According to a survey by the Ladies' Home Journal, American women view weight as one of the most dissatisfying aspects of their lives. The survey found that 61 percent of women are unhappy with what the bathroom scale says. To address this issue, Ladies' Home Journal joined with the American Dietetic Association, or ADA, to create the Ladies' Home Journal/ADA Diet of the Century.
Diet Guidelines
The diet was created to provide approximately 1,400 calories per day through three meals, as well as 150 optional calories from snacks for a total of 1,550 calories per day. This caloric intake, when coupled with moderate exercise, should produce a safe and sustainable weight loss. The American Academy of Family Physicians, or AAFP, recommends that participants aim for a weight loss of about 1 to 2 pounds per week. The AAFP claims that any weight lost more than 2 pounds per week is subtracted from water weight and lean muscle, not fat.
History
Ladies' Home Journal tested the diet on 20 women over 12 weeks. All of the dieters stayed consistent with the diet for the entire test; each person lost weight. The dieters met with a registered dietitian three times and reported learning new health habits which they could use daily. Once the women lost the amount of weight they set out to, they used the United States Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid to plan their meals.
Breakfast
The consumption of breakfast is associated with weight loss success, according to a study published in Obesity Research in 2002. The study explained that 78 percent of National Weight Control Registry, or NWCR, members reported eating breakfast every day. The NWCR is a list of people who have lost more than 30 pounds and have kept it off for at least one year. Only 4 percent of dieters said that they never ate breakfast. A healthy breakfast on the ADA diet should contain around 450 calories; for example, dieters can enjoy 3/4 cup of cold cereal or 1 cup of hot cereal with a serving of fruit or raisins, 1/2 cup of non-fat milk, one slice of whole wheat toast with jam, and coffee or tea.
Lunch
With a recommended caloric limit of 465, an ADA diet lunch should include lean protein, grains, and fruit or vegetables. An example includes 1 cup of vegetable soup with a small whole-grain roll, 1 oz. of low-fat cheese and a piece of fruit. A lunch such as this can help you feel full and satisfied while you are dieting, according to a 2005 study published in Obesity Research. Rolls et al. found that people who ate two servings of broth-based soup each day lost 50 percent more weight than those who ate snack foods providing the same amount of calories.
Dinner
According to the ADA, eating the appropriate serving size of items leads to greater weight loss success. For dinner, they recommend that dieters consume a balanced meal of about 470 calories. Start with 3 oz. of lean meat, fish or chicken. This is generally accepted to be about the size of the palm of your hand. To complement the meat, you can prepare 1/3 cup of brown rice or whole wheat pasta, and a cup of fresh vegetables. One cup is about the size of a tennis ball. The Ladies' Home Journal website provides three weeks of dinner ideas and recipes to take the guesswork out of making dinner on the ADA Diet.
Snacks
Your snacks may make up a total of 150 calories per day. Break these calories up by eating 10 baby carrots in the afternoon and 3 cups of air-popped popcorn during your evening movie or splurge on them all at once by consuming eight tortilla chips with salsa or drinking one glass of wine.
References
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Portion Size
- FamilyDoctor.org: What it Takes to Lose Weight
- "Obesity Research"; Long-Term Weight Loss and Breakfast in Subjects in The National Weight Control Registry; H.R. Wyatt, G.K. Grunwald, C.L. Mosca, M.L. Klem, R.R. Wing, J.O. Hill; 2002
- "Obesity Research"; Provision of Foods Differing in Energy Density Affects Long-Term Weight Loss; B.J. Rolls, L.S. Roe, A.M. Beach, P.M. Kris-Etherton; 2005
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