Diet Plan In A Bun: The Subway Approach

For many of us, fast food is the only food at lunchtime. We're in a tremendous hurry to get back to our workday, so we choose food based on convenience rather than nutritional value. In recent years, a number of fast food outlets have attempted to add more health-conscious selections to their menu; for the most part, these consist of salads and fruit cups. While they may have fewer calories than standard fast food, they may not be as tasty.

Yet, in many cities, there is an alternative to the regular burger-and-salad fare: Subway, a restaurant which specializes in six inch and foot-long submarine sandwiches. At first glance, you wouldn't think of Subway as being a dieter's delight - there is all that carbohydrate-rich bread and fat-filled cheeses. However, to Jared Fogle, Subway is like diet Nirvana. That's because Jared lost 245 pounds through what he calls the Subway diet. His routine consisted of a six-inch turkey sub, sans mayonnaise and cheese, potato chips, and a diet drink for lunch. Dinner consisted of a foot-long veggie sub, also without condiments, and more diet cola. As a result of his experience, Jared has become a spokesman for Subway.

As far as exercise is concerned, Jared avoided it at the beginning. Weighing more than 400 pounds, he found it difficult to move. However, as he began losing weight, he started walking to his college classes instead of taking the bus. Eventually, he began walking 1.5 miles each day.

One of the key ingredients of Jared's Subway diet is convenience. It is relatively simple to walk to a Subway restaurant and order subs twice a day. You don't have to spend time shopping for food and preparing meals. If you enjoy sub sandwiches, you may find the diet easy to maintain. Since you will be consuming only about 1,000 calories, weight reduction is also guaranteed. Thus, it might be one of the most effective diets in existence today.

Of course, there are disadvantages to the Subway diet. For instance, eating the same type of subs each day can be repetitive and difficult to stomach. Also, you may lose out on vital vitamins and minerals such as vitamin D and zinc. In addition, the diet offers nothing in the way of breakfast, so you will be sacrificing the nutrients that a healthy breakfast can provide. In addition, the Subway diet can be an expensive one to follow, since you'll have to purchase all those sub sandwiches.

However, it's possible that you can vary Jared's diet and still lose weight. Subway offers a number of sandwiches with six grams of fat or less. These include the six inch ham (290 calories), the six-inch chicken breast (330 calories), the six-inch roast beef (290 calories), the six-inch club (320 calories), the sweet onion chicken teriyaki (380 calories), the turkey breast (280 calories), turkey breast and ham (290 calories), and veggie delite (230 calories). Subway also offers carb-conscious wraps as an alternative to sub buns. These include the chicken bacon ranch wrap, tuna wrap, turkey and bacon melt, and turkey breast wrap. In addition, the restaurant chain now offers a number of salads which are also a healthy alternative to normal fast food fare.

One of the great advantages to Subway is the large amount of fresh vegetables which you can add to your sandwich. You can choose such items as spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, olives, green peppers, and sweet peppers. You can change the types of vegetables you use each day in order to add variety to your meal.

The critical problem with any Subway-based diet is the discipline required. Day after day, you have to limit your food intake to what is available at the Subway counter. This can be quite a challenge. While you can choose from different lunch meats, and you can combine subs with salads, you are still quite limited in your menu choices.

Is the Subway diet right for you? If you really love subs and hate to cook, Subway may offer just the meal plan you're looking for. However, if you are not fond of subs and you want a lot of variety in your diet, you'll have to pass up the Subway plan for another diet.