Mayo Clinic Healthy Diet

"The Mayo Clinic Diet" is a healthy eating plan outlined in a book edited by Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic staff. It was created in part to provide a healthy approach to long-term weight management but also to counteract a phony version of the diet that attributes its fat-burning powers to grapefruit. The real Mayo Clinic Diet uses a combination of common-sense elements to help you lose weight without the potentially dangerous side effects found in many fad diets.

Foods

The Mayo Clinic Diet's Healthy Weight Pyramid gives you the amount of servings from each food group you can have each day until you reach your calorie goal. Fruits and vegetables are the plan's foundation, so you are encouraged to concentrate on those servings first. Hensrud says there is evidence that being satisfied might be more strongly determined by the volume and weight of food you consume rather than the number of calories. That's one reason why filling up on high-fiber bulky foods like fruits and vegetables is beneficial to weight loss. You should spread the food servings throughout the day and include at least one serving from various food groups at each meal.

Time Frame

The Mayo Clinic Diet begins with a two-week "Lose It!" phase that can help you lose six to 10 pounds. It's designed to help you create healthy lifestyle habits such as always eating breakfast and giving up processed sugar. The second phase, called "Live It!" helps you continue on the plan by setting weight-loss goals and understanding portion sizes. Because this is more of a maintenance than a quick-loss plan, count on losing approximately one to two pounds each week. According to Hensrud, this is the stage where you take the healthy habits you learned in the first two weeks and turn it into a permanent lifestyle program.

Exercise

Physical activity is also a strong component of the program because if you try to lose weight by only cutting calories, you also might lose muscle mass as well as body fat. You are encouraged to include physical activity in your day, even if you can only work in three 10-minute sessions rather than one 30-minute session. Although it's recommended you get 30 to 60 minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity or exercise daily, all physical activity is beneficial, including cleaning the house, making the bed, shopping, mowing and gardening.

Goals

You'll be asked to set realistic weight-loss goals and focus on process goals such as the changes you're making to your diet and physical activity levels. Examples of process goals are eating one more serving of vegetables daily or walking 30 minutes each day. The best goal of all is to focus on improving your health, including your energy levels and the overall way you feel.

Motivation

The diet's initial motivation comes from asking you to add five good habits, subtract five bad habits, and then offer five bonus habits such as keeping food records and avoiding heavily processed foods. You'll also focus on creating a positive attitude toward your health and diet as well as the positive aspects of undertaking lifestyle changes that can lead to better weight management. Says Hensrud: "Small steps are attainable. People are more likely to feel successful in that, and the collective effect can be very powerful at making multiple small steps."