Serving Size ·  Nurtrition Facts ·  Calories and Weight loss ·  Fast Food · 
Variety & Filler Foods ·  Eating

Most programs that are geared to helping you lose weight have fallen short of keeping with the traditional USDA standards. The USDA made a set of guidelines that are based on the average person's daily needs. In the pyramid above it shows the basic food groups and the amount of servings that we should have a day. Your activity level or your gender, will determine what number in that range you should have. For example: You were a male person with a high activity level, You should have the maximum number of servings in a day. Compared to if I was a female with a low activity level, I would have at least the minimum servings.

Serving sizes:

A serving size is the amount one should typically have to meet your dietary needs. Most of the serving sizes are labeled on the package under the "Nutrition Facts". You will see serving size and it will say how many slices, cups, teaspoons, tablespoons will equal one serving of that product.
For example if I was going to have one serving of bread, I would look on my nutrition label and find serving size, and see that one slice of bread is one serving.

There are some times when serving size is not easy to figure out, for example, three ounces of meat or a medium potato. Here is a handy tip for measuring your food.

• A tennis ball will equal a medium size potato or fruit.
• A glue stick equals about one once of meat or cheese.
• A deck of cards will equal 3 onces of meat.
• About an ounce of nuts or something chopped can fit inside a hand that is almost closed.

Variety:

One key factor to maintaining your eating program is variety. Not very many people like to eat tuna sandwiches every day for the rest of their life. Variety is the spice of life, so start trying some new recipes or instead of eliminating the old recipes, modify them to fit a better eating program. The more choices you have, the better chance you have of sticking with it!

Filler Foods:

There are some foods that are essential to keeping us going by filling us up without loading ourselves with empty calories. Fresh fruits and vegetables, high fiber foods, some items in the bread category these are a good examples.
If I was hungry and it was an hour away from a meal, I might try eating an orange to tide me over. Or if I had a need to feel really full from dinner, I might add a baked potato (using low fat margarine or non fat sour cream.) Or try a salad!

Eating:

Your body is regulated by what you eat by mostly metabolism, and sugar levels. Here are a few suggestions to keep them working for you instead of against you:

• When you get up and you don't eat, your metabolism doesn't wake up either and you lose time when your body could be working for you instead of against.
• Eat five to six meals a day. This keeps your body saying..."I'm Ok I don't need to panic and store food as fat because I know I'm going to eat soon!"
• Eat at least 300 calories at breakfast and eat something that is a food not just a drink. This is a benefit for your metabolism.

Calories and Weight loss:

There are many sites that offer calculators that will help you determine how many calories you should have in a day. Be aware that they are sometimes hard to work and unless you can accurately judge what you do during the day, they may not work quite right. If you would like to try to calculate your caloric need, first make a journal for three days of the following:

• How long you sleep
• How long you sit, TV watch, and drive
• How long you clean house, and cook
• Other activities such as exercise, play with kids, walk etc..
• Make sure it equals out to 24 hours.

To try a site that can calculate what your calorie intake should be Click Here

Note: this site gives you three different calculations:
Resting (basal) metabolic rate: 2683 calories per day ( our base line just being us)
Typical daily activities: 1265 calories per day ( our activity level)

Total calories burned: 3948 per day (total calories burned in a day)
Note: 3500 calories = 1 pound weight loss

(Your numbers will be different, these are just examples!)

Note: It is not recommended to go under 1200 calories!

Fast Food:

You don't have to be banned from eating fast food. Though this should be limited to one special occasion or at least once a week, you can make some healthy choices out there by ordering things such as:

• Sandwiches with meat not breaded or fried. (grilled is the best)
• Sandwiches without Mayo. (if you add extra BBQ sauce it will still be just as moist.)
• Avoid the Value meals and just eat a Sandwich and/or a diet pop.

Other Nutrition Facts:

It is a good idea to keep the following things low when selecting a product or food to eat:

• Calories from fat: should not go over 35 percent. This is different from just calories. This is a calculation that tells you that out of the number of calories that this servinghas is that this amount of calories comes from fat. Limiting the higher calories from fat is an easy way of decreasing your waistline.
• Sugars: which are located in the Nutrition Facts area, are another one that you should keep an eye on. It is not a good idea to let the grams of sugar go over 15. Remember, sugar is easy for your body to turn into excess inches around your middle. Limiting the higher sugar grams is another easy way of decreasing your waistline.
• Just a fact: some labels are a little hard to read. Here are some examples of what makes them harder to read:

1. Packaged and Prepared nutrition Facts: some packages such as side dishes, and pre-packaged foods will label them two ways. This can throw you off, if you make the product as per the instructions use the prepared column. If you want to modify it to make it more healthy, use the packaged product and add the extra for what ever you put in.
2. To little to count: Everyone loves a product that has the word Free on it. Fat Free, Sugar Free, Cholesterol Free...etc.. Be aware that this doesn't mean that it does not contain that substance. It just might be so small it doesn't have to count it. For a made up example, Whip Cream... serving size 2 tablespoons. Calories for light... 0 Great now lets have a 2 cup serving....Wrong! Though the calories are 0 for a 2 tablespoon size they might be totally different for 2 cups.