Losing Weight without Calorie Counting

Losing weight without calorie counting is the best long-term approach to a healthy and ideal body weight.

No one is disputing that the less calories you eat, the more weight you will lose (given a constant physical activity level). However, losing weight for good is much easier with a fundamental change in foods consumed, foods which actually require that you consume much more food weight on your diet plan than you do now.

Can you imagine being told to eat more food in order to lose weight? We are talking about food that weighs a lot, food that is dense, fiber rich and nutritious. Nothing else will satiate quite as well. Think of a whole pound of broccoli, for example, the central part of your dinner entree, steamed and sprinkled with butter and sunflower seeds.

Tiny portions and calorie counters are the opposite of this logic, and will never satisfy or satiate.

Very few studies have actually been done on this (because no corporate or pharmaceutical pill-popping dieting product stands to gain anything from such studies and hence will not sponsor them), but the secret to permanent weight loss is to eat the healthiest foods. And to eat lots of them!

A recent study at Pennsylvania State University asked dieters to eat lots of foods that were heavy in water and fiber (fruits and vegetables) and to not count calories or fat grams. The people that followed this regiment lost more weight than the control group who were asked to count calories and take small portions.

Filling up on vegetables, and not restricting yourself as to how much you eat of these, has got to be the most healthy and painless way to lose weight. Vegetables are so delicious if you give them a good try!

Most people are not aware of the existence of three top vegetables in terms of nutrition and health benefits. These would be kale, swiss chard and collard greens.

These three vegetables are actually much more nutritious than even spinach and broccoli, which are both super foods. Find out where you can buy these nearby. (The organics store is sure to have them, but maybe your local superstore carries them as well).

Once you've bought your kale or spinach chard, wash it, cut it up, throw it in the pot with a little water and let it steam for a few minutes. Add some butter or olive oil and a bit of salt once it's steamed enough for your liking. You'll be amazed how good it tastes and how satisfyingly filling it is.

Try cooking a big serving of oatmeal with fruit for breakfast and making heaps of vegetables the central part of your lunch and dinner (with some brown rice, lentils or chili and nuts or seeds and a small bit of meat or fish) and you will lose mega weight in no time.

I'd be really keen on tracking people's daily progress with this. I'm not qualified to counsel dieters in any medical way, but I do know a lot about healthy eating and would like to provide emotional and informational support. If you are inclined to try this, please comment on your experience below. I will answer your questions in very short order.

Four Inspiring Weight Loss Stories

Here's a link to four inspiring weight loss stories by regular people living in Virginia. They include a 29 year old male who lost 42 pounds using the Easterling-Zacharias Institute method, a 31 year-old woman who lost 50 pounds with a raw food diet, a 24 year old woman who used Weight Watchers and Meridia to lose 60 pounds and a 61 year old woman who lost 85 pounds on the South Beach Diet. None of these are fad dieting methods, it's great to hear that they worked for these people.

See their stories at Richmond.com (an online portal for the Greater Richmond, Virginia area.)
______
The fine art print above is 'Energy Apples' by Audrey Flack.

Oprah Winfrey's Weight Loss Experiments

(Update Dec. 2008: Oprah has gained 40 pounds again. She says she now weighs 200 pounds.)

A couple of days ago Oprah was on ABC News discussing some key moments of her twenty years of the Oprah show.

She mentioned that losing weight very quickly in 1988 was one of her worst moments, as she gained much of it back almost as quickly. During 1988 she went on a four month liquid diet and put her social life on hold. She lost an incredible 67 pounds over this time, and was able to fit into size 10 jeans. Thus she reached her lowest adult weight ever, at 145 pounds. But within a couple of days of going off the diet she was no longer able to fit into the prized jeans. Within a week, she had gained back ten pounds and was embarrassed to attend a party that weekend where everyone would see she had gained weight.

Oprah reached her highest weight in 1992. At that point she weighed 237 pounds.

Oprah looks fantastic lately. The photo on the left is this months issue of the Oprah magazine. The picture on the right is Oprah 18 years ago in 1988. She is not at her slimmest point now, but her normal range weight level helps to make her look very attractive. (Update: January 2006: How much does Oprah weigh now? Her current weight is 163 pounds, according to a comment by her personal trainer, Bob Greene, in the January 3, 2006 issue of Woman's World.)

Her 52nd birthday is coming up in January and she is feeling better than ever and feels she has moved into a new groove with the show.

Update: May 14th:Oprah has gained another ten pounds again. She must weigh about 173 now.

Update May 22nd: Oprah has just signed the biggest non-fiction book deal advance in history. She is being paid more than $12 million by Simon & Schuster to write about her weight loss saga together with her trainer Bob Greene. She says her adult weight has fluctuated between 138 pounds and 198 pounds.

Update: July 2006: There's a strong rumor going around that Oprah and her boyfriend of twenty years, Stedman Graham are splitting up for good. They've split up for short periods of time in the past, but this time it looks like it may be final.
And the gossip rags are saying that he has written a book that he is threatening to publish unless he receives more money ('a sizable allowance') from her. The book is said to go into details about her yo-yo dieting and binging as well as other hurtful private information.

Steadman Graham has already written nine books, two of which were New York Times bestsellers; You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success and Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success. I personally find it hard to believe that he would ever do such a thing as publish dirt on Oprah after being with her for twenty years.

Update July 10th: Oprah is on the cover of 'New Idea' magazine this month. Here she says Jennifer Aniston has helped her gain control of her weight. They say Aniston has transformed her boyfriend Vince Vaughan from 'a chunk to a hunk' via the Zone Diet and Oprah has been following the diet too. This magazine says her weight went from 88kg down to 82kg. I think they've got their numbers wrong. That would put her at 180 pounds (82kg) right now which doesn't jibe with her appearance.

Kristie Alley's Dieting Success

Kirstie Alley started a highly publicized weight loss program with Jenny Craig in December 2004. Less than one year later, she says she has lost over fifty pounds.

There is a lot of talk online by people questioning if she was honest in stating that her heaviest weight was 219 pounds. She does look much heavier in some of the earlier photos given her 5'7" frame.

Kirstie Alley was recently a guest on Oprah's show. She looked fabulous even though she said she would like to lose another thirty pounds. To me she looked incredibly gorgeous for someone who is 54 years old.

The Jenny Craig program says they recommend a weight loss of one to two pounds a week. This sounds like a very reasonable goal to me, much more realistic than all the ads you see for losing nine pounds per week.

The above are two photos of the slimmer Kirstie at last week's Oprah show. The paper models in the background are an approximation of how she looked about a year ago.
_________
The first picture above is Kirstie Alley on the set of Fat Actress. The photo was taken by Randy Tepper of Showtime about a year ago. The other two photos are from Oprah's show in November 2005.

Update: December 31st: Kristie Alley is rumored to be dating Al Pacino. Pacino is 65 years old (and still very dashing). I wish them great joy in their relationship together. She has not dated anyone for the past five years. Update: March 2006: this turns out to be an unsubstantiated rumor.

Update: Happy Birthday to Kirstie Alley as she turns 55 this year. She was born on January 12 1951.

Update June 17th 2006: In Touch Magazine is reporting Kristie has reached her goal weight ahead of time and has lost more than 69 pounds.

Update June 29th: Kirstie Alley is on the cover of People Magazine, July 3rd edition. Here she says she has lost 71 pounds and would like to lose a further fifteen and wear a bikini on TV.

Update July 10th: Kristie Alley is on the cover of New Zealand's Woman's Weekly. Here she says she now weighs 67kg (148 pounds) and says her heaviest point was 100kg (220 lbs).

Update November 6th: Here she is! This is today's shot of Kirstey Alley in a bikini on Oprah's show. She looks fabulous but it looks like she's put on a bit of weight since the last time she was on Oprah? I'll post the video clips here as soon as they are availalbe.

Update November 7th: Here's the video clip of Kirstie Alley in a bikini on Oprah yesterday.

My Favorite Weight Loss Program

I'm not much of a believer in taking diet pills in order to lose weight. There are several health risks associated with these pills and it is usually not a good solution for keeping weight off in the long run.

The best way to lose weight and meet with short-term and long-term success is to change your underlying approach to buying and cooking food. No magic supplements, no magic pills. Just focusing on eating the world's most nutritious food and getting some regular exercise at least three times a week.

This is why I would recommend the simple Flaxseed Diet. It allows you to eat as much as you want, but only foods from the list of the one hundred most nutritious foods. So while you don't have to stress about calories on this diet, with each day you are working to alter your basic approach to eating, and the types of foods you eat. Within a month on this diet, junk food will no longer appeal to your taste buds.

Check out the Three-Step Flaxseed Diet here.

Welcome to Isadora's Weight Loss Stories

Thanks so much for visiting my site. I've written about my personal experience with weight loss (post pregnancy) here.

My main goal here is to search the web and come up with inspiring stories of weight loss success. I hope to highlight at least one great success story per week, hopefully more. Some of the stories will focus on celebrity weight loss but most will be about regular people who have discussed their weight loss online.

If you know of any inspiring examples of successful weight loss, please let me know.