Hi

Have been a lurker for a week or two. I was wondering if someone could answer a question about Body For Life and The South Beach Diets. Does anyone know the approximate calorie breakdown per meal for these diets. From reading posts, I gather that an average calorie diet to lose weight is 2000-2400 per day. I was wondering how these diets compared to those numbers.

I can't speak to South Beach. It's a popular term for a diet, which I coincidentally dismiss because it's referred to as a "diet". If you've read enough of these forums, you'll know that diets don't work. Lifestyle changes do.

The idea behind BFL is that you design the diet, you portion it (and therefore, you're responsible for daily caloric intake), and you adhere to the exercise plan Bill puts forth for you. As such, the dietary portion of BFL is decided by what you consider to be a "portion" size. A portion, as Bill defines it in the book, is roughly the size of the palm of your hand.

It has been my experience that people interested in BFL and transforming themselves tend to err on the side of caution and cut the portions too small, keeping their calories too low. There is no one magic number of calories associated with the Body-FOR-Life program. It varies greatly with each individual.

You should do some research into some of the tools that have been posted in these forums. There are several spreadsheets that you can download and utilize to design a diet for yourself that will fit the general guidelines most of us on these forums believe.

These basic guidelines include first meeting a certain macronutrient ratio. Many people start with the 40:40:20 or 40:30:30 ratios (p:c:f). Then you must design your daily dietary intake using foods you enjoy eating or cooking in a healthy manner - don't make the mistake of restricting yourself to bland or plain foods. You'll quickly tire of them and be eating outside your diet (take it from me, I made this mistake several times before successfully implementing a transformation). Finally, as I said, there are spreadsheets you can download that include various ways to calculate your daily caloric requirements to meet your specific goals - once you know how many calories you must take in to meet a specific goal, whatever your goal may be, you can then layout your foods in such a manner that you eat the right amounts, 5~6 times per day.

From this point on, once you've chosen a goal, designed your diet and exercise program, it's quite simply an exercise in self-control and discipline (something I lack en masse of late).

You should try to seek out these tools and research what I've told you about on your own, design your plan, then post it for the forum's evaluation. You'll learn much more that way.

-R

You should do some research into some of the tools that have been posted in these forums. There are several spreadsheets that you can download and utilize to design a diet for yourself that will fit the general guidelines most of us on these forums believe.

From this point on, once you've chosen a goal, designed your diet and exercise program, it's quite simply an exercise in self-control and discipline (something I lack en masse of late).

You should try to seek out these tools and research what I've told you about on your own, design your plan, then post it for the forum's evaluation. You'll learn much more that way.

-RExactly how I feel. When I try to say I can or cant eat something (like a cookie) people look at me and say...You on a diet? I say No, but I changed my diet. There is a huge difference. I choose to not eat certain things not because I read a book that said dont eat such and such.

Hi

Have been a lurker for a week or two. I was wondering if someone could answer a question about Body For Life and The South Beach Diets. Does anyone know the approximate calorie breakdown per meal for these diets. From reading posts, I gather that an average calorie diet to lose weight is 2000-2400 per day. I was wondering how these diets compared to those numbers.

A fist of rice is approximately 1 cup (200 kcal) and a palm of meat which is approximately 3 oz (150-200) so roughly each meal contains 350-450 kcal per meal. But that's a very rough calculation and general. no cooking method mentioned. Hope that answer's you're question.

But what Bluestreak said is agreedable 100%, "you don't fail diets, diets fails you" Lifestyle changes is the way to go for permanent weight loss. The BFL is a good starting point, but the SB isn't so bad either, I just don't like the word diet used in weight loss purpose, also I don't like the idea of restricting food.