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March 26, 2009
 Eating in moderation is – by far – one of the biggest challenges people face. This is especially the case when you’re trying to lose weight.
Here in America, going out to eat requires serious self-control, as dishes are usually served with 2-4x more food than what is deemed a proper serving. Just take a look at the following examples (and I chose the healthier items on the menus!):
If you were to eat at Applebee’s, for example, and you chose a healthy-sounding dish like the Fiesta Lime Chicken, you’d be consuming over 1200 calories and nearly 50g fat!
Over at Chili’s, a simple grilled chicken sandwich (without fries or any other sides) is 810 calories and 43g fat.
Stopping at Starbucks for your morning fix? Their Grande Tazo Green Tea Latte (with 2% milk) has 350 calories and 55g sugar. Add a piece of Reduced-Fat Blueberry Coffee Cake, and you’ve stacked on another 320 calories and 33g sugar.
When Your Eyes Are Bigger Than Your Stomach
Knowing how to cut down your portions is the key to keeping your calorie intake in check. Of course, the old standby is to cut your meal into quarters or thirds in the beginning, and ask for a take-out container or “doggie-bag.” You could also ask the waitstaff for a smaller plate, and move the portion you intend to eat onto the smaller dish. This way your meal at least begins to resemble a “normal” serving.
But what exactly is a “normal” serving and how can you make these judgments without secretly carrying a stash of measuring cups in your purse (or pocket – sorry guys)?
I actually debated with myself over how to answer this question. Coming from a nutrition background, my initial reaction is of course to reference the Food Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans, etc, etc. But telling you that ½ cup pasta is one serving size isn’t any more helpful than telling you to eat less – you already know that. And honestly, that’s not what helped me lose weight either. Hell, I came from a nutrition background and still struggled to drop pounds!
So… here are the tips they don’t include in the Food Pyramid:
Divide your plate (or bowl) into thirds. Cover 2/3 of it with veggies and some fruit – even mound up those veggies if you want. The more, the merrier! But pay attention to the following:
1. If you add dried fruit, keep the portion to only what you can fit in a handful (this is roughly ¼ cup). Use these sparingly though when you’re trying to lose weight because dried fruit are very calorie-dense.
2. One cup juice (fruit or veggie) is still considered one serving, yet you don’t get any of the benefits of the actual fruit such as fiber or phytonutrients. The sugar from the juice goes straight to your bloodstream, causing a rush in insulin. Try to avoid juices if possible; opt for real fruits and vegetables instead. They’ll fill you up faster with fewer calories.
3. If you want to add some whole grains, emphasis on whole, keep it to one Pyramid serving ( 1/2 cup cooked pasta, rice, or cereal, or 1 slice bread) per meal or snack. You can approximate ½ cup by thinking of a baseball. Slice the baseball in half – what you could fit inside would be about ½ cup. Fill up the rest of your plate with low-calorie vegetables and some lean protein.
You should definitely add some whole grains to your breakfast and lunch, since they are healthy and you’ll burn off the calories pretty fast. I would opt out of grains for dinner though unless you’ll be performing some strenuous exercise after. Fruits and vegetables will suffice as a carbohydrate source late in the day, when your activity level drops. Or as one of my favorite trainers, Amelia Burton, always says: “No bread before bed!”
After you’ve set up two-thirds of your plate with vegetables and maybe some whole grains, the last third of your plate should be lean protein. Women should try to keep this to three ounces per meal; men to four ounces. Three ounces equates to the size of a deck of cards (in width, height, and thickness). So men can add a little more to this.
Remember that “lean” protein is:
Chicken without skin
Turkey, white meat
Fish
Red meat that says 90% lean or less
Egg whites
Low-fat cheese
Low-fat cottage cheese
Soy products
NOTE: The “plate” I’m referring to is not the monster serving dishes you get at Olive Garden! This is a standard (i.e. small by American standards) 10-inch diameter plate.
You don’t need to resign yourself to constantly weighing your food or sneaking tablespoons to the salad bar in order to lose weight. Those options just don’t fit into real life! You need solutions that not only help you reach your goals, but help you stick with them during those lunch meetings, dinner dates, parties, etc. (Side Note: I will say that weighing your protein servings can be very educational to someone who is new to portion control… scales can be bought very cheap at stores like Target.)
What strategies do you use for managing your portions when eating at a restaurant or otherwise away from home?
For more on weight loss, try “10 Ways to Make Weight Loss Work for You.”
For more on meal strategies:
Switch Lunch With Dinner
Eat More (Often) to Weigh Less
Techniques For Controlling Your Cravings
Resources: Applebee’s Nutrition Facts, Chili’s Nutrition Facts, Starbucks’ Nutrition Facts
March 25, 2009
The Good Guys
Fats have gotten a bad reputation, but the truth is that unsaturated fats are excellent for you! Nuts, eggs, fish, flaxseed, and some plant oils are fantastic sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are essential in the diet.  Omega-3’s, in particular, help to reduce risk of heart disease, increase blood circulation, reduce joint pain, and reduce symptoms of depression. The American diet is typically low in essential omega-3 fatty acids, and we could definitely stand to increase our consumption of these powerful nutrients.
The Bad Boys
Saturated and trans fats, on the other hand, are very dangerous. Both types are major contributors to heart disease and strokes.
Saturated fats are usually associated with animal products: red meat, cheese, ice cream, etc. The nutrition label will always tell you the grams of saturated fat in the product you’re eating. Aim to keep saturated fats at 10% or less of your total fat consumption.
Trans fats are artificially-created saturated fats (naturally unsaturated fats that have been chemically altered to be solid at room temperature). Read more on trans fats. Trans fats can usually be found in packaged foods: Poptarts, crackers, chips, peanut butter, bread, and MANY common grocery store items. Aim to reduce your trans fat consumption to as little as possible. These fats are bad news, so if you can eliminate them from your diet, do so.
Did You Know?
If the Ingredients List says  “partially hydrogenated”, then the item contains trans fats.
Often, the nutrition label will say 0 grams while the ingredient list will say partially hydrogenated soybean oil (or another trans fat). Companies can do this if the amount of trans fat is less than 0.5g per serving. Tricky, I know.
Thus your best plan of action is to read the ingredient lists thoroughly, and be fully informed about what you’re eating. Healthy unsaturated fats can (and should!) make up 25-30% of your daily diet. Limit saturated fats to 10% of total fat consumption (10% of the 25-30% you consumed that day), and eliminate trans fats if possible.
For more on weight loss, try “10 Ways to Make Weight Loss Work for You.”
For more on fats:
Fat-Free: Too Good To Be True?
What to Eat: Fats
The Truth About Trans Fats
Resources:
FDA, Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements
March 24, 2009
The word “sugar” conjures up images of candy, cake, cookies… pretty much all the sweets that we try to avoid. For the most part, we know we need to avoid them. But do you know why it’s important to limit sugary foods? And can you name all the foods that contain high amounts of sugar?
Sugar v. Insulin and the Diabetes Connection
 Eating items high in sugar stresses your body, flooding your bloodstream with insulin on a regular basis. Simple carbohydrates don’t require much energy to be broken down into blood glucose (they’re already small glucose chains), and so they pass into the bloodstream pretty much as soon as you eat them. This causes a rapid spike in blood sugar levels, and an equal spike in the release of insulin in order to shuttle all that sugar where it needs to go throughout your body.
FACT: If you perpetuate this process by eating foods high in sugar on a weekly (or daily) basis, then over time this pattern will lead to insulin resistance and eventually type II diabetes. Read more on the relationship between sugar and insulin.
What Qualifies As Sugar?
Sugar doesn’t necessarily mean chocolate or candy either. Soda, granola bars, crackers, fruit, refined white bread, milk, and even yogurt contain a LOT of sugar.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat them – fruit, for example, has tons of vitamins and antioxidants that are important for overall health and longevity. Instead you should limit your portions of these sugary items and space them throughout the day.
Example:
My typical sugar intake looks like this:
½ cup skim milk with my oatmeal for breakfast
½ cup pineapple with cottage cheese for a mid-morning snack
Lots of veggies, lean protein, and some whole grains for lunch
6 oz. low-fat plain yogurt and ground flaxseeds for an afternoon snack
Lots of veggies and lean protein for dinner
You can see that I did eat sugar throughout the day, but I watched my portions. I also ate the sugary items in combination with other non-carbohydrate foods to help slow digestion and the rush of sugar into the bloodstream.
How Much Is Too Much?
I strive to look for items with 10g or less of sugar. This can be found by reading the nutrition facts on the food item. Once you start looking, you’ll be surprised how much sugar is in the foods you eat regularly!
For more on weight loss, try “10 Ways to Make Weight Loss Work for You.”
For more on carbohydrates and sugar:
Simple v. Complex Carbohydrates
What to Eat: Carbohydrates
Now I’ll ask you: What are your tricks for avoiding sugary foods?
March 23, 2009
You’ve heard it before: Calories In – Calories Out = lbs lost or gained. But if weight loss is really as simple as this equation suggests, why aren’t more of us actually losing weight?
Why is the process of weight loss so difficult?
The Calorie Defined
Let’s start with the source of it all: the calorie. You can think of a calorie as energy. Your body needs to digest food in order to fuel its many cellular processes, and the energy released during these processes is calories burned.
So here’s the math:
1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
 You can see that fat contains more than double the number of calories per gram that carbohydrates or protein do. What does this mean? It means that by eating a fatty item like peanut butter (1 tbsp), you pack over 200 calories into your body. You could eat 2 ½ apples for that same amount of calories! The term for this is calorie-dense. Nuts, butter, red meat, and most dairy products are ALL calorie-dense. When you are trying to lose weight, you need to get as much nutrition for as few calories as you can – the biggest bang for your buck so to speak. Because fats are naturally so calorie-dense, you really have to watch your portions on these food products when you are trying to cut back on calories. This fact stands no matter how “healthy” the food is.
Now getting back to the math: One pound of fat = 3500 calories. Just one! (Think about how many pounds you’d like to lose, and you get a picture of the kind of numbers you’re up against.) As overwhelming as that figure may seem, it is possible to lose those pounds with no tricks, no magic pills… just simple math. Seriously.
How Many Calories Do You Need?
To determine how many calories you need per day, you must first calculate your basal metabolic rate, or BMR (the number of calories your body needs per day in order to maintain its basic functions). This first calculation equates to about 60-70% of the total calories you burn in a day.
For women, your BMR =
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
For men, your BMR =
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)
Example:
35-yr-old female, 5’4” tall, weighs 150lbs
655 + (4.3 x 150) + (4.7 x 64) – (4.7 x 35)
655 + 645 + 300.8 – 164.5 = 1436 calories/day
Next you need to account for the other 30-40% of your daily activities – everything from brushing your teeth and walking to your car to your workouts and cooking dinner. Decide which activity level you fall under for an “average” day (as shown below), and multiply your BMR by this figure.
Sedentary: BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise, mostly sitting)
Light activity: BMR x 1.375 (light exercise, 1-3 days per week)
Most people will fall in these first two categories.
Moderate activity: BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise, 4-5 days per week)
Vigorous activity: BMR x 1.725 (vigorous exercise, 6-7 days per week)
Extreme activity: BMR x 1.9 (DAILY competitive sports training, marathoner, etc. or a VERY physical job)
Once you have chosen your individual activity level (be honest with yourself!) and done the math, multiply the new figure by 0.1 (10%). This last 10% accounts for digestion and the regulation of body heat, both of which require energy to complete. Let’s use the same example from above:
Example:
35-yr-old female, BMR = 1436 calories/day, light activity
1436 x 1.375 = 1974.5 calories/day
1974.5 x 0.1 = 197.45
Now add them together:
1974.5 + 197.45 = 2172 calories/day
This female requires 2172 calories/day to maintain her weight.
NOTE: Age is factored into the BMR equation because calorie needs decrease every year past the age of 20. So this particular female needs 2172 calories/day this year, but will have to recalculate her needs as she ages and if she gains or loses weight.
Weight Loss Formulas
Now look at a weight loss of 1 lb per week: a realistic goal, especially when first beginning a weight loss program. The idea is to take those 3500 calories you need to lose and divide them up over the course of the week. Essentially, you’re creating a daily calorie deficit. 3500 calories /7 days = 500 calories/day. So in order to lose 1 lb/week, you would need to create a deficit of 500 calories each day.
Five hundred calories per day – that sounds attainable, right? Well it is. But it still takes a LOT of work to achieve, especially on a daily basis. Think about what you’ve been doing so far to lose weight. Do you think you’ve been cutting out 500 calories every day? If you aren’t burning 500 calories in the gym every day (and you shouldn’t be – your body needs at least one day off each week), then your calorie deficit needs to come from your diet. This is almost ALWAYS the hardest part for my clients.
Counting Your Calories
As tedious as it might seem, keeping a food diary is the absolute best way to check your calories. Don’t worry – I’m NOT telling you to diet. As much as you think you know what you’re eating, I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the portions and/or number of calories you’re consuming. Items like butter, sugar, and other condiments can add a significant amount of calories to your meals, and you are less likely to notice them (or count them) if they’re not recorded. Likewise, serving sizes are very frequently underestimated. For example, start measuring your peanut butter and pasta – I bet you’re eating more than you think! (One serving of pasta is ½ cup; peanut butter is 1 tbsp, not 2).
Try keeping a food log for just two weeks at first. A good resource to try: www.dietpower.com. This software program includes an extensive food and exercise database, calculates the number of calories you should be consuming, and gives you a daily “grade”. They also offer a free 15-day trail too, so you can do your 2-week food log experiment at no cost! There are lots of free phone applications and websites that are useful as well.
Making Sure You’re In The Negative
Of course, your calorie deficit should come from a combination of decreased caloric intake and increased exercise. Exercising 45-60 minutes five or six days a week will help you burn calories to reach your daily deficit goal. Using two to three of those days for strength training will increase your metabolism, so you’ll burn more calories no matter what you’re doing! Strength training is so important for weight loss because it actually re-structures your body, making you more efficient at burning fat in the long run. Learn more on the benefits of strength training.
In the end, slow, steady weight loss is the healthiest way to approach your goals. This method will ensure the habits you develop stay in place. Remember that this is a lifestyle change, not a fad. Define your goals in the beginning and be realistic about how long it will take you to get there. It’s a good idea to aim for a loss of 1-2 pounds per week like in the examples. If you lose more than that you could end up losing lean muscle mass rather than fat, which ultimately lowers your metabolism (very bad!). Weight loss takes patience and persistence, but when you know the facts and stick with it, you’ll not only reach your goals – you’ll develop healthy habits that will stay with you for the rest of your life!
For more articles on weight loss, try “10 Ways to Make Weight Loss Work for You.”
Resources:
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, http://mypyramid.gov/guidelines/index.html
DietPower 4.4 software program, www.dietpower.com
NOTE: There are also a number of apps for your iPhone, iTouch, and other devices that allow you to look up calorie amounts when you’re out at a restaurant or track your calories for the day. Sadly, I can’t recommend any since I don’t have an iPhone – I know, I know, I’m behind the times… That being said, does anyone have application suggestions?
March 22, 2009
Most of us know what it feels like to struggle with weight loss. Whether you’re looking at five pounds or 100 pounds, the process is still the same: it’s difficult, frustrating, and it takes time. As a result, people are always looking for quick solutions and magic pills – and the industry wastes no time in offering so-called “solutions” (most of which do more damage then they help).
 If you searched Google for weight loss, your results would be ambiguous at best. Advertisements, diet programs, and cliché advice flood the web and especially the blogosphere. Personally, I think advising someone to “eat healthy” is just as useless as telling them to lose weight – we know what we need to do, we just don’t know how to do it in a way that works within our lifestyle and necessary routines. We need real advice and working solutions in order to make the changes that need to be made.
With this in mind, I’ve put together a list of my top 10 weight loss strategies exclusively for Trainer Confidential. These are the same tips I give my clients, and the same strategies I used to successfully lose weight. So I know they work! I’ve included examples and explanations as often as possible in an effort to make these tips simple to adopt into your own routine.
The topics cover everything from how to count calories and cut your cravings, to how much sugar you should be eating and helpful snack ideas. These are in no way an exhaustive list of weight loss tips, but I assure you they will help you reach your goals faster. Try just one at first, then slowly add the rest. There’s no rush – remember you’re working towards a lifestyle change, so you want these routines to stick!
Strategy #1: The Only Math You Need to Know
Strategy #2: Please Hold the Sugar
Strategy #3: The Fats You REALLY Should Avoid
Strategy #4: Strategies for Controlling Your Portion Sizes
Strategy #5: Staying Hydrated
Strategy #6: Switch Dinner with Lunch
Strategy #7: Eat More (Often) to Weigh Less
Strategy #8: Techniques for Controlling Your Cravings
Strategy #9: Exercise Does More Than Burn Calories
Strategy #10: Don’t Focus on the Scale
Please leave your own comments, suggestions and weight loss strategies in the comments section of these articles – I’m always interested in hearing what works for you!
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