Sensible Diets For Weight Loss

To lose weight sensibly, your caloric restrictions should follow patterns that provide you sufficient nutrients to help your body function without increasing amounts of unhealthy nutrients, such as saturated fats and cholesterol. Several highly respected health agencies and medical organizations offer recommendations for healthy diets, based on scientific principles. Start with a diet recommended by a credible health organization as your guide, cutting calories from that plan to ensure you lose weight in a healthy manner.

USDA Food Pyramid

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that most of your daily calories come from whole grains, with six to 11 servings recommended daily. Eat three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit. Eat two to three servings each of dairy products and meat, poultry, fish and nuts. Follow the USDA's food intake patterns chart to learn the number of calories a person of your activity level, age and gender should eat as you plan your diet. This chart includes serving recommendations for different daily recommended calorie levels. Take into consideration how much exercise you will be doing each day as you plan your calorie numbers.

Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid

The Mayo Clinic switches the recommended daily intake of grains and fruits and vegetables in their pyramid from what the USDA suggests, making fruits and vegetables the base of its pyramid. You'll need to burn 500 calories more per day than you eat to lose 1 lb. of weight per week, according to MayoClinic.com. You can use a heart rate monitor, online calorie calculators or the Mayo Clinic's calorie-burning activity chart to determine how many calories you burn with your exercise. Subtract this number from your USDA-recommended number of daily calories to get your number for weight loss.

Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid

The Harvard School of Public Health examined the USDA Food Pyramid and made several changes, including recommending more fat in your diet than protein. Like the Mayo Clinic, Harvard recommends eating healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. The Harvard Pyramid does not recommend specific numbers of any food group, allowing you to create your diet following guidelines for how much of what type of foods you should eat. For example, the pyramid recommends equal amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains at the base of its pyramid without recommending numbers of servings or calories. It recommends a smaller amount of healthy fats, but emphasizes them by putting them at the base of its pyramid along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Like the USDA and Mayo Clinic, Harvard recommends whole grains as your primary source for complex carbohydrates. All three pyramids recommend fewer proteins than carbohydrates.