Mayo Clinic Diet – If you are looking to shed some pounds, or are looking for a weight loss system that is both easy to follow and fun to participate in, the Mayo Clinic Diet could be right for you. This innovative diet plan is one that emphasizes food values and how their consumption impacts your overall health. In particular, the diet works to reduce weight through its focus on encouraging people to eat more nutritious foods. As such, the program does away with fad diets and gimmicks, teaching you sound principles that are backed by decades of scientific research.
How does The Mayo Clinic Diet Work?
The diet begins by establishing a healthy baseline for your calorie intake. For this, you need to know your basal metabolic rate, which is the rate at which you burn calories throughout the day. With that knowledge, you can adjust your calorie intake to maintain constant calorie levels and prevent yourself from getting hungry. You also need to calculate the amount of calories that you expend each day. These are known as Target Calories, since they help you better control your food intake. Finally, you need to know your Glycemic Index, which measures how high a certain food’s sugar will raise your blood glucose level once you eat it.
Once you’ve established these important numbers, you will move on to the second phase of the diet. In this phase, you will eat twice as many meals per day as you did in the first phase. Your meals will be spread out between two weeks, providing you with almost continuous calorie intake. This should make your metabolism go the extra mile and help you lose that first phase of weight quickly.
In addition to your two-week rotation of healthy foods, the Mayo Clinic Diet moves on to a week-long rotation of vegetables. This gives you a chance to evaluate the foods that you love and determine whether or not you can incorporate them into your diet without making drastic changes. You should eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, nuts, and lean meats. You should avoid eating too much saturated fat and limit your sugar intake to only moderate amounts.
Next, you will increase your daily calorie intake by a total of 100 calories over your previous intake. Be careful to keep your intake consistent with your exercise goals. If you have unrealistic goals such as reaching your target weight in six months, you may fall short of meeting those goals. In this case, you should reduce your caloric intake gradually so that your body will work according to your planned workload. As you get closer to your goals, you can increase your caloric intake slightly and take up some physical activity.
During the final two weeks of the Mayo Clinic Diet, you will be allowed to bring one type of food into the kitchen every day. Foods will include sassos, peanut butter, crackers with low-fat cream cheese, rice cakes, pasta, oatmeal, yogurt, vegetables, fruit juices, and drinks that contain sugar, salt, or artificial sweeteners. Foods that are allowed include: all milk, eggs, meats (excluding chicken), tuna, chicken, spinach, beans, potatoes, rice cakes, low-fat cream cheese, low-fat crackers with low-fat or skim milk, yogurt, oranges, bananas, grapes, pretzels, cottage cheese, peanut butter cookies, ice cream, sherbet, lemonade, sugar, raisins, jellies, chocolate, mints, tea, coffee, teas, and coffees. For the last two weeks, you should also limit your portion sizes of each of these foods to a maximum of one ounce each day.
During the last two weeks of the diet, you will change your daily routine. Instead of eating three meals a day, you will eat five to six small meals, which usually include vegetables, fruits, toast, cereal, beans, nuts, or tea. You will not have any breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can have a snack between each of your meals. To make sure you are eating healthy habits, you can consult your nutritionist to find out what is the best amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals your body needs.
There are a number of reasons why people choose the Mayo Clinic Diet. Some choose it because they have tried other weight loss methods, only to have disappointing results. Others join the diet for health or medical reasons. Still others do it because they are tired of being overweight and want to lose the extra pounds. Regardless of the reason, once you get started on the meal plans you’ll be glad you did.
