Diet Meal Plans Q & A

William Santoro asked:


Have you ever felt frustrated because you weren’t achieving your fitness or diet goals? Would it be too good to be true if you learned the solution involved cutting back on aerobic exercise or eating more of your favorite foods?

While it’s more likely than not you need to do exactly the opposite, how will you know how much of what foods to maintain in your diet, and whether you’re getting balanced nutrition? An online meal planner puts you light years ahead of counting calories and carbohydrates for controlling your nutrition and health.

A few weeks ago, I was becoming frustrated at the fact I had been exercising more frequently and eating healthier than ever–even cutting back on alcohol (mostly wine) to just a couple times a week–with little results to show for my efforts. If anything, it appeared that my weight and body fat had increased slightly!

Then a friend suggested that I might actually be eating too few calories. That didn’t make any sense to me at all, so he recommended I try out an online meal planning system, called Vitabot. Vitabot is offered by many health clubs as an added benefit for its members, and is recently being offered in an online subscription service by a small number of internet resellers. According to Vitabot’s website, their system has received critical acclaim from top nutritionists and trainers.

It took me a just a short while to get the hang of using the meal planner’s interface, after watching a video tutorial. First I input my current weight, height, body fat, activity level, and target weight. Then I went about selecting my current meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) from the menu (Vitabot is based on standards defined by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science). I was happy to see a filter that showed me only vegan foods, but the meal planner is also suitable for vegetarians (lacto/ovo-lacto), and for meat-eaters as well.

To my surprise, the meal planner revealed that I needed about 2500 calories/day and my current diet contained only 1900 calories a day.  Vitabot’s patented interactive report card system gave me an “F” for not having enough calories and a “C” for insufficient carbohydrates in my diet. It also revealed I had a deficiency of Cobalamin (vitamin B12), which is also common among vegans.

But Vitabot doesn’t stop there. It incorporates a food suggestion system that tells you what foods to eat more of (and the exact portion size) to achieve the optimum balance of vitamins and minerals. In my case, it instructed me to add foods that contained more calories, carbohydrates, and less sodium. I adjusted my meal plan according  to Vitabot’s recommendations until my plan achieved an  “A” grade.

Most important were the results: After following Vitabot’s recommendations for just a few days,  I actually lost a bit, and have stablilized at my desired weight. So, whether you are trying to control your weight (up or down) or just want to make sure you are getting the right nutrients as you make adjustments to your diet, I recommend you experience an online meal planning system for yourself.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Greg Correll asked:


If you have begun your work towards obtaining a six pack abs then you already know how important meal plans are towards your success. If you haven’t yet gotten started you might not fully understand the importance of eating properly and establishing a solid nutritional meal plan. Take a look at this article for an overview of information on effective meal plans for six pack abs programs.

When people want to get a six pack abs, they tend to spend all of their time doing hundreds or thousands of crunches. For now, lets ignore the fact that this workout style isn’t going to even produce the best results. Instead, look at all of your workouts from the perspective that they are only half of the battle towards reaching your goal.

In order to build muscle in your abdominal muscles, you have to have enough protein in your diet to sustain that muscle growth. Protein is the fuel that muscles require in order to be built, repaired and maintained, and therefore protein is a huge component of meal plans in a six pack abs programs. You should try to get around one gram of protein per pound of body mass to ensure you can effectively build muscle.

Another thing you have to think about specifically for your abs is that they happen to be located in a region where your body is most prone to storing fat. That means even if you build up great strength and muscle size in your core region, you still might not have a six pack because all of your muscle is hidden underneath layers of fat.

This brings us to the second key factor in meal plans of a six pack abs program, and that’s the fact that you have to watch what you eat in order to burn off extra fat. This means maintaining a diet that is going to keep your metabolism working at the fastest rate. This can be done by eating many smaller meals spread throughout the day as opposed to a few larger ones.

Incorporating protein into every meal or snack you eat is also another smart way to make the most out of the calories you intake, as mentioned above. Cut down on heavily processed junk foods, and on days that you don’t workout, lower your caloric intake by 10-20%. On days you workout, keep your caloric intake the same but as discussed, be sure that you fill up on protein.

Meal plans for a six pack abs program don’t have to be overly complicated, however, they are a necessary component towards getting the body of your dreams. Keep your metabolism moving quickly by eating smaller, more frequent meals, watch your calories and get plenty of protein in order to see the results you’ve been craving.

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Jon Tucker asked:


Low carb diet meals are the key to a low carb diet? But the key to knowing what low carb diet meals are available is to actually know what foods have carbs. In order to cut carbs from your meals, we need to understand what foods are high in carbs and should therefore be cut from your meal.

Pasta, Bread, Rice, and Cereals

While you don’t need to actually cut these completely from your diet, be sure to follow the serving sizes recommended on the package. For example, don’t make the world’s largest plate of spaghetti for dinner tonight. Instead, have a small plate of spaghetti along with a big salad.

Fruits, The Sugary Carb

Fruits are pretty high in sugar content, but don’t let this confuse you. In fact, the sugar in fruits is actually natural and therefore not all bad. For example, it should be obvious that having an apple a day is much more healthy then having a chocolate bar each day, although both of them are high in sugar. Fruits are a natural sugar while candy is the worst types of sugar.

Mom Said Eat Your Vegis

I’ve got good news. Vegis are the one type of food that virtually any diet allows unlimited amounts of…you can eat all the salad, broccoli, spinach, and any other vegi that you want. While I’m not a huge fan of vegis in general, there are a few that I enjoy including asparagus and green beans. These make a great addition to a steak or chicken dinner, while keep true to your low carb goal.

Low Carb Diet Meals

Below are a few of the meals that I’d recommend for your low carb diet meals, although the possibilities are absolutely endless. There are lots of choices for you to explore, but the below suggestions should get you started down your path to low carb meal happiness.

Chicken with light seasoning, 1 cup of brown rice, and a small salad Lean steak with light seasoning, 1/2 cup spaghetti with no fat butter, 5-7 asparagus

I hope that you get creative with your meals, as the possibilities are truly endless. In recent months, I’ve begun trying to create at least 1 new meals each week that fits the low carb goal of my diet, and it’s been an exciting few months. I’ve had mexican dishes, italian dishes, and even chinese food that has been absolutely amazing.

The possibilities for low carb diet meals are absolutely endless.

You can find more info about my diets at http://mydiets.weebly.com/mydiets.html

Fit Yummy Mummy!

Jim Duffy asked:


Meal replacements have been part of the diet landscape for decades. They have helped numerous people lose weight, and more importantly, they have helped people learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy eating choices. Both quantity and quality of life improvements can be credited to the concept of meal replacement solutions.

Those that have successfully relied upon a meal replacement plan can reflect fondly on how the plan helped address a fundamental diet obstacle: choosing what to eat.

One of the greatest challenges that a dieter faces – if not the greatest – is discovering what to eat, and what to avoid. Answering the latter is usually easier, since most experienced dieters are rather well aware of what they should not be eating. Yet they are often left wondering: what should I eat? Dieters who are fortunate enough to be able to answer this with a simple: I’ll eat my meal replacement foods often see their diets succeed beyond its vulnerable infancy [i].

Dieters who rely on willpower alone, or follow a poorly designed “fad” diet, often do not lose weight. The most that these dieters usually experience is maintenance of current weight, or perhaps a few pounds lost, likely through water loss.

As with most weight loss solutions, there are some potential pitfalls that can undermine dieters. And perhaps the most ironic of these pitfalls exists for those dieters who have chosen a meal replacement route to achieve their weight loss goals. This difficulty is explained, and solved, below.

Diets supported by meal replacement plans are often successful; and herein exists the potential problem. Once a dieter has lost his or her desired weight, there is a transition period from meal replacement food to “normal” food. Without the proper nutritional supplements in place to ensure that this transition is both smooth and long-term, a high number of dieters revert back to their pre-diet unhealthy eating habits. The result, regrettably, is the regaining of weight; and for many dieters, yet one more failed attempt to shed pounds and inches [ii].

The blame for this regained weight is typically, and incorrectly, assigned to two sources. The first target for this misplaced blame is the meal replacement plan itself, which promised long-term weight loss yet apparently failed to deliver. The second misplaced blame, and the one that can do the most damage, is directed towards the dieter him/herself. It is just “another failure”, and a crushing blow to self-esteem.

However, as noted above, this blame is misdirected. The cause of the problem is neither the meal replacement plan, nor the dieter’s lack of willpower. The culprit here was that once the meal replacement plan had done its job, there was no strategy in place to maintain that accomplishment over the long term.

Fortunately, there exist some very well designed nutritional supplements and plans that support this transition strategy. These nutritional supplements are not candy bars posing as “energy bars”, or protein powders laden with calories and fat grams [iii].

Rather, these authentic nutritional supplements are scientifically designed, low-calorie, complete eating solutions. That is, they can be used to supplement a meal that is not fortified with vitamins or complete protein, or they can be used — without health risk — to replace a meal when healthy eating choices are not available.

Meal replacements have proven their value in the “battle of the bulge”; especially since they provide dieters with an easy answer to the question: what do I eat today? However, it is just as clear that the period just after weight loss, when the meal replacements program ceases, is critical.

Far too many dieters are left without a transition plan that enables them to safely return to a diet of non meal-replacement items. Fortunately for these individuals, and for future dieters as well, there exist authentic and medically engineered nutritional supplement solutions that bridge this gap, and help ensure that a hard won weight loss battle is a long-term victory.

ABOUT PROTICA

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. Information on Protica is available at http://www.protica.com

You can also learn about Profect at http://www.profect.com

REFERENCES

[i] Source: “Are you Sabotaging your Diet?”. Prevention.com.
http://www.prevention.com/article/0,5778,s1-4-57-190-4559-3,00.html

[ii] Source: “Meal Replacement Diets”. All About Info Ltd.
http://dietsnutrition.allinfoabout.com/features/replace.html

[iii] Source: “Nutritional Supplement”. Rolf Rasmussen.
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Nutritional-Supplement&id=8188

Fit Yummy Mummy!