Diet Hints

By Lee Foster

LEE FOSTER, whose weight at “a trim 200 pounds” is down from 257, is a make-up editor for the New York TIMES.

See your doctor

Before you begin any prolonged or drastic diet, it is very important that you see your doctor. See how big and fat he is — and he a doctor, mind you. who should know all about the strain that excess weight puts on the heart and circulatory system. A single visit may convince you that he is in much worse shape than you arc and that you don’t have to diet at all. This can bring you immediate peace of mind and spare you weeks or months of semistarvation.

Eat less — lose more

If you feel you must go on a diet, remember that the less food you eat, the more you will lose. This has been proved in clinical tests. People who were given nothing to eat over a period of time lost their lives.

Don’t skip meals

Choose a sound diet, one that provides all the basic food elements your pudgy body needs, and follow it religiously. Above all, don’t skip meals and don’t skimp on portions. It is an established fact that if you eat little or no breakfast or lunch in an effort to speed loss of weight, you will be so hungry by dinnertime that you will overeat and actually gain weight. So be sensible —stuff yourself at every meal.

Exercise will power

When you stuff yourself, do it intelligently. Exercise will power in choosing your foods. Let us say that you are on a 1200-calorie-a-day diet. If your Monday morning breakfast consists of half a small grapefruit (50 calories), a poached egg (75 calories), two slices of dry toast (150 calories), a chocolate malted (500 calories), and a piece of pie à la mode (600 calories), you have had it until sometime Tuesday. Yet you could have stayed within your calorie quota had you resisted temptation and done without the half grapefruit, the poached egg, and the dry toast.

Never weigh yourself

If you step on the scale and find that you have lost weight, you will become overconfident and tend to nibble indiscriminately. If you get on the scale and discover that you have not lost weight, you will become depressed and abandon your diet. Either way, of course, you lose. So the cardinal rule for carefree dieting is never weigh yourself — and find a tailor who is good at letting out trousers.