Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

I think this one will be a bit controversial — weight loss theories seem to be a bit divisive, judging from past posts on this topics, as people have very strong opinions about the right way to lose weight.

However, this post isn’t going to explore any of those theories. It’s meant to be a simple plan for people who have trouble losing weight.

These people don’t need to go into the scientific theories, and they probably don’t want to count calories or do any kind of complicated calculations. They just want a few simple steps that they can do, right now, that will work.

When I started running last year, and eating healthier (eventually becoming a near-vegan), I lost more than 20 pounds and kept them off. This year, my workout plan has been disrupted a couple of times by illness and then a back injury, but in July I’ve gotten back on track and can already feel the changes. I am confident that I’ll have a fairly flat stomach by the end of the year, barring any future injuries or severe illnesses.

Anyway, I recently had a few readers ask me about my weight loss plan. Well, I don’t diet, and I don’t do anything too intense. I’ve just made some simple lifestyle changes, one at a time, and I feel much healthier as a result. The weight loss is slower than with some of the more drastic plans, but I feel that they’re more permanent, because I’m in this for life, not for short-term weight loss.

If this sounds right for you, check out the following plan. Of course, you all know that I’m not a doctor, a dietician, a certified personal trainer, or in any way qualified to give advice. You know that you should see a doctor before starting a plan like this, to prevent any serious health consequences. However, this plan is based on the advice of experts much more knowledgeable than me, and I can testify that it works — for me, and for others I know who’ve done similar things.

There is nothing revolutionary in this plan. It’s common-sense, and simple:

Zen To Slim Weight Loss Plan

Step 1: Begin gradual exercise. Instead of trying to change your entire life with an intense weight loss plan, we’re going to start small. All you want to do is make a commitment to get yourself moving for at least 10 or 15 minutes each day for 30 days straight.

Some key points:

Type of exercise. If you’re already a runner or a cyclist or something similar, then begin a very, very modest program of resuming that exercise. Otherwise, walking, a treadmill, hiking, a cycling machine, rowing, or something similar would work. Mixing it up is a great idea, alternating different exercises on different days. The actual exercise you do doesn’t matter, as long as you get moving.
Most important here: start out really easy. People tend to start out with a lot of enthusiasm, and then burn out, skip a workout or two, and then the plan has failed. In this plan, you want to go short and slow. If you normally run 3-4 miles, for example, just run 1-2 miles. Go for about half of what you think you can do. You can always add more later.
It’s important that you try to do it every day. Mark your successes on your calendar — gold stars always work well — and try to keep the marks going every day. If you can do short, easy workouts, and mix up the exercises a little, you can do it every day.
Set aside some time to do this every day. If you’ve had success working out in the morning before, use that time. Otherwise, do it right after work.
Strength. Another point is that you can do strength workouts, but don’t do anything too hard in the first couple of weeks. Just some pushups, crunches, lunges, squats, with no weights. That might sound easy to some of you, but the key, again, is to start out slow.
Just start. Last key point: if you are feeling resistance to exercising, just tell yourself that you have to lace up your shoes and get out the door. How long you do it doesn’t matter — even 5 minutes is good. I bet, though, that once you start, you’ll want to keep going for at least 15 minutes.

Step 2: Replace fatty and greasy foods with healthier foods. You’re not going to go on a diet. But take a look at what you eat, and try to slowly replace the greasier and fattier foods you eat (think: fast food, or fried food) with healthier alternatives.

Some key points for this step:

Examples: if you cook fried chicken, try baked instead. If you eat burgers, try a veggie burger or a low-fat turkey sandwich. If you eat pizza, try making your own pizza, with a store-bought crust, pizza sauce, veggies, and olive oil, with no cheese. You get the idea.
Gradual change: Now, you don’t need to change all these foods overnight. But after you do the 30-day exercise challenge in Step 1, do a second 30-day challenge where you replace one fatty food a day with a healthier alternative. Slowly, replace more and more fatty foods with healthier ones. You’ll get used to it over the course of a month.
Exercise: Also continue the daily exercise in the second month, increasing the duration of your workouts a little at a time if you can.

Step 3: Eat smaller meals, more frequently. Once you start getting used to less fatty foods, try eating smaller portions, and eating 5-6 times per day instead of just 3 big meals.

Some key points:

The 5-6 meals: A good schedule is to eat breakfast, then a mid-morning snack, then a small early lunch, then a second small lunch a couple of hours later, then a small late-afternoon snack, then a small, light dinner. If that’s too much, just try adding a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, and make the main three meals smaller.
Snacks: Make sure that your snacks are healthy ones. Good ones include fruits, nuts, low-fat pretzels, low-fat cheese, low-fat yogurt, cut up veggies.
Wait: For your meals, try eating just one moderate-size serving. If you feel like a second serving, wait 20 minutes, then see if you’re full. It’s important that you gradually reduce your portions, and learn to eat only until you’re satiated, not until you’re bursting.

Step 4: Intensify exercise slowly. Once you’ve gone a month or so doing very short and easy workouts each day, and your body is used to daily exercise, you can gradually intensify the exercise.

Some points:

Duration: The first thing you should increase is the duration of your workouts. Without working out any harder, keeping the low intensity of your previous workouts, just add 5 minutes to your workout. Stick to this new duration for 2-3 workouts, then add another 5 minutes. Your goal is to get to about 40-45 minutes (although eventually doing an hour once a week is good too).
Intensity: After your body gets used to going for longer, once a week or so, try a slightly more intense workout. First, make the duration of the workout much shorter for this intense workout. For example, instead of running or walking for 40 minutes, do 20 minutes. Second, go harder in intervals. For example, do 3-4 minutes at a faster pace, then go at an easy pace, then a faster pace, and so on. Be sure to warm up first, and cool down at the end. When you first start doing the intervals, do them only at a slightly higher intensity, gradually increasing that intensity as the weeks go by.
Hard-easy: If you do longer or more intense workouts, be sure to follow them with an easy workout. For example, if you do a longer workout of 45 minutes, just do 20-25 minutes the next day. Or if you do interval workouts one day, do a short easy one the next day. Consider the longer or more intense workouts your “hard” days, and never have two hard days in a row — otherwise, you may get injured or burn out.

Step 5: Replace sugary foods with healthier treats. The next target food area is sugary foods. Just as you did with fatty foods, try to replace them with healthier alternatives one at a time. With the combination of lower fat and less sugar in your diet, and your exercise, you should start losing weight much faster by this step.

Some points to make:

Challenge: Just like with the fatty foods, try another 30-day challenge with the sweets. See if you can go the whole month without sweets! Or try a more gradual approach, and have less each day.
Cheat day: If you try a month without sweets, I suggest a cheat day. For me, it’s Saturday, when I can eat whatever desserts I want. Interestingly, I don’t eat as many desserts on my cheat days as I used to. It’s not like I pig out, although I don’t restrict myself either.
Alternatives: Come up with a list of alternatives to sweets, stock up on them, and get rid of the sweets in your house. For example, if you usually have a candy bar for a snack, have fruits or veggies instead. Often we just want something to munch on.
Drinks: If you drink sodas or juices, cut out those calories by drinking water, exclusively (except perhaps for a single cup of coffee in the morning).
Whole grains: If you haven’t yet, look for whole grain alternatives to things you might be eating, including cereal, bread, brown rice, etc.

Also see:

If you liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us. Thanks!

Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

However, this post isn’t going to explore any of those theories. It’s meant to be a simple plan for people who have trouble losing weight.

There is nothing revolutionary in this plan. It’s common-sense, and simple:

Zen To Slim Weight Loss Plan

Some key points:

Type of exercise. If you’re already a runner or a cyclist or something similar, then begin a very, very modest program of resuming that exercise. Otherwise, walking, a treadmill, hiking, a cycling machine, rowing, or something similar would work. Mixing it up is a great idea, alternating different exercises on different days. The actual exercise you do doesn’t matter, as long as you get moving.
Most important here: start out really easy. People tend to start out with a lot of enthusiasm, and then burn out, skip a workout or two, and then the plan has failed. In this plan, you want to go short and slow. If you normally run 3-4 miles, for example, just run 1-2 miles. Go for about half of what you think you can do. You can always add more later.
It’s important that you try to do it every day. Mark your successes on your calendar — gold stars always work well — and try to keep the marks going every day. If you can do short, easy workouts, and mix up the exercises a little, you can do it every day.
Set aside some time to do this every day. If you’ve had success working out in the morning before, use that time. Otherwise, do it right after work.
Strength. Another point is that you can do strength workouts, but don’t do anything too hard in the first couple of weeks. Just some pushups, crunches, lunges, squats, with no weights. That might sound easy to some of you, but the key, again, is to start out slow.
Just start. Last key point: if you are feeling resistance to exercising, just tell yourself that you have to lace up your shoes and get out the door. How long you do it doesn’t matter — even 5 minutes is good. I bet, though, that once you start, you’ll want to keep going for at least 15 minutes.

Some key points for this step:

Examples: if you cook fried chicken, try baked instead. If you eat burgers, try a veggie burger or a low-fat turkey sandwich. If you eat pizza, try making your own pizza, with a store-bought crust, pizza sauce, veggies, and olive oil, with no cheese. You get the idea.
Gradual change: Now, you don’t need to change all these foods overnight. But after you do the 30-day exercise challenge in Step 1, do a second 30-day challenge where you replace one fatty food a day with a healthier alternative. Slowly, replace more and more fatty foods with healthier ones. You’ll get used to it over the course of a month.
Exercise: Also continue the daily exercise in the second month, increasing the duration of your workouts a little at a time if you can.

Step 3: Eat smaller meals, more frequently. Once you start getting used to less fatty foods, try eating smaller portions, and eating 5-6 times per day instead of just 3 big meals.

Some key points:

The 5-6 meals: A good schedule is to eat breakfast, then a mid-morning snack, then a small early lunch, then a second small lunch a couple of hours later, then a small late-afternoon snack, then a small, light dinner. If that’s too much, just try adding a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, and make the main three meals smaller.
Snacks: Make sure that your snacks are healthy ones. Good ones include fruits, nuts, low-fat pretzels, low-fat cheese, low-fat yogurt, cut up veggies.
Wait: For your meals, try eating just one moderate-size serving. If you feel like a second serving, wait 20 minutes, then see if you’re full. It’s important that you gradually reduce your portions, and learn to eat only until you’re satiated, not until you’re bursting.

Step 4: Intensify exercise slowly. Once you’ve gone a month or so doing very short and easy workouts each day, and your body is used to daily exercise, you can gradually intensify the exercise.

Some points:

Duration: The first thing you should increase is the duration of your workouts. Without working out any harder, keeping the low intensity of your previous workouts, just add 5 minutes to your workout. Stick to this new duration for 2-3 workouts, then add another 5 minutes. Your goal is to get to about 40-45 minutes (although eventually doing an hour once a week is good too).
Intensity: After your body gets used to going for longer, once a week or so, try a slightly more intense workout. First, make the duration of the workout much shorter for this intense workout. For example, instead of running or walking for 40 minutes, do 20 minutes. Second, go harder in intervals. For example, do 3-4 minutes at a faster pace, then go at an easy pace, then a faster pace, and so on. Be sure to warm up first, and cool down at the end. When you first start doing the intervals, do them only at a slightly higher intensity, gradually increasing that intensity as the weeks go by.
Hard-easy: If you do longer or more intense workouts, be sure to follow them with an easy workout. For example, if you do a longer workout of 45 minutes, just do 20-25 minutes the next day. Or if you do interval workouts one day, do a short easy one the next day. Consider the longer or more intense workouts your “hard” days, and never have two hard days in a row — otherwise, you may get injured or burn out.

Some points to make:

Challenge: Just like with the fatty foods, try another 30-day challenge with the sweets. See if you can go the whole month without sweets! Or try a more gradual approach, and have less each day.
Cheat day: If you try a month without sweets, I suggest a cheat day. For me, it’s Saturday, when I can eat whatever desserts I want. Interestingly, I don’t eat as many desserts on my cheat days as I used to. It’s not like I pig out, although I don’t restrict myself either.
Alternatives: Come up with a list of alternatives to sweets, stock up on them, and get rid of the sweets in your house. For example, if you usually have a candy bar for a snack, have fruits or veggies instead. Often we just want something to munch on.
Drinks: If you drink sodas or juices, cut out those calories by drinking water, exclusively (except perhaps for a single cup of coffee in the morning).
Whole grains: If you haven’t yet, look for whole grain alternatives to things you might be eating, including cereal, bread, brown rice, etc.

Also see:

If you liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us. Thanks!

Posted on 27 July 2007 in Health Tip Day |
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Comments (32)

Alex Ion Says:

July 27th, 2007, 5:27 am

That sounds like changing habits more than weight loss plans.

It also sounds more like living healthier than any weight loss plans. I would like to advise the same as LEO did in the article. Stop all those diets that will get you more weight, and start being healthy.

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 5:34 am

@Alex: Exactly … changing habits and living healthier instead of going on a diet. Thanks for the comment!

Manu Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:23 am

Leo, great article. I started to do the same things in my life, and it starting to be better, but i’m a bit confused about eating often. I heard a specialist saying that it’s important not to eat betwen meals, cause the stomac need 4-5 h to process the food, and it’s not healty. He said that regular meals are the best, and also eating very good in the morning. What do you say about that?

eli Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:34 am

I’ve lost a little over 5 pounds in the past two weeks (from 182 to 175, 5′11″ small frame) by changing my diet to a responsible strict vegetarian diet. I don’t say vegan because that’s always been more of a philosophy to me.

The key for me is to avoid foods with oils and to make everything myself. I can’t trust restaurants to make food so I’m making a killing there in savings. One example is the muffins I’ve been baking. They are fat free, high fiber, made with fruit juice as sweeteners, and 1/4 the size of what I was eating every morning.

I’ve been making my meals from scratch and I’ve been active every day. I take the stairs instead of the elevator to both my office and my car, both on the 4th floor.

It’s all about habits. I really like these ones, feel no deprivation or need to cheat at all. It’s really great. If I did cheat, it’d be a burrito a the local mex joint still strictly veg, but with fried corn chips, which I can’t eat regularly on my diet.

btw, my stuff is from a book, Dr. John McDougall’s McDougall plan for healthy living.

brent Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:50 am

Yep.

I’ve lost 40 pounds in the last 18 months by pretty much doing what you wrote.

I refused to go on a diet - I just stopped eating STOOPID things (or, at least, stopped eating as much as I could).

I ditched my car and rode the 8km to work.

I stopped drinking things that weren’t water, (including caffeine).

I took plenty of food to work, and made sure that I was NEVER hungry. BUT, I took kiwi fruit, apples, bananas, muesli bars, sultanas, whole grain sandwiches and water. That meant that I didn’t get home fantasising about the big meal that I ‘deserved’.

I think that the ONLY thing that will help you to lose weight is to decide that you now choose life.

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:53 am

@eli: great job! I would actually recommend going vegan, or close to it, but I know that a large majority of readers won’t consider that, so I didn’t introduce it here. McDougall is great!

@Manu: actually, as I understand it, your digestive system needs 4-5 hours to digest food … but most of that is in your intestines, not in your stomach. I’m not sure if eating food while your last meal is in your intestines really affects anything, but I’d be open to reading more on the subject if anyone has a link.

Truthfully, I can’t answer definitively, but know that a lot of people in the medical community have been advising smaller and more frequent meals, instead of just 3 big meals. It also makes more sense to me, because if you wait 4-5 hours to eat, you will be very hungry, and you’ll tend to eat more during those big meals, because you are so hungry and your blood-sugar levels are so low. Eating more frequently allows your body to keep your blood-sugar levels at a fairly consistent level, instead of going on a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Still, I’m not a doctor, and I’m just giving you my understanding of it.

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:54 am

@brent: great job! You have the right attitude, and that’s what matters most.

Tom O'Leary Says:

July 27th, 2007, 7:42 am

I’m with you when it comes to running. When I increase my running I lose weight, when I decrease it I gain weight.
It is a simple formula really:
energy eaten - energy burnt = energy stored as fat.
If we increase how much we burn then eventually, gradually we will lose fat.
Thanks
Tom O’Leary

William Mize Says:

July 27th, 2007, 8:00 am

Here’s a quick hack that needs no equipment, just your hand.

Before you eat anything hold up your hand and make a fist.
This is how big your stomach is.
Look how small it is.
Imagine just how much food it can hold.
Now look at your plate.
Add to this the amount of fluid in your cup or glass.
Adjust accordingly.

Schizohedron Says:

July 27th, 2007, 8:38 am

Leo, if more Americans enacted this plan, we could reverse the obesity and diabetes epidemics in less than a decade. The only controversy this post should spark is whether to start the plan tomorrow morning or right now!

Paul Says:

July 27th, 2007, 8:45 am

@Alex+Leo: Actually, that sounds a lot like the Weight Watchers program.

John Says:

July 27th, 2007, 9:19 am

John’s three-step weight-loss program:

0) LOVE YOURSELF AS YOU ARE NOW

1) EAT HEALTHIER

2) MOVE AROUND SOME MORE

Abhijit Says:

July 27th, 2007, 9:47 am

I’ve often been recommended this “eat 5-6 meals” idea, but I’ve had a tough time implementing it on a workday. I like the idea of the occasional snack, and shortening the other meals.

I’ll give it a shot! Good post.

Brad Luyster Says:

July 27th, 2007, 10:40 am

This post is about as simple as it can get. Great way to get started. You can eat whatever you want and still lose weight, you just have to want a lot less.

gina Says:

July 27th, 2007, 11:09 am

Wow, Leo. I stumbled upon this website, and your goals are closely matched with mine. I was on track doing all of these things (except the smoking) but then Hurricane Katrina changed my life. It broke my habits because my lifestyle (house, job, everything changed) I am finally back in New Orleans and slowly am working my way back to being where I was two years ago.
I am now exercising every day and eating right and just ordered the GTD book you recommended. Any tips on restarting your life would be appreciated. I can’t wait to go on this journey again. I’m so glad to have found you and know that it’s not an accident.
BTW-I’ve never left a comment for a stranger, so know that you’re special. I wish you had a podcast.

Janna Says:

July 27th, 2007, 11:23 am

Oh, if it were only that simple… Unfortunately for me, obstacles like college life and medications that make me hungry all the time make it all the more difficult. Very good premise, however.

Grayson De Ritis Says:

July 27th, 2007, 12:42 pm

I’m trying to put on MORE weight, actually :-) Any donations? Hehe.

Sara Says:

July 27th, 2007, 12:53 pm

Surprise! The answer is more carbs! Eat more pretzels!

Good luck with your weight loss, folks. You’ll need it.

Travis Says:

July 27th, 2007, 13:17 pm

Excellent post, Leo. I have gone from 396 down to 190 using a vast number of different approaches, and the only thing that really worked for me was to forget about quick fixes and go for a lifestyle make over.

Bad habits get you to bad places, good habits get you to good places.

My formula is now-
Eat Less, Move More, Drink Water. Write it down.
The only one that can find the right program for you, is you.

Eddie Says:

July 27th, 2007, 15:03 pm

Excellent one, Leo!

My doctor put this to me in a similar concept a few years ago: nice and easy to understand, concise, and to-the-point.

Being a diabetic, weight “management” (for me) was a psychologically crucial barrier to cross even before actual weight loss, so others like me may see building a sensible plan (changing habits slowly and manageably) can work wonders to help oneself.

Stick to it, and even if its just a 2 pound a month loss (like for me), its worth the effort. I’ve worked off 20 pounds to date, but I will admit winters are the worst, with hibernation and all ;-)

Fit Club Scott Says:

July 27th, 2007, 15:31 pm

Don’t underestimate the power of Step 3. Eating smaller, more frequent meals is an invaluable step in losing weight and maintaining the loss. No matter how much exercise you do, you can always “out eat” it. It’s easier to eat fewer calories in a day without feeling deprived if you eat 5-6 meals per day. Great job, Leo.

http://thefitclub.blogspot.com

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 20:41 pm

Thanks for all the great comments, everyone!

@Sara: Actually, the plan never calls for eating more carbs. It only says to cut back on fatty foods and then cut back on sugary foods (which are carbs, of course). It asks for you to replace those unhealthy foods with healthier alternatives … including whole grains, beans, veggies, fruits, nuts, low-fat protein, etc.

Not more carbs. Although, this plan does not villify carbs as other programs do — carbs are not the enemy. Sugary or white carbs are unhealthy (in excess), as are fried and fatty foods (including fatty proteins like red meat).

Todd Says:

July 29th, 2007, 9:17 am

Very well put!! Loosing weight requires discipline, changing old habits and the resolve to live healthy. What you read here is what I did. I have lost more than 25 lbs and have now run 14 marathons including the last 4 Boston marathons.

Alex Ion Says:

July 29th, 2007, 18:35 pm

Leo I’ve been thinking a little bit these days about your ideas of people selling the 2nd car and start “moving” a little bit more.

Not only that you will be lose weight, make your muscles firmer and stuff like that, but IMAGINE: we could really save this world like this. I am not sure if it’s from any sources but I think cars are among those that caused global warming.

What if we can stop the hurricanes and any other green problems just by walking more ?

Matt Says:

July 30th, 2007, 9:45 am

This article basically puts into words the same thing I’ve been doing over the past year or so. I firmly believe that to achieve lasting weight loss, you have to permanently change your eating and exercise habits gradually enough that your body and mind won’t start to rebel. I’ve successfully lost 30 lbs so far using this methodology. The next 30 will be more difficult, but if I can conquer my two biggest demons, fast food and sweets, I know I can do it.

The next change I’ll be implementing, as suggested by my wife, is to stop bringing my credit card to work. It’s too easy to get fast food and sweets here and everyone takes credit cards these days. I’ve already stopped carrying cash.

Whitney Says:

July 30th, 2007, 14:21 pm

There is something powerful about putting into words ideas that we (should) already know. I’ve been doing the above for the last year and have dropped 30. I hope to keep going till I’m at the healthy weight.

Its as you say, its not about the number or the exact timeline - its about the healthy life style. And you feel better because of it. Less tired. Hiccup less. Just feel good!

Proof of my success happened last week. I was away with friends: we all have such different nutritional desires. I found myself eating smaller portions and healthier options than my friends. More importantly though, I was in much more control of my actions and my choices than I was last year at this time.

Cindie Says:

September 14th, 2007, 15:28 pm

Buy a bag of small apples (preferably organic of course). When you’re hungry and it’s not mealtime, eat an apple. It will keep your tummy busy until mealtime, give you vitamins and fiber, and help clean your teeth to boot. “Zen to Slim” is really the only way to lose weight in a healthful way and keep it off - it’s all about changing your attitude towards food.

Cherryy Says:

September 30th, 2007, 22:26 pm

I agree with starting out with small changes that gradually become habit. One small change I made that made a big difference in my health and weight loss was switching from diet soda to lime seltzer water. I found that I loved the fizz more than the flavor and calories, so you can easily wipe out 200 calories a day by replacing your diet soda with carbonated water or seltzer.

Karen Says:

October 20th, 2007, 14:13 pm

This makes sense. I started a weight loss plan of my own, and in the past 5 weeks I’ve lost 11 pounds. (Note to frustrated dieters: It hasn’t been a straight line. One week I lost 5 pounds; the next week I lost none but lost 3/4″ off my waist. Other people who’ve lost weight tell me this is normal.)

At first I followed the good, simple advice from Michael Pollan’s article in the New York Times: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html)

I have since evolved my own three rules: Eat less. Eat better. Exercise more. The first and last would do it, assuming you didn’t go crazy and drop the veggies while keeping the candy, soda and burgers to fulfill the first rule. The second rule is deliberately vague, because there are situations where “best” isn’t possible, so I chose the “better” alternative.

To keep myself from going crazy, I allow one “cheat/treat” a week. It can be almost anything though I try not to run amok. My cheat/treat keeps me from going into junk food and snack deprivation, so I can stick with it for the long run; then I go back to my healthy, mostly lo-cal eating. Even my treats are becoming “better” because I’m more careful about what I chose.

Exercise is key. I lost a significant amount of weight once before (which unfortunately found me again over the years) using both diet and exercise. I’ve always walked a lot, and am building up gradually other forms of exercise.

Aside to Grayson: I would gladly donate if I could! I had a roommate in college who wanted to gain a few pounds. We did a lot of hiking on weekends–me to burn calories, her to build muscle. It worked pretty well for both of us.

Kassandra Says:

February 15th, 2008, 18:52 pm

I’ll go along with most of what you have to say on this. However, there’s something that needs to be understood when it comes to fat. 1) Fat doesn’t make you fat. 2) Your body needs fat (good fats) 3) Without fat your brain would die.

Fat makes you feel full and satisfied which also means that you’re not craving and there’s no need to “cheat”. I learned a lot about foods at http://DiabeticWeightManagement.com. Their FAQ is an excellent source of good solid information on food. Thanks to them I was able to not only get my diabetes under control but almost effortlessly lose weight.

Besides adding good fats to my diet I also learned that much of my problem wasn’t so much sugar but artificial sugars and vegetable fats. Once I removed these the rest as I mentioned was almost effortless.

Keep up the good work.

Kassandra

How to get a flat stomach Says:

July 3rd, 2008, 8:49 am

this is a very good post! I completely agree with these steps. Yes, it can be discussed whether something should be done more or lesse, but I think the key point is that we talk about exercises and healthy eating.

Daniel Says:

August 5th, 2008, 15:01 pm

Excellent post as this would definitely help a lot of people to lose weight and improve their lifestyles.

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Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan

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Zen To Slim Weight Loss Plan

Comments (32)

Alex Ion Says:

July 27th, 2007, 5:27 am

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 5:34 am

Manu Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:23 am

eli Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:34 am

brent Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:50 am

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:53 am

Leo Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:54 am

Tom O'Leary Says:

July 27th, 2007, 7:42 am

William Mize Says:

July 27th, 2007, 8:00 am

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July 27th, 2007, 8:38 am

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July 27th, 2007, 9:19 am

Abhijit Says:

July 27th, 2007, 9:47 am

Brad Luyster Says:

July 27th, 2007, 10:40 am

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Fit Club Scott Says:

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July 29th, 2007, 9:17 am

Alex Ion Says:

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July 30th, 2007, 9:45 am

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July 30th, 2007, 14:21 pm

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October 20th, 2007, 14:13 pm

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February 15th, 2008, 18:52 pm

How to get a flat stomach Says:

July 3rd, 2008, 8:49 am

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August 5th, 2008, 15:01 pm

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