Wall Street Journal Diet

1. Eliminate Sodas- your body does not recognize liquid calories as calories. An experiment where some people were allowed 400 calories of soda and others were allowed 400 calories of jelly beans found that people who ate the jelly beans did so in place of other calories and those who drank the calories in their Coke's did so in addition to their other calories.

2. Count your Calories- If you are not counting calories, you are not cutting them. People who count their calories were found to lose weight even during the holiday seasons. Critical to this are:

• Meal Replacements- do you really know how many calories are in the meal you are eating at the restaurant? Choose microwaveable meal replacements instead
• Cut your portion size by telling waiter to bring half of meal in box before the rest of meal is served.

3. Eat your Water- Researchers found that people who had soups and fruits ate the same amount of weight of food as those who ate higher calorie foods (3 lbs per woman per day). Lessons learned:

• Drink Soups- The only liquid calories that your body recognizes as a substitute for food
• Eat more fruit- especially fruit with high water content ( grapes, watermelon, oranges, etc.). This is particularly effective if you have the munchies before going to bed since you will do nothing to work the calories off before you go to sleep. Why does it work... because a quarter cup of raisins has same caloric content as 2 cups of grapes.

4. Weigh yourself often- Many people feel it makes you feel bad when if you see your weight go up, but it sends you a warning signal to get back on the diet.

5. Boring is good- From caveman days, humans have developed the capacity to eat a lot of meat protein and when presented with a dessert a few minutes later, eat that as well. Great for cavemen who don't know when they will get their next meal, but bad for us who don't really have that concern. Key practices:

• Splurge on different food when traveling rather than at home when you can control your diet better
• Skip the fries and choose a salad or soup to go along with that children's burger

6. Exercise doesn't Really Help but...- It isn't the cause of why you lose weight (run for an hour and you won't have burned 3500 calories (one pound) but you may instead slow down for the rest of the day). However it is important in the long-run:

• It may be the only way to keep weight off
• It allows you to make up for mistakes made in your diet during the day
• Exercise offers other benefits besides weight loss

7. Carbs for Breakfast do not seem to work- Don't ask why but when you eat that donut in the morning, you seem to be hungry again very early in the work day. Eat some protein (eggs) and fruit along with a high-fiber cereal.

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Updated 12 OCT 03