My Weight Loss Diet: It's All About the Calories

It took me about five days to muster the courage to step on the bathroom scale after Thanksgiving, but when I finally did it, the results weren't really all that painful.

My weight was at 206.5 pounds which was just a half pound higher than my lowest recorded weight. I suddenly had hopes that I could make it through the Christmas holidays and into the New Year in fairly decent shape.

My New Year's resolution is to drop below 200 pounds.

I can break down my diet and exercise program into two main parts. I'll keep using my iPhone app-Tap & Track-to control my calories and whenever possible I'll rely on my fish diet.

I've written about my experience with "Tap & Track" before. It's an inexpensive diet and exercise app for the iPhone that allows you to set weight goals and track calories, both consumed at the table and burned through exercise. It has a good database of foods and exercises. It has other features as well, but those are the two I use all the time.

When my weight seemed to plateau recently, I found that it was giving me credit for burning too many calories on my walks. Once I was able to get a better number for the amount of calories burned during a one-hour walk, I started to lose weight again.

Recently a professor of nutrition went on a two-month junk food diet. On his diet, he ate all kinds of snack foods but he restricted his calories. He lost 27 pounds and-this is the oddest part-his bad cholesterol went down and his good cholesterol went up. He set out to prove that in any diet, it's the calories consumed that count for weight loss or weight gain.

Point taken.

I don't have the credentials to argue either for or against a junk food diet, but I do agree with the professor's bottom line: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight. Although Tap & Track can record things like fat and sodium consumption, I don't bother with those features. I side with the professor on this one. It's all about the calories.

Oh, and here's my fish diet: As the weather permits, I try to get out and go fly fishing at least once a week. I've discovered that when I'm out on the stream I usually end up skipping lunch and I don't even fee hungry!

It's my favorite diet. I highly recommend it.