Secrets Of The Lean Plate Club A Simple Step-by-Step Program to Help You Shed Pounds and Keep Them Off For Good

Chapter One Secrets of the Lean Plate Club The messages often begin like this: "Hi, Sally. I need to lose 20 pounds for a wedding later this month. What can I do?" "Dear SallyI've lost 35 pounds over the past year, but now I find that I'm slipping into my old eating habits, and I just can't find the motivation to exercise. Help! I don't want to put this weight back on after I worked so hard to take it off." "Hey, Sally. I just got on the scale and I can't believe what I weigh! I don't know how this happened. Where do I start?" "SallyI'm working in my first job. I know I've been partying a little on the weekends, but the pounds are just piling on. If it's like this now, what's it going to be like when I'm 30?" "Sally, I've lost 25 pounds in the last six months, but my weight seems to have plateaued for the last few weeks. I am so discouraged. What do I do now?" You can feel the frustration, impatience, and desperation in these messages. There's a sense of being out of control. Behind many of them is the nagging, unspoken fear that often comes wrapped in a little bit of panic: "Maybe I can't take the weight off. Maybe this really is hopeless." I'm here to tell you that it's not. Lean Plate Club members prove that week after week. Will the pounds melt away? Nope, I can't promise that. Successful weight loss takes time, focus, and commitment. Anybody who tells you otherwise is not being honest. And yes, the majority of people do experience a discouraging weight plateau somewhere in the process. But there are easy steps to make this a simpler journey, one that you can enjoy. Just ask Melissa Glassman, 50, who with help from the Lean Plate Club has lost half her body weight, going from 250 pounds on a 5'3" frame to a healthy 125 pounds. Whether you are trying to hold the line on future weight gain, shed a few pounds, or make some major changes like Melissa, the lessons in Secrets of the Lean Plate Club can help you achieve your goals. Since I began the Lean Plate Club in July 2001, I've interviewed hundreds of experts, read several thousand pages of scientific journals, and been in contact with tens of thousands of Lean Plate Club members by e-mail, via the Web chat, and by phone. So to whet your soon-to-be-healthier appetite, here are just some of the secrets that you'll find in the pages ahead. Knowing and practicing these secrets will help you to reach a healthier weight and live like a thinner person. Calories do count. Forget all the hype and empty promises. Yes, it does come down to the numbers: calories in versus calories out. Eat too much, burn too few calories, and the pounds add upwhether you adhere to a low-fat regimen, eliminate carbohydrates, or become a vegetarian. It doesn't matter. You're going to have to change the numbers in your favor, which means a deficit of daily calories to lose weight. Amherst Mass.: Hi, Sally! Since I've lost 64 pounds, people often ask what the secret is. Well guess what? It's measuring portion sizes, knowing what a portion is, tracking food for the day, and exercising more. Recently, I hit a plateau and wondered why. I realized I'd been guessing in my head instead of writing down the number of servings in each food group every day. So the dreaded "calorie creep" happened. Three days after resuming keeping a little chartwhich only takes a minuteI lost two more pounds and havSquires, Sally is the author of 'Secrets Of The Lean Plate Club A Simple Step-by-Step Program to Help You Shed Pounds and Keep Them Off For Good', published 2006 under ISBN 9780312339173 and ISBN 0312339178.