How to Use the Indian Diet Chart for Weight Loss and Healthy Meal Planning

This chart provides a useful guide for determining the right balance between food groups, as well as what types of food to include in a healthy Indian diet. When prepared in a low-fat manner, Indian dishes can be a central part of a healthy weight loss plan.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Copy of Indian Diet Chart (included)
• Pen and Paper
• Calculator

1. Determine your total calorie needs for an average day. You can do this online with a BMR calculator (BMR link is at the end of this article, under Resources).
   
   If you are using the Indian Diet Chart for weight loss, you will need to determine not only your BMR, but also factor in how many calories you will be cutting from your BMR (BMR link will also help with this).

2. Once you know your calorie needs, applying the Indian Diet Chart requires just a little math:
   
   First, take the percentage from each food group and move the decimal over 2 spaces.
   
   Change 9% to 0.09 (fruit)
   
   Change 28% to 0.28 (dairy)
   
   Change 2% to 0.02 (sugar)
   
   and so on...

3. Next, multiply your Calorie Needs by each percentage which is now in decimal form.
   *Do this for each food group.
   
   For example:
   
   If your calorie needs are 1200/day...
   
   1200 x 0.09 (fruit) = 108 calories worth of fruit per day
   
   1200 x 0.28 (dairy) = 336 calories worth of dairy per day
   
   and so on...

4. The numbers you get from multiplying your Calorie Needs by each Percentage from the chart is the Amount of Calories you should get from each food group.
   
   You now have a personalized guideline of how to divide your calories throughout the day using the healthy Indian diet chart.

Resources

• Calculate BMR.
• Foods and Beverages Included in Indian Diet Chart.
• Health Benefits of Indian Herbs and Spices.