Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight requires eating a balanced diet and engaging in regular activity. A variety of foods is necessary to meet your needs for all the essential vitamins and nutrients. A diet restricted to only cheese, fruit and lettuce may help you reduce your calorie intake, but could leave you at risk for dangerous vitamin deficiencies.
Energy Deficit
Medline Plus recommends losing 1 to 2 lbs. per week to achieve a safe weight loss. In order to lose 1 lb., you must create an energy deficit of 3,500 calories. Energy deficit refers to the state you achieve when you burn more calories than you consume. This can be accomplished through a combination of diet and exercise. For example, if you reduce your calorie intake by 3,500 during the course of a week, and also burn an additional 3,500 calories in exercise, you will lose 2 lbs. By substituting appropriate serving sizes of fruit, lettuce and cheese for higher-calorie, higher-fat foods, you may be able to lose 2 lbs. per week.
Calories in Cheese, Fruit and Lettuce
Fruit and lettuce are low-energy-density, high-volume foods, meaning they can help fill you up without adding a lot of calories to your diet. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a medium-size apple, a medium-size banana, 1 cup of blueberries and 1 cup of grapes are all approximately 100 calories. One cup of romaine lettuce has only 10 calories.
Depending on the variety, cheese can be high in calories and fat. To limit your calorie intake, avoid full-fat cheeses and look for reduced fat, fat-free or light varieties. Eat small portions; 1 oz. of cheddar cheese delivers 114 calories with 83 of those calories provided by fat. A 1-oz. serving of part-skim mozzarella, however, has just 72 calories, 40 of which are from fat.
Food Substitutions
To lose weight safely, start by examining your current diet and identify any high-calorie foods that you can replace with fruit, lettuce or low-fat cheese. For example, a standard 6.9-oz. portion of french fries contains 610 calories. By replacing the fries with a bowl of blueberries or an ounce of cheese, you will save more than 500 calories. Making one equivalent substitution per day of fruit, lettuce or cheese will create the 3,500-calorie deficit you need to lose 1 lb. per week.
Considerations
A diet of cheese, fruit and lettuce may help you lose weight by reducing your calorie intake, but is lacking in many essential nutrients. Though a good source of calcium, cheese is high in saturated fat, which raises your cholesterol levels and increases your risk of heart disease. Depending on the variety, lettuce may be very low in nutrients. Fruit is an important part of a healthy diet, but may not provide the essential nutrients found in vegetables or other foods, such as vitamin A, vitamin K, niacin and folate.
Plan your meals to contain a variety of fruit and different types of lettuce to increase the quantity and diversity of nutrients in your diet. Adding vegetables to your meals can also help provide you with essential nutrients without contributing a significant number of calories to your diet.
References
- Medline Plus: Tips for Losing Weight
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010
- "Nutrition & You"; Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD; 2008
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: How to Use Fruits and Vegetables to Help Manage Your Weight
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Vegetable of the Month: Lettuce
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: Portion Distortion Quiz
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