People ask me about ‘bad’ foods all the time:  “Can I ever eat bacon?”; “Aren’t Twinkies just awful for you?”; “Is it okay if I eat ice cream?”.  And the answer is always, “anything is fine in moderation”.  If you wonder what possible benefit Twinkies or hot dogs or ice cream can have in your diet, consider that they provide calories, some vitamins and minerals, and fat.  These components are essential in our diet.  It’s just that most people get too many calories and too much fat.  Their daily diet is not good because it’s not balanced.  Someone who burns a lot of energy, such as a marathon runner or weight lifter, can benefit from candy bars because they provide a large amount of calories in a small portion.  For someone trying to lose weight, this would not be a good food to include in the diet right now.

Having a hot dog once every few months is not a terrible thing.  Likewise, enjoying ice cream for a treat on occasion has its place.  But if your diet is full of sugary cereals and pizza, cupcakes and bologna, fast foods and pies, then it’s your diet that is bad.  You are the one who decides how often you are going to include foods that are high in fat, sugar, and calories.  There are no foods that you can never eat again, but all of them should be eaten in moderation!

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One way to predict who will be successful losing weight is to study people who have been successful and see what they have in common. A study in the International Journal of Obesity found some key behaviors people practiced which increased their odds of keeping off the weight.  You might try some of these to increase your own chances of getting the weight off and keeping it off.

1. Flexibility with the diet plan: If it’s easy to make changes and substitutions, it’s easier to stay on the diet. When you follow a plan that is very strict and does not allow flexibility, it’s hard to stay on it. Simply going out to a restaurant with friends could sabotage your efforts if menu items are not exactly what is ‘on’ your diet.  Try finding a plan that allows to you dine out and exchange different foods; not one that has a daily menu all planned out for you.

2. Structured times for meals: When people eat their meals at regularly scheduled times they are more successful at losing weight. Eating at erratic times or forgetting to eat a meal altogether does not help develop healthy eating habits that lead to weight loss.  If you’re new to breakfast, it’s important to eat something, not necessarily breakfast foods in particular.  Find a granola-type bar you like and keep some in the car or at work.  That way if you forget to eat breakfast you can munch one down as soon as you remember.

3. Food choices: Dieters who have more food choices are able to stay with their regimen longer. If you try to follow a diet that is too restrictive it can get frustrating early on and lead you to stray.  Too many choices can be confusing as well, so it’s important for you to plan your meals ahead of time.  Allow a couple of options in case things don’t go exactly as planned (such as being invited to eat at a friend’s house).

4. Physical activity: Like it or not, the fact is that increasing physical activity helps weight loss. This does not mean you have to start jogging or going to the gym every day. Find an activity you enjoy, such as playing tennis, joining a local softball league, or dancing.  Incorporate increased activity into your daily routine by parking farther away to increase your walking distance, taking stairs instead of the elevator (even for one or two floors if you’re going up several), and walking to talk to a neighbor or coworker instead of always using the phone or email.

5. Coping with stress. Those who are successful at losing weight have found coping mechanisms to deal with stress. Instead of eating they have figured out what helps them to relax: calling a friend; going for a walk; taking a bubble bath or reading a good book. Learn what helps you calm down when you’re anxious, what distracts you from unpleasant thoughts, what occupies you when you’re bored. Find a good substitute for food when you’re not hungry.

How does your weight loss plan fit in with these successful strategies? Make a serious effort to find a plan that allows you more food choices and flexibility. Be sure to get on a regular meal schedule and be consistent with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks that are included in your meal plan. Do some thinking about what you can try when you find yourself turning to food for reasons other than hunger. Get out there and enjoy a new activity, and see your success at weight loss soar!

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Since the 1970’s there have been dozens of studies showing that people who log what they eat end up losing weight.  That’s all they do!  They don’t buy special food, swear off of chocolate, pay loads of money to join diet groups, or start a 1200 calorie meal plan.

It started with a group of researchers who were going to conduct a study on a new diet plan.  The first instruction they gave the participants was to keep a detailed food journal.  The point was to gather information in order to have a good idea of what people were eating on their usual routine, then see what was going to have to change.  But the subjects came back in two weeks and surprised the team: they had already lost weight!

How does this work?  It makes you consistently aware of what you are eating.  Think about how many times you eat during the day without thinking about it: grabbing a cookie someone at the office has out on a plate; accepting a piece of birthday cake with a nod and walking off to another task; purchasing a candy bar at the quick mart and eating it on your drive to your destination; taking a second helping of mashed potatoes while chatting with your dinner companions.  The list goes on–we continue to ingest hundreds of calories and remain unaware, oblivious to the taste and feel of the food on our palate because our mind is wandering elsewhere.

If you decided to carry a small notebook and write down everything you eat, what would change?  Soon you would start thinking before you accepted, purchased, or served yourself food: “I’m going to have to write this down”.  Having two cookies or some leftover Halloween candy is fine, but if you start overdoing it, you catch yourself when you know it will be etched in writing.  “I don’t mind writing down I ate two cookies but, heck, I don’t want a permanent record reminding me that I kept eating them until there were seven to write down!”  It makes you aware; it makes you think; it stops you from overeating.

If this idea does not appeal to you, think about what is it that you don’t like about it.  If it seems like a lot of work you really need to take a second look at what you’re willing to do to lose weight.  Why would you try some crazy fad diet instead of just stopping to think before you eat?  It’s free, it’s simple, and it’s proven to work!  The more consistently people log, the better their results.  So if you can’t dive in to this 100% I encourage you to try for a partial version.  Here are some ideas:

1.  Try keeping a log for 3 days a week (or 5 days) instead of every day

2. Decide to write what you eat at times you know are a problem for you; perhaps between meals or after dinner

3. Make it fun and log details of interest to you: how hungry are you when you eat; what you’re feeling like; how many calories you’re ingesting; or what you did not eat that you would have if you were not keeping your log!

Let us know what you tried and what you found

One question people ask all the time is “How Many Calories should I be eating in a day?”  Well, it’s a complicated answer because there are so many factors that determine your actual energy needs.  One factor is how much lean body mass you have.  Muscle burns more calories than fat, as you’ve probably heard.  What gives some people more lean body mass than others?  Besides being muscular, being male usually means you have more lean body mass than a female of the same height and weight.  Being taller means you have more lean tissue than a person who is shorter.  And aging usually results in a decrease in lean body mass.  Therefore, tall, young men burn about twice as many calories (about 3000) as short, older women (about 1500).  There are calculations, such as the Harris-Benedict equation, that you can use to find your energy needs pretty accurately by inserting your age, gender, height, and weight.  However, this assumes you are not greatly overweight (once many fat pounds are involved it’s hard to determine the metabolic activity of your total weight) and you also must be able to factor in your activity level; it’s all an estimate!

One easy way to calculate a range of your daily calorie needs is to multiply 15 times your weight in pounds.  If you weigh 150 pounds (150 x 15 = 2250) you would arrive at a 2250 calorie level.  See how this is a rough approximation: We could be talking about a 20 year old man who is 5′10 and weighs 150 pounds, or a 60 year old woman who is 5 feet tall weighing the same: the male will have a higher metabolism and, especially if he is active, is likely to actually need more calories than this. The woman will have about 30% of her body weight as fat, so this is going to be a slight overestimation for her needs and she may actually gain slowly at this calorie level.

To approximate your calorie needs for weight loss, multiply your weight in pounds by 10.  A person who weighs 200 pounds can lose weight on (200 x 10) 2000 calories.  This sounds like a high calorie level for a diet, but people who weigh 200 pounds got there by eating more than 2000 calories a day!  You can lose weight on this level, slowly but surely.

If you’re trying to lose weight it is highly likely your daily calorie needs will fall within the 1500-2000 calorie range.  This is not a very big range, but it covers most humans for weight loss unless there are extenuating circumstances (very small stature, certain medical conditions, etc).   If you are large and male, trust me!  You can lose weight on 2000 calories.  If you are a smaller, middle aged woman (say a 50 year old who is 5 feet tall, weighing 145 pounds) you can lose weight on 1500 calories (being sure to add in a daily 20 minute walk to burn another 100 calories!)

One important note: no one needs to go on a diet lower than 1200 calories.  It makes it difficult to meet your nutritional needs, and only increases your weight loss rate by half a pound a week.  Try a diet ranging between 1500 and 2000 calories: mind your portion sizes, don’t go hungry, and take your time.  The weight will come off!
photo credit: Margaret Anne Clarke

photo credit: VirtualErn

Do you ever think what you eat today doesn’t matter in the long run? Do you believe you’ll just ‘work it off’ tomorrow? Do you hate depriving yourself of a side of fries or a quick candy bar pick-me-up?

Newsflash! All it takes is cutting 250 calories a day to lose half a pound a week. Certainly nothing you’ll notice at the end of the week, but by New Year’s Eve you can lose six pounds, and by this time next year, a whopping 25! You don’t need to go on a diet or start jogging every morning for this to happen. Just start paying attention to those very-high-calorie items and either skip them or replace them with something less fattening.

Here are six times during the day you can save yourself 250 calories or more!

- Your morning coffee drink. Coffee has about 2 calories. What you put in it could have a lot more. Non-dairy creamers often have more calories than cream itself (real cream has 15 calories per serving). READ the LABEL. CHECK the PORTION size! Some ‘creamers’ state they have 12 calories per serving, but their ’serving size’ is a teaspoon!  It’s easy to pour 2 ounces in to lighten your coffee–that’s 12 teaspoons, and 150 calories! And that’s just your first cup.  If you like those sweet, foamy cappuccino drinks from the machine at your local quickie-mart, they have about 200 calories for a 16 oz. cup. The coffee drinks at famous name-brand establishments (with whole milk, flavored syrup, and whipped cream) have close to 260 calories.

Consider opting for a smaller size; use skim milk instead of whole milk, cream, or creamers.  At the gas station cappuccino machine, mix with half regular coffee and/or hot water to reduce the calories by half.

- Your lunchtime soda. Soda used to come in small glass bottles that held about eight ounces. Then came the 12 oz can, containing about 120 calories. Now there are 20 oz plastic bottles at every convenience store and gas station, making it easy to suck down 200 calories. Check out the label–there are 2.4 servings in one of them. When’s the last time you shared one of these?

Try substituting water, unsweetened iced tea, or an occasional diet soda. Or stick to an eight-ounce serving and share your calories with a friend

-Your fast food lunch. ALL of the fast food establishments post their nutritional content on the web; some even have it handy in the restaurants and will hand it to you. Check to see the calorie content of foods you order often. Not to pick on Burger King, because this is a typical example, but a whopper and large fries hands you 670 calories from the sandwich plus 500 from the fries (1170 calories for lunch, in case you don’t have a calculator handy).

Now, just try having a whopper junior with small fries and you’re down to a 370 calorie sandwich and 230 calories from the fries (that’s 600 calories for lunch, saving you 570–double the 250 you set out to save today!)

-Your afternoon candy bar. Looking for a pick-me-up when you start dragging after lunch? How much does a candy bar really help? Most of them contain a high amount of fat, often from nuts in addition to the chocolate, and they can actually leave you dragging. Try a piece of fresh fruit or some dried fruit for something sweet. A candy bar, depending on your choice, has between 180 and 240 calories. That’s a medium sized one. Now there are king sized candy bars. They have more calories. Read the label.

There are dozens of of granola-type bars now available in grocery stores that provide close to 140 calories.  They have more fiber and less fat than candy bars, are more filling, and less likely to leave you craving more later in the afternoon.  Choose from oats and nuts, crunchy or soft, salty or sweet!  My new favorite–Newton Fruit Crisps: just 100 calories for the two-bar package.

-A nice big, juicy steak for dinner. A prime cut of meat is prime partly because of the fatty marbling that makes it tender. The fat also contributes calories, so that each ounce of meat can have at least 75 calories. That means a 16 oz steak can have 1200 calories.  Cut it in half, take eight ounces home, and save 600 calories. Also save having to buy lunch tomorrow when you eat the leftovers.

-Dessert. A nice slice of pecan pie can have over 400 calories; other pies without nuts have slightly fewer; a serving of cheesecake over 250 calories; Chocolate cake, 240 calories.

Try 1/2 cup sherbet for 100 calories, or some of the ‘light’ ice cream novelties that have less than 150 calories (Skinny Cow makes great fudge bars as well as ice cream sandwiches)!

Remember, all it takes is saving 250 calories a day to lose half a pound a week: That’s over 25 pounds a year—probably faster than you gained it!

photo credit: stu_spivack

For the millions of you that are familiar with FPU (Financial Peace University) Dave Ramsey’s rice and beans diet is old news.  With his principles of getting out of debt, this “rice and beans” diet represents exercising self control on several different levels.

Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio host and author of the best selling book: The Total Money Makeover that has helped millions eliminate debt, and change the financial future for many families.  If you have the book or listened to the radio show, you have heard both callers and Dave talk about living off of beans and rice. Let’s pretend for a moment that Dave literally meant to eat rice and beans at every meal.

At roughly $0.79 cents for a can of beans and $3.00 for a bag of rice, not only is it cheap but it’s also very nutritious.  1 serving of rice and beans is about 241 calories (1.2 grams of Fat, 11.1 grams of Protien, 43 grams of Carbohydrates, and 10.3 grams of dietary fiber).  Some of you may be thinking that 43 grams of carbohydrates is ridiculous but these carbohydrates are not empty (i.e. just sugar).  It’s a great source of energy and the dietary fiber will keep you full much longer than a McDonald’s hamburger that has the same amount of carbs.

The obvious problem with eating nothing but rice and beans is that the lack of variety will drive people up the wall.  Good news is, there are plenty of ways to prepare beans and plenty of meats you can mix that are affordable including chicken breast, steak, or fish.

Here is my favorite way to prepare beans.

• •4 Cans of Beans (Goya or Busch / Pinto)
• •4 Tablespoons of Goya: Sofrito (or make your own sofrito)
• •2 packs of Goya Sazon
• •4 Tablespoons of a Goya Recaito (Cilantro Based seasoning).
• •1 cup of water

Cook on medium heat in a pot w/ a cover and stir occasionally, You should have delicious beans ready in 20-30 minutes.  All the ingredients above can be found in the Spanish aisle of your chain grocery stores (i.e. Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowe’s Food, etc).

We can debate the true meaning of Dave’s “rice and beans” diet.  Is it a saying for us to be mindful about how much we budget for food every month?  Or are people really eating this stuff everyday?  Either way, we can agree that losing weight while slimming your budget is still very possible.  It’s just a matter of shopping smarter.

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In 2006, 25 million Americans over the age of 12 abused marijuana according to NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). With so many adults included in that group, it wasn’t much of a surprise when I received an email from a loyal reader inquiring about a marijuana based diet.

“Smoking marijuana makes you hungry so it must boost the metabolism right? If you can fight through the hunger by drinking more fluids you can lose a ton of weight.”

After discussing this topic with a few of my fitness buddies, the obvious answer to me (which was to avoid it) was not shared by everyone so I decided to do a little research and write a post on the topic.

Regarding marijuana’s ability to boost the metabolism, there is no clinical research to support this theory. However, scientists in Italy have devoted time to studying the mechanism that makes cannabis users hungry. The sensations of hunger are attributed to endocannabinoids which are responsible for activating the receptors in the brain that increases the appetite. The study also hypothesized that leptin, a hormone that tells the brain that the body needs to lose weight, is influenced by the presence of endocannabinoids. Maybe this is why some lose appetite when smoking marijuana. Although researchers have been able to identify the hormone to control for weight loss (leptin) it is unlikely that a cannabinoids based drug can be developed for weight loss because cannabinoids are also involved with pain sensation, mood, and memory.

So based on what I know, here is my verdict regarding marijuana and dieting. They don’t mix. People have a hard enough time controlling cravings between meals and staying faithful to their diet plan. It seems very counter productive to be on a diet and take something that will torture ones will power. Not to mention the guilt from binge eating that seeps in after the buzz wears off.

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Taking a moment to think before you eat can save you lots of calories! Becoming aware is the first step to making changes. Try starting a new habit of asking yourself a few questions before you indulge in a treat. The answers may lead you to some relatively easy weight loss!

1) How will I feel after I eat this candy bar/donut/milkshake? Of course you want it now; that goes without saying. But how will you feel 15 minutes later? Will you feel satisfied, satiated, or relaxed? Or might you feel guilty, tired from a sugar crash in 30 minutes, or just wanting more? If the answer is “better than I feel now”, it might seem like a good idea. But be honest with yourself. Waiting 10 or 15 minutes to rethink this choice. If the craving passes it might end up saving you up to 300 Calories!

2) Is this food worth the calories it will put into my body? Find out how many calories are in foods you are eating. Internet sites provide everything you need to know (just google ‘burger king nutrition’ for instance), and food labels give you the information as well. Think about the number of calories you are getting from a side of fries, from a dessert, or from a piece of office birthday cake and ask yourself, “Is this really worth the enjoyment I’ll be getting in exchange for the calories I’m taking in?” Lots of the eating we do is quite mindless, as we accept a cookie someone hands us, grab a few candies from the dish we pass by on our co-worker’s desk, or place the dessert on our tray before reaching the cashier in the cafeteria line. If you can bypass a 300 calorie indulgence each day, it will add up to a three pound weight loss at the end of the month! Maybe this sounds like too little to matter, but remember that a year from now that will add up to 36 pounds—gone! Not bad for just skipping a few treats you really weren’t enjoying in the first place.

3) What would I have to do to burn off this number of calories? Again, the internet is a great place to find extensive lists of activities you would have to perform to burn off 200 or 300 calories. Remind yourself what you will have to do to balance the extra calories you take in from high calorie foods during the day. Ask yourself, “If I eat this ice cream am I willing to go out for a 40 minute walk to burn those calories?” If the exercise isn’t in your plans, maybe the food shouldn’t be either!

Think before you eat and decide whether you will really enjoy the food and feel good about eating it; whether you would rather lose weight by passing up on those fattening treats; and whether you are willing to be more active to burn the calories off. See how often you decide it’s not really worth it and start watching the scale go down.

I was watching the documentary on the Half Ton Man the other day and it really got me thinking about food addictions in general. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that being addicted to food could possibly be worse than being addicted to drugs.

I know this sounds extreme because in reality, they are two very different problems. But just think about this for a minute. A crack addict can detox, get their life together, move on, and possibly never have to face that scary low point in their lives ever again (hypothetically).

A food addict on the other hand can “detox”, get their life together, move on, and be faced with that demon every single day for the rest of their lives because you have to eat to live! There is no way around that one.

A lot of people refuse to feel sorry for those with any type of addiction because of their belief in “personal accountability” and that’s perfectly fine. That’s an opinion and I can respect that. But research has been able to confirm that some people simply lack the ability to control cravings and powerful desires due to a problem with the way the brain is hardwired.

Dopamine (the chemical in the brain that triggers feelings of pleasure) is very powerful. The brain recognizes and can attribute the release of dopamine to certain activities especially in the case of drug use. The brain remembers this pleasure and wants to repeat it. This pattern is typically the foundation of cravings. In regards to food addiction, I’m not talking about the small cravings that someone might experience every once and a while. I’m talking about the cravings that control ones ability to function. I can see how some can confuse food addiction for a sheer lack of will power. There is a fine line that divides the two. A line that I am not qualified to identify. However, there are some consistent signs I found on the internet and here they are:

From: healthrecipes.com

Signs of Compulsive Eating:

• Think about food a lot.

• Eat to relieve worry or stress.

• Continue to eat even after feeling sick from eating too much.

• Become anxious while eating.

• Daydream or worry while eating.

• Overeat.

• Eat too fast.

• Eat everything on the plate.

• Feel guilty when you eat.

• Eat secretly.

• Cannot eat one cookie, or any treat that you really like.

• Binge after a diet.

• Hunger makes you feel fearful and uncomfortable.

I know I don’t have a food addiction but I personally answered yes to five of the signs above. My point is, if you are worried that you have a food addiction, go and see your doctor. When asked for the reason of the visit, tell them you are worried you have a food addiction. For a more discrete method you can use the following URL to get more information on how to get help. www.foodaddicts.org.

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