15 pounds!

In case you were wondering about the progress of the diet to make this penguin less rotund, that's the current status. My belt now has to be pulled a notch tighter and is a bit loose even then, it won't be long before that next notch has to be used.

What I'm doing:

• Chop your calories drastically. Figure 1000-1200 calories. Aim for 1000, but don't get upset if you miss it by a couple hundred.
• Get enough protein to maintain muscle mass. If, for example, your lean weight is 150 pounds, you should get 75 grams of protein. That's about 300 calories worth of protein.
• Don't worry about how much of the remaining calories is fat or carbohydrates. You need both, but with the protein imbalance implied by the above, it'll work itself out.
• The chances of a balanced diet with such a restricted diet are slim to none. So take vitamin supplements.
• Caffeine is your friend.
• Don't worry about the calories in a teaspoon of sugar for your black coffee or tea, just make it a *flat* teaspoon.
• Even better, drink Chinese leaf tea. This tea doesn't need sugar to taste good. Tastes kinda like asparagus.
• Look at the number of calories on the side of a can of Coke. Run screaming in other direction. No soft drinks or juices, sorry, except for maybe one single Diet Coke per day (that artificial sweetener stuff is bad for you). Can't hit your protein numbers with these empty calories in your diet. Re: Vitamin C: That's why you're taking the vitamin supplement, remember?
• Dairy products are empty calories, other than the calcium. You'll never hit your protein numbers with dairy products in the mix. Take calcium supplements.
• For fast food, the only realistic choice is Subway. Get a turkey & ham sub with *no cheese*, it's around 300 calories for a 6" and 600 calories for a 12".
• Do some mild weight work a couple times a week, including abdominal crunches and leg work. You're trying to maintain your current muscle mass, not put on muscle (which isn't happening with such a restricted diet). Once you're down to your target weight, then you can add more calories to your diet and try to put on more muscle to perk up your resting metabolism, but when you're losing weight is not the time for that.
• Tuna is your friend. It is almost pure protein. If your lean mass is 150 pounds and you thus need 75g of protein to maintain that muscle mass, a can of tuna is 33 grams of protein all by itself. If you get the regular tuna (not the albacore), the mercury content isn't a big deal.
• Also interesting is the "Michael Angelo" single-serving lasagna. The meat and cheese lasagna for example is 30 grams of protein and 500 calories. The vegetarian lasagna is 30 grams of protein and 375 calories. There's other good microwavable dishes too under that brand name. This stuff isn't sold as diet food, but does pretty well there.
• Broiled fish is also good. There are single serving microwavable fish dishes that taste quite good. Problem is that this is almost pure protein and a little fat, and only around 150 calories. To round out the protein and carbs, add "vegetarian" beans. I get some beans called 'piquintos' from my local store that are quite filling and around 280 calories for the can.
• If you go off the diet a couple days a week due to, say, a company barbecue, big deal. Just don't go crazy.

So how does that work out? Well, in the morning I get up and fix a large mug of Earl Gray tea with a flat teaspoon of sugar. When I get to work I get a large mug of coffee with a flat teaspoon of sugar. For lunch, I eat a large ham-and-turkey sub (600 calories) or tuna and noodles (500 calories), and wash it down with Chinese green tea. For supper, meat lasagna, or chicken Parmesan, or fish and beans, or if I got the ham and turkey sandwich, vegetable lasagna. If I feel like I'm munchy still, a pickle or a salad with light vinegrette hits the spot. Strangely enough, by keeping up the protein, I don't feel particularly hungry.

Is this a balanced diet? Well, *NO*. So you don't want to stick too tightly to it for a long period of time, take a break for one or two days a week and eat more normally with all the veggies and etc. Just don't go crazy when you decide to take a break. Keep off the empty carbs (no sugar soft drinks, no ice cream) and keep your protein up.

So how does this compare with fad diets? Well, it doesn't. A "traditional" low calorie diet is also a fairly low protein diet, so causes rapid loss of muscle mass and resulting lowered metabolism. The Atkins Diet focuses upon carbohydrates as "evil", which to a certain extent is true (you'll never hit your calorie target if you have both high protein *and* empty carbohydrates in your diet), but the real issue is hitting your calorie target while keeping your protein input up, not carbohydrates. I end up roughly 1/3rd protein, 1/3rd fat, 1/3rd carbohydrates if I add up all the numbers, but that's just a side effect of cutting out the junk. When I go off the diet, I end up with more carbohydrates (and correspondingly lower percentage of the other). You need a certain amount of all three in your diet to maintain basic health, so it doesn't make sense to focus on any one of them as "evil".

Anyhow, I'm 5 pounds from the goal I set out for (or 15 pounds from my weight at age 25, which might be nice to shoot for), so I'll check back in a couple of months from now and let ya know how it turned out. I suspect the best goal for me is to aim for the age 25 weight, then go back to a saner diet (still without the empty junk food calories though, those things *hurt* at my age!), hit the gym and add the 10 pounds back on as muscle. Hmm, if I no longer have a penguin belly, will I have to change the title of my blog? :-).

-- Badtux the not-as-rotund Penguin