A natural weight loss healthy diet program |
About our database
Our database provides the nutitional values for each of the foods or drinks that you consume. It does not weigh you down with information overload. It provides you with the total calories and the grams of fat consumed. This is what you need to successfully achieve your goals in this healthy weight loss program.
Some databases claim to list 25,000 or 40,000 foods. That sounds impressive, but do those numbers serve any other real function?
Our food database, like most food databases, is taken from the USDA database. You can find it at
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8964
where you can download it for free, if you so desire.
Alternatively, if you wish to search for just one or two foods, you can search in the USDA National Nutrient Database, at
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
Even the latest USDA food database contains only about 7,000 listings and a great many of them are essentially redundent or of little value. For example, most people wouldn't consider emu or ostrich as a very frequent choice at this point in American history, so you won't find it in our database. If either of them happen to be something you enjoy, however, you can easily add it to your list of favorites in this program. Our much more modest database is designed to be a first step in helping you to set up your own list of favorite foods. In the final analysis, most people tend to eat only a relatively small number of items, but they eat the same things, month in and month out. Occassionally, they will have something out of the ordinary, but not very often. Hence, each of us has a list of favorite foods which comprise perhaps 90% of our diet. You can simply add your favorite foods to your own personal list of favorite foods. You may do this from our general database, package labels, a calorie and fat gram counter book, etc. Then, when you select the items for your lunch, for example, you simply enter the food and the quantity (piece, slice, ounce, cup, etc.) and the program keeps track of it all. It presents you with the number of calories and grams of fat for each item, as well as the running total for the day. It also calculates the % of fat calories involved in the foods consumed so far. All this information makes it easy to adjust your menu on the fly, so to speak, for the entire day, in order to keep within the calorie or fat gram limits you have set for yourself.
For foods that you buy in canned goods, or packaged goods, you can readily get the calories and fat grams off the label on the can or the package. Those who like to get lunchmeat at the deli in their supermarket should be advised that many of these are very high in fat content. The only way to know the actual numbers is to ask the deli clerk to let you look at the label. They are usually very pleasant people who are glad to help. You can then see how many calories and grams of fat are contained in a given quantity of the meat, (often it is for a two ounce quantity). The best choices at the deli counter for sandwich meats are usually turkey breast, chicken breast, and ham. Although the manufacturers often pump them up with fluids "to enhance the flavor" (rather than enhance the profits by making them heavier?), they are generally quite low in fat.
For any cases where the database seems insufficient, a calorie and fat gram counter book would be handy. There are many such inexpensive paperback books available.
The database is used in conjuction with your online journal. The idea of keeping a journal is certainly not unique. It is generally recognized that most of us can't really keep track of just what, or how much, we have eaten yesterday. For many of us, that concept extends even to this morning. When we write things down, and use the food database, we have a pretty good record of just how many calories we have consumed that day. Your journal not only shows the foods and amounts, but tracks the calories and grams of fat as well. Thus, you can see the total number of calories consumed each day. I've never seen the value of a journal that merely lists the foods that you have consumed. Without knowing how many calories and grams of fat were involved, it doesn't really tell you much. That's why using your journal/database combination works!
Although every effort should be made to make honest estimates of your daily food and drink consumption, please keep in mind that these numbers can only be estimates. As long as you are honest with yourself in these estimates, you will achieve your target weight with time. We felt that trying to force the client to decide whether that was a large, medium or small banana in the interest of higher accuracy would be counterproductive. Hence, all bananas are created equal in this plan: 120 cal and 1 g of fat! You will encounter other such approximations in this program. It certainly wasn't the difference between a large or a small banana that created anyone's excess weight problem. You will soon see that any errors incurred in these approximations are generally self-cancelling, so that the end result is a pretty fair estimate of the true value.
A small pocket- or purse-sized notepad, such as shown here,
will serve to take care of recording those meals when you are away from your computer, such as at work, in a restaurant, etc., so that you can record them on your computer later. It's important to do your very best in keeping track of what you eat, even if you have to make some guesses on the values of caloric and fat content of, for example, a dish in a restaurant. Soon, you'll develop some skill in this area.
A natural weight loss healthy diet program Our Approach to a Natural Weight Loss Healthy Diet Program What can I expect?
Cost of Weight Management Program Health Benefits of Weight Loss How many calories does it take to burn 1 pound of fat?
Requirements and Recommendations About our Database How many calories are needed a day to lose weight?
Benefit to Diet and Exercise How fast can I lose weight? Restaurants
Diet Plateaus and Weight Loss Is it Possible to Keep Off Lost Weight? BMI Calculator
Basal Metabolic Rate Metabolism Screen Shot of Main Menu
Fat-free, Low Fat, Light, Lean, Extra Lean, Reduced Fat, High Fiber - What Does it All Mean? Small Changes to Make to Lose Weight
Sleep and Weight Metabolic Syndrome
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