Weighing-In
Each week you should record your new weight on the Weight Loss Chart. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. (You may lose more at the outset). Don’t worry if you hit a plateau for two or three weeks after noticeable weight loss. (A minor change in exercise routine could be all you need to get off this plateau. Try finishing your regular walk with a few minutes of jogging, or climb some stairs—both give your heart rate an extra boost. It could make all the difference.) Stick with losing one or two pounds a week, as it is the only safe and effective way to lose weight. It takes time to put on weight, and time to take it off. Imagine – if you lose at a rate of two pounds between now and Week 10, that’s a loss of 20 pounds! A loss of only five pounds can represent one whole clothing size on some people.

There are many practical approaches you will learn along the way as you proceed with your weight-loss regime. The most important ones you can incorporate into your lifestyle now include the following:

• Organization is a big part of losing weight. Plan your shopping list ahead of time in order to prepare proper meals and avoid 11 th-hour bingeing.
• Cut portion sizes in half. Control the amount you eat. You’ve probably been eating more than you actually need. For example, a palm-size piece of meat, fish or poultry equals one serving (50-100 g). Two thumbs equals one serving of cheese (24-28 g). A thumb-tip equals about the amount of margarine you’d put on toast (1 tsp/5 mL).
• Develop a taste for healthful snacks (i.e. fresh fruits and vegetable crudités). Avoid empty calories from candy, cookies, potato chips and soft drinks. You may want to substitute low-fat or no-fat versions of your favourite snacks, but go easy. These all contain calories that add up. It may be better to enjoy the real thing, but less of it (for example, regular yogourt or a small square of excellent quality chocolate).
• Become a label reader. There are many low- or no-fat versions of frequently used ingredients such as mayonnaise or salad dressings. Substitute whipped or light cream cheese for regular, for example. As you gradually cut more fat out of your diet, you will find that you miss it less. This is how new lifestyle habits are developed. Most people come to dislike the greasy feel of fat in the mouth, and learn to appreciate the lighter, healthier, cleaner taste of low-fat or unprocessed, whole foods. For more information on reading labels see below.

Read, read, read the labels!
Learning to read food labels is easier than deciphering wine labels and it will help you separate fact from fiction. (Make that "fat" from fiction.) By becoming a label-reader, you can make wise food choices on the basis of nutrient content. It won’t take long before choosing low-fat foods becomes second nature.

How much fat is OK?
Most people can maintain their ideal weight consuming 30% of their daily calories from fat. Of these, only 10% should be saturated fat (butter is a saturated fat) and the rest monounsaturated (i.e. olive oil or canola oil) or polyunsaturated (i.e. safflower or corn oil). These are the levels set by Canada’s Food Guide. Using the 30% guideline, a diet of 1500 calories a day would allow for 50 grams of fat.

The Fat Formula
Fat supplies almost double the energy of carbohydrates or protein, which is why eating more fat invariably leads to overweight. More specifically:

Protein = 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram
Fat = 9 calories per gram

Let’s apply the fat formula to your favourite granola-style cereal. Here’s the formula you will use:

Fat grams x 9 calories = Calories from fat
Calories from fat (Energy per serving) x 100 = Percentage of fat calories.

Now, let’s look at that cereal. The package says it contains "clusters of goodness." But when you read the Nutrition Information on the side panel for a 30 g (1/3-cup serving), you see that it also contains 6.1 g fat per serving.

Using the fat formula, you discover:

6.1 g of fat x 9 calories = 54.9 total calories from fat
54.9 total fat calories (145 calories per serving) x 100) = 37% fat calories.

Your favourite cereal contains 37% of its calories from fat! Let’s look at this cereal label more closely, specifically the ingredients statement.

Ingredient declaration: rolled oats, brown sugar, rolled whole wheat, coconut oil, modified milk ingredients, dried unsweetened coconut, almonds, honey, natural flavour.

Since ingredients are listed in descending order of importance, that means there’s more rolled oats (first ingredient) than any other ingredients. So far so good. But look – brown sugar occupies second place. That means there’s a very high proportion of sugar in this product. This cereal also contains coconut oil and dried unsweetened coconut, which is a source of saturated fat! Not good for your arteries.

Perhaps you had better put this cereal back on the shelf and enjoy it occasionally when you have lost your excess weight, and have returned to a diet to maintain your healthy weight.