat, and 30-38 grams fiber. The spreadsheet makes it fairly easy to keep track of all this.

USDA SR19

The United States Department of Agriculture maintains a website where you can access the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. It contains the composition of 7,293 raw, processed, and prepared foods by up to 140 nutrients. The latest release is 19 and it is updated in August of each year so, the SR 19 was released in August 2006. The database is available either online, or by download in Microsoft Access or ASCII format. The older version SR 17 is available for free download from NutriBase as the NutriBase Navigator. This offline software product allows you to search the database and select which nutrients are of interest and should be displayed.

Once you have searched either database or located food facts from food packages, it is easy to transfer the information to your spreadsheet. When you eat the food again, it’s easy to copy and paste from prior entries.

Recipes from Scratch

Obviously, recipes you cook at home from scratch aren’t found in the SR 19, or on any food facts. When I cook from scratch, I list the ingredients and their nutrients on the spreadsheet, total them and either weigh or measure the final products. I then decide what a serving size should be and the spreadsheet calculates the number of servings and divides the nutrients by this number. This allows me to perform a what-if analysis so I can see the effect of adding or changing one or more ingredients. I can immediately see the effect on each serving of adding a half teaspoon of salt to a recipe, for example. If I decide to eat a smaller portion, the spreadsheet calculates the revised nutrient make up for the new serving size and I can transfer these values to the daily log.

I’ve been told it takes a somewhat obsessive person to log and track their diet to this extent, but, it works for me. I like making informed dietary decisions and see the effect of my decisions.

Here is my recap from yesterday.

Daily Dietary Recap-3/1/2007
Calories	Protein	Carbohydrates	Sodium	Fat	% Calories from Fat
1052.86	80.77 g	149.52 g	977.81 mg	12.74 g	10.89%