Slimming Dietary Habits for Obesity Management Program Presented by: Basem Futa, PhD, CDE Chairperson of Healthy Eating Advisory Team

The following slimming dietary habits support you to lose excess weight and maintain your health. These also help you to reduce your risks for diabetes type 2, heart diseases, strokes, and osteoporosis.

Dietary Slimming Habits  Divide your meals into six small, frequent meals. Missing meals is not a healthy option.  Start your day with a healthy breakfast.

 Avoid eating late dinners. Make your dinner consumed two hours minimum before your bedtime.  Eat slowly and chew every bite since it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that you are full. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Drink adequate water (8 glasses a day). You can have water consumed one hour before the meals.  Replace juices, sweetened beverages, and soft drinks with water. You can flavor your water with mint or slices of apple or orange, if you wish. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Replace frying with baking or grilling or boiling.  Do not add oil or any kind of fat to your food. You can enhance the flavor of your food with mild spices or herbs or lemon or garlic or onion rather than adding fatty dressings and sauces. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Increase your intake of foods rich in fiber, including, fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.  Avoid consuming fatty meat, sausages, cream cheese, commercial samboosa, and processed meat. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Follow 1500 calorie meal plan where 300 calories would be allocated for breakfast, 400 for lunch, 400 for dinner, and 400 divided into mid-morning and mid- afternoon snacks.  Low-glycemic carbohydrates. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Start your meal with fat-free soup, such as vegetable soup or whole grains, to curb your appetite and fill you up on fewer calories.  Follow MyPlate model for your main meals. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Record what you eat in a food record and discuss it with a dietitian.  Select nonfat milk products, such as yoghurt, cheese, laban, labneh, and milk instead of full cream milk and its products. Avoid cream cheese. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Replace sweets with fresh fruits.  Avoid grocery shopping when you are hungry. Eat a small snack before shopping, such as a piece of fruit, or nonfat milk or yoghurt. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Avoid eating from a big plate. Portion your meal in the kitchen. Choose small plates for your food and avoid using big plates as food would appear little.  Measure your body weight once a week and body mass index. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Eat eight servings of fruits and vegetables per day, in particular the ones that are brightly colored; such as oranges, tomatoes, green peppers, strawberries, red peppers, yellow apples, spinach, broccoli, eggplants, red grapes, and cauliflower.  Select lean meat or skinless poultry when shopping and include baked fish in your weekly menu, minimum two times. Also select healthy oils rather than butter, ghee, palm oil, or coconut oil. Use healthy oils, such as olive oil, canola oil, or corn oil in moderation. Dietary Slimming Habits

 When you get the urge to nibble (especially if you’re not hungry), try vegetable sticks or a cup of water or green tea.  Do you eat when you are bored? Find some other options such as reading, exercising, gardening, etc. Dietary Slimming Habits

 Choose foods that take more time to eat, such as fruits, vegetables, and toasted bread, rather than juices or white bread.  Out of sight, out of mind. Keep the food out of your sight (do not keep food in the TV Room, Computer Room, Office, etc.). Dietary Slimming Habits

 Practice the above tips when you dine out and during parties.  Exercise regularly and moderately, such as minutes of brisk walking per day, aiming for one hour on a daily basis. Dietary Slimming Habits

Calories vs. Minutes of Walking 300 kcal are burned in one hour of walking FoodMinutes of Walking to Burn Donut (100 gm/Chocolate (84 French Fries ( 200 gm) Baked Potatoes ( 200 gm) One Medium Apple20 Cheeses Burger with F. Fries240 One Can of Cola3131

Food Minutes of Walking to Burn Donut (100 g/Chocolate) 84 French Fries (200 g) Baked potatoes (200 g) One Medium Apple 20 Cheeseburger with French fries 240 One Can of Cola 31 Chocolate Bar (60 g) 60 One Medium Banana 24 Baked Samboosa (2 pcs) 50 Fried Samboosa (2 pcs) 90 Baked Fish (5 oz.) 35 Breaded and Fried Fish (5 oz.) 140 Cake (100 g) 70 Fat-Free Fruit Yogurt (1 Cup) 28 Calories vs. Minutes of Walking 300 kcal are burned in one hour of walking for an average weight of 100 kg with the speed of 2 miles/hour