At 06:35 PM 10/7/97 +0000, Michele Bergh wrote:
>BUT on page 168 of the book
>The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss it says your portions
>should be starches and very low calorie dishes, the amounts vary based
>on your goals. This was what I didn't understand. I don't know what
>is considered high in starch or how to figure out how many calories is
>considered a very low cal meal.
Michele,
On page 74 (of the paperback edition) McDougall recommends looking through
the recipes in the back of the book to get an idea of what makes up very
low calorie dishes and starch dishes. Basically, the very low calorie
dishes are the Very-Low-Calorie Green and Yellow Vegetable Dishes beginning
on page 201. These are comprised almost exclusively of non-starchy
vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, summer squashes, tomatoes,
carrots, etc, often with an oil free sauce or dressing. Many of the soups
in his book also fall into this category. The high starch foods are those
that contain grains such as rice, barley, wheat berries, wild rice, those
that contain potatoes and winter squashes, and those that contain legumes,
such as lentils, kidney beans, navy beans, etc. Of course you don't have
to stick only with his recipes, one of my favorite meals consists simply of
a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables (the kind that are just a medley of
vegetables, not the kind with a sauce mix) steamed and served with brown
rice, sometimes with some bottled szechuan sauce.
So, using the portioning chart on page 168, if you imagine all of the foods
you eat during the day filling a 3 plates (they can be very big plates!),
if you want to use the moderate approach you imagine 2 plates being filled
with starchy foods (those containing grains, potatoes & winter squashes),
and 1 plate filled with the low calorie vegetable foods. The rapid
approach would have 1.5 plates filled with the starchy foods and 1.5 plates
filled with the vegetable dishes, and for the hasty approach one plate
filled with starchy foods and 2 plates filled with the low calorie
vegetable dishes.
Since you're not too concerned about a slower paced weight loss, you might
stick with the moderate ratio most of the time, dipping down into the rapid
or hasty ratios when you feel you've hit a plateau. Or stick with the
"rapid" ratio most of the time, going up to the moderate one when you're
really hungry or need some of that comfort food that increased starches
provide.
You don't need to worry about how many calories are in the foods you
choose, as long as you choose from those foods he recommends for this plan.
Grains and starchy foods have similar calorie counts in similar amounts,
as do the lower calorie vegetables. It just doesn't matter very much.
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