A Dieter's Dictionary

Common words in the every day life of the dieter.....

We've put together a few thoughts to define what the dieter endures through the weight loss process. We hope you can relate to these definitions in true Dieter Form.

DIET - Frenzied vehicle for weight loss. Success is dependent upon many factors, but is chiefly impacted by the Dieter driving the vehicle and the map they are using.

At times the dieter may get lost upon the road to Weight Loss Success - even where the highest quality of maps are used. And many times even the best of dieter's becomes very weary while traveling towards their weight loss goals and given such, they may become detained along the way.

The stronger the willpower of the dieter, the more apt they are to achieve weight loss and reach all their goals.

MELTING OFF POUNDS - Occurs when food remains too long in hot car after shopping excursion. Ice cream particularly susceptible. Speaking of which, ice cream is loaded with pounds of fat. One cup of chocolate ice cream contains about 300 calories and 15 dietary fat grams with ten of those grams in the form of saturated fat. One cup also contains 44 mg of cholesterol.

Interestingly enough, two cups equals one pint of ice cream - you know, the little containers commonly found in the ice cream section at the grocery store as well as convenience markets. A pint of ice cream is commonly consumed - a whopping 600 calories and 30 grams of fat. To create a gallon of ice cream, we'll require 16 cups. Therefore, one gallon of chocolate ice cream contains almost 5,000 calories and close to 250 dietary fat grams.

A tab better choice is chocolate frozen yogurt - but it's still not light on the caloric content at 220 calories per cup and 6 fat grams. Sugar free and fat reduced varieties of frozen yogurt contain about 70 calories per cup - or about 1/3 the caloric content of regular frozen yogurt.

WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU - A demon in disguise that may torture the Dieter into diving into the sea of Diet Failure. When dieting, if the dieter has more than thirty or so pounds to lose, they may experience several weight loss plateau moments along the route to weight loss success.

COOKIE - Rice cake. One plain contains about 35 calories, dependent upon the brand chosen. Dietary fat is about 0.25 grams per rice cake - so these are very low in fat content.

What kind of cookie can you enjoy for about the same number of calories? Let's see...

Vanilla Wafer: One regular contains a scant 28 calories and 1.16 total dietary fat. One small reduced fat vanilla wafer contains 13 calories and less than 1/2 gram of total dietary fat. You can enjoy about three of these or one rice cake for about the same number of calories.

Butter Cookie: One commercially prepared butter cookie (the flat ones that have the ring in the center and that kids like to twirl around their finger) contains 23 calories and about 1 gram of total dietary fat. Therefore, you can enjoy almost two butter cookies for close to the same number of calories in a plain rice cake.

Ginger Snap: One contains about 20 calories and 1/2 gram of total dietary fat.

Simply put - small cookies tend to equal small calories but not always. Check the labels and cookie calories and other nutritional values differ from brand to brand and also from homemade recipe to homemade recipe.

SNACK TIME - Diet soda and a rice cake. While diet sodas can assist greatly while trying to lose weight, the body tends to be a super-smart machine, intent on survival. It knows how many calories that it's getting - and it's going to make sure that if it doesn't get enough then it's going to let the dieter know in the form of hunger pains. So while a diet soda and a rice cake might stave hunger for about three, possibly four seconds - the dieter would be better off by adding just a few more calories to their snack time to enjoy a serving of jerky for about 80 calories - or a piece of fresh fruit.

PARTY - One marshmallow wedged between two rice cakes. Need we say more?

BINGE - 'What happens' when Dieter becomes frenzied. And a binge occurs almost 100% of the time when a diet ends. Don't let it happen to you.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE - The Diet War that never ends. Even after the weight loss plan has ended and goals have been achieved, for the post dieter - they must always watch their daily diet to ensure that weight gain does not reoccur.

CALORIE - Everything, nothing and then some.

FAT GRAM - A large rectangular, brown cracker that contains a smidgeon of icing or cream cheese.

DIET SODA - King of After Taste. Oh my - those sugar substitutes may contain zero calories but they sure do contain a plethora of bad after taste. When I've consumed even a bit of some of the sugar substitutes, I can taste it for hours on end. It's just one reason why they do not reside in my daily diet anymore.

FAT FREE CREAM CHEESE - The wallpaper paste of the New Millennium. However, when used in recipes to assist in lowering fat and caloric content - they can work magic.

FAT FREE BUTTER - A lot of salt and a little yellow water.

WEIGHT LOSS SCALES - A dieting apparatus used to torture Dieters. Whether you weigh once a day or once a week, it takes courage to open your eyes and have a peek.

FOOD PYRAMID - An Egyptian's pantry. Based on how it's filled, weight loss can come at a slower or quicker rate.

LOW CARB DIET - Diet Beefcake in all ways imaginable.