Diet/Metabolism:

• Lucia Works Out! (Blog)
• Menu Analyzer
• Metabolism
• NAS dietary guidelines

Exercises:

• Thigh
• Lower Back
• Upper Back
• Calories Burned

• BMI
• Apple vs. Pear?
• Body Fat
• Overtraining
• Average Weight

•  Plateaus

• First Plan.
• Daily Menu Plan
• Results1
• Results2
• Results3

Welcome to TheDietDiary.com

Did you know that when Consumer Reports polled 32,213 dieters, they identified  more than 4000  who took off more than 10% of their starting weight and kept it off for more than 5 years?  More than a quarter of the respondent lost more than 10% of their starting weight and kept it off for over a year.  Yes, success is difficult, but it's not as rare as you think! 

Just as interestingly, the two strongest findings of the study were:

1. vigorous exercise, the equivalent of walking 3 hours a week, seems to be required to keep weight off and 
2. 83% of the successful dieters came up with their own diet plans!

Well, I decided to go on a diet recently.  I also came up with my own plan. We'll see if I keep the weight off. (Wish me luck.)

I created the site because I wanted to share what I've learned about weight control, nutrition and exercise with you.  I'm also going to share what I did with you. I'm not a nutritionist; I'm not a fitness guru.  I am going to give you simple tools to evaluate your diet and exercise routine.  I created them because I want to use them! I'll create more as I think of them. I'll also direct you to commercial software, equipment or other items that might help you with your diet and exercise plan.

What I did may or may not work for you, but it might give you ideas you can use. Before creating your own diet and exercise plan, you should consult your physician, especially if you are obese, suffer from illness or are just over 40 years old!

So far, the site includes the following:

1. a discussion of my first 12 week weight loss plan.  I lost at least 9 lbs.. in 12 weeks.  How? I cut out 3 candy bars a week, did a heck of a lot of aerobics and did some strength training.  You can read some details about my plan starting at the first 12 week weight loss plan page. You can see how I looked in September 2002!
2. a metabolism estimator tool.  You can estimate how many calories you burn a day using the tool. This tool will also suggest a calorie protein, carbohydrate and fat consumption levels for your diet plan.
3. a nutrition estimator tool.  You can estimate how many calories you eat a day.  The tool isn't precise.  But if you vary your diet, you'll get a reasonable figure. 
4. a discussion of weight loss plateaus.
5. a tool to calculate your Body Mass Index.
6. a tool to estimate your body fat using a tape measure. (This seems to work pretty well.)
7. Some exercises.
8. Some recipes!  I'll add more as I find them.
9. I've started a Dear Lucia column.  The first answer is to someone who wonders if their metabolism is low.  The second describes the conflicting "coffee makes you fat" and "coffee makes you thin" theories that are circulating around.
10. I've added a page to help you apply the Sept. 2002 NAS dietary guidelines to create your perfect diet.
11. An article on how to exercise to avoid heart disease.

That's all.  I hope you like my site.
Lucia