80/20 Nutrition Planner

Weightloss Hints

Meal frequency

Contrary to popular belief, the amount of energy you expend does not change if you eat 2 meals a day compared to 5 meals.

Meal frequency works more on the intake side of things. If you have a mid-morning and/or a midafternoon snack then you may be less likely to over-eat.

If three main meals per day suit you, then carry on this way and see how you feel.

If you have a weak time, at say 4pm, where you are likely to over-eat, introduce a suitable midafternoon snack to your eating regimen.

Snacks

Some well-chosen snack foods can really make a difference in terms of weight loss. Some snack foods can be very high in calories.

Example:

High calorie Lower Calorie

Cookie time cookie (1600KJ) Yoghurt (300-400KJ per pottle)

Potato chips (1050 per 50g packet) Fruit (about 250-300KJ)

Muffin (1500KJ) 3 gingernuts (639KJ)

Scone (1100KJ) 4 low fat cheese & crackers (550KJ)

Chocolate bar (1110KJ) 10 almonds & 1/4 cup dried apricots (525KJ)

Treat snacks

Every now and then, if you feel like something sweet, don't feel guilty! Enjoy the following snacks every so often. It is good to share these snacks with someone else:

• Share a chocolate bar
• 20 jelly beans
• Half a packet of M&Ms
• 5 marshmallows

A Variety of Snacks

Protein-based foods

Protein-based foods can fill you up and satiate you for longer. Some examples of some higher protein snacks include:

• Yoghurt / nuts / fruit smoothies / milk-based drinks
• Yoghurt drinks / tuna / salmon / lean meat
• Eggs / low fat cheese / dairy food / beans/legumes / Red8 trim / Red8 pancakes

Reducing the Fat and Energy Content of Meals

Choose foods that are relatively low in fat

• Cut visible fat from meat
• Choose low fat dairy products eg. Trim milk, lite-blue milk, low fat yoghurt
• Use natural yoghurt in recipes in place of cream
• Use yoghurt as a dressing for salads and pastas. Even try natural yoghurt on baked potatoes instead of sour cream. You may be surprised!
• Try tomato-based pasta sauces in place of creamy sauces
• Use lite evaporated milk in place of cream for curry recipes
• Use lite evaporated milk with 2 drops of coconut essence in place of coconut cream in curry recipes
• Use ricotta and cottage cheese in recipes
• Use oil sprays
• Filo pastry is an excellent low fat substitute for both sweet and savoury pastries. Use the spray oils in conjunction with filo pastry
• Watch your serving sizes of pasta and rice
• In dishes such as lasagnes, try and use less cheese and pasta than the recipe suggests

Some fats are better than others in terms of their effects on heart health. The best types of fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. Good sources of these are:

When reading food labels it is important not to just look at the fat content of food products. This is because some food manufacturers will take the fat out of a product so that it is 95-99% fat free, but they will then sometimes add in a lot of sugar so that it still has just the same amount of calories as a full-fat product.

Energy content - This is how many calories (kcal) or kilojoules (KJ) that is in the product.

Fat content - If the energy content is similar look at which product has the least fat, especially saturated fat.

Carbohydrate and sugar content - If products have similar energy contents, also look to see what the sugar content is.

To compare products you need to look at the amounts of these nutrients per serve and per 100g.

Some manufacturers will use small serving sizes so that it looks like you will be eating fewer calories. If the serving size looks realistic, then compare in products the energy, fat, and sugar content per serve. If you are not sure, compare similar products per 100g.

All foods must list all ingredients on the label. Ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance by weight. That is, ingredients are listed from the greatest to the smallest by ingoing weight including added water.

This can allow you to compare different products.

Product 1: contains "apples, water, sugar" Product 2: contains "sugar, apples, water"

You can tell that the leading ingredient in product 2 is sugar. This product contains a lot more sugar than product 1.

Energy Density

As individuals we tend to eat a certain volume of food. Therefore to reduce our calorie intake we need to adapt to a new reduced volume of food. We also want to eat foods that supply us with the most volume for the least calories. By this we will reduce our calorie intake.

The following are foods that tend to give us more volume for fewer calories:

Using cooking methods which use minimal amounts of sugar and fat also reduces the energy density of food.

Eat smaller serves of energy dense foods. e.g. eat thin sliced bread in place of toast slice. This will reduce the calorie content of your meal.

In essence you are looking for foods which satiate (fill you up), taste good, but which provide minimal calories.