Hassle-free Weight Loss: The Zen Habits Meal Plan

Hassle-free Weight Loss: The Zen Habits Meal Plan

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I’ve decided that in order to get serious about losing weight, you need to count calories. I’ve tried doing it without counting, and while you do see some weight loss, it’s not the results I’m looking for.

However, I’m too lazy to measure and calculate the calories of every single thing I put in my mouth.

So how have I solved that problem? I call it the Zen Habits Meal Plan (clever, huh?).

Notice that it’s not the “Zen Habits Diet”. That’s because to me, diets are intended to be restrictive and temporary. I’ve created an easy way to plan my meals so that I don’t overeat, so that I’m eating fairly healthy, and so that it’s got some leeway for pleasurable eating. And for me, this has to be something I can do for life.

So here are my requirements when I was coming up with this plan:

* Easy - I don’t want to have to measure or calculate calories for each meal or snack. I need to track calories, but nothing hard or complicated.
* Healthy - I want to incorporate a lot of good, whole foods into my plan.
* Not restrictive - I don’t want to feel like I’m starving myself or restricting myself from yummy foods.
* Sustainable - This is not a temporary plan. It’s something I want to do for the rest of my life.
* Prevent binging - If you allow yourself to get too hungry, you tend to binge. I don’t want that.

OK, so with those requirements in mind, here’s the plan:

1. Calorie goal: Using a calorie calculator, I figured out how many calories I burn every day, just by living my regular life (my Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR). It’s about 2,400. As I plan to burn at least 100 calories a day through exercise, I increased that number to 2,500. Then I figured out what I should eat to lose about 1 lb. a week (that’s a healthy and sustainable rate) … a deficit of 500 calories a day gets you to 1 lb. a week, so my calorie goal for each day is to eat 2,000 calories. Give or take 100 or so, but that’s my goal. So my meal plan is 2,000 calories a day … yours will be different, depending on your BMR and your weight loss goal.

2. 5 meals: To prevent binging, I spread my meals more evenly throughout the day. Most people fall off a meal plan or diet because they are hungry. If you get hungry, you tend to eat unhealthy stuff, and eat too much. So my plan calls for 5 meals spread evenly throughout the day. As my calorie goal is 2,000, I divided that evenly into the 5 meals to come up with 400-calorie meals. Your meals will be different — divide your calorie goal by the number of meals you want.

3. Meal schedule: So I have 5 meals of 400-calories each … and my plan calls for me to eat them at regular intervals. Here’s my schedule: 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. I found that after 3 hours, I start to get really hungry. But if I eat every 3 hours, I don’t binge. Your schedule will be different, but I suggest spreading the meals out every 3 hours, so that you eat not too long after you get up (within 2 hours), and not to long before you go to bed (within 3 hours or so).

4. No snacking after dinner: This has always caused me to eat too many calories. I eat dinner, and then an hour or two later I start snacking. However, I’ve told myself not to do that. It was hard at first, but now I don’t get hungry after dinner, usually. Your body adjusts.

5. 400-calorie meals: So I created a list of 400-calorie meals. Foods I like to eat, that add up to 400 calories. I used a calorie calculator, or just looked on packages. It took me about an hour, but after that, I didn’t have to do any calorie countinig. These are medium-sized meals — not exactly snacks, but not huge meals. Just enough to satisfy my hunger.

6. Healthy stuff: I loaded my meals, as much as possible, with healthy stuff. That includes whole grains, nuts, beans, veggies, fruits, lean protein, flaxseeds, blueberries, avocadoes, oatmeal, lots of greens, etc. It’s not all healthy, but I tried to put in good stuff. I also put in treats, here and there, so that I can enjoy myself.
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