The Maintenance Diet

Never design a diet with less than 1200 calories a day or begin any diet without the advice of your doctor.

Daily Goals: Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but also have a late afternoon and bedtime snack. (5 small meals per day)

• Eat 25-30% of your calories as carbohydrates. About 70 grams per day, of which 25-30 grams should be fiber.
  
  
• Eat 30-35% of your calories as protein- about 120 grams daily. (Much lower if kidney disease is present.)
  
  
• Eat 35-45% of your calories as fat- primarily mono and polyunsaturated fat- about 60 grams daily.
  
  
• Drink 3- 8 oz. glasses of low fat milk or 3 cups low carb yogurt each day.
  
  
• Avoid processed foods as much as possible - i.e. almost everything on the shelves in the middle of the supermarket. Shop the perimeter only! Avoid high fructose corn syrup.
  
  
• Each meal should have an approximate 2:1:3- ratio of protein/carb/fat calories.
  
  
• Eat starches sparingly - i.e. bread, pasta, rice and cereal.
  
  
• Avoid food with partially hydrogenated oil - i.e. trans fatty acids.
  
  
• Eat approximately 1200 calories per day for women or 1500 calories per day for men.
  Low calorie suggestions for food choices for meals:

Breakfast:
Protein: Manage Your Weight Oatmeal, Manage Your Weight Meal Replacement or egg beaters, lean breakfast meat low fat cottage cheese or low carb yogurt.
Carbohydrate: fresh fruit rather than fruit juice, high fiber cereal, oatmeal (slow cook, not instant), low carb bread.
Fat: 1-2% milk and low-fat dairy products.
Fluids: Decaffeinated coffee/tea, water, or our hot/cold beverages.

Late Morning Snack:
Our soups, meal replacements or nutrition bars. Try our Smoothies.

Lunch:
Protein: Manage Your Weight - Bariatrix Meal Replacement or lean meats such as turkey, boneless and skinless chicken breast, ham, fish (tuna, sardines, salmon), or tofu. Try our soups.
Carbohydrate: low carb bread/non starchy vegetables.
Fat: Low-fat cheese, low-fat condiments such as mayonnaise, 1-2% milk, olive oil.
Fluids: Non-caloric, decaffeinated beverages such as soda, coffee, tea, water, milk or our hot/cold beverages.

Late afternoon snack:
Our soups, meal replacements, oatmeal, or Protein Bars

Dinner:
Eat a balanced meal - low fat milk, lean meat, olive oil, low glycemic index vegetables (i.e. limit starches).

Late evening snack: (If you must!)
Same as late afternoon snack. You can even have low sugar ice cream as a treat. Or one of our Smoothies.

You may need to increase your calories if you find you are losing more than 2 pounds per week.

The following is an approximate formula for calculating a caloric need to lose 2 pounds per week.

Men: (12x weight in pounds)-1000*
Women: (13x weight in pounds)-1000*

*If you replace 1000 with 500 then you will lose one pound per week instead of two.
Losing more than 2 pounds per week or eating < 80 gr. of protein causes too much loss of muscle mass. To lose more fat, it is better to lose weight more slowly.

Never design a diet with less than 1200 calories per day without your doctor's advice. "Work with your doctor!"

Our patients have been successfully losing weight by following the Simple diet above. Weight loss is not easy, but weight control is possible. Long-term weight management is your number-one goal.

Notes: Always balance protein, carbs, and fat in the above ratio at each meal to avoid large increases in blood sugar, which lead to obesity and obesity-related health problems. ALWAYS work with your local personal physician when dieting. Failure to do so can result in severe medical problems, even death.