This article details one of the easiest weight loss programs ever. You can lose 20 pounds (9 kilograms) in 6 months. It has been proved to work. Well, at least once. My wife Lucy did it.
The method described here is most suitable for women of, shall we say, more mature years and the great thing about it is that the regime of exercise and diet is the easiest ever to follow. A little boring some might say but no need to calculate, to cook, or to figure out any complex menu-in fact no menu figuring whatsoever. For the no cooking bit to work you do need a moderately (just moderately) cooperative husband, partner, lover, or another household member.
After considerable research on the best way to lose weight-approximately half a lifetime’s research actually, my wife and I decided on the moderate exercise and calorie counting method as the most likely to be successful for her to lose weight. How right we were. A simple case of less energy in than the energy going out-regular exercise combined with a calculated amount of healthy food. It’s the only way to go!
Let’s start with the basics. If you are female, about 150 pounds (70 kilograms or so), and you want to reduce to about 130 pounds (61 kilograms or so) with the commensurate reduction in dress size, say from the tight squeeze into size x now, down to a tight squeeze into the size x – 1, then just keep reading.
You probably also have a yearning to get down to 130 pounds because you regard it as your proper fighting weight, or in Lucy’s case, her wedding day weight. In other words, it is the weight when you considered yourself to be at your peak. -A great goal!
Now I am not saying that this diet won’t work for women going from say 170 pounds (about 77 kilograms) to 150 pounds or indeed women of any other starting weight. However, I am sticking to what I have personal knowledge of and trying to keep this article on a truly scientific a footing-be it only with a sample of 1. I will therefore keep to what happened in this single instance.
We got the calorie number requirements form Allan Borus Hek’s book-‘Calorie and Fat Counter’ If you are a woman of over 55 years and 150 pounds, your intake should be about 1660 calories per day provided you are just sitting around, working in an office or the like. If you are doing all the housework, then add about another 100 calories. We chose housework as part of Lucy’s activity regime-because that left me free to do more important tasks! Well-I do all the cooking and most of the gardening. See, I told you this was a scientific account.
So according to these figures Lucy and I agreed that to maintain her present weight she should be on about 1660 + 100 =1760 calories per day. We used the good old ‘Calorie and Fat Counter’ book again to calculate her true pre-diet intake and it came to considerably more-over 2000 calories.
So, we figured this would be easy then. All we had to do was increase the activity and decrease the calories or perhaps do both and we would be on track. We decided on both.
Based on foods my wife liked to eat we decided on the following basic diet. It had to be simple, easily prepared without deep thought (because I do the cooking remember), easy to shop for, and consistently deliver the correct calorific value.
Fortunately, Lucy does not mind eating the same or very similar foods day in day out. She is comfortable with this because she is secure in the knowledge that she has her calorie intake fully under control and this, for her, was the most important factor. She felt that if she was to have a more varied, perhaps less boring regime, she would find it a hassle to recalculate, prepare and organize and in this case, she might be more likely to give up and it had to be simple for me also of course. So simple and straightforward it was, and is, and on with the task!
Here is the actual diet and calorie intake-all day and every day!
Meal
Calorie intake
Breakfast
1 x 200-gram tub of low-fat yoghurt-
1 slice of whole grain toast-
1 average size sardine-
Total calories for breakfast-
190
100
25
315
Lunch
1 whole grain roll-
4 average size sardines-
Lettuce in roll almost nil calories
1 packet or one small tin of soup on average-
Total calories for lunch-
200
100
140
440
Dinner
270 grams (a full bowl) of microwaved greens-
1 x packet of ‘Lean Cuisine’ ready meal or similar low fat meal-average calories-
Total calories for dinner-
270
300
570
Between meal snacks
Fruit various, two or three serves per day on average-
Total calories for snacks-
250
250
Total daily calorie intake is therefore-
1575 calories
Okay, so this diet delivers 1575 calories each day. This is 1760 – 1575 = 185 calories under what is required for maintenance if Lucy is doing all the housework. Now Lucy and I figured that if a little extra exercise was added then this must result in loss of weight over time. The exercise regime we decided should include some walking everyday.
Based on the time Lucy felt she was prepared to devote to this it was decided to include 50 minutes of walking every day. This 50-minute walk around our local neighbourhood is undertaken every morning just as soon as it begins to get light. Right now this is at about 5.00 AM.
As with the food there is no variation introduced here such as alternate walking routes. The priority is for a simple consistent exercise routine and Lucy walks exactly the same 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometres) circuit each and every morning. The only exception is if she is unwell or the rain is absolutely bucketing down.
Now I know that most people might not want to stick to exactly the same diet and exercise routine every day. What I am saying is that we know that this definitely works. However if you wanted you could use tuna or some other convenient protein rich source instead of the sardines and, as Lucy does, you do have the excitement of looking forward to a change of ready cooked meal every dinnertime!
So there you have it ladies all the information you need for a certain loss of 20 pounds or the equivalent 9 kilograms and the reduction of one dress size. Lucy did it and you can too.
Written by Brian Kellock.
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