[DaVinci2]

I took a look at the planner, and was compelled to give my opinion on it. Hope nobody minds!!

Weight Loss Plan, Diet Recipes
When selecting a weight loss plan, make sure you are consuming a balanced and complete diet. Your assignment is to set realistic and attainable weight loss and diet goals. Start by following the simple guidelines below.

Nutritional and Weight Loss Plan Guidelines

Commit to consuming 4 - 6 small meals and snacks everyday.

This simply isn't necessary. A lot of people feel that see bodybuilders do it, that it applies to everyone. The truth is, bodybuilders do it so that they can evenly distribute their protein throughout the day.

3 meals is actually perfectly fine.

To succeed, you must plan ahead by packing your foods the night before. Thus, you should always have fresh and low-fat foods around.

Terrible advice. Cutting out fat is cutting out a necessary nutrient. Without fat, you're looking at causing some bad things happening to your body. People assume "Cutting out fat will help me lose fat." FACT IS, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Doesn't matter!! Keep plenty of fat in your diet.

Keep it simple. Don't get too caught up on the specifics or your diet. Start by simply just counting calories.

Counting calories is important, but it's those specifics that are going to determine whether you lose weight because of muscle loss or fat loss. If you've lost mostly muscle, you actually made yourself less healthy.

Eat your foods slower.

I completely agree with this.

Make healthier food selections like fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, and beans, low-fat or nonfat dairy products, low fat meats, fish and skinless poultry.

I already made a comment above about fat. Remember, even saturated fats are important for proper endocine functions (The edocrine system controls hormone release, like testosterone which is great for building muscle and staying lean!)

Avoid foods that are high in fat and calories.

NO!! If food is high in calories, you have first figure out why. If it's a Big Mac it's safe to assume that there is no nutritional value. However, something like the recipe I mentioned above are very healthy calories!!

Avoid foods that are high in sugars such as pastries, candy bars, pies and candy.

Of course...I agree with this.

The below diet is just an example, but it's not a good one. Those calories are for children. All people are different but it's safe to say that a reasonable days worth of food is around 1600 to 1800 calories...and that's for small people. (I eat about 4500 to maintain my weight)

The protein is too low, the fat is WAY too low and the carbs being consumed are not from the best sources.

Use a variety of fruits and vegetables in your nutrition plan. Start by trying to eat 5 total vegetable and fruit servings every single day.
Here is a sample weight loss plan (1400 calories).

As

Breakfast
Amount Item Protein Carbs Fats Calories
1 cup Milk - 1% 4.00 5.50 1.00 50.00
1 pack Oatmeal - instant pkt.,maple 4.50 31.60 2.10 152.00
Total: 8.50 37.10 3.10 202.00
AM Snack
1 each MetRx Bar 26.00 52.00 2.5 320.00
Total: 26.00 52.00 2.5 320.00
Lunch
1 each Chicken sandwich - Wendy's grilled 24.00 37.00 13.00 340.00
12 ounces Coca cola- diet w/ caffeine 0.00 0.40 0.00 0.00
Total: 24.00 37.40 13.00 340.00
PM Snack
2 each Bread whole wheat -slice 6.00 24.00 2.00 140.00
2 tsp Mayo type reg, w/salt 0.32 8.42 11.77 137.37
2.5 ounces Tuna Solid White-Water small can 18.75 0.00 0.90 89.28
Total: 25.07 32.42 14.67 366.64
Dinner
4 ounces Halibut - broiled 22.50 0.00 3.00 119.25
0.5 cup rice-white cooked steamed 3.00 31.00 0.00 82.00
0.5 cup Vegetables - mixed, frozen, boiled 2.60 11.90 0.10 54.00
Total: 28.10 42.90 3.10 255.25

Grand Total: 111.67 201.82 36.37 1483.89

Oatmeal - instant pkt.,maple is just sugar. If you like oats, buy plan oats. They are a great source of carbs.

The MetRx Bar is just crap...don't bother with protein bars unless you make your own and you know how. It's just pointless sugar bars you don't need. For the 320 calories it's worth, I can think of more delicious food to eat.

Chicken sandwich - Wendy's grilled This is just stupid!! I'm all for moderation, but again you're filling yourself with processed food that your body doesn't need. You could make your own grilled chicken, have more of it, and feel more satisfied.

Coca cola- diet w/ caffeine This is fine. A great way to shake off a sweet tooth when you've got one.

As for the rest of the plan, the tuna and halibut are great, but be careful eating this everyday, since mercury is a problem. Rice is fine (One of the only not-so-good carbs I eat) but you can replace it with something much better, like brown or whole grain rice.

I'm not sure why you would choose frozen veggies over the real thing. No biggie...but you'll get more nutritien out of the real deal. The mayo is not that big a deal either as long as you are within your caloric limits.