How to Plan a Low-Fat Diet Week

A week of low-fat dieting can be filled with new recipes, spices, cultures, and cooking techniques...lifestyle additions that can be adapted long after the week is over. Eating a low-fat diet can still mean eating well: plan for and prepare foods that don't allow for guilt, are easy enough to be practical, and delicious enough to be eaten over and over again.

Instructions

Plan for dieting success.

• 1

  Choose your recipes ahead of time. To prevent impulsive binges, choose your recipes ahead of time and shop for the needed ingredients. When planning meals, determine a maximum amount of fat for each day and plan accordingly. Use a cookbook that lists nutritional facts in the book itself so you can monitor your intake. Pay attention to the serving sizes and then shop accordingly. Choose recipes that can be prepared with very little fat. Low fat ingredients are a healthy start, but don't overturn your efforts by adding fat during cooking. Bake, broil, or saute instead of frying.Try spreading out your fat throughout the day, Going fat-free can be disastrous, since fat is satisfying and helps to fill up any dieter. Instead, shoot for low-fat intake: the Mayo Clinic suggests no less than 20% of total intake. 20% means 24g of fat for those eating 1,100 calories, 27g if eating 1,200 calories/day, 31g if eating 1,400 calories/day, and 36g if eating 1, 600 calories/day. Since losing weight depends on cutting your calories as well as your fat, try not to go above 1,600 calories, so allow 36g of fat to be your maximum.

• 2

  Stock your refrigerator with basics. Keep ingredients that act as "flavor blankets"--things that can be easily added to for a quick meal. Whole-wheat tortilla wraps, salad mix, fruits, low-fat yogurt (greek yogurt has plenty of protein as an added plus), Reduced fat cheeses (stick to the serving size on these to make sure you are still eating "low fat"), applesauce (use while baking: replace half the fat used with applesauce). Make sure to have "free foods" on hand--foods with very little fat and very few calories. Use as a side anytime you need more "bulk" with your meal. Broccoli, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, rhubarb are all very low in calories. Also, try keeping carbonated water or seltzer on hand--the volume will fill you up without adding calories.

• 3

  Stock your pantry. Since being tired and hungry can be overwealming enough at the end of the day, don't get stuck without the right ingredients for the dish you are planning: if a recipe falls through or time is too short to prepare one, you will still have standby ingredients to work with. Fat is often an ingredient by itself, since it adds an impressive mouthful and a distinct richness of flavor. Replace high-fat butter with a reduced-fat vegetable oil spread. Replace fat with flavor: staples are the things that will add flavor to your dishes without adding too many additional calories or too much added fat. Stock salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar, and herbs & spices. Keep cinnamon for desserts and coffees, garlic powder for any savory dishes, oregano and basil for Italian dishes, sage, thyme, and tarragon for seafood and meat, and chili powder and hot sauce if you like spicy things.

• 4

  Know how to read the labels. The American Dietetic Association provides some guidance for deciphering the words written on so many products: "low-fat" means 3 grams of fat or less per serving, "fat-free" means less than 1/2 gram of fat per serving, "low calorie" means less than 40 calories per serving and "calorie free" means less than 5 calories per serving.

• 5

  Know what to avoid. For a week of low-fat dieting, some ingredients will act to sabotage your efforts. Peanut butter, nuts, butter, and oils have a high-fat content and can add up quickly: 2 tablespoons of peanut butter has 11g of fat, for instance. Use replacements: try reduced-fat vegetable spreads instead of butter, 1 tablespoon of natural reduced-fat peanut butter, and vegetable cooking spray on pans for sautéing instead of pourable oil. Red meat is often rich in fat, so buy carefully: buy lean and extra-lean varieties. If chicken is on your menu, look for breasts without skin for the lowest-fat chicken alternative. Beans and legumes have no fat to begin with, a guarantee when you are using them that they will fit into your diet.