Books.
The 50/50 Diet
Losing weight and sticking to a diet is not easy. I've struggled al my life. So, I wrote a plan that works for me. A small reduction in calorie intake. A small increase in exercise. A lifestyle change.
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Most diets just focus on food, the 'calories in', but that’s only 50% of the equation. They rarely focus on the other 50%, the 'calories out', where our bodies burn calories.
Many diets promise big results in a short time, to give us the instant win in our must-have-now lives. We put in the effort, but when they don’t deliver, we’re disappointed, lose interest and return to our old habits. Celebrity endorsed exercise videos are a great example of this.
The 50/50 Diet is different.
My diet advocates a lifestyle change of both food and exercise - without starving you to death or inducing a herat attack with too much exercise.
The secret is taking a long-term view of losing 50% of your weight loss goal through food control and the other 50% through exercise. No quick fixes, no miracle cures. A controlled, sustainable, healthy way to lose weight and just as important, keep the weight off.
The aim is to lose 2lb (1kg) every week until you hit your target weight. Eating 500 fewer calories every day and performing 500 calories worth of daily exercise, you are much more likely to hit your weight loss goal, at a sustainable and healthy rate.
2lb (1kg) per week may not sound a lot, but over 3 months that’s almost 2st (13kg) and over 6 months that almost 4st (26kg).
Now, that sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
Chapter one
"Introduction"
Losing weight and sticking to a diet is not easy. It takes discipline and patience. I’m full of enthusiasm and good intentions when I start a new diet but my bad habits soon return and my discipline evaporates. I tried ‘Atkins’ and it was great but then all I could think about was bread and rice and I soon stopped. I tried the ‘5:2 Diet’. That worked for a while, but then I forgot to do the ‘2’ days. Lack of discipline again.
I've struggled with my weight since my teenage years. In 2012, I reached 23st (146kg). My energy levels were low, stamina was none existent and I got out of breath just climbing the stairs or walking to the train station. I loved ‘bad’ food because it’s convenient, cheap and tastes great.
I knew I had to change though. I knew I wasn’t healthy and I didn’t want to have a heart attack in my 40’s. I’d tried various diets over the years with little success. This time I kept it simple, I just ate fewer calories and started walking to get some exercise. Between 2012 and 2015, I lost about 4st (25kg). I found a plan that actually worked.
So, you’re probably thinking why aren’t you writing about how you did that? Well, I never really had a plan. I just bumbled along, being good one month, bad the next. My weight loss wasn’t controlled. I’m not sure I lost anything in 2013 or 2014. So, I’m going to use what I learned, but this time, create a structured plan that gives me specific information and targets that I can follow and observe. This time, I want steady and continual weight loss.
Based on my experience of trying to lose weight, I came up with a few conclusions. Turning these conclusions into an actual plan for me, led me to writing this book so other people could benefit. If this book helps just one person lose weight (besides me), then the process will have been a success.
The conclusions I came up with were…
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I need to eat less.
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I need to eat better – stop eating junk food!
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I need to exercise more.
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I need to be patient.
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I need to maintain discipline.
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I mustn’t give up.
When you look at it like this, what I’m actually talking about is a ‘lifestyle change’ not a diet. All I had to do was turn these conclusions into actions. This is what I did and will share with you in this book.
Now, before we begin, a bit about me. I’m not a doctor, a nutritionist or a personal trainer. I’m not a reality star with an exercise DVD to promote at Christmas. I’m not 10st (63kg) and I don’t have a six-pack. Abercrombie & Fitch will never ask me to stand in front of their shops in my underpants. I’m not going to sell you some wonder treatment that will make the fat fall off your arse.
I’m quite ordinary. I’m a 45-year-old man that works as an IT Project Manager, organising computer projects for big companies, that just happens to have a lot of experience and disappointment with losing weight.
My greatest success came when I considered both food control and exercise. Two things, not one. That’s how I came up with the title for this book, ‘The 50/50 Diet’. One of my conclusions was that counting calories will only get you 50% of the way. Dieting alone is too hard. You have to include exercise for the other 50% to burn more calories. I think many diets fail because they are too restrictive and they just focus on the food aspect. They only consider the calories ‘in’, not the calories ‘out’.
I began to think, there must be a point where calories in and calories out meet in the middle. Where everything we eat is used up and our weight would remain the same. If I knew where that middle point was I should be able to tweak the number of calories, to create a shortfall, forcing my body to turn fat back into energy, therefore losing weight. Fortunately, some very clever scientists worked out how to find that ‘middle’ point and they were kind enough to write down a formula. In this book, I’ll show you how to calculate the all-important numbers that will need to create your diet plan. Don’t worry if you are not good at maths. There are websites you can go to that do the maths for you.
It’s important to note that this diet is about focusing on how much you eat and not what you eat. It’s different to other diets like Atkins, South Beach or Paleo for example. With my diet, you can eat anything you want. Nothing is off limits. You just have to control how much of you eat, which to be fair, will limit your enjoyment of really calorific food. I can promise you though, that there are no gimmicks, no crazy ideas, no miracle cures and no expensive pre-prepared food to buy.
I have developed a plan that everyone can use, that is sensible, healthy and aim to help you lose around 2lb (0.9kg) per week. That’s half a stone (4kg) a month. You just need to do some simple mathematics, count the calories, stay within your calorie limit and exercise. You need to implement a lifestyle change so you get the benefits now and keep them long-term.
