Dieting guidelines for the non-dieter

I'm trying to figure out whether I'm a diet person.

By that I mean I'm wondering if I can follow the prescribed actions required by a diet program. Is it in me to join Weight Watchers? Or Jenny Craig? Or Nutrisystems? Or any of the other billion or so weight loss programs you see advertised on television.

While I consider myself healthy, my body mass index tells me I'm overweight by 15-20 pounds of too much beer belly. I still have a skinny ass (if I do say so myself), likewise my arms and legs. The weight I want to lose is right around the middle.

But I don't know that I'm a diet program kind of guy. I like to eat what I like to eat, especially since I'm maintaining a recipe blog -- Eats@Home -- which gives me a tremendous excuse and reason to experiment with all kinds of food.

But I've at least come around to studying a diet ... not following it, mind you, studying it. It's the "Flat Belly! Diet For Men".

And when I say I'm studying it I really mean I'm studying it. I'm reading through it, analyzing how it might work, debating how it might not work, agreeing with myself to adopt some of its recommendations while rejecting other recommendations out of hand.

For example, I wholly reject the notion of giving up coffee for any length of time, as the book recommends as part of a four-day "cleansing" program. Under no circumstances will I give up coffee. There will be blood, otherwise. Hide the women and children. It won't be pretty.

What attracted me to the book, which I browsed through recently at the bookstore, were the quality of the meals. They were the kind of meals I like to prepare -- bold flavors, spice, meats and cheese.

The Flat Belly diet is big on what it calls MUFAs -- monounsaturated fatty acids. They're contained in oils, olives, nuts and seeds, avocados and dark chocolate.

The Flat Belly diet claims that MUFAs reduce bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol, ward off Type 2 diabetes, lower inflammation, maintain brain health and -- best of all -- target belly fat. So the idea is to have a MUFA with each meal but keep each meal at less than about 450 calories.

So I'm experimenting with MUFAs, which isn't that hard to do, quite frankly. I'm trying to watch my portion and trying to retrain my brain that a series of small meals through the day rather than a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner.

I am not a good dieter. I need a diet I can adapt to my needs, not a diet that I have to adapt to its needs.

So far, at least, I'm a good student of how to diet.

Maybe that will let me split the difference. Instead of losing 20 pounds, I’ll study the diet, use the parts that fit my personality and lose 10.

We'll see. Time for coffee.