How to Customize a Diet Plan

How to Customize a Diet Plan

Fad diets come and go because no one diet fits every need. There are many factors that must be considered before you choose a personal diet.

Physical attributes such as age, height and body build affect how a diet works. How active you are or how much exercise you schedule into your day also affects a diet plan. Use the advice below when customizing your own personal diet plan.

Before You Begin The Diet Plan

Step 1:
Buy a notebook, weight scale and menu planning book or binder before planning your diet. Use the notebook for recording weight loss and keeping a food diary and use the menu planner for planning healthy meals in advance.

Step 2:
Begin writing down how many calories you take in on a daily basis in your food diary. For a dependable reference on your eating habits, and for how many calories you take in on average, record your food intake for a few days before you start dieting.

Step 3:
Pay attention to how much junk food and high calorie drinks you eat every day. Before you begin a new diet plan, rid your cabinets of junk food and food with no nutritional value.

Step 4:
Write down all the healthy foods you enjoy. Sticking to a new diet plan means you must include many foods you enjoy eating that are healthy for you. Having a list of these foods available when you grocery shop helps you avoid purchasing fatty, sugary foods.

Customize Your Diet Plan

Step 1:
Start a new diet plan by learning how many calories are in a pound and how to lessen the amount of calories you take in. A pound has 3500 calories, so burning 500 calories a day helps you lose approximately one pound a week.

Step 2:
Cut your calorie intake by 250 calories and perform an aerobic activity that burns 250 calories to help cut 500 calories a day. If exercise is too much right now, look at your food diary and see where you can cut calories. Replacing soda with water, low calorie fruit juice for sweet tea, plain popcorn for chips, ground turkey for beef and sugar free jello for sweet, sugary desserts are all effective ways of cutting calories.

Step 3:
Pick one day a week when you plan your menu. Choose meals that incorporate lots of herbs, which help flavor foods without adding lots of calories. Make sure you plan healthy snacks so you're not starving throughout the day.

Step 4:
Keep an exercise journal and write down a list of exercises you enjoy doing. These can include walking, jogging, bike riding, skating, swimming, dancing, workout videos and even house cleaning. Choose a different exercise each week and plan to do thirty minutes a few times a week.

Step 5:
Incorporate the different aspects of your custom diet plan as time goes on. Increase the amount you exercise or mix two of your favorite exercises throughout the week. Try new light recipes so your menu doesn't get stale and play around with different ways of flavoring food.

Step 6:
Stick with the menu and exercise plan you write for yourself. Follow your own food journal, exercise journal and menu as if you were following a popular diet fad book.

Step 7:
Set realistic goals for yourself that don't always revolve around weight. Set a goal to jog a half mile, swim two extra laps, drink more water, phase out your chocolate addiction or try a new vegetable or fruit. Creating your own diet plan means you have control of what you eat and the activities you partake in without feeling the need to meet unrealistic goals created by the latest fad diet